catcrazee

I had a pretty fun

2012-01-03T22:22:00.000-05:00

weekend! My uncle, aunt, and great aunt came to visit for a few days. It was nice getting to see them! :) My mamaw and great aunt are staying at the beach for a couple of months, so they were meeting here before leaving. I miss Mamaw, but I'm sure she's having a great time! :) I can't imagine going to the beach for two whole months, though...haha :)

So, my Christmas was pretty nice! I enjoyed all the time I got to spend with my family! On Christmas Eve, my grandparents and Ant Janet came over to hang out and play games and such. That was fun :) And then on Christmas, we went to church in the morning. That was so nice! I loved it! :) And then we opened gifts when we got home -- lots of fun! :D AND I GOT A PILLOW PET! haha, just sayin'. BEST invention ever. :P :) So, the rest of Christmas day was spent just hanging out and playing games and stuff like that. :) It was nice!
Then, on the day after Christmas, my grandparents, Mamaw, Ant Janet, and Jessica came over and we played Dirty Santa! That's always one of the most fun traditions we have at Christmas :):) LOVE it. :)
I hope all of you had nice Christmases, as well! :D

Oh....HAPPY NEW YEAR, by the way!!! :D I mean...it's a little late...but hey, better late than never? :)

My New Year's Eve was SO fun!!! Usually, my family, Jacob's family, and Erin's family (the avoidance of using last names sounds quite cumbersome) all hang out together, but it didn't work out this year :( But it ended up being an AMAZING evening, anyway! I had a blast! :D
Like I said, Uncle Bob, Aunt Debbie, and Aunt Alberta were visiting, so we got to hang out with them :) And then Grandma, Grandpa, and Ant Janet came over, too! And also, my awesome friend, Alek spent the evening with us ;) So, that epic. :D
We played some games (including PIT!! [best game ever, just so ya know]), talked, ate (duh!), listened to music a little, goofed off, and watched the ball drop at midnight! :) Funnn stuff :):)

And then over the course of Sunday and Monday, my family watched all six Star Wars movies!!!! SOOO AWESOME! :D I've been waiting for this since LAST winter...haha :)

So...yep, this is a short post (for me), but I think I'ma go do something else now. lol :) I need to practice guitar (haven't done that in a couple weeks...heh), and maybe create something artsy with the new Bic markers I got for Christmas! :D And it might just involve aluminum foil...cause I'm cool like that.

Anywhosies, I'll be posting more later! ttyl! :)

~Beth

Today I have a lot of

2011-12-22T18:23:00.000-05:00

random stuff to post about! Now...allow me to remember what these things are...haha

Okay, so...you may have noticed (or maybe it's just me?) that Christmas is coming up!!! I'm pretty excited! But, it really doesn't feel like Christmastime, this year! :( Maybe it's because it's so warm? Or possibly just because this time of year has seemed to sneak up on me so quickly. It literally feels like I was JUST getting ready for my busy summer! Wasn't I just filling out an application for JCing at camp? And just finding out that Laura invited me to go to the beach with her? Goodness...now it's December!!
Anyway, I'm very excited that Christmas is on a Sunday this year. I really think that will help me to refocus on Christmas day -- the fact that we as believers get to celebrate our Savior's birth with one another in our place of worship ON His birthday. That should be pretty cool. :) Also, my family is waiting to open gifts and such until after church, so I think it will be good for the focus to be JESUS first, and then presents. :)
Speaking of presents, I've felt very scatterbrained when it comes to getting gifts for people this year. I'm only doing gifts for my family this Christmas because of the missions trip I'm going to in July. But still! For some reason, I just have felt like I have no idea what to get for people!! But I have finally obtained all the gifts I needed for my family, so I feel better now. :)

Okay, random happy thing: So, on Monday, my mom and I were having a pretty lame day. Like, we were both in a bad mood, and we just felt like blah. And we knew we had to go shopping, too (I had to get a couple gifts). So we were both kinda like "Ugh...this is not a good day for this...but there's no other day to do it, so let's just get it over with." So then we went out and guess what? It ended up being exactly what we needed, and we had a lot of fun together :) We hung out at the mall and other stores for a while, and got mocha frappuccinos at Joe Bean's -- mine had a shot of butterscotch flavor, and her's had a shot of german chocolate flavor. Best. Frappuccino. Ever. :) (I know...I work at a cafe that serves Starbucks, and I like Joe Bean's better. Whatever.) :P :)
But anyway, we had a lot of fun. I love doing stuff like that with my mom :)

Oh, hehe, so on Tuesday, something funny happened. A couple weeks ago, Ben and I were like "Oh! I want to watch 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader'!!" But then we looked for it, and we were like "Wait...we don't own that movie! Ha! Psh...why did we think we had it???" So then, we thought it was pretty funny and we told our parents about it. :) But then on Tuesday, Ben all of a sudden comes into the living room like "Guess what! I just found Voyage of the Dawn Treader!! We DO have it!" And then my mom groaned and looked at the presents under the tree..."That movie is wrapped and under the tree!!" Hahaha! So, now we have two of them! :P Hopefully we'll be able to return it...lol

So, Tuesday was Alek's birthday! :) His family invited us over to their house for his birthday dinner. That was SO much fun! :) Alek has three younger sisters, and two of them played with my hair for a looong time. Hehe, it was so fun :) And we all played a board game about sharing memories, and that was fun. :) So yeah, it was a blast. I love that family :):)

Random fact: May I just say that my mom makes THE BEST tomato soup in the world???!!!! :D And you know what is really good with it? Salami and Swiss on Rye sandwiches ^_^ Okay, that is all.

OH OH OH! Guess what?! Okay, so I was selling coupon books to raise money for the missions trip, and I sold 22!! :D I'm pretty excited because that's $220 going toward the trip! :) Yay! :):)
I really am excited for the trip. But I'm still super nervous about it. I even keep wanting to chicken out and not go. But then I remind myself that it will be good for me to get out of my comfort zone again. This is going to be WAY out of my comfort zone... But I think that's when God teaches me the most. So, hopefully I will be learning A LOT on this trip!! :) But if you think of it, please pray that I will get more excited about it. :) I don't mind being nervous, but I really don't want to be dreading it...

Okay, well, this post is probably long enough by now, and I need to eat dinner. So, I'll post more later! Adios! :)

~Beth

The past couple of days

2011-11-29T22:45:00.000-05:00

have been pretty epic! :)
On Saturday, Ben and I had a birthday party. Both of our birthdays are in November, so we just had a combined party :) It was a dance in the gym at our old church. And it was pretty cool because that was the most room we've ever had at a dance! :D Yeah...it was SO FUN!!! :):) My friends are the best. Oh! And we had this Cotton Eyed Joe contest (see who could last the longest doing the dance with the song on a continual loop). I only lasted for three repetitions of the song, but I am proud to say that Erin, Laura, Bri, and two of Ben's friends lasted for FIVE! :O And then it was apparent that they would not give up, and we had to call it a tie, and then draw a name for the prize. ;) But it was exhausting! haha :) So yeah, that was a VERY fun day!! Oh, and also, Laura spent the night, and that made it even BETTER! :D we had a lot of fun talking and stuff :):):)
And then yesterday was my birthday. It was amazing!! First, I had a guitar lesson. Then we met my dad at my FAVORITE restaurant (Hibachi Buffet) for lunch :) (SUSHI AND STIR FRY!!! :D ) And then we went home and did school. Lol :) And then Mamaw, Grandma, and Grandpa came over for dinner (tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches!) :) I opened Ben's presents after dinner. He gave me two bottles of crackle nail polish (black and silver) (yay!!) and "Ocean Eyes" by Owl City (awesome band!!!!!! And Morgan gave me "All Things Bright and Beautiful" by them, too!! yay!!! :D ). I was soooo happy! ^_^ And then! My parents gave me this big box wrapped in gold wrapping paper, and it had a card on top. And they said to open the box first (unusual....). So...I did, and I was SHOCKED to discover the contents of this box!!!! It. Was. A. DSLR. Camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY WORD!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah. How bout *EXCITEMENT!!!* :D I had been wanting this camera for quite some time, but then Symon was sick ($500), and now I'm going on a missions trip ($2,500) and so I was like "Yep...this camera will have to wait, I guess!" But then my awesome parents and grandparents all chipped in and got it for me!! :) Plus, they got me an additional zoom lens and a case!! :):):) I was so happy!!! :) And I cried. haha :) And then, after the battery charged, I took pictures!!! :D That's what I did this afternoon after school...I actually took my Barbies out to do a photoshoot with them. hahaha! I had brought them up from the basement for my six year old cousin to play with, so I still had them up here, and then I was like "I COULD TAKE PICTURES OF THEM!!!" HAHA :):) Yep, it was pretty fun :):)
Okay, I know my grammar is horrific, and I was totally rambling and I started most of my sentences with "AND THEN!" But, oh well! I just had to write out my excitement in the excitement form it takes in my mind. :P :)
Well, that is all for now. :) Ipml!! :) Maybe some pictures later! :):) adios!

~Bethie

November is a pretty cool

2011-11-04T22:44:00.000-04:00

month, huh? I mean...my dad's birthday is the sixth, my mamaw's birthday is the eleventh, my brother's birthday is the thirteenth, Thanksgiving is the twenty-fourth, and my birthday is the twenty-eighth! It doesn't get much better than that! ^_^ Haha :P I know, I know...the world does not revolve around me and my family, does it? :)

Anyway, November really is going to be a pretty fun month for me! Besides all the birthdays and Thanksgiving, my family is going to Myrtle Beach on the 11th! :D I'm so excited! My dad hasn't been able to go with us in FOREVER, so I'm really happy that he gets to go this time! :D
Also, Ben and I are going to have a combined birthday party, and it shall be EPIC! ^_^ We're having a dance at the gym at our old church :) I'm SO pumped! Except that Matt and Elizabeth can't come...this makes me quite sad... :'(

So, last Saturday, we went to a dance that was...well...amazing!!! :D I think I mentioned it in my last post...but that was BEFORE and this is AFTER! yeah...it was sooooooooooo fun!!!!! My all-time favorite dance is the Virginia Reel, and we got to do it TWICE! ^_^ My second favorite is the Postees Jig. That one is so cool because it LOOKS epicly confusing and complicated and amazing, but once you learn it, it's actually pretty easy :) I got to dance that one with Matt, the VA Reel with Alek (both times), and the Spanish Waltz (which is probably my third favorite) with Jacob! Aaaand, I got to Swing Dance with the BEST swing dance partner ever: Laura!! xD And I tried to teach Alek and Matt how to swing dance, but it didn't work that well...although, we really didn't have that much time... :)
I dressed up as a pirate. OH YEAH!! I can tell y'all now what Messrs. Alekzandr and Matthew wore to the party!!! They both wore kilts! It was sooooooooo awesome!!! Hahaha :D And then Alek, Matt, Erin, and I went to Sheetz after the party (they were giving away free coffee) and paraded our costumes. But it was mainly so Erin and I could be seen with a couple of cute guys in kilts :P ;) I might be able to post a picture of us..I'll see if it works :)
Anywhosies, we had an absolute blast at that party...I have decided that dancing (as long as it's appropriate) is my favorite activity to do with friends (besides talking ;) ). It's so wholesome and healthy and social and FUN!!!! :):):):):)

Okay, I shall now cease my raving about how AWESOME dancing is. ;) (Except perhaps to say that if any of y'all ever get the opportunity to go to a country dance or something, and you're thinking "Oh...I wouldn't be good at it and I wouldn't like it...blah blah blah", I thought the exact same thing at first. And now i LOVE it. So...TRY IT!) :)

Alrighty then. Well, I think I also mentioned that last Saturday morning we were going to go to GROW club. That went really well!!! It was so fun! And the kids were adorable, and I think they enjoyed it :) We played a game first (after going door to door to invite the kids). It was musical chairs. :) Thank heaven they had an iPod docking station! I thought my iPod speaker would be loud enough...heh. NOT! And then Alek had to LaLaLa for a while before we got the docking station set up. That was funny! :P
And then Josh gave his lesson and it went really well! :) It was about having courage, and he told the story of Joshua (haha) and the Israelites marching around Jericho. We even acted it out! (the teens were the 'wall' and the kids were the Israelites ;) ).
After that, we played hot potato for a while, and then two of the girls wanted to have a dance competition. That was pretty funny. haha :) So, yeah. It went really well, and I SO hope I can go again this month! :)

So, I worked today. It was my first day having to be there at 7. (EARLY!!). lol :P I'm not a morning person. But that's okay! My manager lives really close, so she'll just pick me up on Fridays and take me to work (which is very nice for my dad so he doesn't have to go to work early :) ).
But anyway, I had a great day! I LOOOOVE my job!!! God has blessed me so much! I was trying really hard to be thankful for my last job (and I was/am). But I just really didn't like it. (after I started working there this year. I loved it before the management changed) It was so hard because I would be feeling like "man...I just really don't want to be here! I want to work somewhere else!" But then I would mentally slap myself "Beth! What is wrong with you! God blessed you with this job and the company had to fit you in to be able to hire you. You're earning money, so be THANKFUL!!! Stop complaining!!" But then when my former boss offered to hire me at one of his other cafes, and I took the job, it was so much easier to be thankful because I love it! :) Still, though, I'm thankful for the opportunity to work at that other place. It just shows me how God provides. This whole process has been amazing...God is awesome. He provided a job, even if I didn't enjoy it at the time. But then he provided me with an even better job! He is just so gracious... :)
So...my favorite thing about my new job is my coworkers :) :) I get to work with a couple girls from my church (Misty and Elizabeth) and another awesome girl named Annie. We always have a blast together! :)
I also like the fact that we're so busy. I would get so bored when I was working at Daisy's. A "rush" there was like...five people at a time. lol! A rush at Brewed Awakenings (cute name, huh?? :) is...I don't even know how many people, but it is crazy! :) I love it!!!
There are basically three stations to work at: the "bagel bar" (where we make all the sandwiches and such), the coffee, and the cash register. My favorite is either the bagel bar or the register. I'm not sure which. I love making coffee, but not during a rush because I'm not fast enough at it. And then I get paranoid and freaked out. haha :P
Anyway, so yeah. I love my job. :)

Hey, guess what y'all! I'm watching Captain America!! With TVGuardian! Yay! This makes up for not getting to watch it on the JC outing.. :) Except that my darling Laura is not with me... :'(

Although I feel as though there is something else I wanted to share...I can't remember it and this post is super long, anyway. Okay, well...I will go now. Thanks for reading my ramblings! I love rambling to you guys...you're awesome :)
Ttyl! Ipml! ;)

~Beth :)

This weekend

2011-10-27T19:36:00.000-04:00

is very exciting for me!! I have so much going on and...it's all super duper fun! :)

Okay, so Friday night is an event at our church called FunForAll. It's a kids program as an alternative to Halloween. :) The kids dress up and come to the church for games, candy, bounce houses, and a Bible story time. :) It's a lot of fun for the kids AND the helpers! ^_^ Last year I dressed up as a superhero, and I did facepainting. (Which was cool because that's one of the things I ended up helping with at the carnivals we hosted on our missions trip this summer) :)
This year, I don't have a costume. :( I am quite saddened by this fact. But hey, I'll still have fun! :) I think I'm doing face painting again this year!! Yay! ^_^

And then on Saturday, Ben and I are going to help with GROW club. It's a program that some people from our church started a few years ago downtown as an outreach to children there. It's so neat, and I got to interact with a lot of these kids during our missions trip. I've been wanting to go to GROW club, but haven't been able to until this Saturday. So yeah...I'm pretty excited about it. :) You could be praying for the kids to listen to the lesson, and pray for the guy who is giving it (Josh), and that we will all be good examples to the kids. That would be greatly appreciated! :)

On Saturday evening (GROW club ends at 4ish), beginning at 4 (!), there is a medieval dance that I am going to! I cannot wait!! I'm dressing up as a pirate. It's going to be so much fun! I have a couple of friends whose costumes are going to be so epic...but it's a secret, so I'll have to tell y'all about it later... ;)

I'm also really looking forward to Sunday because I get to be in the service! Yay! :) I work in a children's class every other Sunday, and lately we seem to have been gone on all the Sundays when I'm NOT working in a class, so I feel like I haven't been in the service in a long time... So, I'm happy about that. And also, I'm looking forward to an entire afternoon in which I have nothing to do! ^_^ I think I shall either take a nap or read a book... :)

Last Sunday was really really fun. I was at Jacob's birthday party (he is 18 now!!! O.O ) and a song from The Lion King was playing (I just can't WAIT to be kiiiiing! ;) ), and then Me, Erin, and Matt (and I think Alek?) were discussing how Matt had never seen that movie (*gasp!!*). So...long story short, I invited Erin, Matt, and Alek to come over to watch The Lion King at my house on Sunday afternoon. Erin, sadly, could not come :(((( But Alek and Matt did, and we had a blast :) We ate pizza, listened to random music, watched the movie, unloaded my family's van from camping, and then played video games. :) It was so fun. :) My guy friends are THE BEST! Just saying...like....y'all might have guy friends, too...but mine are better. haha ;) I'm a little prejudiced, I suppose, though... :P

Anywhosies...I should probably end this and go read or something :) OH! I finished Wuthering Heights (by Emily Bronte) today!! It was really good! And incredibly weird...but still good! :) And tomorrow I'm starting 1984 by George Orwell. This is my favorite thing about being homeschooled: I get to pick out the classics I read for school! :)

Okay, well, ttyl! Ipml! ;) Hope you all have a wonderest, spectacumous, fabular, awezing, amasome, perfect weekend! ^_^

~Beth

I haven't posted in a while,

2011-10-14T18:12:00.000-04:00

have I? :(
Okay, well, I just wanted to share what has been going on in my life lately. :)
I'm not sure if I've posted about this before or not, but practically all my life I have been afraid of growing up. I mean, there are certain things I've always looked forward to (having a boyfriend, getting married, having kids, decorating my own home). But even with those things, there was always this nagging feeling in the back of my mind: "What if I never get married?! What if God wants me to be a missionary and I have to live in Africa by myself? What if, what if, what if?!?!". And also, I've been TERRIFIED of going to college. I had NO idea what I was going to major in, and therefore no idea what I was going to do after I graduated, either! I mean...I like making coffee and sandwiches and all, but that's not exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life! ;)
Well, a week or two ago, my mom and I were talking about different occupations I could possibly have. My mom has mentioned to me several times that she thinks I would be good at cosmetology, but I didn't believe her. I was like "but...I don't know how to cut people's hair!" And then she pointed out to me that that's why you go to cosmetology school and they TEACH you how to cut hair! (duh! *facepalm*) So then, I was like "Ooooh....that would be really neat!!! I think I would enjoy that!" Okay, so then all kinds of possibilities presented themselves in my mind: Go to cosmetology school, work in a hair salon, get married, have kids, cut people's hair at my house, not have to send my husband or children to hair dressers (save money! ^_^), have occupation after kids move out, etc. So then I'm like...WHOA! This is soooo cool!!!!
But wait! It gets better!
On Sunday, a lady spoke to my parents' Sunday school class, and she shared about a missions trip she had recently gone on to Mexico (awwww...I miss it...). And one of the things she shared about was how this group of hair dressers went to a migrant camp and worked on the people's hair. They cleaned it (which included removing the lice) and then cut it and everything. When my mom told me about this, I was like, "Wow!! I would LOVE to do something like that!!" I just think it would be about the coolest thing ever! I mean, imagine how incredibly uncomfortable it must be to have such dirty hair and to constantly have lice in it. And then to have someone just out of the blue come and clean it for you? And even make it look pretty? That would be so neat! I mean, just because these people are living in such poor conditions doesn't mean they don't WANT to feel and look nice. It makes me so sad thinking about how they have to live.
And another thing, think about how much one-on-one time that would provide to be able to witness to people!
I totally need to be working on my Spanish. :)
So, after thinking about all of this for a while (Oh yeah, and I found out that I already have enough money in my college funds and stuff to be able to go to cosmetology school!), I realized that all of a sudden, I wasn't scared of my future anymore! I've always reminded myself that God has a plan for me, and He knows what it is, even if I am totally in the dark! And now I really see that. I also know that, this may not even be His plan for me. But if it isn't then He has something else! I really, honestly don't have to be so worried about it all. I'm not even scared of the possibility of not getting married, anymore! If I get married, that would be AWESOME! But if I don't, that would be awesome, too, because I would have more freedom to travel and go on missions trips and maybe even be a missionary! I'll just keep praying about it and see what happens. :)
So, lately, God has really given me a peace to trust Him with His plan for my life. And now, instead of being scared of the future, I'm so excited for it! :D

~Jeremiah 29:11~
"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future."

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 10

2011-08-11T16:39:00.000-04:00

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Well, I never actually got around to writing any more journal entries about camp...I left on Saturday and then didn't write more.
I don't have a whole lot more to say than what I said in the journal entries...but that last one didn't seem a fitting end to this saga. lol :)
Oshie had a few family issues she wanted to talk to us about, but for the most part, I think she may have just wanted to talk to us. :) But...11:00 at night is not the time to do it. Haha :P
Just last night, I was thinking about how much God has blessed me in allowing me to be involved with this camp. It always teaches me so much...I feel closer to God while I'm there, I gain lots of experience in many different areas, I get to meet plenty of new people, I am forced out of my comfort zone, and hey, I even get to mention it on job applications! :) I am so thankful for the two weeks of my summer which are reserved for GBC :) <3
May I just say...I can't wait till I'm old enough to be a Senior Counselor? :) All summer, baby.... ^_^
Thanks for reading my camp-oriented ramblings! :)

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 9

2011-08-11T16:30:00.000-04:00

Saturday, July 30, 2011 7:59a.m.

Good morning! Well, today is my last day of camp! :) / :( I'm happy to go home and see my family and friends, but I'm so sad to leave! :(
I've had so many good experiences these past two weeks! Hopefully they'll help me later in the future when I might need experience in a specific area or something.
Last night, Laura and I talked with Oshie for like, an hour! I think she just needed someone to talk to...I'll tell you more about it laster, but I need to go now. :)
8:05a.m.

[That whole post was written upside down, by the way...oh the trials of writing in the dark. lol]

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 8

2011-08-10T14:59:00.000-04:00

Friday, July 29, 2011 7:25a.m.

Buenos dias! Sorry I didn't write yesterday! I kinda...*ahem*...fell asleep yestermorning...
Anywhosies, my devotional went pretty well on Wednesday night! :) I mean, it wasn't perfect, by any means, but it was better than last week's. :) I stumbled around at the beginning and felt like I had some sort of mental block, but then everything got smoother as it went along. :)
Last night was our cabin outing! We had a lot of fun! And then, one of the girls in our cabin - Olivia - got saved! :) It was really exciting! Laura talked to her for a while earlier in the day, and then Michelle prayed with her last night. She was so happy and was telling everyone in the cabin. :) Olivia has some kind of mental retardation or something (it's not too severe, but it's there), and it was so great to watch how sweet the other girls were to her! They congratulated her, and cheered for her, and one of the girls offered to give Olivia her Bible. I was so proud of them. :)
Today is our last full day of camp!! :( I'm really going to miss being here. But I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends again. :)
Oh yeah, haha! Last night after lights out, Laura and I took showers, and then Michelle came in to take her shower. And then Laura and I needed to talk to her about something serious that we were concerned about. After we had talked, Michelle, somewhat randomly, told us (and acted out) this story about her getting a black eye. So then, we're all in the bathroom at llike, 10:30, cracking up (but having to be quiet because there are 8 sleeping girls right outside the door), and we can't stop. It was hilarious! Plus, Michelle still had black soot all over her face, so it made the situation even more comical! It was so funny... :)
But...maybe you had to be there... ;)
Well, I don't think I have anything else to write about...so adios for now!
7:49a.m.

P.S. Girls in my cabin week 2: Jenna, Gabby, Hannah, Emily, Oshie, Faith, Olivia, Marinda :)

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 7

2011-08-06T21:28:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:34p.m.

Yo! So...I'm on break right now and I just got to utilize the computer in order to check Facebook and email! Yay! haha :) And now I'm watching 'Over the Hedge" and writing in my journal! :)
Anywho...tonight is skit night. I think my cabin's skit is actually going to be decent tonight! Haha :)
So...I got a terrible sunburn at the beach, and now it's peeling super badly... :( AND my toenail came off and now it's growing back really weird :( WAAAH!!! Okay..yes...I'm complaining... :( :)
Anyway...I am VERY excited about crafts today :) I love talking to Danielle! And my bookmark looks really cute...if I do say so myself...lol :)
So, Rory and I have been having this war in which we stick our tongues out at each other Whoever does it first, gets a point. I'm at 15, and he's at 20. lol
Ok, whistle blew! Gtg! :)
2:00p.m.

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 6

2011-08-05T20:49:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, July 27, 2011 7:59a.m.

Good morning! :)
So...today has been declared "wacky hair day" by the JC girls. :) I french-braided my hair upside down...it's pretty sweet. I can't wait for the girls to wake up and see it's craziness! lol :) Laura's hair looks hysterical, too :P
Anyway, tonight is my devo for this week! Laura did hers last night, and it went really well. :) I'm going to have to be careful not to be comparing my devotional to hers :) I do feel like it's going to go better than last week's...
Well, everyone is up now, so ttyl! :)
8:05a.m.

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 5

2011-08-04T13:58:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, July 26, 2011 7:36a.m.

Hola! Sorry I haven't written in a while...
Well, on Sunday, Juliet had to leave because she was sick. :( I miss her! (And I wasn't even in her cabin this year!) And Miss Shelley left on Sunday, too. :( I wish she could've stayed for the whole two weeks...
Anyway, the JC outing was pretty fun! :) We went to Walmart, the mall, and an ice cream place :) We watched "Captain America" at the mall theater. I wouldn't advise watching it without Clearplay or TVGuardian or something, though. There wasn't a ton of language, but Laura and I were getting uncomfortable. And then, (this was pretty cool) I was like "Okay...I'm leaving after one more word...". Laura agreed with me, andthen for a long time there wasn't any language. But then the main character said a bad word, and Laura and I looked at each other like "uh...I don't know..." and then, in the same sentence, he said it again! So, it was kinda like God was saying "Oh, you're not sure? Okay..." BAM! Haha :) It was kind of embarrassing to leave, but Laura and I were glad we did. And we'll just watch it later with a language filter. :)
So, anyway, this week I have mini golf for 4th period instead of "work period". :)
And I still LOVE working at crafts! I get to make leather pieces and talk to Danielle! It's so fun! :) Last week, I made a keychain and a bracelet, and this week I'm making a keychain for my mom and a bookmark. :)
Yesterday, all the JC girls wore glitter eye make-up that we bought at walmart on our outing. :) But Mr. Jon said we couldn't put it on the guys even though Sky and Stanley said it was okay with them. :( lol
Oh my goodness! I forgot to tell you about my friend, Laura! haha :) Well, now that her cabin (Sarah's Tent) is closed [because Juliet had to leave], she is in Esther's Palace with me and Michelle! :) It's really fun sharing a cabin. :)
Ok, well I am tired of writing, so ttyl! :)
7:57a.m.
~Beth

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 4

2011-08-04T11:42:00.000-04:00

Saturday, July 23, 2011 7:29a.m.

Hey! So, yesterday was our last full day of camp. :( The campers are going home today. I'm gonna miss the girls in my cabin...like, a lot! But hopefully next week will be good, too!
Last night, during cabin devos, several of the girls shared some problems they have at home. It was really sad. I'll definitely need to be praying for them...
Tonight is going to be the JC outing! I'm really excited! :)
I really wish Mr. Tony and Miss Sue weren't leaving today! I very much want them to do chapel next week, too! but maybe I'll like the other chapel leaders, too. :)
Well, I don't really feel like writing more...so, adios!
7:36a.m.

p.s. My hair looked cute yesterday! At camp! Can you believe it?! Haha :P

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 3

2011-08-03T17:46:00.000-04:00

Friday, July 22, 2011 7:25a.m.

Why hello there! ^_^
Well, last night's outing went very well. It was a lot of fun! Since our cabin's name is "Esther's Palace", Michelle came up with a kind of scavenger hunt for the girls to do, and we were being "chased" by "palace guards". It was SO fun! :) And all of us had crowns that we wore because we were princesses. :) We had to rub ash all over our faces so the guards wouldn't recognize us...that was pretty funny. :)
Michelle did a great job on the devotional last night. She presented the Gospel after talking about the prodigal son. It was really good, but the girls didn't seem to respond. but God can still use it in their hearts later. :)
I was supposed to come up with a game to play while Michelle got the fire ready. I was going to do Sardines, but we were on this hill with like, one tree, so that didn't work out. But I had a stick for this little challenge game thing that we did last year in a JC meeting. But that only lasted a couple minutes, so I had to think of something else. (I really should've been better prepared...) So, I was like "Fax Machine!". We had a lot of fun playing that. :)
I felt like I got to know some of the girls better last night. :) Like, Lilli and I talked quite a bit last night. Not anything deep, but it was nice. :)
When we were back at the cabin, Amber and Lilli asked me if I had a boyfriend, and when I said "no", they were like, "Why? Because no one likes you or because you don't want one?". I said because I don't want one, and then I almost got to share my views on having relationships at such a young age, but they were hyper and just wanted to quiz me on who liked me. Haha. But I'm holding out ohope that I'll get to give them some advice on dating before they leave! Lol, they will be needing it, seeing as how some of htem already claim to be "in love" with someone...one of the JC guys, in fact! :P It's kinda funny, though...
Today, I am going to attempt to blow dry and straighten my hair! I will let you know how it goes! Haha. :)
Well, I'd better be going...not that I have anything else to do...while sitting here in the dark cabin with sleeping campers. Lol. Anyway! Bye!
7:49a.m.

P.S. Happy 17th Birthday, Matt!!! :)

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 2

2011-08-03T17:35:00.000-04:00

Thursday, July 21, 2011 7:24a.m.

Good morning! :) So...last night was my devotional. It didn't really go that well. :/ The girls just weren't that interested. But, I know that they can still learn something, even if it doesnt seem like they're listening.
Also, I now feel like I will do a better job next week because I learned from last night. And I think I'm going to ask Michelle if I can use one of her giant Post-It notes... :)
I feel like I actually took quite a bit away from my devotional! It was about finding your identity and worth in Christ rather than in material things (looks, talents, grades, possessions, etc.). I really struggle with that...so it was a good reminder to me of how special I am to God.
So anyway, today I am "girl #1" on the JC chore list thingy. I like these jobs...they're the easiest, in my opinion. :) Instead of washing dishes and stuff, we just have to wipe down tables! But then we have other chores. But yeah...I like being girl #1 or #2.
Last night was skit night! I had wooden arms and then Michelle got turned into a beaver and started "chewing" on my arms. Lol! :) The skit was cute.
Well, I think I'm gonna read some Karen Kingsbury for awhile. Bye!
7:39a.m.

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 1

2011-08-02T13:47:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 7:26a.m.

Why hello there! I have decided (about two seconds ago) to keep a Grace Bible Camp journal! (no need for applause, please). I thought it would be a pretty neat idea! :) I wish I had started this last year...
Anyway, this is my second year of working as a JC at GBC! Last year, I was in Sarah's Tent. This year, I'm in Eshter's Palace, which is the oldest cabin. :) It's quite different from the last age group (3rd grade). But I like it a lot...in fact, I might prefer this age. I'm not sure yet. :) All I know is: with the third grade girls, I didn't have them talking about liking a JC guy, asking for *ahem* "feminine products", or having to have a "powow" with the Sr. Counselor because of attitudes and arguments between one another. But...I kind of enjoy this stuff, to an extent. I know, I know...I'm an odd human being...
Anywho, tonight is when I will be doing my devotional in my cabin. I'm nervous, but honestly, I'm very excited, too! :) I asked God to give me the age group that would get the most of my devo, and just the cabin he wanted me in. So, I am very confident that this is exactly where He wanted me, and I can't wait to see what transpires within the next days of camp this week.
My SC [Senior Counselor] this year is Michelle. She is SO awesome! She's a lot of fun, and she does a great job with devos, and iwth keeping the girls in line. :) I also lover her cabin decorations, which consist of giant flip flops and giant post-it notes! :)
I really like the girls in my cabin, as well. :) Their names are: Lilli, Amber, Grace, Naty, Denae, Haley, Natalie, Zoey, and Leah. Ihope that maybe I can keep in touch with some of them after camp.
This week, the chapel leaders are Mr. Tony and Miss Sue! *cheers* :D And the theme for this week's chapel is The Ten Commandments :) I remember it from when I was a camper. :) My favorite chapel theme, though, remains to be The Fruit of the Spirit. :)
My activity periods (that I'm helping with) this week are Nature, Leather Crafts, and then instead of a 4th period activity, I have extra chores. I actually really like that. I had "work period" last year, too, and I enjoyed it because I got to know the other JC really well. :) I hope that happens again this year.
Well, this is getting to be a bit long, so I will cease to move my pen across this page. Adios!
7:52a.m.

GBC Diaries 2011

2011-08-02T13:31:00.000-04:00

Yo! So...I know, I know...I haven't written in a while. But hey, I'm gonna make up for that! :) Well, I definitely wanted to post on here about my experiences at camp...but I was like "dude...I'm never going to remember everything I wanted to tell!!" So then, I decided to write in my journal a lot while I was at camp, and then when I got home, I would post my journal entries on my blog! :D So...that is what I plan to do! ^_^ That's what I did when I went to Mexico, and it worked pretty well :)
Anyway, I will post my first entry in a little while...but I also wanted to say that I had a BLASSSSTT at the beach with Laura! :D We have spent three weeks straight together...first the beach, and then camp! :) It was soooo much fun!!! I love her! <3 (Thank you, dear Laura, for inviting me!) :) We did some crazy fun stuff...like setting up pranks for Laura's family at 2a.m.....and dancing the Cupid Shuffle and Cha Cha Slide on the beach (trying to get other people to join us ;)....and laying out in the sun (and getting SUNBURNED!!!), and swimming in the ocean (of course), and eating junkfood, and cooking a good meal, and taking pictures, and watching SCARY MOVIES!!!! Yeah...we had a BLAST! :) I'll hopefully post pictures of my summer later on... :)

Okey dokey...now I will move on to the first camp journal entry :)......

I was trying to decide

2011-05-25T00:22:00.000-04:00

what to do: read a little in Wings of Dawn (by Sigmund Brouwer...amazing book, lemme tell ya. This is my third time reading it), write some more of the story I'm working on, or write in my journal. And then I was like "Hey! I should blog!" ^_^

So, anyway, I honestly have like, nothing interesting to blog about. haha. I'm so brilliant. "Hey yeah! I'll blog even though there's nothing to write!" Oh well...I'll make SOMETHING sound interesting...

Well...I ate peanuts today. They were yummy. But a little too salty for my liking.

I also read a chapter in the boringest (yes that is a word. "Why?", you ask. Because I said so. Which reminds me! So like, you know how sometimes you ask someone "why" and they say "because"? Okay, so in Spanish it's "Por que?" and "porque." hahaha...yeah...I find that amusing...) book ever. It is called "Stanley". Okay, actually it's called "The Scottish Chiefs". But I named it Stanley... This book belongs to my dear friend, Matt. Although, I might not consider him so "dear" anymore by the time I'm finally finished with this horrid book. It's his favorite (FAVORITE!?!?) book. And unfortunately, I made a deal with him to read it if he read 8 books that I wanted him to read. But see, here's the thing: Matt is a speed reader, and I am not. And the books I wanted him to read were EASY and AWESOME books!!! The book that he wanted me to read is hard to read and boring!!! :'( So, my mom has now put it on my school reading schedule...so I'm just considering it to be schoolwork. :P Bleh. B to the L to the E to the H. :PPPPPPPPP
Okay, I am finished ranting now, I suppose.

Aaaaaanywho, OH! I actually do have interestingness to post about! :D My best friend, Erin, had a birthday party on saturday! ^_^ It was SOOO fun!!!! And I loved getting to know some of her friends from school! Cause, ya know, it's like I hear about them all the time, see them on facebook and everything, but I've just never gotten to actually hang out with them. So it was awesome actually getting to do that! :) AND we got to dance. ^_^
Which reminds me...I am going to yet another birthday party on Friday night! My friend, Jaymee, is having her sixteenth birthday party, and it is going to be epic. Once again, we will be dancing :) I'm excited cause I'll get to learn more dances :) I only know a few, so this will be awesome. :):):):)

ALSO, I am SO pumped cause my aunts are coming to visit this week/weekend!!! YAY!!!!!! And Ant Janet and I are, at some point while she is here, going to see "African Cats". :) Ant Janet says she wants to go with me because I'm the only one who will appreciate it as much as she will. Haha :) I'm excited :)

Okay, so for school right now, I have to write a paper comparing William Golding's Lord of the Flies to A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It's pretty funny, because I brought this upon myself. I simply mentioned to my mom that the books had some similarities, and then she was like "Hey! You should write a paper on that!". I was like "oh...snap." haha :P But I actually think it's gonna be kind of cool :) I liked both of the books...especially A Tale of Two Cities. In fact, I really want to read it again. I was just SO confused for the first like, 2/3 of it, that I feel like I didn't get much out of it. But now that I understand what was going on, I want to read it again! :) It's really a good book! I sobbed at the end of it. hahaha

Oh! So, the Blue Angels were doing an airshow here over the weekend, and to raise money for our missions trip, our youth group was selling parking spaces near the show. Erin and I helped out on Sunday afternoon, and it was SO fun!! :) Matt was with us for a couple hours, too, which added to the funness :) The Blue Angels were soooooo cool, though! We could see them a little from the parking lot, and we could DEFINITELY hear them! It was awesome :) AND we made a lot of money! :) That's always nice! haha :)

Have I told you about our missions trip? If so, y'all can just skip this part...lol :) It's a local trip. We'll be staying at the church all week, and hosting a VBS for kids from downtown. I think it will be great :) I've gotten to meet some of the kids that we'll be working with, and they're so sweet :) I'm very excited to get to do an outreach for them. We'll also be helping a lady in our town who is in need. Her house is full of her belongings, like she just has a LOT of stuff, and it needs to be sorted through, and cleaned out. So, we're going to be taking all of her stuff out of her house, and then cleaning the house while she sorts through the stuff. I am so excited that we have the opportunity to help someone out in such a big way! She is so excited...she apparently sees this as the day when she will "get her life back". How cool is that??? We would appreciate your prayers for her and her son, that they will come to Christ through this experience. :) And also, for all of the kids we'll be working with at the VBS! :) Thank you! Oh, and the missions trip is close to the end of June, by the way.

Another thing I'm really excited about (although, it is completely different) is going to King's Dominion in June!!!!!!!! :DDD Yup. It's gonna be sweet. I've never gone with our youth group before, so I'm pumped. :) :):) HOPEFULLY, at least Erin, Laura, and Matt will be going on this trip (if not more of my friends), so it's going to be sooooo muuuuuuuuch fuuuuuun! :):):)

Okay, well, I'm done for now. Probably none of that was interesting to anyone but myself...but oh well! It was fun to type! haha :) ipml! Have a good night!

~Beth

yep...I'm writing a blog post

2011-05-13T19:40:00.000-04:00

......at this very moment! O.O I am also talking to Ben! Hehe, i am about to invite him to write something on my blog, too! But he does not know this yet. And now...the moment we've all been waiting for....I shall tell Ben to read this paragraph which I have just typed, and see what his response is. Will he accept my offer? Or refuse and forever hold his peace and never get to share his thoughts with the online world? The choice is his....

qwerty

^ that was Ben.

I totally cannot

2011-05-02T19:11:00.000-04:00

come up with a creative title for this post!!! It is sad... :'( It's also sad that I'm sitting here straining to see the computer screen which I am like, a foot away from! I need to go get my glasses.......Ah! Much better! ^_^

Anywho, I decided that today would be a good day to post on my blog! :) I actually got done with school at a decent time today (for me, at least!), and then I was like "hmm...BLOG!" :) But then I had to clean Symon's domain at the bottom of the basement stairs, wash the dishes, pick spinach, and then I realized that I felt nasty, so I had to take a shower and clip and file my nails! lol :P So...finally, here I am!

Now to get on with an account of my life. Yes. I am going to tell you my entire life story. Jk! Do not fear! I would not do such a thing to you! Well...unless you're having trouble sleeping...then I would gladly help you out! ;) Okay, okay...this is really not making any sense...I was seriously just writing whatever popped into my head at the moment. That was very fun for me...although, I am sure not so much for you.

Okay! So, I suppose I can start by telling you how my job is going! :) I still love it! Although, I usually do not love it when 8:00 rolls around and I have to leave for work...but oh well! Such is life! :) I am really enjoying my newly discovered appreciation for coffee! ^_^ My favorite coffee is a Toasted Marshmallow Cappuccino! I would advise all of you to try it, if possible...you will never be the same. Well, actually, you probably will. I seem to be the only one who thinks it is so incredible. >.>
Anyway, I am also still enjoying having opportunites to actually share my faith! It's been a great experience for me to be around people who are not Christians. I've always known and been told that I need to live differently from the world and be a light for Christ, but I've never really had the opportunity to do so on a regular basis. Now I have coworkers who are not Christians and whom I can be striving to live out my faith in front of! I think it's really exciting. I would greatly appreciate it if you guys could pray for me, when you think of it, that I will be a good witness to all of the lost people I come in contact with at work. :)

Oh my goodness! Guess what I somewhat recently discovered that I love to do?!?!?!?!!!.....................................dance!! ^_^ I went to a friend's birthday party, and there I was introduced to country dancing, such as the Virginia Reel, the Trenchmore, the Snowball Reel, aaand...I can't remember any more at the moment. But I also very much enjoy swing dancing!! (especially with my most favoritest swing dance partner, Laura ^_^ ) Aaaand, the Cotton-Eyed Joe, and the Cupid Shuffle. Haha :) Yeah, I love dancing...and now it has spread like a virus and all of my friends who have birthday parties coming up are having dancing at them :) It is SOOOO fun!!!! And it's good exercise! :D Yeah. It's totally addicting...just sayin'. :)

Last Monday, I got to do something pretty exciting (for me) :) I was asked to do a photo shoot of two girls from my church (Jacob and Matt's older sisters, Abbey and Lizzy). I was incredibly nervous because I'm not a professional photographer, Abbey IS a proffesional photographer, and, well, they're older than me...which makes it scary. haha :) But it was actually very fun, and it was a great experience for me! :) I'll try to post some of the pictures later.

So, I wanted to share my thoughts on the big news about the death of Osama Bin Laden, seeing as how that is obviously a hot topic at the moment. At first when I heard about it, I was really happy and relieved. It is a very exciting thing for our country to have finally eliminated such a huge enemy. But, then I saw a post on Facebook that made me think more about this. My friend Pordlaw LaRue posted on his status this verse:
Ezekiel 33:11
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
That really made me think about how, although it certainly is a great thing for our country, and for all of the other countries who have been hurt by Bin Laden, he was a person. He had a soul, and God loved him. That's what makes me sad: God loved him just like he loves you and me! God had to be so sad at the way this person whom He had created and loved spat in His face by all of the horrible things he did. Last night, I realized that I had never even thought of praying for Osama Bin Laden. I almost didn't even think of him as being a person, but he was. There was actually a possibility for him to accept Jesus as his Savior and be forgiven of his sins! It seems impossible to us, but nothing is impossible for our God!
Last night I asked God to remind me to pray for people like Bin Laden, because He loves them and wants them to repent and turn to Him just as much as He wants anyone else to! It's too late for me to pray for Bin Laden...but I can still pray for the salvation of other lost souls who are being used by Satan for his evil purposes.

Anyway, I just felt like sharing what God showed me last night. I hope that maybe it will challenge you to pray for these people, as well!

Alrighty....well, I need to go now...my family is getting ready to eat dinner :) I hope you all have a good evening! Ipml!! :)

~Beth

I am now going to

2010-12-18T23:19:00.000-05:00

post some pictures!!! Yay!!! :D

Okay, this is Ant Janet's favorite statue in the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. It's so pretty!!! :)

Love stained glass windows!! :D

Ant Janet thinks this angel is Lucifer....haha

The first cemetery I've been to with a pyramid! :) It's really cool!

Pretty Autumn colors... :) And of course, a bell tower! I LOVE BELL TOWERS!!!

Okay, how creepy is this manequin??? o.O All of the manequins at Forever 21 are freaky...

The mountains in front of our house :)

My first successful French braid!!! :D

My birthday meal!!! - Mushroom burgers!!! xD

Me on my birthday with my mushroom burger :)

Okay, well, that's all the pictures I can upload for now - I have to go to bed. lol :) ipml!! :D

Why, hello there!

2010-12-13T20:12:00.000-05:00

So, I felt like posting a....post! Aren't you so glad? lol :)

Anyway, WOWSERS! I sure have a lot to talk about!!! :D (I know what you're thinking: ooooh....greaaaat....she's going to talk a lot....wonderfulness...) lol :P

Okay, first off I will share about my amazinglyfunandawesome trip to Richmond to visit my dear Ant Janet! She invited me to come visit her with my grandparents so we could go shopping for my birthday and stuff. IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOO FUN!!!! I had never been to such large stores before in my life!!! We went to one of the malls there, and it was MASSIVE!! Especially Forever 21. It. Was. Huge. It had two floors, and..... it was just overwhelming! Anyway, Ant Janet told me I could pick out an outfit for my birthday party, but she ended up buying me a pair of jeans and five tops! I was in shock for a while. It was very nice of her :) We also went to this ginormous jewelry store called Charming Charlie's. That was basically the most jewelry I have ever seen at one time. It was crazy. Aaaand, we went to a lot of other stores, too. We had a blast! And then....the food! Okay, the first restaurant we went to was called Galaxy Diner. It was one of the coolest restaurants I've ever been in! It was supposed to be like dining cars in a train, and it was all like....eighties style, I guess? It was amazing! And the food was awesome, too! I got a black bean burger, which was sooooo good! And also, their trademark thing is fried pickles! Those are good! :) And then we went to a Thai restaruant. I had never had Thai food before, and it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO amazing!!!! I forget what I got....it was like, rice noodles with chicken and bean sprouts....and I got "American hot" sauce. Mistake. I love hot stuff, but not THAT hot! I can't imagine what "Thai hot" tastes like!!!! :O Yeah, next time it'll be Medium for me. lol :) And then we went to a Greek restaurant. It was very interesting. I tried so many new (and weird) things! I tried lamb, grape leaf-wrapped meat thingies, calamari, and Greek caviar. Veerrrryyyy interesting! I liked everything I tried except for the calamari and the caviar. :P yuck. But I'm glad I tried it! :D
We also went to the Hollywood Cemetery and took pictures and looked around and stuff. That was really cool! :) I'll have to post some of the pics I took! :)
So yeah, we had a blast! I want to go again sometime. :)

Another thing that happened recently is......*drumroll*......I got a job!!! :D I LOOOOOVE it! I'm working at a cafe on a college campus. And we serve Starbucks coffee, so that's pretty awesome! I get to make coffeeeeee! Hehehe, my supervisor said that if my dad wanted the coffee grounds, he could have them. HAHAHAHA! How ironic is this? Ant Janet and Daddy were teasing me about how I would be all embarrassed because I would have to take a bucket to work to collect the coffee grounds. lol!!! Anyway, I just....absolutely love it! Having a job has given me so much more confidence! And I feel more independent, too. I mean...I don't know, I just was not very confident in myself that I would be able to succeed at much in life. Like, I figured I would probably fail at having a job, or being away from home for any significant length of time, or having to meet new people. But this summer, I worked at a camp for two weeks and met a ton of new people who I LOVE, and now I have a job and I'm already able to be left alone and take care of a lot of things (still a bit scary, but I've been left alone during the lunchtime rush, so I feel like I can handle anything! haha). So yeah, I'm just really excited because I'm discovering that I CAN do things that I thought seemed overwhelmingly frightening before! I feel like I've grown up a lot this year. :) Now, I've just got to get over my fear of driving....haha :P

I also need to work on my relationship with God, though. I am pretty faithful in doing my quiettime, but I still struggle with WANTING to do it, you know? It's so hard sometimes, and it makes me feel really bad. Especially at times like this, during the Christmas season, when one thinks more about how much Jesus gave up to come here to earth and save us. It makes me think "Wow. He gave it all for me, and I still have a hard time spending a few minutes with Him every day." I know that's normal, but....why? Why is it so hard? I guess it's part of being human. But that's the problem: it's so easy to use that as an "excuse". Like, "Oh well. I'm just human, I can't help this feeling of not desiring to spend time with God." But it's NOT an excuse! Ugh! This just really bothers me! I think my main problem is that I think about my friends too much. I LOOOOVE my friends! I almost have an unhealthy obsession with my friends! haha. And I know that God WANTS me to have friends - especially such good and godly friends as I have! But His intention in letting me have friends was NOT for them to come before my relationship with Him! I just don't exactly know how to fix this problem. :/ It's seems like it should be easy...but it's not. I'm so excited about this feeling of being more "grown up", but it's so much more important for me to grow up in my relationship with God than it is to grow up by getting a job or learning to drive. In the end, it'll be how I lived for God that counts. I'm not saying that it's not important to have a good work ethic and be mature and be able to handle new things, I'm just saying that's not the MOST important thing, and that's what I need to remember.

*whew*. Sometimes it just helps to write out my thoughts like that. :)

Anyway, hm.....*tries to think of any other new and interesting recent events*......we had our choir Christmas cantata recently! That was fun! :) OH! Okay, so I'm totally pumped because for Teens Involved this year, in addition to our Tipo group, we're going to do a large vocal group with guys, too! :) I think our group will include me, Erin, Laura, Katherine, Matt, Matthew, Alek, Jacob, and Michael. And maybe Bri, but I don't know if she's interested or not....I need to ask her! haha :) But yeah, we've been wanting to do this for a long time and it seems that it will actually happen this time! :D If we do it, I think we're going to sing "I'll Fly Away". It's gonna be epic. :)

Well, I'd better go...I wanted to edit some pictures. :) Oh yeah! I was going to post some of them! :D So, I might be back on later! :) Well, ipml! :D

~Bethosaurus (wow, I totally just thought of that! THAT'S AWESOME! Don't ask me why....it just is for some reason...)

so, there was something

2010-08-29T15:13:00.000-04:00

i wanted to write about...but i now cannot recall what it was.....
........
.................
............
.......................................................
...
..
.
oh yes. okay, so my dad has been collecting bags of coffee grounds from various places that make coffee in large quantities (i.e. starbucks, shell) because he had heard that these coffee grounds are good for soil (we have a large garden, by the way). so, he had collected so many bags of coffee grounds that we had this huge mountain of them in our blueberry patch! it was disgusting, lemme tell ya! but yesterday, we pulled up everything in our garden (cause most of it was finished producing) and then we were going to distribute the coffee grounds all over the garden and then daddy was going to till it (add coffee and stir, as daddy would say). this is what we did yesterday for four hours. it was very...ahem...interesting. i must say, rotten coffee grounds stink reeeeaallly bad. :P like, it's horrible. i could barely breathe! but my dad insisted, "you don't know stink!" haha :) but anyway, coffee grounds are really heavy, too! there were like, fifty bags at least, and we could only put like, two or three in a wheelbarrow at a time, and even that was really heavy. so yeah, it took a long time, and it was painful. and i got sunburn and my hands are sore. lol :P but my mother and i were talking yesterday, when we had finished in the garden, about how we should be thankful that we're healthy enough to do hard work like that. even if it's not enjoyable, we should still be thankful that we CAN do it! plus, it made me think of the people in other countries, take mexico for example, who have to work in strawberry fields all day, and only make fifty cents an hour! and they don't get any of the produce even! it's so sad, and it makes me thankful that i don't have to live like that. even though i don't usually enjoy working in the garden, i always feel really good afterward because i feel like i've accomplished a lot. plus, i do enjoy the produce from the garden :)

anyway, that was quite a lot of babbling on and on, and i apologize. haha

so, i'm pretty pumped cause tonight we're having this homeschool ice cream social thingy after church! yay! :D i love ice cream! jk, i'm excited cause i get to hang out with my friends. in fact, haha, it's so funny, usually at these ice cream socials, i get a bowl of ice cream, and then i can't finish it and one of my guy friends finishes it for me (cause, you know, guys are bottomless pits...). yeah, i have this weird problem where i have trouble eating with other people (besides my family, thankfully!!! lol). i think the problem is that i talk too much, actually...lol! that and i get so hyper sometimes that i just can't eat! lol!

yeaaaah...well, i think i'm gonna stop typing now because y'all are probably like, "what on earth is wrong with her! why does she think we want to hear all this?!" haha

ipml!!! ;)

~beth

well, today

2010-08-26T15:53:00.000-04:00

i went walking/jogging with my good friend, morgan. she's totally awesome:) and we're "twins" because we're so much alike ;) her family and my mom and i are doing this thing called "Couch to 5K" and yeah, it's pretty cool. we have to do a 25 minute alternating-thingy between walking and jogging. well, that's THIS week, but then next week it'll be harder. anyway, this morning i got up at 6a.m. so we could get to the track by seven (you know, it takes me thirty minutes to get ready...and if i take a shower, it's like, two hours! jk, more like, an hour and a half.). yeah, it felt awesome outside at such an early hour. and by the time we got there i was in good spirits...not quite as asleep as i had been when i first arose. I felt SO wonderful after exercising, though! it was awesome, man! lol :P i've decided that i actually enjoy exercising, but i've just never HAD to do it before, so i never really exercised on a regular basis. so yeah. i'm excited! lol :)
well, i gotta go! ipml!!

~beth

this is the story

2010-08-24T21:50:00.001-04:00

of my life. my life as it usually is. it is a sad, sad thing. my clumsiness, plus my brother's evilness...it equals disaster.

Anyway, I simply wanted to inform you of how my life has taken a turn for the worse in recent days. On Sunday afternoon, before we ate lunch, I was munching on cucumbers. Simply minding my own business. In fact, I was being obedient! My parents had actually TOLD me to eat those cucumbers! Anyway, these were vinegar-soaked cucumber slices. And being the um..frugal person that I am, I did not feel a need to waste a perfectly clean plate on cucumber slices, and therefore I simply ate them out of the container (which was filled almost to the top with vinegar). As I was contentedly enjoying these cucumbers, my brother, Benjamin, decided that he wanted some. SO HE TRIED TO STEAL ONE!!! As you can imagine, I was not pleased by this outburst. In fact, I was quite DISpleased. Therefore, I tried to protect my precious vegetables. In the process of performing this noble deed, I.........spilled the vinegar all over my lap. IT BURNS REALLY BAD, PEOPLE! Vinegar and skin are not meant to come in contact with one another!!! Plus, this vinegar spilled all over the counter and the floor, as well. For a few moments I simply sat there in shock. But then I felt compelled to clean up this mess. Well, actually, my parents told me to....while they laughed at me. (In a good-natured way. Although Ben, on the other hand, I am sure was laughing at me quite evilly, thinking "HA! my plan worked!"). Anyway, I cleaned up the vinegar and washed my legs off, and returned to my normal routine.

Then, on Sunday evening, after church, I attended an afterglow. At this afterglow, there was food. And this food was meant to be placed on a plate. A styrofoam plate. I chose to consume (or at least, I desired to consume) Skittles, Sour Skittles, M&M's, two cookies, and some Doritos. I placed them on a plate. A styrofoam plate. I ate several Skittles, and possibly a few M&M's. I calmly (well, as calmly as possible at an afterglow) followed my dear friends downstairs and outside. Once we had reached our desired destination (the patio), we (Bri, Laura, and I) stood there and had a lovely conversation (well, actually I don't remember what it was about...but I'm sure it was lovely). Whatever the conversation, at some point, Bri said something worthy of a hi-5, and therefore, being the good friend that I am, I eagerly gave her one! Or at least, I tried to do so. Unfortunately, my plate, a styrofoam plate, got in the way of my hand, and I inadvertantly flung its contents all over my dear friend, Bri. I felt quite embarrassed. Not to mention the fact that I lost all of my food except one cookie that Bri somehow managed to catch. Thank you, Bri, and I am terribly sorry for this mishap.

Saturday, I got our lawnmower stuck in a ditch.

Tonight, I was instructed to carry the leftover soup from tonight's dinner to the downstairs refrigerator. I was in the process of doing so when I noticed Ben's evil smile. I then noticed my iPod sitting next to him. Therefore I calmly told him, "DON'T TOUCH MY IPOD!!!!". At this, his face fell noticeably. Then he decided to torture me by following behind me as I ventured down to the basement. It was quite annoying, the paranoia that he might, at any moment, tickle me as I carried this large pot of soup. But that was the least of my worries. Along the way to the refrigerator, he discovered a dead lizard. He picked it up and teased me about it (although he somehow thought it was a frog...) until I was paranoid that he would shove it in my face. Therefore I ran the rest of the way to the refrigerator. As soon as my back was turned to put the pot of soup in its rightful place, apparently, Ben tossed this lizard onto the top of my head. I did not notice this. As soon as the pot was safely on a shelf, I whipped around to make sure the lizard was still where it should be - in Ben's hand. It was not. Seeing this, and Ben's evil smile and hysterical laughter, I screamed and jumped up and down and shook my head to rid it of this disgusting thing. It fell on the floor, and I was immediately quite angry with my...ahem...dear brother. Therefore I grabbed a 2x4 (except that it wasn't a 2x4 because it was shorter...but I do not know the exact measurements) and chased Ben around the basement and eventually upstairs with it. Then he proceeded to lock himself in his room until I gave up. Later, as he told our mother about this occurance, she told me, "Homicide is not the answer." A wise piece of advice that every human being should heed.

I am sorry if i have bored you with all of these stories. but i simply thought it might be funny to other people who have not had the...ahem...pleasure of experiences such as these. And keep in mind, that this sort of thing happens to me on a regular basis. If you are ever bored, simply ask me if i have had any klutzy or odd experiences, and i will be happy to entertain you for a couple of hours.

well, ipml!! :)

~beth

i still need to tell you guys about camp!!!

2010-08-16T13:31:00.000-04:00

i'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get to this! :P i had an amazing time! it was one of the best times of my life! :)

so, my senior counselor, juliet, was pretty awesome! i loved her :) and all my campers were great! i was closer to the girls in my cabin the first week than the girls the second week, but all of them were awesome! they really liked my devotional...in fact, i kinda felt bad about how much they liked it! juliet did the devos all the other nights, but after mine, the girls were like "miss beth! are you going to do the devotional tomorrow night, too?!" "that was the best devotion ever!" etc. haha :) it was kinda funny, but i felt bad for juliet :( the only reason they liked mine better was because it involved toothpaste! ;) omw! juliet actually got the toothpaste back in the tube! i was NOT pleased with her! :((( lol! it was soooo funny though! she completely destroyed the object lesson! i was like "um...well, okay, BESIDES juliet (because she's just weird), no one can get the toothpaste back in the tube, right?" haha :)

we had an amazingly fun time on the JC outing, too! we went bowling first (which i was hoping we could go rollerskating, but oh well...). i'm terrible at bowling, so i embarrassed myself, as usual. lol :) then we went to the mall food court to eat dinner, and then we just hung out in the mall for an hour. that was SOOOO fun!! they had this thing called a "hurricane simulator" and three of the guys (toto, waylon, and steven) all got in it and paid two dollars to do it. it was lame. but then we all got in at the same time just to see if we could. THAT was fun! we couldn't close the door though, until two of the guys got out. we also had a stalker! :O lol :) he was sitting on a bench at the mall, and he thought we were all crazy. he saw waylon galluping around the mall pretending to be a horse, and he was like "and i thought I was crazy!" and then eventually he had to take a picture of us, and he was like "i'm seriously going to blow this up really big and post it on my office wall!" um...creepiness! and he said we were the "craziest gang he'd ever seen". lol! but that's not even the weird part! after the mall, we went to walmart and then out to ice cream. at the ice cream place, we were all out in the parking lot waiting for miss shelly to turn up "the song" really loud so we could dance to it. then all of a sudden, this guy walks over, and it's the guy from the mall!! it was SO weird!!! we called him "the stalker guy" the rest of the week. lol :) oh, at walmart, we had sword fights, and hula hoop contests, and we played with bouncy balls. also, everyone bought stuff, so i bought duct tape (i was INCREDIBLY disappointed though, because they didn't have any cool colors!!! :((( ) and chocolate milk. lol :) then we watched waylon waste his money on one of those machines that you pay a quarter and you try to pick up a toy or whatever. he did this so many times, he probably just coulda bought the thing he was trying to get, with all the money he spent! lol

anyway, i think i decided that my favorite after meals chore was loading and unloading the dishwasher. it was fun because it was easy, and in between loads, i could just help the other girls with their chores. and we were so goofy and weird the whole time, we had a blast! :) my favorite morning chore (i think) was vacuuming the office building. i liked that because it did not involve cleaning bathrooms. lol :)

during activity time, i had archery 1st period, JC meeting 2nd period, leather crafts 3rd period. and then the first week, i had "work" 4th period. this was just random extra chores. lol :) but it was SO fun cause i did it with another JC girl, named rachel, and we were able to talk a LOT. :) then the second week i had nature for 4th period. i loved nature cause steven and i always had SO much fun!! but it was annoying because i always had to leave thirty minutes early to set up for dinner. so i would like, be at the creek and be soaked because steven and i just had a huge splash war, and then lauren (who was teaching nature) would be like "hey, beth, you need to get to the dining hall!" whoops. lol :) it was okay, though.

the cabin outing night was always fun. we went to the creek and juliet and i painted ourselves with rock paint :) the second week, on the outing, one of the girls got saved! it was really cool :) i even got to talk to her about it, to make sure she really meant it and everything. she said she did, but you know, it's really hard to tell when a kid is that young, if they really understand or not. but it's still awesome! :)

so yeah, it was pretty awesome being at camp! :)

then this past thursday, we went camping with some freinds of ours. we had an awesome time! especially on saturday when everyone was there. so laura, erin, jacob, matt, and i all hung out together all day. and then for part of the day some other friends of ours (who were at a different part of the campground) hung out with us. we had a blast! oh, and we also had a surprise "birthday party" for matt. his sixteenth birthday was a couple weeks ago and he didn't get to have a party, so we wanted to do something special for him :) i think he had fun :)

yesterday, me, laura, matt, and jacob had a blast! we played like, one game of boggle, and then we played fax machine for a few hours. lol! it was SOOOO much fun!! :)

oh, btw, we're starting school tomorrow :( lol, hopefully it won't be too bad.. :)

well, i gotta go! ipml!

~beth

i'm leaving

2010-07-17T23:17:00.000-04:00

for camp tomorrow!! i just wanted to ask y'all to pray for me if you think of it :) i can't do a long post cause i've gotta go to bed...but i just wanted to say goodbye! :) i'll definitely be posting when i get back!!! :D thanks for your prayers!

bye!

~beth

yay! pictures!! :)

2010-07-10T22:51:00.000-04:00

this is me playing my guitar! well, obviously i'm not actually playing it because i'm taking the picture...but i CAN play guitar! so just pretend that's what i'm doing!

this is me and my dear kitty cat <3<3<3

<3 me and my daddy!! <3

lightning!! (i stood out in the rain for a LONG time to get this picture!!! but it was worth it! :D)

ben being totally awesome during a thunderstorm! this was such a fun photoshoot!! :D

okay, terrible picture of me, but i just wanted to show you my chicken named "diva" unfortunately, now she's all grown up and i can't tell her apart from the rest of them :/

me and three of my BESTEST friends ever! (left-right: erin, me, matt, jacob)

my prince!

well, i suppose that's all for tonight! tune in next time for something else! haha :) ipml!

~beth

you may have noticed

2010-07-10T22:36:00.000-04:00

that i changed my blog template! i really like it! :D i'm excited.

okay...so...i...am...so....excited...and...nervous....because......i will be leaving for camp ONE WEEK from tomorrow!!! :O i am so pumped! but like i said, i'm really nervous too...oh! but mr. tony and miss sue (our children's pastor and his wife) WILL be there! for the first week i'm there! it's PERFECT!!! :DDD they'll be in charge of the chapel services!! so it'll be like it was when i was a camper! :D and, guess what! my DIA leader just told me that she thinks the theme will be the fruit of the spirit, which was the theme my first year of camp! it'll be so fun! :D i still don't know what cabin i'll be in...but i'll most likely be in one of the younger cabins since i'll be one of the youngest JCs. :)
i ordered 25 bracelets off ebay a couple weeks ago. they're for the girls in my cabin (approximately twelve girls each week), and the bracelets were hand-made in israel!! isn't that so cool?! (they weren't expensive AT ALL, so that was AWESOME!!!)
okay, so i want to tell y'all about the devotional that i'll be doing with the girls in my cabin. i have to lead one devotional each week (totally nervous about this, since i've never done that before! :S ) okay, so i got this from MY camp counselor, Mrs. B (who is now my DIA leader :). she did this devotional in our cabin my last year of camp, and it stuck with me cause it was so different and fun, AND it had a good message! okay, so you have a tube of toothpaste. (hehe) i now instruct you to squeeze it out as fast as you can...GO!!! okay, you've successfully squeezed it all over the table. now i tell you to put it all back in the tube....whoops! can't do that, can ya? nope. well, that's like words. you can spout them off as fast as lightning (or toothpaste ;), but you absolutely cannot take them back! you can say "i take that back" all you want, but they're still there. now, this wouldn't be a problem if we always said kind things, would it? words can build up...or they can tear down. it's your choice how you use them!
and then we'll talk about it and read some verses about the tongue (like out of 1 John). I really like this devotional, cause i mean, how easy would it be to forget a devotional involving squeezing toothpaste all over the place?! haha :) when my cabin did it (we were in 6th grade, btw), we gave ourselves like, idk, hand therapy or something by rubbing the toothpaste all over our hands while Mrs. B finished the devo. :) it was so fun!!!...until the bell rang for chapel and we still had toothpaste all over our hands and we had to use the girls AND boys bathrooms to frantically wash it off before chapel started! haha, it was so funnyyyy!!! and then our hands burned like crazy! lol :) ah, good times...

anyway, hopefully that wasn't too terribly boring ;)

right now at wednesday night church, i'm working in a kids class called "fun summer club". i'm sure i've mentioned it in summers past. lol. but it is SOOO fun! except that i just learned this week that the teacher isn't teaching the class anymore!!! :'( i loved her! :((( but i think i'll like the new teacher, too :) anyway, there's this one girl at my table that has asked me twice "are you married?" HAHAHA! i promptly respond "no!!! i'm only fifteen!!!" lol :) it cracks me up! and i love how those kids act so mature...hehe, too cute! ;)

oh my word, is it just me, or does it totally feel like this summer is absolutely FLYING???? it's horrible! before i know it, school will have started again!!! *sigh* i kinda wish summer could last forever...with changing seasons...okay, just summer BREAK, but then we could still have spring, fall, and winter, too! ;) haha

well, i gotta go. i MIGHT post some pictures! that would be fun! :) ipml!!

~beth

guess what...

2010-06-07T20:04:00.000-04:00

IT'S SUMMMMMMERRRRR!!!!! well...not the actual season...but as far as school goes....IT'S SUMMMMMERRRRR!!!! :D haha
so, today we went to the pool, and it was awesome! :) i hung out with jaymee and a little with leanna. and then i finished reading "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. best. book. ever. period. it's my favorite of all time, and i read it once a year :)
i'm also going to be reading The Firstborn Series by Karen Kingsbury this summer. well, finishing it. i've already read all the books except one. and then after that, i'll read The Sunrise Series by the same author. these books are awesome! the first series is The Redemption Series. that one is my favorite so far i think. but i really like Firstborn, too.
anyway, i like reading. jtlyk :) hahaha, okay, i just remembered. a few weeks ago, i said "jtlyk" (which means 'just to let you know') in an email to jacob, and he was like "what does that mean? 'just touching large yellow kangaroos?" hahahaha! yeah, i found that quite amusing.
so...i might be getting contacts! i'm very happy :) i really don't like wearing glasses...first of all, they annoy me, second, they don't look very good on me. i would love to have contacts. and since i need my prescription updated anyway, my parents decided that i might be able to get them :)
oh yeah! okay, so idk if i already told y'all this or not, but i got the job as a JC at that summer camp!!! :D i'm so excited! i'll be there for two weeks next month. it's going to be quite a new experience, and i'm really excited/nervous about it. OH! but i recently found out that the children's pastor and his wife MIGHT be there for one of the weeks that i'm there! so that would be amazing if they happened to be there the first week that i'm working at camp. it would be nice actually knowing someone there! :)
wow. i just tripped up the stairs while running away from shadow! i hurt my shin really bad...i have no idea what i did to it, but it hurts like crazy and it's already swollen...
well, i gotta go. oh yeah, my best friend, erin, is going on a missions trip tomorrow. she's going to mexico and she'll be gone about a week. so, if you could pray for her, that'd be awesome :) she asked that i pray specifically that she doesn't get sick, and no migraines. she gets them a lot, so it would be awesome if she didn't have any while she's there!
ipml!

~beth

i know, i know, once again

2010-04-23T23:58:00.000-04:00

i've waited too long to blog :/ i'm so lame! haha

wow, okay, so i have something very sad to say: ant janet moved TWO HOURS away!!!! :(((( we moved her on the saturday before easter. it's been really sad not having her less than two MINUTES away :( but i'm happy for her because she has a good job where she is, and i think she likes it there :)

also, Regional Teens Involved was this past weekend! and guess what?! we did really good! i'm so happy! so, this year i was in choir, our 'Tipos' singing group (me, erin, laura, and katherine), a piano duet with erin, and drama. drama doesn't really count though because all i did was push a button at three different parts. i was the EXPLOSION! haha. and believe it or not, i actually managed to botch it up! i was like "that figures!" but yeah, apparently it wasn't THAT bad. like, i accidentally pushed the button when i wasn't supposed to. oh well. lol
and at Area TI, i messed up mine and erin's duet, so i was SO scared this time, but we made it through the whole thing and we actually did really well!!! :D we were thrilled! :) and tipos went well too! hahahaha, except, it was SO funny, we tried really hard to coordinate our outfits. we decided to do a theme of red, black, and white. and we said that we could have different patterns and stuff. i guess that's where we messeed up because one of the judges said (nicely) "next time you might want to think about coordinating outfits." :) hahahaha, we laughed so hard when we read that! i guess my zebra print didn't match erin's flowers and laura's diamond-ish pattern. lol :)

oh yes, and i would like to announce that tomorrow is laura's birthday!! actually...it's laura's birthday in five minutes!!! OMW!!! i need to get on facebook and tell her happy birthday because i wanted to be the first person to tell her happy birthday on her bday!!! :)

okay, i need to go :) thanks for reading my ramblings! ipml! ;)

~bethie

ok, i just wanted to say that EVERYONE

2010-03-27T23:07:00.000-04:00

should read ted dekker's "circle trilogy" because it is......................................................................................................................................................................................
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGGGGG

yeah. and also, the "paradise novels" by him are awesome! i'm reading "sinner" right now, and IT IS SO GOOD! :D ok, just had to say that :D bye!

~beth

wowowow! how does this keep

2010-03-27T22:58:00.000-04:00

happening?!?! i keep forgetting about my poor little blog (i also keep misspelling "poor"...i keep putting two 'r's instead of two 'o's! lol)! :((( but then one day, a friend reminds me that "beth! you haven't done anything on your blog in a LOOOONG time!" and then i'm like "oh! you're right!" and now here i am. :)

anyway...yeah. haha, maybe the reason i don't blog much is cuz i don't have anything interesting to say....

so, today was our church's annual (that means yearly, right?) cleaning day!!! :D it's so fun! my dad and me and his sunday school class cleaned the sanctuary. i was one of two vacuumers!! :D and i also helped wipe down the metal parts of the chairs! probably nobody except the people who did it will notice, but that's ok :) it's fun to clean when you have an ipod to listen to...just sayin' :)

sooooooo.........
.....
.......
.......................................
.
........

hehe, that's fun! :D

aaaaaanywaaaaay, I LOVE BECOMING A FAN OF THINGS ON FACEBOOK!!! it is SOOOO much fun! idk why, but it just is! lol

so, besides cleaning the church this morning, my mom and i also cleaned our house :) spring cleaning! ok, WHO IS EXCITED THAT IT'S SPRING WHICH MEANS THAT IT WILL BE SUMMER NEXT, WHICH MEANS THAT THERE IS NO SCHOOL, WHICH MEANS THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO GO TO THE POOL AND READ AND SWIM AND READ AND WORK IN FUN SUMMER CLUB AND READ AND BE IN THE READING CONTEST AND READ AND READ AND READ AND STAY UP LATE AND READ AND...well, you get the point. i love reading.

ok, so here are my awesome reasons for loooooooooooooooooooving summertime!! :D :

1. no school

2. greenness (grass, trees, garden)

3. flowers

4. fun summer club

5. strawberries

6. green beans

7. sugar snap peas

8. spinach

9. tomatoes

10. strawberry/spinach salad

11. squash

12. cucumber

13. wearing t-shirts w/out ppl saying "oh my! you must be FREEZING!"

14. commuting between gma & gpa's house in the grass w/out shoes on

15. talking to mamaw while picking strawberries

16. scratches all over my legs from shadow chasing me

17. visiting the creek

18. AFTERGLOWSS!!!

19. more social time

20. pool

21. swimsuit shopping

22. FLIPFLOPS!!!!

23. vacations

24. imagining that there is still a beehive in our woods :(

25. camping

26. the slim possibility of being a JC at GBC

27. ben being gone for a week at GBC (jk ;)

28. staying up late and then sleeping in (sometimes)

29. summer reading contest

30. getting tan

as you can see, there are many reasons why i can't wait for summer! and there are very few reasons why i dislike summer. here they are:

1. bugs

2. having to always have my toenails nicely painted

3. picking in the garden and washing the produce

4. no WOL

5. my friends being gone on vacations

hehe, ok, so i feel like i cheated cuz i copy/pasted that out of an email that i sent to all of my friends...but i mean, why type it twice, right? lol

so...yeah. i think i'd better get off the computer now...i have to get up kinda early for church tomorrow. well, ipml! (mayyyybe...lol, hopefully!)

~beth

~~WOW! DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO THIS? IT'S SO COOL! WOW..OKAY, BYE! LOL :)~~

IT'SSSSS.....

2010-01-30T11:37:00.000-05:00

SNOWING! lol :) it's really pretty, and we have like, a foot already! :) very cool (haha...cool..yeah..)

ok, just wanted to say that! :)

~bethie

tonight is the first

2010-01-26T17:40:00.000-05:00

night my mom and i are going to a Bible Institute in our area! i'm really nervous about it, but i'm excited about learning more about God's Word. :)

so, right now i'm......drumroll please.....MAKING A NEW SLIDESHOW!!! (finally!!) lol :) the one that's up there now is SO outdated! seriously! those pics are ancient! this one's pretty cool, though! hm...i should upload some pics! :)

.....nevermind...all the pics i wanted to post i'm putting in my slideshow! haha :) ttyl!

~beth

i am so nervous and excited

2010-01-21T21:25:00.003-05:00

because i just sent an email asking for a job application!!! :D so, i've been thinking that God may want me to work at a summer camp. more specifically, the summer camp that i went to and LOVED and have amazing memories about! :) so, i found out that i could be a junior counselor (JC) at this camp for a few weeks, and i got majorly pumped about it, and i'm REALLY hoping and praying that i'll get to do it this year! i've been wanting to be a JC at this camp since i was a camper there. our church goes every year for a week and rents the whole place, like they take their own JCs and senior counselors, and cooks, and everyone, and i have been hoping for the longest time that our children's pastor would ask me to be a JC. i'm on his list, but he has to have an opening first, and i have NO idea how far down on the list i am! so now i'm excited because i may not have to wait for an opening to come up! plus, i think this will be a wonderful (and terrifying) experience for me since i absolutely despise doing ANYTHING which involves socializing with people i don't know...let alone spending a few weeks working and living with them!!! lol, but i'm excited, and i can't wait to see how it turns out and how God might use this experience in my life! like, i'm so excited about it that i couldn't get to sleep last night just thinking about it! haha! and this is the fastest paragraph i think i've ever typed in my life! lol, so that explains why you're probably confused and dizzy. hahaha

anyway, i just wanted to share my enthusiasm and excitement and thrilledness with y'all!! :D ipml! :)

~bethie

hahaha! wow...

2010-01-19T15:01:00.005-05:00

i am ashamed of myself! lol...ok, not even gunna go there...i'll just say that i'm sorry for not posting anything in like, idk how long...just because i got a facebook doesn't give me an excuse to desert my beloved blog...*sniffle*

anyway, so...what's up? well, right now my church is having a two week revival summit. this group called 'life-action' is at our church, and they're doing EVERYTHING. like, they lead the service, youth group, AND all the kids' classes!!! it's really nice for a break for all the regular workers :) it's been a really neat experience, too! i've learned a lot. and i've just gotten to see a different view of myself, like, i'm coming to realize all these sins that i didn't know i struggled with! it's really painful, to be honest, but it's good. :)

so, that's the main thing that's going on here right now. um, oh yeah!!! dude, WOL teens involved is NEXT MONTH!!!! AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!! yeah, it's kinda scary because i like, JUST finished learning and memorizing the piano duet ("power in the blood") that i'm doing with erin, YESTERDAY! yeah, and we've only practiced it together, like, twice! :S and then the tipos are singing together again! yay! :D and the song we're singing is "your grace still amazes me" by phillips, craig, and dean. :) it's so pretty!

symon is doing really well! he's as adorable as ever! shadow is still fat, and suzi is still slow. but we all still love them :)

haha, it feels like there HAS to be something else that i should tell you about!!! grr! haha, um.......OH YEAH! i'm not taking piano lessons this year because...*drum roll*....I'M PLAYING GUITAR NOW!! yay! lol, yeah, i know it's not that awesome, but i LOVE it! :) so yeah, that's pretty cool...

well, i'd better get off cuz i still need to..oh my word! i still have to study biology and then i have to take a shower and get ready for church which is at six thirty!!! :S ttyl! ipml! lol :) hahahahahahaha! wow...anyway, bye! :)

~bethie

hey! wow, so i feel like i've deserted

2009-06-19T12:59:00.004-04:00

all of y'all!!! well, i just got a facebook, so i guess that explains it :) um, i'm not sick anymore, so that's all good. i'm having a pretty sweet summer so far! but we've only been to the pool twice b/c it's been raining so much! oh, and our tipo camping trip was cancelled (no, put on hold) for a while b/c of the thunderstorms. :( but we'll just have it a little later on.
last night was matthew and anthony's bday party! it was awesome! we went on a HUGE scavenger hunt! i mean HUGE!!! it was all over the liberty campus!!! it was ridiculous! i mean, in a very awesome way! erin and i have come to the conclusion that mrs. b (matthew and anthony's mom) is insanely awesome and awesomely insane! one of the clues in the scavenger hunt was a jar full of beans. we had to dig through the jar and find 11 beans with red letters, 11 with black letters, and 7 with green!!! and then we had to make three words out of them! it was amazing! but quite complicated too! oh, on our team (there were lots of teams) was me, erin, laura, jacob, and heather (matthew and anthony's little sister. she's in third grade, but she joined us anyway, which was a good thing cuz she was a big help!!! :) oh, and we WOOOON!!!! we were so happy! and it was funny cuz we got off to a slow start on finding the clues, and we're like 'man, we're so gonna be the last ones there!!' and then we won!!!
ok, this awesome song just came on the radio. and i have no more time left to spend on the internet, so i g2g! BYE! :)

~libbi

yesterday i went to the doctor

2009-06-06T10:18:00.003-04:00

because i thought i might have pink eye, and also my ear has been hurting really bad and i can't hear very well out of it. so i now know that i don't have pink eye, my eye is just irritated b/c of the cold and everything. and also i have a severe ear infection!!! AAAAUGH! and right b4 we go to the pool too!! :( well, my ear doesn't hurt that bad right now, but it sure did last night!!! i could barely sleep b/c it hurt so bad!!! oh, and i have this stuff that i can put in my ear (eardrops) that are supposed to numb it, it feels really weird to have liquid running inside your ear!!! right now it feels like i have something in my ear, it feels really weird!!! and that makes it a bit harder to hear than usual.
oh yeah! i am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited about our camping trip!!!! oh, and it's not THIS monday and tuesday, it's NEXT week!! oh, adn also we moved the date to June 16-17 instead. that way we'll be able to just take everyone to church on wednesday night! it's much more convenient!
another thing i'm looking forward to is that erin and i are going to ahve a sleepover sometime soon and watch ALL of the 'lord of the rings' movies IN ONE NIGHT!!!!!!!!!! i'm sooooooooooooooooo excited!!!! and it's driving me nuts b/c we haven't even set a date for it yet, but i know it's gonna be sometime this summer, but i reeeeally want it to be soon!!!!!! haha
also, i'm looking forward to the afterglo i'm gonna have next month! we haven't set a date for that yet, either, though. yeah, i'm very excited about this summer!!!!!! :D
ok, i'd better get off here now and go eat breakfast. oh yeah! wow, i can't believe i almost forgot! ok, so just a little while ago i had a nosebleed that lasted FORTY FIVE MINUTES!!!!!!!! it was quite miserable! especially since i was only allowed to sleep until 9:30 this morning, adn the nosebleed started at like, 9:06 or something, so i had to get up early!!! hahaha :) but yeah, i hate nosebleeds!!! :(
ok, NOW i'm gonna get off! haha

~libbi

cough cough my throat hurts

2009-06-01T10:56:00.003-04:00

really bad!!! well, it feels a little better at the moment b/c i took some ibuprofen (did i spell that right??? hm...) and drank some hot tea with honey...yum! i usually don't like hot tea, but i liked it today!!! lol :) yeah, i like, can't talk! so i'll just get it all out through my fingers ;) haha
anyway, hey, i just dicovered that i can't do use the 'tab' button to make an indention :( sad. oh well, i'm just getting too accustomed to using 'word' haha.
anyway again ;) um...yesterday was jaymee's birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAYMEE!!! yeah, i went home with her after church and then went back to church...wait, i'll just give you the layout of my day, i was gone ALL DAY!!!

ok, so we left home to go to church at 9:10 am. we were supposed to leave at nine, but i won't go there ;)
then we went to church which lasted until like, hm....12:sumthin pm. and then mine and jaymee's fams went to moe's for lunch. and then went back to church for our piano recital (wahoo.). and that was finally overwith at like, idk...um...maybe like 3:somethin pm.
then i went home with jaymee and we hung out and did stuff on the computer while mrs. w was getting ready for the afterglo last night.
then we went back to church for the praise gathering. and that ended at like...hm...7:15 or so. and then we went back to jaymee's (accompanied by matt and lizzy and jasmine).
then jaymee's afterglo lasted until 10:00pm. but i didn't get home until like, idk, 11:30 or later! so yeah, it was a very full day! i loooooooooooooove days full of fun with friends!!! hahahaha, that was some good alliteration, huh? haha :) i love socialability (is that a word? if not, it should be.)
well, oh! i just realized that i'm listening to the cheeseburger song from veggietales!!!! AAAAAUGH! why in the world do i have this on my playlist??????? it's sooooo funny, but mr. lunt's voice disturbs me....i'm gonna change it....whew! now i'm listening to 'lost' by red. oh! there is this amazing song that for some reason always makes me want to cry, it's called 'tears of the saints' and it's by leeland. it is sooooooo amazing! also, i just discovered this awesome song by skillet that's called 'hero'. it's really cool :)
anyway, um....hm.....ho hum...haha, that was treebeard talk lol ;) oh! we're having a tipo camping trip in exactly a week!!!! i'm soooooo excited!!! it's gonna be at my house cuz we have our own little 'camp site' haha, daddy made it, it's pretty sweet. ooh, i need to send an email to all the tipos and tell them to bring their swimsuits cuz we're going to the pool! i'll have to do that, wait i should make sure we're still doing it...nevermind! haha, um....oh! i get to have an afterglo at my house sometime in july! i'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D in case u don't know what an afterglo is, it's like a party that the teens at our church go to after the evening service. we just hang out, eat (of course ;) and play games. it is so totally awesome!!! lol :)
let's see...what else could i talk about? hm.....well, i can't - oh! i just remembered, we finally found a good home for pippin!!! i'm very happy :) it's a family that goes to our church. they're really nice. they have three kids, pippin will get lots of love :) and they decided to keep his name the same!!!! YAY!!!! lol :) ok, what song is this??? strange...i don't recognize it, let me go look...oh, it's called 'your touch' and it's by kutless...ok, i recognize it now :)
anyway, i'd better get off now, bye!!!

~beth

hey, i just wanted to

2009-05-15T17:17:00.004-04:00

let y'all know that we're not keeping pip :( yeah, we're gonna try to find a good home for him...so, i just wanted to tell everyone that :) bye!

~beth

hey, guess what?!

2009-05-14T16:40:00.004-04:00

sammy is not sammy anymore!!! he's now 'peregrin took' or 'pippin' for short. and when we want even SHORTER...'pip' lol ;) isn't that such a cute name, though??? anyway, here's a couple more pics of him:

this is pippin drinking his milk replacement (yum yum, right?) out of a lid..like a mayonnaise lid or something.

ok, these are now random pics of me and symon. this is what happens when i don't feel like reading at night but i don't have to go to bed for a while....i take vids and pics of symon and me!!!!!! lol :)

well...ipml!! bye!!! :D i'm gonna go play with pippin! or maybe make dinner...hm....

this morning

2009-05-12T18:45:00.005-04:00

my mom and mamaw found a kitten. he is sooooooo cute!!! my mom named him 'sammy'. then i, being obsessed with middle names, decided that he should have a full name. so, his now official full name is "samwise gamgee"!!! it's awsome!!! he is soooooooo adorable!!! :)

here's some pics of sammy:

this is him in his box
this is mommy holding her hand up so you can see how big he is :)

this is sammy in my arms wrapped in a towel

me and sammy

well, i hope you enjoyed the pics!!! :) i g2g! bye!!! :) ipml! lol :)

~beth

wow, i can't remember

2009-04-25T10:14:00.004-04:00

what i got on here to post about!!!!!!!! that's just sad. ok, well i havent' posted about TI (teens involved) yet, so i'll do that....even though it will make me mad. ok, so TI is this competition word of life does, and it's so teens have a chance to practice using our gifts. it's really cool....and fun! so i was in three things, puppets, choir, and a small vocal group consisting of me, laura, erin, and katherine. we call ourselves....THE TIPOS!! as i've told you before :) um, and bri is one of us too, but for some reason she didn't want to sing with us even though she has an AWESOME voice. oh well, anyway, we were singing 'the power of your love'. adn one of the lines is 'i'll rise up like the eeeeagle' (lol) and unfortunately one time during practice bri did this hilarious thing that looked like the chicken dance in slow motion!!!!! so every time after that that we got to the eagle part, we just HAD to think of bri!!! so then we FINALLY got over it and it wasn't so terribly hilarious anymore. but at TI, bri and matt decided to sit in the middle of the isle right in front of us so we could see them clearly. then in the middle of our song, laura starts laughing a little b/c she accidentally let her mind wander to a picture of bri doing the eagle wings thingie, and then that made me laugh! so then we're both standing there cracking up, and the judges are looking at us like "what is wrong with you?!" (oh, btw, one of the judges was my piano teacher!!!) and erin and katherine are the only ones singing!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was AWFUL!!!!!!!! AND EMBARRASSING!!!!!! AAAAUGH!!!! oh well, i'm over it now....even though we STILL haven't seen the judges sheets...but we've finally convinced bri and matt that it wasn't their fault....thankfully! cuz it was totally mine and laura's fault. so yeah, that was TI. well, at least choir and puppets went well!!! (except that in puppets, well all i do is control the sound effects which is thunder, and so the track has rain in between the thunderclaps, and the first few times i turned it on during the show, it was just rain instead of thunder and therefore the puppet was just screaming at rain. but oh well, at least that wasn't my fault!!!)
ok, well i g2g! ipml!!!

~beth

here's a pic

2009-04-23T15:20:00.003-04:00

that jessica sent me. it's awesome!!! :)

i like this kitty!!! ;)

Laundry Wars Episode 1.0

2009-04-23T13:50:00.004-04:00

just now ben and i had a huge laundry war!!! it was AWESOME! i was smacking him in the face with a pair of his pj pants, while he was ATTEMPTING to get back at me with his underwear (this time they were clean, thankfully! ;).
while he was trying to retrieve his underwear from behind the dryer, i smacked him, which resulted in him pulling my arm around the corner of our little 'laundry room' (if u can call it that) and stretching me out very painfully. unfortunately he has discovered my weakness...pinching my shoulders. ouch. he says it took eleven years to find my weakness, but he is very proud of himself now that he has succeeded in his mission.
finally, in the heat of the war, our mother told us to stop because she doesn't appreciate washing our clothes and then having them strewn all over the floor. the end.

this is such

2009-04-20T15:54:00.004-04:00

an amazing vid!!!!!!!!!!!!! you have to watch it. i am ordering you to. you must. wow, i almost typed 'you mush'. moving on. watch the video. now. NOW! I'M TALKING TO YOU!!!!!!!!!! WATCH IT! DUDE! I'M SERIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok, now i am going to allow you to watch the video. so i will stop typing....AUGGGH!!!!!!! i can't stop typing! my fingers are doing this against my will! i can't control it!!!!!! fj;oiau; noi;oiajj;oin; ok. i'm done. goodbye. i have regained control. :D

wasn't that sweet??? well, adios!!!!!!

~beth

yesterday was

2009-04-10T15:38:00.005-04:00

the one-year anniversary of my daddy's heart surgery. to read about it, go to my mom's blog. she did a great job of telling the story :)

well, a couple of days ago, my good friend katherine emailed me to check up on me b/c i hadn't blogged in a while :) haha, yeah, so now i'm blogging. it's just that i don't have anything to blog about. well, ok, let's see, i could post about sunday! we went to a nursing home and visited with the elderly ppl there. and the tipos sang too :) that was fun :) i think they really liked it.

after we got back from the nursing home kat, bri, laura, erin, and i hung out...in the bathroom....lol, seriously! well, we were in there to change clothes and stuff, and then we just kinda hung out for a while. then bri, laura, and kat left. and erin and i decided to lipsync with my mp3 player in front of the mirror! haha, yeah, then, like, three songs later, we decided to go do somethin' else, and we walked toward the door, adn it closed!!! and then we ran out and bri, laura and kat were laughing hysterically at us. bri had recorded us singing on her mp3 player!!!!!!! it was really funny :) (good one bri!). so then laura and bri had drama practice and i guess katherine went with them. so then erin and i sat on one of the couches in the hallway and sang with my mp3 player (which, btw, has a speaker :). but then ppl who walked by started looking at us funny, so we gave up and decided to walk around w/out our shoes on (i took mine off b/c they were killing me! they were VERY uncomfortable shoes! but they looked good, which is all that matters...jk! that is a joke i have w/my parents b/c i'm like complaining about how uncomfortable my shoes or clothes are, and then my dad is like "but at least you look good!" and i'm like "yep! that's all that matters!" haha ;)

anyway, so then erin chickened out and didn't want to walk outside w/out shoes. so then we had to go ALL THE WAY back upstairs and get her shoes (actually it wasn't very far at all, but i teased her about it.) so, we walked around the building a little bit, and then just sat outside under the portico in the shade. we were just starting to have a pleasant conversation when john came out and ruined it. and he brought with him two other guys, danny and someone else. and then he just sat down in front of us and sighed and was all "im so bored." and we're like "that's nice." and then he's like "so, what are youguys doing?" and then erin's like "well, we WERE having a heart-to-heart..." and then he's just like "hm." and then danny's like "john, can't you take a hint? they don't want you here!" and then he and the other guy went inside. but john insisted on staying. so erin and i left. (*sigh*, immature seventh grade boys! jk! john's nice. but it was just kinda annoying :) so then we went into base camp and were gonna play air hockey, but it was dark in the game room and a bunch of guys (including matt, matthew, and alek.....oh brother!) were glued to the tv playing video games *rolls eyes*. so we didn't want to be the only girls in there, and we went up to the peak's game room. we played ping pong for a little while, and then we went back upstairs and sang some more. then we went back down to base camp and played air hockey with laura and bri. it was funny, bri and erin sat on the air hockey table while laura and i played, and we kept trying to hit them with the puck. so there was plenty of screaming going on, but the obsessed boys playing video games didn't even notice! it was hilarious! so then i had puppet practice. and then after that bri, laura, adn kat had something they had to do with the children's choir. so erin adn i went back to singing. and then matt came and talked to us for a while until church started. and then i had to sit by myself through the whole church service b/c i couldn't find my family and erin had to work in a children's class, and all the rest of my friends were doing something in the service! oh well. :)

ok, so that was sunday. this wednesday was the wednesday b4 mrs. g's fiftieth bday!!!!!!!!!!! (which is sunday! :) so we had a HUGE party for her. abbey, laura, katherine, and i decorated the WHOLE ROOM!!!!!!! (base camp) in purple balloons and black streamers!!!!!!! it was amazing! laura and i got a little obsessive though, we were all "more, MORE, MOOOORE!!!!" yeah, it was funny :) so then when it was getting close to the time that mrs. g would prob be there, we had a few lookouts posted at the doors. and then abbey ran in and was like "SHE'S HERE!" and we turned off the lights and we all stood around the door and when she came in we turned on the lights and were like "SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!" and she was so shocked! it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and our DIA group had cupcakes (which my mom adn i made), pizza (which we had won the week b4 b/c our group came in first place for march madness, that was soooo perfect!), m&ms, chips and salsa, veggies, soda, grapes, and prob somethin' else, but i can't remember. oh! i need to email laura and kat and ask for pics! i forgot my camera which totally stunk! ok, hold on, i'm gonna email them really quick........ok, done :)

yeah, so i had a good week :) and now my cousins are in from connecticut....wow, i still haven't seen them! yeah, ben is at amazement square w/them right now. i didn't really want to go. we had our standardized tests today. but it was the easy half of it. the 'non-math' part! and i'm not even doing algebra in the test with stinks cuz that's what i'm used to at the moment, ya know? i haven't done regular arithmetic in a long time!!!!! oh well. hopefully i'll do ok.

well, i think i'm gonna work on my story :) i'm on page fifteen right now!!!!!! i want to finish it! i mean, i like it, but for writing it, it just seems like it's dragging on. but i'm at a good part right now, so it's ok :)

ipml!

~beth

hey! so, i'm getting ready to watch

2009-03-31T20:02:00.006-04:00

biggest loser, so i guess i'll just post on commercials :) brb!!!.........ok, sorry! it's been like...two commercials! haha :) anyway, um....i actually don't really have anything to post about...oh! ok, u HAVE to go to monkeypower's blog!!! she totally made it awesome with a slideshow and music and everything! and there's a poll too :) ok, well i'd really better just get off b/c the commercials with biggest loser aren't very long. so yeah. ttyl!!!

~beth

i'm gonna post some random pics

2009-03-27T20:13:00.008-04:00

now. here they are! first of all, i wanted to post a good pic of ANT janet. she likes to complain about all the silly pictures of her i've put on here :)

ok, and this is laura...we were walking down after choir practice.

and this is laura with her hairclip on her nose...very strange...yeah, this was in the choir room right after choir practice :)

ok, this may seem random, but this car is called a 'fiat tipo'. yeah, idk if i've mentioned it b4 or not, but me, laura, erin, bri, and kat like to call ourselves the 'tipos'. we THOUGHT it meant 'dude' in spanish. but so far we have discovered that it means 'type', possibly 'masculine men' (not sure about that one) and now it's a car. pretty sad. we actually called our vocal group for TI 'the tipos' but at the last minute erin asked the judges to just announce us by our names :) anyway, i thought the pic was interesting. well, it prob didn't interest you...but oh well :)

well, i g2g! see ya!

~beth

so...well, i feel like doing a

2009-03-27T19:58:00.004-04:00

random story, but that would be copying monkeypower :) so yeah.....hm....i could do a story that is 'not random'. oh! it could be about a cricket! jkjkjkjk!!!! haha :)
anyway, let's seeeeee......yeah, ben is watching a garfield show thingie right now. i'm trying to drown it out w/music from my playlist. ya know, it's not very good when ur trying to work on writing a story and there's a movie going in the same room. but, now that i think about it...i'm not working on my story at this very moment...yeah, i'm kinda stuck. it's really hard to come ut w/good plans for freeing ur friends from ur enemy's dungeon! especially when u only have like, a three thousand-strong army while ur enemy has like, seven thousand men at his disposal!!!!! not cool! yeah, that's when u have to use stealth. and good distractions...believe me, i KNOW!!!!! haha, well not really...that's why i'm having problems...
"we know exactly where u are and you're gone....don't know exactly where ur coming from...have you gone aaaastrrraaaay? nanananana and you're gone....nananana so long! we'll see you some day...nanananana my frieeeend!!!!!!!" sorry, yeah, i love that song!!! dc talk 'my friend (so long)'
ok, well this is probably very boring to read. even though it's pretty fun to type....well, ttyl!!!! ipml! lol! (hm...are there any other abrev. that end in 'L'?) nvrmnd. bye!

~beth

dude, pay NO attention to

2009-03-26T20:12:00.004-04:00

last post...PLEASE!!!! it's embarassing!!!!!!!!! anyway, i just wanted to say that my friend 'monkeypower789' has posted another awesome post on her blog 'monkeypower'!!!! dude, u guys should seriously read her blog...it's HILARIOUS!!!!!!! :D
anyway, once again, i must depart. adios!!! :)

~beth

hey, ok, i'm just gonna post

2009-03-26T20:04:00.003-04:00

something real quick b/c this thing on my dashboard says 'scheduled outage at 4:oo pm PDT on thursday (3/26)' . yeah, doesn't sound good...okay, so i'm working on my story right now, and the only reason i got online was to check to see if any of my friends had new posts on their blogs. so yeah, i gotta go! ipml!

~beth :)

wow.

2009-03-14T16:10:00.002-04:00

my invisible ink didn't work very well...sorry!!!!!!! lol :)

right now i'm solving for y

2009-03-14T15:40:00.003-04:00

in terms of x!!!!! it's awesome! i'm kinda liking this! but unfortunately i'll have to do saxon next year, and that prob won't be as much fun b/c it'll be much harder....according to matt...whom i do not usually believe....well, i'll believe him in this matter.
ok, now i'm solving for x in terms of y! i like solving for x better than y, so this is good!
"you are lost...you can never go...home. you are lost, you can never....go....home." sorry, i looooooooooove that song! gollum's song. it's soooooooooo pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!! it makes me want to cry!!!!!!!!
oh!

y = 3x
___
2

!!!!!!!!!! isn't that awesome??? jkjkjkjk! i don't really think it's awesome, but "it's been confirmed that the aliens have landed" ok, i know, totally random, but not really if you're me listening to 'alien youth' by skillet. ok, back to algebra...."come on freaks, let's go!" once again, please excuse my random outbursts.....maybe even ignore them! wait, did that make sense??? idk. i don't care.
holy cow!!!!!!!!! i just randomly decided to check my email, adn it said 'receiving message one of fifteen'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! adn i think that most of them are from laura! wow. no. actually ALL of them are from laura. holy cow!!!!!!! that's AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!
dude. that was stupid! i accidentally solved for y instead of x! i even typed it on here and i didn't notice it!!!!! wow, that's really sad.
i just realized that the problems in 'solve for x in terms of y' are the same as in 'solve for y in terms of x' that stinks.
ok, here's my word problem:

Parisian sewer #1 contains 9 fewer gigantic rats - rats bigger than cats, some might say - than Parisian sewer #2. Parisian sewer #2 contains 5 fewer giganitc rats than Parisian sewer #3. If there are 56 gigantic rats in all three sewers combined, how many gigantic rats are in sewer #1?

i hate word problems! oh well. this one seems easier than most of the ones i get. hmm....ok, i'm gonna try to work it out now :) ow! my jaw hurts really bad right now! holy cow! that's weird. grrrrr! idk how to figure this out! i'll prob have to look it up on the cd...i figured it out!!!!!! ok, just in case you for some reason, decided to try to figure it out, i'll put the answer in 'invisible ink' so you have to highlight it to see it! ;) here it is: 11 gigantic rats.

ok, now the color of my font prob isn't right...oh well. ok, i'm done w/algebra now, so i want to go eat dinner and watch a movie w/ben! see ya!

~beth

at this very moment

2009-03-14T13:00:00.004-04:00

i am working on my algebra. well, ok, at this VERY moment, i'm typing... here's my algebra problem that i'm doing:

[x+(-7)] [x+(-3)]

yeah, i'm just supposed to simplify it. i'm not good at these! ok, i'll brb, i have to go eat lunch......ok, i'm back! aren't u glad? i'm sure u missed me very much :) anyway, now i have to figure out that problem......ok, i got my answer. it's prob wrong though.

x2 + (-10x) + 21

ok, the little 'x2' is x squared. idk how to make the two small. ok, here's my next problem:

nevermind. idk how to type it. forget it! u prob don't want to read about my algebra problems anyway! lol

oh my word! my friend posted this HILARIOUS story last night on her blog! and it was dedicated to ME! b/c i begged her to post SOMETHING. :) anyway, u guys should read it. it's sooooooo funny! almost as good as the one about the chair and the carpet! lol :) ok, i HAVE to work on my math! stop bugging me! jkjkjkjkjkjk!!!!!!! lol! haha, ok, anyway....oh yeah! algebra! hm.....i'm getting ready to look down at my math book.....but i really don't want to! AAAAAAH! someone's at the door!!!!!! whatever shall we do??????!!!!!!!!!!! oh, it's my great aunt and uncle....oh great! i look TERRIBLE! i'm in my pjs and everything! great. shhh....i'm hiding in the study. i'm not going to go into the living room. i know it's rude, but they prob would not appreciate it if i did go in! wow, i need ot brush my teeth! dude! brb! minty fresh!!!!!!! lol :)
dude! i just told u to leave me alone! i'm trying to do my algebra! i mean, five minutes isn't that bad, but you've been bugging me for soooooo long! i need to get done and THEN i can talk to you! (hahahaha! something very funny just happened, but ben and i are the only ones that shall ever know the secret....'exept for him' ben whispers secretively...) ok, i'm going to work on my algebra now, so BE QUIET AND LET ME CONCENTRATE!!!!!!! hahahahaha! lol :) oh, and can u pls tell ben to stop blowing his nasty unbrushed breath on me????!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks :) wow, that was a terrifying face that ben just made! dude! how many times do i have to tell you to leave me alone and let me work??!!!!! jjkjkjkjkjkjk!!!! ben says i need to work on my dainty little math.
oh! x=0, -5 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sorry, i just felt like sharing this beautiful moment with the world. wow! i can't wait till tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! our choir is singing in church. i LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE singing in church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and a good thing about that is that i don't have to stress over 'oh no! what in the world am i gonna wear???' b/c we have to wear our solid rock choir shirts and khaki pants! easy! the only thing i have to decide is what shoes to wear, and i'll prob just wear the shoes that i wear all the time anyway. the only thing about that is idk if they match my navy blue choir shirt or not....oh well. i really don't care. i might even wear my BLACK sparkly belt with my NAVY BLUE shirt!!!!!!!! *gasp*!!!!!!!! how could she??????
well, i didn't say i would actually do it....
sure, but how could you even think such a thought! i'm horrified!
well, i'm sorry, but it's my problem...not yours! you shouldn't care what I wear, just what YOU wear. hey! we could match!
well, if you're going to wear you black belt with your navy blue shirt, i don't think i WANT to match with you...
ok, i won't wear it. so will you match with me now?
ya know, i just thought of something, i HAVE to match with you whether you wear your belt or not....i AM you....
good point.
see you tomorrow!
ok! cya!

ankyway......wow, that was amazing! i like talking to myself!

i just got to show off my cat to aunt wanda and unka duwayne (that's what daddy likes to call uncle dwayne)! but unfortunately, daddy gave them the false impression that symon is worthless, uh...idr what i was gonna say now. we just got back from walmart! wow, i really need to publish this post! it's been ongoing all day!!!!!!! i started it at like, um......prob one o'clock! something like that...
ok, well, once again....WHY ARE YOU BUGGING ME????????? I'M TRYING TO DO MY ALGEBRA?????????? anyway, see ya!

~beth

i just finished listening

2009-03-13T23:00:00.005-04:00

to 'la la land' by demi lovato. i just added it to my playlist recently. i LOOOOOOOOVE that song!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah, i wanted my mom to see the music video, but my computer says 'we're sorry, the video you requested is no longer available' to EVERY video i try to watch on youtube!!!!!!! it's soooooooo maddening!!!!!!!
ankyway (ok, that is sooooo my new word! i accidentally typed it while emailing one of my friends, and i think it's awesome....in a weird sort of way...), today i got my swimsuit for this year! YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!! do you know how incredibly difficult it is to find a cute but modest swimsuit??? i mean, it's ridiculous!!!!!! almost every swimsuit in every store is a v-neck! grrrrrrrrrrrrr! and it's soooooooooo annoying b/c all the immodest swimsuits are the cute ones, and the modest ones are lame! but we finally found one that is adorable AND modest!!!!!!! yay! i'll have to put a pic of it on here sometime :) i looooooove it! which makes me very happy b/c last year, my swimsuit was modest, but when i looked at all the other girls with adorable swimsuits, i felt totally lame. i know that's not what is important, but it's REALLY hard not to put the cuteness of a swimsuit above the modesty. i must admit, if i had been shopping by myself, and i didn't have my mom there to tell me that it was too low, i prob would've bought one of the cute v-neck swimsuits. i mean, i KNOW that modesty is more important than fashion, but it's just so hard to remember that when i have this adorable swimsuit on and i'm looking in the mirror thinking 'wow! i actually look cute!' ya know? *sigh* i wish there were MORE modest swimsuits (and ppl!), but there aren't. at least all of MY friends wear modest swimsuits so i'm not by myself!!!!!! :)
i didn't finish my math today, so i have to do math tomorrow! yuck! but it's my own fault. i knew that we were going out this afternoon, and yet, i chose to feel ADD while doing my math. well, i didn't FEEL like i was CHOOSING to feel ADD, but i guess i could have tried HARDER to focus. oh well. i'll just have to work really hard on focusing tomorrow :)
yay! the youtube la la land video worked on my parents computer! i think mommy liked it :) i looooooooooove that song!!!!!!!!
ok, well.....ipml!!!! lol :)

~beth

right now i'm bored

2009-03-09T21:09:00.004-04:00

b/c jessica just left and now i have nothing to do except...ahem...read 'the return of the king' which i don't particularly want to do right now. AND NOBODY IS EMAILING ME!!!!!!!!!!! i'm sad. my friends don't like me....jk :) they'll prob all email me later tonight....save the best for last!!! jkjkjk!!! lol :)

anyway, this is driving me nuts b/c jessica changed the resolution on the computer and i want the font to be bigger, but i can't change that unless i have the parental controls password (which i don't have). and right now daddy is busy and my mom is in another room. yeah, so i'll just wait till later i guess. yeah, i like the resolution thingie, but i just want the font bigger on stuff. i guess i'm just used to everything being big.

oh! here's the pic i decided to put on my desktop!!! it's sooooooo awesome! jessica copied it onto my computer.

isn't it soooooooooo cute??? there's a bunch more, but i like this one the best i think :) it's cute!

ok, sooooooooo......hm.....'rebirthing' by skillet just went off. i like that song. now the spiderman theme song is on! i loooooooooove it!!!!!!! it's awesome! it wasn't what i waslooking for when i searched for spiderman music, but it's awesome! i wanted the music from the movies, but playlist.com didn't have that. the spiderman movies are my all time favorites, but now they have some competition! lord of the rings :) haha

today jessica fixed my parents' computer. so now it's working! yay! lol :) we also went to international buffet for lunch. i like that restaurant. it's chinese. i don't like chinese, but this place is awesome! (oooh! i just thought of something! i wonder what my blog looks like....i'll have to look at it after i post this...)

right now the part i'm at in return of the king is where sam is trying to find and rescue frodo. the part right after frodo gets stung by the spider...yuck! that part is seriously nasty!!!! oh! i remember the orcs' names!!! the captains of the orcs. one is named 'shagrat' and one is 'gorbag'. yeah, shagrat sounds totally disgusting! i was picturing him as being one of the better looking orcs (well, NONE of them are even close to being good looking), but he sounds like one of the worse ones!! eewwww! yeah, orcs are sick, but i think i'd rather meet a couple of them than shelob (the spider). i HATE spiders!!!!!! they are sooooooo creepy!!!!!!!! i have one though, that is my friend. his name is walter. well, he's gone now, but he WAS my friend. i hope i haven't already told this story, but if you've already heard it you can just skip over it :) um, so i was carrying symon from the basement back up to the house. and at the bottom of the stairs on the wall, i saw something just like, stuck on the wall. so i looked closer, adn it was a spider!!!!! so i freaked out and ran upstairs and was like "MOMMY!!! THERE'S THIS HUGE SPIDER ON THE WALL!!!!!! CAN YOU PLEASE GET IT OFF??!!" and then she was like, "oh yeah, i squished that one this morning. it's dead." and i was like, "well, can you still get it off b/c i don't want to have to look at it every day when i scoop the litterbox!" and then daddy was in the kitchen and he was like "if it's gonna bother you that much, YOU can get it off!" so then i decided that i would protest this by just leaving it. so i named it and it became my friend. but then finally it had been there so long that it dried up and fell off the wall :( i was sad! walter was my friend! i said 'hi' to him everytime i passed him!!! oh well. there is still a little bit of him left on the wall...hahaha! i know, it's disgusting. but I'M not taking care of it!!!!!!!!

ok, well i have to get off now, so bye!

~beth

here is my

2009-03-06T18:21:00.003-05:00

dream car!!!!!!!! i even want it in this color! isn't it beautiful???

awesome doors, man!!!!!!!!

this color is pretty too!!!!!

either one would do!!!!!!!!

today i wanted to share

2009-03-06T17:00:00.005-05:00

this awesome recipe that i made up! well, ben and i think it's awesome :) but don't even bother reading it if you are the type of person that doesn't have taste buds (like, you don't like spicy stuff; when you go to subway, you don't get hardly anything on ur sub, etc). ok, all the ingredients are 'to taste'. just sprinkle on as much as you want :)

one egg (ok, that's the only one that is not 'to taste :)
hot sauce ("frank's red hot" is awesome!)
taco seasoning (we use "tone's", but idk if it matters or not)
pepper
ur favorite grated cheese (i use some kind of yellow cheese...idk exactly what kind it is though haha :)
two pieces of bread (or a sandwich roll or something)

that's how i always make my egg sandwich!! it's soooooooooo yummy! oh, and i almost forgot, if you want to, you can put bacon on it too! i usually do two pieces. and you could prob put like, red peppers in it...wow, that would be good! and spinach...yeah, ok, i am so trying this next time! at least the spinach part, i don't think we have any red peppers at the moment. and i think i've tried oregeno b4, i can't remember if it was good or not....well, i'll assume that it wasn't that great since i didn't do it anymore! oh! onion! like, as long as you're not going anywhere that day...haha :) green onion is good, i've done that b4. i've also done little cube thingies of ham. we had those in our refrigerator and no one was eating it or anything, so i was allowed to put it in my egg sandwich! it was soooooooooo good!!!!!!! yeah, u can pretty much put anything in it! i wonder if chocolate would be good........jk!!!!
anyway, i just felt like sharing my beautiful recipe :) haha! oh yeah! today i added two songs to my playlist: 'red is blue' by ben folds (who, btw i would not recommend as a favorite singer. i just heard that song on a movie and liked it), and 'the return of the king' it's a ten minute song! it's soooooooo pretty! it even has the part from the movie where aragorn is singing right after he is crowned king of gondor! and it also has the m(oh! he's singing right now! i love his voice)usic that they always play when they're showing the shire. (oh! now someone is 'oo'ing! it's pretty! ok, i think it's about to go to a 'shire sounding' part of the song!!! maaaaybeeee....ok, maybe not)
oh yeah, i've decided that (oh! now it is a shire sounding song!!!!! i love it! for some reason it makes me want to cry even though it's happy sounding!) well, first of all, i want to have a lord of the rings bday party for my sixteenth bday! we (ben and i) get bday parties for our even numbered bdays. so, i want to have my friends that would actually appreciate lord of the rings (so i guess erin is not included...jk! she hasn't seen them yet, and if, by that time, she still hasn't, she HAS to come to my party!) and we'll watch all of the movies (the extended editions of course)!!!!!! that would be sooooooooo much fun! i'm getting excited just thinking about it!!!! i also decided that i am going to have a lord of the rings wedding. that would be amazing! i could wear the dress that eowyn (ok, at the moment i am thinking that symon is possesed! he keeps glancing at the ceiling and then darting to another section ot the room) (OUCH!!!!! i had my headphones turned up really loud so i could hear the lord of the rings music, and then it went to a newsboys song! wow. that was painful!) wore in 'the two towers'. the white one that she is wearing when grima is talking to her. it's soooooo pretty! plus, it's white! yeah, i think that would be amazing! i prob wouldn't have thought of it if grandma hadn't told me that one of jessica's friends at one time wanted a lord of the rings wedding. but she didn't end up doing that. when grandma told me that, i was like "wow...can u say 'obsessed'?" haha, but now that i've seen the movies, i think that would be sooooooooooo cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then of course my wedding ring could have something written in elvish, but it would have to only be visible when it was put into fire. man, that would be amazing!!!!! haha :)
ok, now that you prob think i'm completely insane, i'll type about something else....hm....."WITH SPOONS HELD HIGH, WE BID OUR BROTHER 'CHEERIO' when the toast is burned and all the milk has turned and cap'n crunch is waving 'fare well', when the Big One finds you may this song remind you that they don't serve breakfast in hell!" i love that song!!!!!! ('breakfast' by newsboys) now i'm listening to 'ignition' by tobymac.
hm.....i should copy/paste the email i sent to my friends last night, onto here. that would be funny....nah, it was stupid!!!!!! part of the email was about toothpaste. and another was about plucking my eyebrows, so yeah. i'm sure you don't want to read it.
um......let's seeeee......OH MY WORD!!!!!!!!!! i just remembered! ok, so wednesday nite i was talking to matt, and he was like "oh! come here!" and then he ran off to the old jr high room. so i followed him, and then right outside the door he was like "stay there" and then i was like 'okaaaay'. then he came back out with a book and he started reading something out loud and i immediately realized that it was 'return of the king' and i was like "MATT!!!" and he was like 'it's the last paragraph!' and then i was like 'noooo!' and i ran back to base camp. but he followed me and read loudly so i had to hear at least part of it. grrrrrrrr! oh, and guess what? apparently he had started 'fellowship of the ring' on like, tuesday. and then he stayed up until three in the morning so he could finish the whole series. so then when he had finished ruining the book for me, he closed it and was like "and that was the eleventh time i've read it"!!!!!!!!! holy cow!!!!!!! that is like, major obsession!!!!!!!! even though i didn't hear alot of it, i now know a couple things that are in the last paragraph! i won't write them here in case anyone is reading this who hasn't read the series yet (like nathan :). i wouldn't want to ruin it for them :) and matt, if YOU'RE reading this, i'm still mad at you.
ok, complete change of subject here, i can't wait until summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the pool, the reading contest, the absense of school!!!!!!! not having to wear a jacket!!!!!! not having to wear socks all the time (ok, i'll admit, i'm not wearing them right now, but i should be...my toes are purple. i'll go put some on right now.....much better! :)
oh!!!!!!!! i discovered my new favorite store yesterday!!!!!! it's called 'rue 21'. it is soooooo awesome!!!!!!!!!! i'm shopping there from now on! well, first i have to get money.......speaking of which, i also decided yesterday that i am gonna start saving up for a mustang now. that's my dream car, and if i really want one, i should prob start putting aside some money for it now! yeah, i just decided that i want a 2009 mustang! i looked up some pics of it and it's soooooo cool!!!!!!!!! ok, i'm gonna do another post with the pics.
ipml (lol :)

~beth

it snowed

2009-03-03T17:14:00.005-05:00

yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yay!!!!!!!!! it was awesome!!!! daddy had to stay home from work, and aunt janet did too so she came over. then we all went out in the woods and went sledding! we have this road in our woods that at one point is pretty steep and goes over our creek. so we made a sled track there. it was sooooooo much fun! and then last night erin and her family came over and we went sledding in the dark. oh! when we were about to go back to the house, i had to go back up the hill to get a sled that had been left up there. well, my parents had been standing in front of the part of the track that went over the creek to make sure that no one fell in. so then when i was gonna ride the sled back down the hill, my parents were gonna stop guarding the creek cuz they were like 'it's only one more time, she'll be fine." but they decided to stay anyway, just in case. and guess what! i would have gone into the creek had daddy not stayed there! i was going down the hill at top speed adn i was like "YAY!!!!!!! this is the first time tonight i haven't run into a tree!" and then i was going so fast and it was dark so therefore i couldn't see, adn then next thing i know i'm getting whacked in the face with daddy and daddy's sled cuz i ran into him! i totally almost went in! that would've been bad!!!
anyway, that's what we did all day yesterday! it was awesome!!!!!!
ok, right now i'm dying to watch the whole 'lord of the rings' series again b/c i'm listening to "gollum's song". my family and i just finished watching the whole movie series a few days ago. now i've seen 'the fellowship of the ring' three times, 'the two towers' four times, and 'the return of the king' two times!!! and i'm still reading 'the return of the king' right now. well, this morning reading 'thr3e' by ted dekker. it is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! everyone should read that book! ok, this is my list of books by ted dekker that i want to read:

Obsessed
Blink
Saint
Skin
Black
Red
White
The Lost Books (series)
Sinner
Adam
Showdown
Blink of an Eye
Boneman's Daughters (which hasn't come out yet)

yeah, i can't wait to read all of those! but i have to finish 'return of the king' first. i mean, it's ok, but right now it's just a really boring part! and i'd rather be reading a ted dekker book! i WANT to read about frodo and sam, but right now i'm stuck with theoden and eomer and merry! oh, and of course 'dernhelm' who i'm pretty sure is actually eowyn. yeah, i figured it out b/c of the movie even though that didn't happen in the movie. like, eowyn is a girl, therefore she is not allowed to go to battle even though she really wants to. so right now merry is riding with this guy named dernhelm, even though merry isn't supposed to be going to battle. and merry asked dernhelm who he was and dernhelm is like 'you don't know?' so then in the movie merry and eowyn are riding together and she's just trying to hide her face from theoden (her uncle, the king) b/c she knows she's not supposed to be there. but anyway, i think that dernhelm is actually eowyn. so yeah.
well, i'm gonna work on my story...which reminds me that i suppose i should put another part of my other story on here! here it is:

"Is that your dragon field?" Jacob asked Erin.
Erin nodded, "Yes, and there is my dragon, Rovert. Isn’t he precious?"
Jacob laughed, "Well, ‘precious’ is not the word I would have chosen. But he is a very noble-looking beast."
As they were mounting Rovert, they saw a man running toward them.
"Stop! The king has ordered that no one be allowed to leave the castle boundaries!" the man yelled.
As soon as Jacob was seated on Rovert, they took off, leaving the man to continue yelling at them. When they flew over the area where they had left Elizabeth and Matthew, they saw a band of soldiers, but no dragon.
"Oh, I hope they got away safely!" Erin gasped.
"I’m sure they did. Nomys is a very fast dragon," said Jacob.
Eventually, Erin and Jacob reached the palace in Azmi. There they found Elizabeth and Matthew waiting for them. Erin tied Rovert to the dragon hitching post, and then ran over to them. She hugged Elizabeth and then asked what had happened to them.
Matthew answered, "We saw some Ymbraian soldiers coming in our direction, so we left. It is a good thing that we did, because even from that distance some of their arrows came quite close to hitting us! But it all worked out fine."
Elizabeth handed Jacob the Crown. "I kept It safe for you."
Jacob held it in his hands and looked at it. "I was thinking –"
"That is scary!" Matthew interrupted.
Jacob shot him a look. "I was thinking, I do not feel that it is right for one person to hold the power that wearing the Crown will bring. My father has already told me that he will never wear It, he assumes that I will wear It one day. But I do not think I will – at least not by myself."
"What do you mean, Jacob?" Elizabeth asked.
Jacob looked at the Crown again. "What if it is possible for this Crown to be remolded. We could all share Its power. That way, not just one person would have so much power."
Erin sat down on one of the steps. "Who would you share It with? And what would It be remolded into?" she asked.
"I would share it with you three, of course." Jacob answered. "And I thought we could remold it into four bracelets. Do you all agree?"
Matthew and Elizabeth nodded. Then Elizabeth said, "I think that is a brilliant idea. I agree that not just one person should hold that much power, not that I don’t think you could handle it," she smiled at him.
Then Jacob turned to Erin, "Do you agree with this, Erin?"
Erin looked up at all of them. "I don’t know. Y’all just met me today! How do you know I am trustworthy?"
Elizabeth winced, "Y’all?"
Erin laughed, "Sorry. I talk strangely when I am trying to make a tough decision."
"Anyway," said Jacob. "We can tell you are trustworthy by the way you helped us so much! Neither you nor your father would have risked letting the Crown out of the castle, so it couldn’t be part of an evil scheme. Do you two agree with me?" he asked, turning to Elizabeth and Matthew.
They both agreed.
Erin smiled, "Then I accept your offer!"
A few days later, Jacob had the Crown remolded into four bracelets. The Bracelets looked like miniatures of the Crown. Since Jacob and Elizabeth’s father was still king, they waited until he stepped down to actually wear the Bracelets. The only time they put them on before that was to stop Erin’s father from attacking Azmi. After they had succeeded in that matter, they took them off and placed them in a safe, guarded room. When they eventually became the rulers of Azmi, they were the best rulers the Azmians had ever seen, or have seen since.

The End

right now i'm adding songs

2009-02-24T13:15:00.004-05:00

to my MP3 PLAYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i just got it last night! i'm soooooooooo excited! and the best part is, it was free! lol, jessica gave it to me b/c it came with something she bought, and since she already has an ipod, she didn't need it! thank you jessica!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i had to wait until after i was done with my school and chores to play around with it. so i'm just getting to do that. it's soooooo awesome!

oh yeah, pls go down to the bottom of the page and then go to the bottom of my playlist and listen to the song called 'gollum's song' it is soooooooooooo cool!!!! it's beautiful! it has this haunting sound to it, it's sooooooooo amazing! i LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!! man, i wish i could put it on my mp3 player!

anyway, i just wanted to share my awesome news! i'm soooooooo excited! :D

ipml!

~beth

while i'm on here

2009-02-19T18:55:00.002-05:00

i'll go ahead and post the next section of my story! here it is:

Erin led them down another series of corridors until everyone except Erin had completely lost their sense of direction. Finally Erin stopped; she started feeling along the wall to her left. After a few minutes, she seemed to have found something. She pushed her palm hard into the wall. Nothing happened. She tried again. Still nothing.
Erin giggled, "Matthew, can you come push right here on this stone? I’m not strong enough!" she showed him where to push. He placed his palm on the stone and pushed, immediately, a door appeared in the wall. Erin slid a small latch over to the right and the door opened. She peeked inside, and once she was satisfied that no one was in there, she opened it all the way. They all went into the room. It was very dark, with only one candle lighting the whole room. Erin walked over to the candle and took it down off the wall. She then lit a few more candles. Now they could see that the room was full of treasures. There were tapestries lining all of the walls. All the sconces were made of pure gold. They saw piles of jewelry in beautiful mahogany chests. There were rich silk robes hanging from golden hooks on the walls. Next to each tapestry there was a portrait of the king that had owned it.
"This is the room of the past kings of Ymbrai." Erin’s voice echoed in the large room. "Each of these chests holds treasures once owned by one of the kings, and each robe also belonged to a king. My father used to bring me here when I was a little girl and tell me how one day he would be one of the kings in this room. I thought it was the most amazing thing. My father already has his chest and portrait." She pointed to a half-filled chest and a portrait hanging above it. "His tapestry is hanging in the throne room, it will only hang in here after his death."
Jacob walked over to the chest. "Do you think the Crown might be in here?" He started gently digging through the chest.
Matthew joined him at the chest. "I think that if the Crown was in this chest, it would be at the top. I doubt that the king would just throw it in a chest with other less valuable objects."
Erin strode across the room to her father’s portrait. "I didn’t say it was in that chest. I just said it might be in this room. If it is in here, there is only one place it would be. Behind each of the portraits is a little compartment in the wall, holding that king’s most prized possession. Most of them are incredibly valuable, that is why it was necessary to have secret compartments. I think the Crown might be hidden behind my father’s portrait." Erin shifted the massive portrait over with difficulty. Behind it was a small door, which Erin opened cautiously. Inside was a simple circlet of gold. It looked like two strands of gold yarn woven together.
Jacob moved quickly over to the little door. He reached inside and reverently lifted the circlet out of the compartment.
"Is that It?" Elizabeth asked. "I always imagined it more elaborate than that."
Jacob smiled, "That is exactly why it is not elaborate. The maker of this Crown predicted that most people would assume it to be fancy, so he made it simple. It is still lovely, is it not?"
"Shall we leave now? I expect the king will come here soon." Matthew suggested.
"You are correct, young man," a deep voice said.
Jacob quickly hid the Crown in his cloak. Erin leaned against the portrait and slid it back into place. They all turned around slowly. There stood the king of Ymbrai.
"Daddy! I was just showing my friends the portraits of the past kings." Erin falsely explained. She ran over and hugged him tightly.
"Erin, I told you this room was supposed to be a secret!" the king scolded.
Erin looked up at her father and made her best puppy face. "I am sorry Daddy, I just assumed it would be fine to show my friends. They will not speak of it to anyone else, will you?" she asked the others.
They all shook their heads. "Of course not, Your Majesty!" said Elizabeth.
Erin smiled sweetly at her father. "We will leave you in peace now, Daddy. I am sorry to have bothered you." She hugged her father once more, and then waved for the others to follow her. They all bowed to the king as they left.
Once they were outside the room, they ran as quietly as possible back through the maze of hallways.
"He will quickly discover that the Crown is missing," Erin panted. "We must hurry. He will come after us as soon as he realizes that It is gone."
"You will have to come with us, Erin," Elizabeth insisted. "Your father will know that you had part in taking the Crown. There is no telling what he might do in his rage."
"She is right, you must come with us." Jacob agreed.
"I suppose so," Erin sighed. "I will just miss my father very much. But I know that it would not be wise to stay here after what I have done."
They rushed until they reached the front entrance to the castle, where they slowed down and acted calm. They made it past the guards without any problems. Erin was able to easily convince them to let her and her friends through. After they were out of sight of the castle they started running as fast as they could. Finally they reached Elizabeth’s dragon.
Elizabeth mounted her dragon, Nomys, with Matthew close behind her. Then they realized that it would be difficult to fit all four of them. This was a domestic dragon, bred for riding. Those dragons were not as large as wild dragons.
"Oh no," Erin groaned. "I suppose I must go back and get my dragon, he is just so finicky. Jacob and I can go through the wood and get him. Our dragon field is on the other side of the forest."
They resolved that Elizabeth and Matthew would wait until they saw Erin and Jacob flying overhead. Then they would all fly together. Jacob gave the Crown to Elizabeth and told her and Matthew to go home without them if they had to. Then he and Erin left.

hey, this is really weird,

2009-02-19T18:21:00.002-05:00

i was checking the post i just did to make sure it looked ok, and i went down to my playlist to change the song, and the playlist looked totally different!!!! i don't get it! it's really weird. i mean, it looks like it does on playlist.com, and i had been hoping that i could figure out how to change it, but i didn't do it! it's very strange...

this is a very random

2009-02-19T17:37:00.005-05:00

post. i'm just posting pics of symon for the sake of satisfying my dear friend matt. he thinks that i had posted pics of symon sometime in 2009 and they mysteriously disappeared. so, i'll just post these pics of my cutie pie so it can be said that i HAVE posted pics of him this year!

i LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this last one!!!!!! except that i couldn't fix the color of his pupils. since it wasn't red eye, photo shop wouldn't fix it :( oh well. isn't he gorgeous though???

ipml!!!!!!

ps are you satisfied matt??? pls leave a comment!!!!!!!!!

well, i don't really have anything to post about,

2009-02-17T17:43:00.004-05:00

but i just felt like posting something (lol, symon just jumped up on the keyboard and messed me up!). oh yeah, speaking of symon, turns out, he DOES have fleas. yeah, not pleasant. apparently we were s'posed to wait two days after his bath to put the flea treatment on him. we called the vet to see what we should do, and they said that we've done all we can for now. we'll just have to wait for the fleas to bite him so they'll die. apparently that's how the flea treatment works. oh yeah, while we were at gary and frankie's (wow! i need to post about that!) symon made a GINORMOUS mess on the basement floor near his litterbox. his litterbox wasn't even full!!!!!!!! i wasn't exactly pleased with him...

so, this past weekend we went to gary and frankie's house with erin and her family! it was soooooooooooooooooooo much fun!!!!!!!!!!! i just love them!!!!!! we always have so much fun when we go to their house. we didn't get to go last year b/c of daddy's surgery. but hopefully we'll be going every year from now on. we had so much fun! the first night we were there (friday night), gary took us to the beacon. it's this AWESOME restaurant. apparently all the food is really greasy though. we just had ice cream. i'll have to post a pic of it on here. the last time we went to their house, gary promised us that next time he'd take us to the beacon and get us 'the pig's trough' which is a massive thing of ice cream. he thought it was five gallons of ice cream, but actually it was ten scoops. but the scoops were huge. and each scoop was a different flavor, and then the guy making it put strawberry syrup, pineapple chunks, banana, caramel, peanuts, and prob some other stuff on it. and then he covered the entire thing in whipped cream and then put chocolate syrup on that, and then maraschino cherries!!!!!! it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! and, to tell the truth, i thought it was gonna be disgusting, but it was sooooooooooo good!!!!!!!!!!! i think the flavors of ice cream we picked out were (well, first there was a base of a scoop of vanilla, a scoop of chocolate, and a scoop of strawberry) mint choc. chip, two scoops of choc. chip cookie dough, heavenly hash, moose tracks, cookies and cream, and one more that i can't remember. and seriously, it was goood!!!!!!! i'll prob never eat something like that again b/c it was so calorie laden, but it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
after that, gary sent the adults home, and he took me, erin, ben, and carlee to a random parking lot. then we got out and ran around the town. it was awesome! we balanced on the sides of fountains, jumped over bushes, climbed on statues, and played tag on top of a short wall. it was amazing! then we went home and watched fireproof (which gary and frankie hadn't seen yet *gasp*!!!), frankie really liked it (she cried through the whole thing!), and i think gary liked it too, but he insisted that it was a chick flic. oh well :)
we had alot of fun!

ok, this is sooooooooo random, but i would just like to say that if your reading this, you need to go down to my playlist and listen to 'smell the color nine' by chris rice. and if you have headphones available, listen to it with those, the effects are much cooler!!! also, you can listen to 'alien youth' by skillet. that song is awesome!!!

ok, i'm gonna go watch biggest loser (oh no! i've already missed nine minutes of it! whatevery will i do???!!!!)

ipml!!!

i found this

2009-02-17T13:18:00.003-05:00

on splinters of silver and i thought it was awesome, so i wanted to share it on my blog as well.

wasn't that neat? it amazes me that a twelve year old gets this, but so many adults are clueless! this girl is definitely a public speaker!
well, i just wanted to share that. ipml!

here's another section

2009-02-12T21:17:00.004-05:00

of my story:

They left the dungeon, Jacob and Elizabeth hobbling along with Matthew in between them. Matthew suddenly started laughing."We are a pretty sad bunch, are we not? What are we going to do if we have to fight? I am going to be the only one capable of doing any damage!"
Jacob and Elizabeth laughed with him.
"I could fight if I needed to. I would just prefer to save my strength for now," said Jacob.
Elizabeth nodded, "The same for me."
"Wait a moment," Jacob said. "How did you get hurt, Elizabeth?"
Matthew answered for her, "She did it to herself. She used her dagger to gash her leg so we would appear as though we needed help. They let us in the castle because of it."
"So that is why you did not want to go to the physician. You were rescuing someone from the dungeon."
Once again, they all whirled around to find Erin behind them.
Elizabeth grimaced, "Um, we are taking him to the physician because –"
"Do not even try that," Erin told her. "I know what you are doing. I also know who this prisoner is. He is very valuable."
Jacob bowed stiffly, "Thank you, Your Highness."
Erin laughed, "It wasn’t necessarily a compliment."
"Your Highness? Why did you call her that, Jacob?" Elizabeth asked.
Jacob smirked, "Because she is a princess, why else would I call her that?"
"Well, she could have been a queen or something," Elizabeth replied.
"She is a little young to be married to a sixty year old king, don’t you think?" Jacob quipped.
"Anything is possible," said Elizabeth.
Erin rolled her eyes, "Can you two just stop? And my father is fifty-four."
Elizabeth nudged Jacob, "Ha! You were wrong, Jacob!" She whispered.
"How old are you two?" Erin asked.
Matthew decided to answer for them so they wouldn’t even have to open their mouths. "Elizabeth is sixteen and Jacob is seventeen. I know, they are too old to be arguing like that. I am sixteen, just in case you were wondering. How old are you?"
Erin laughed, "I am fifteen. And you are right, they are too old to be arguing like that."
Jacob cleared his throat, "Anyway, are we going to go now?"
"Oh yes, that reminds me," Erin said. "We are supposed to be enemies! So where are you going?"
Matthew laughed a sinister laugh. Everyone looked at him.
"We are not about to tell you where we are going, Erin! You just reminded us that we have to be careful what we say!" Matthew said.
Elizabeth shook her head, "Sorry if that scared you, Erin. Matthew can be very frightening sometimes."
Erin smiled, "I know where you are going anyway. You are going to try to get your Crown back."
They all looked at her in disbelief.
"You know about that?" Jacob finally asked.
Erin laughed, "Of course I know about it! It is the whole reason you were taken hostage. My father wants
to harness the power of that Crown. I don’t understand why he cannot just be satisfied with the power he has, but that is his problem."
Elizabeth corrected her, "Actually, it is our problem. And yours if you think about it. If your father wears the Crown on his head, he will be able to completely control everyone – including you."
Erin thought about it, "I suppose you are right. I will help you if you want. Like I said before, I know where everything is in this castle."
Erin took them to her room first; she had some bandages and things to help with their injuries. Then she took them to where she knew her father had the Crown. Erin went in first, then she signaled for the others.
Erin looked around, "Where is it? I know it was supposed to be right here on this table!"
Jacob’s shoulders drooped, "Maybe your father is already using it. We are too late."
Erin shook her head, "No, he said he was going to have a ceremony on Monday where he has the Crown placed on his head. It’s only Friday, so he wouldn’t have put it on yet."
Now they were all quite perplexed.
Erin sighed, "I am guessing this will be harder than I thought it would be. I have another idea of where it may be though."
"I think we should have a bag, or sack or something to carry the Crown in once we find it," Jacob suggested.
"Good idea," Erin agreed. She darted out of the room and returned in a couple of minutes carrying a small cloth bag.
Elizabeth looked at the bag, "Oh! This bag is from Kyera’s! That is my favorite clothing and jewelry shop! You must have bought a bracelet, that is the type of bag they always put bracelets in."
Erin giggled, "It is my favorite shop too! I did buy a bracelet! It is actually this one," she held out her wrist for Elizabeth to see.
Matthew groaned, "Girls! This is a serious predicament we are in! Would you mind waiting until later to discuss jewelry?"

i'm sorry if this sounds weird since i wrote it, but i just love the last part! it makes me laugh! =) and "kyera's" is supposed to be like claire's. i LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE claire's!!!!!!!!!!! except that claires doesn't have clothing.
anyyay, OH! the other day (maybe yesterday, i don't remember) i emailed laura a very random poem that i made up and wrote down as it came to me. it is very profound so i think i will post it.

roses are green
tulips are purple
green rhymes with bean
my brain feels like...uh....slurple?

the end

wasn't that amazing? the reason my brain felt like 'slurple' was b/c i could not for the life of me think of anything that rhymed with 'purple' and was actually a word. yeah, my brain feels like slurple every week day...when i'm doing algebra!

anyyay again, um....oh yeah!!! saturday is symon't birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he's gonna be FOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he is growing up so fast. ok, today i emailed all my friends and family a history of symon's life. so i'm gonna copy and paste it on here.

here it is:

after the death of my beloved cat, prescott, whom i had owned since i was about five, i think, my parents (to console me) said i could get a kitten sometime in the spring. prescott died in january. so i started reading up on how to raise a kitten. i got all kinds of how-to-raise-a-kitten books from the library (and from mamaw). then finally it was springtime. i started looking out for kittens. then one day my neighbors called and said they had a siamese kitten for me. they knew i was looking for a kitten because it was their nephew's dogs that had killed prescott. now, you would think that i would have been incredibly elated at this information, but the one breed of cat that i DID NOT WANT was siamese. my mom had owned a part siamese cat, and she had gotten to be pretty mean when she got older. so we didn't want a siamese cat. but i so desperately wanted a kitten that i put aside my prejudices and went next door to get him. when i saw him, i instantly fell in love with him. he was so little!!! mommy carried him home for me because i was so scared i was going to hurt him since he was so teeny. when we got home i started playing with him and tried to pick his name. my neighbors had told me that he was born on valentine's day, so i wanted to somehow incorporate this into his name. but unfortunately i couldn't think of any good 'valentiney' names that would work for a boy. so i gave up on that idea. then i thought of 'simon', it sounded somewhat like 'siamese' (not really, but i thought so at the time. since then, he has been *ahem* lovingly dubbed 'symon the symonese' by erin). i like to spell normal names in unusual ways, so i decided that his name would be 'symon'. only after he had been permanently named so, did i think of the name 'valentino'. thus, his full name became 'symon valentino beasley'!
i think it was a couple of days after we got him that we discovered fleas. this was quite a disturbing experience. if you know me well, i am sure you know how much i LOVE bugs (i just remembered how hard it is to recognize sarcasm in an email). but, after giving him a thorough washing in the bathroom sink, he was 'flea free'.
today, symon is certainly my most beloved possession. i love him so much! unfortunately, my family and friends do not feel the same way. so i am sure i will not recieve very nice replies to this email...especially from daddy. and jacob. and erin. and mrs. g. and abbey. this could go on for a while, so i will stop.
anyyay (no, this is not a typo), i would like to ask of all of you to please take a few moments to honor symon in your brain on saturday. i am very sad because i will not be present on saturday to celebrate my kitty's birthday, so this is why i wanted to have everyone else celebrate it at their own homes. when i get back i am going to make a cake for symon, and we will properly address the special day. please do not inform him of the cake because it is a surprise. thank you! and thank you also if you do take a few moments to think of symon on saturday.

i love you all, even if you do not love my kitty.

sincerely,

beth

surprisingly, so far most of the responses have been positive! i am very happy =)
if you are planning on celebrating this very special day, please say so in a comment. symon will appreciate it VERY much!!!!!!!! thanks =)
ipml!!!

FLEAS???!!!!!!

2009-02-11T23:08:00.003-05:00

right after i got home from church, i asked my mom if i could cut holes in my most raggedy jeans. i wanted to do this b/c i had realized from seeing a few ppl that had holes in their jeans, that i didn't have any 'holey' jeans!! isn't that awful??? anyyay (my new word), my mom said i could, so i went into my room and figured out where i was going to put the holes. as i was doing this (btw, my jeans are very light colored) i saw a teeeeeeny little black bug on my knee. i was like 'eeeewww!' and i was gonna squish it or move it or SOMETHING and then it HOPPED!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! plus it was the shape of a flea! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! plus i had been noticing dirt in symon's fur that looked like flea dirt! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so then i freaked out for a couple seconds and ran out and told mommy that i saw a flea. then we discussed how symon could have a flea since he was inside. we don't put flea treatment on him b/c of that, but suzi does go outside, and since she DOES have treatment, that would mean that if she ever brought in a flea, it wouldn't stay on her and it might end up on symon! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so then of course, i started feeling all creepy-crawly. eeeeewwww! then mommy called mamaw to see if we could have some of her cat flea treatment, and i went downstairs and got it. while i was down there i worked up the nerve to actually PICK SYMON UP!!! WOW! i brought him upstairs adn mommy and i checked his armpits for any sign of flea life. we didn't see any of the nasty, dispicable things themselves, but we did see some flea dirt (or so we think). but it was on the very top of his back, not in the places you would most expect to find signs of fleas. nevertheless (man, that is a weird word), we gave him a bath. he totally freaked out even before i started running the water. i've given him enough baths now that he knows the signs to watch out for. (ewwww! i'm like itching all over!!!!!) so during his bath he did really good. and mommy and didn't see ANY fleas! so maybe he didn't have them after all! we are still gonna put the flea treatment on him though. speaking of which, i really need to do that! hmm.....i hope symon isn't in the basement, i really don't want to go looking for him...
anyyay, that is my story for the day. i might be doing a special on symon tomorrow if i have time. his birthday is on saturday. seriously. i know it's valentine's day, but that is honestly when he was born!!! my little baby boy is gonna be FOUR YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!! he's growing up so fast (sniffle)!!!

ok, i'm gonna go do something...idk what exactly, but something.

ipml!!!

~beth (whoa, i just spelled my name wrong, that's pretty sad)

our spring resolve for debate

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is:

in a democracy, civil disobedience is an appropriate weapon in the fight for justice.

so, this is what we will be debating about. i don't know yet what side i am going to be on, so right now i'm just looking for any information about civil disobedience. i've been googling 'examples of civil disobedience', and it's helped me find a few examples (i.e. rosa parks, nat turner, mahatma gandhi), but i want to find some that are not as well known. lol, i just thought of something, i was going to ask for any examples that you can think of, but then that would mean that it is pretty well known. oh well, if you know any examples besides the ones that i've already mentioned, please feel free to share them with me by leaving a comment. debate class is on friday. i suppose i will be finding out which team i'll be on (or if we are even doing teams this time) then. after that i can ask more specific questions.

ok, i have to go eat lunch now. ipml!

~beth

ok, wow, that is really bad,

2009-02-09T14:37:00.004-05:00

i totally said that i was going to post more tomorrow like, a week ago, and then i didn't! sorry about that! so i need to figure out where i left off in my story and put the rest of it on here! ok, brb!
ok, i'm back. i'm going to post another section of my story now. here it is:

Matthew and Elizabeth both whirled around. There was a girl that looked about their age standing behind them.
"Uh, we’re new here. We cannot seem to find anything." Elizabeth said.
"I can take you to the physician. Are you sick?" the girl asked.
"I just have a gash in my leg. I am fine, but I just want to rest. We need to get to the dungeon because that’s where my friend’s new post is. He is going to be a guard there," Elizabeth knew she was lying, but what else could she do?
The girl smiled, "Okay, I can take you there. I know where everything is in this castle. By the way, my name is Erin."
Matthew put his hand out, "It is nice to meet you. I am Matthew, and my friend is Elizabeth."
Erin led them down many corridors before they finally reached the dungeon.
"I am going to go back now, I do not really like going in there. It was nice meeting you! I am sure I will see you again," Erin smiled.
Elizabeth smiled back, "Thank you very much for helping us!" she really liked Erin. She seemed very nice. Elizabeth truly did hope that they saw each other again.
She and Matthew walked into the dungeon. The lighting was very dim. Surprisingly there weren’t any guards there! Matthew and Elizabeth started looking for Jacob. They looked through all of the cells, but they didn’t find him.
"Oh great. Now we are going to have to look somewhere else!" Matthew shook his head.
Elizabeth looked around, "Wait! Do you see that door over there? The tiny one? What is that?"
Matthew went over and looked in the door. It was so small that he had to get down on his knees.
"Elizabeth! Come here! I found him!" Matthew exclaimed.
Elizabeth limped over and got down on the floor. She peered in the door and saw her brother curled up in the corner of a tiny cell.
"Jacob! It is me, Elizabeth!" she yelled.
He looked up and saw his sister. He slowly moved to the door.
"Elizabeth! What are you doing here? And Matthew?"
Elizabeth smiled, "We are trying to get you out of here. Are you okay?"
Jacob tried to get out of the cell and winced, "I am not too great, but I will live. They knew I had It."
Matthew frowned, "They knew you had what?"
"The Crown," Jacob whispered.
Matthew and Elizabeth both gasped.
"You had the Crown? Why didn’t you tell me?" Elizabeth asked.
"I am your best friend, Jacob! You did not tell me either!" said Matthew.
The Crown was an object of incomprehensible power. Whoever wore it could easily rule the entire world. The Crown could be used for incredible good, or for incredible evil. It just depended on the person that wore it.
"I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell anyone about it. The only person that knew I had it was Father. He gave it to me when I was thirteen for safekeeping. Father knew people would expect him to have it, so he decided I should carry it. I never wore it though. I was just supposed to keep it safe. I have no idea how the Ymbrai King knew that I carried it." Jacob sighed.
"We can talk more of this later, we need to get you home," said Elizabeth.
Jacob crawled out of the cell. "We cannot just go home. We have to get the Crown back."
Elizabeth hugged him, "Jacob, you have to go home!" She looked at Matthew, "Can you take him home? I will attempt to get the Crown."
Matthew looked at Elizabeth, "Do you honestly think I am going to leave you here by yourself? Or that Jacob would let me leave you here by yourself? If we take Jacob home, you are coming with us."
Jacob coughed, "I am still here you know. And I do have an opinion."
Elizabeth laughed, "Sorry Jacob. So what is your opinion?"
"I am well enough to help you get the Crown back. It is my responsibility anyway." Jacob declared.
Elizabeth and Matthew looked at each other. Then Matthew said, "I suppose you are right. But we must see if you are even able to stand."
Matthew stood up and helped Jacob to his feet. Now that Jacob was in the light, Matthew and Elizabeth could see that his face was swollen and bruised.
Elizabeth gasped, "Oh Jacob, you look awful!"
"Thanks a lot!" laughed Jacob. "Now that you know I can stand can we go find the Crown?"

so....erin spent the whole weekend with us. it was awesome! she went home last night. oh yeah, the reason she stayed with us that long was b/c her parents were in pennsylvania helping her grandmother move down here. but anyway, yeah, it was awesome!
oh yeah, i never did get a pic of my car...the one that i made for the film festival....i'll have to do that. i still haven't thrown it away. ok, friday night at the film festival was soooooo much fun! it was like, waaaaaaaay more fun than last year! we watched 'price caspian'. i've seen that like, five times. but i sure learned alot i didn't know about it b/c erin and i sat with matt and john. it was soooo much fun! matt talked through the whole thing and that's how i learned so much about the movie. the only bad thing was that erin told matt to be quiet at the kissing scene at the end, and he was like 'oh, of course i'll be quiet at that part'. and then when that part came around, he started shouting at caspian and susan and telling them not to do it! erin and i were so mad at him! everyone cheered when they kissed though. oh yeah, and john hadn't seen the movie b4, so he was also mad at matt since he prob heard only half of the movie due to matt's chattering. but it made it much more fun for me and erin since we've both seen it so many times. oh, and the whole time erin and matt and i were trying to decide if caspian or peter is cuter. erin thinks peter is cuter, i think caspian is cuter, and, ok, i'll explain this first. erin asked matt's opinion and so he actually decided to answer (which i was very surprised at) and after MUCH consideration he said "let's face it, they're both cute, but caspian's cuter."! erin and i just cracked up! so after that, john asked me and erin if peter or matt was cuter and erin said peter, then john asked if he or matt was cuter. and erin and i both said matt. then erin decided to ask them if she or i was cuter. john said erin, and matt said me. as you can probably tell, we had quite an interesting time. i mean, this was what we talked about practically the whole time! except when matt was commenting on the battle scenes which were apparently 'beast'. and like, every time one of the narnians killed a telmarine (i have no idea if i spelled it correctly or not) matt laughed his creepy, evil laugh, and john cackled. it was pretty scary. but we had an awesome time anyway! lol
the cars that some ppl made were sooooo cool! i'm not gonna try to describe them though b/c i wouldn't do a very good job. but there was a noah's ark, a HUGE hummer that ppl could stand up in (it had speaker and provided the music for us), and laura and kat made a piano, and bri and miranda made a 'go green' car that was green and had different sections of the car representing different things to recycle like 'paper', 'plastic', etc. it was awesome! i think i might actually have liked theirs the best now that i think about it. oh, idk why i voted for the hummer! man! kat and laura's was adorable too! it really looked like a piano! it was sooooo cute! mine was a suitcase if i didn't already say that. i can't remember if i did or not. anyway, it wouldn't have looked anything like one if mamaw hadn't allowed me to tear her suitcase up and use pieces of it! i should NOT have used the swivel wheels though b/c then i couldn't manuver it properly! i was quite perturbed (ok, sorry, i know that didn't sound anything like my usual choice of vocabulary, but i'm in one of those 'fantasy story writing' moods. so i really should be working on my story...but first i have to practice piano. ok, i'd better go.

ipml!

~beth

you know that story

2009-02-03T14:22:00.005-05:00

that i wrote that i said i would have to post sometime? i just remembered that, so i'm going to post it now. actually i'm going to post one section of it now, i don't want to overwhelm you by posting all of it at one time (well, that makes it sound REALLY long. it's a few pages, but it's not like a book or anything =). the characters are me (elizabeth), erin, matthew, and jacob. and i didn't bother making up names for all of us, so i just used our own names. well, here is the first section of my story (it doesn't have a name yet =):

Elizabeth sprinted up the stairs to the palace. She pushed open the enormous doors, she had to find her father quickly. She hurried to the royal officials’ meeting room. Elizabeth knew she was not supposed to interrupt these meetings, but this was very important. She took a deep breath and quickly gathered her swarming thoughts together, she had to give her father the news in a neat, orderly fashion. She opened the door and slipped into the huge room. Everyone looked at her disapprovingly. She darted over to where her father sat, at the head of the long table.
The King looked at her questioningly, "Elizabeth, what are you doing in here?"
She took another deep breath, "Father, Jacob has been kidnapped! A small band of soldiers from Ymbrai attacked the village. Jacob and I were trying to fight them off, but they overpowered us and captured Jacob! I escaped and came here as fast as I could to tell you!"
The King stood up, "How many soldiers were there?"
"About thirty," Elizabeth answered.
The King looked at one of the men at the table, "Mayloc, gather our troops. We must go rescue my son."
Elizabeth laid her hand on her father’s arm, "Father, I think it would be wise to use stealth to rescue him. You should send someone to the castle of Ymbrai. They can sneak into the castle and locate Jacob and then somehow smuggle him out with them."
The King thought for a moment, "Maybe that would be a good idea. But who would go? It would have to be someone that the guards wouldn’t suspect."
"I can go. He is my brother. And the guards certainly wouldn’t suspect a girl!" Elizabeth said.
"No." the King refused. "I am not going to let you just walk into such danger. Especially by yourself."
"I can take Matthew with me! He is Jacob’s best friend, I am sure he would insist on going anyway." Her father sighed, "Mayloc, send for Matthew."

"Matthew, do you think we’re almost there?" Elizabeth asked. "How far is it from Azmi to Ymbrai?"
"I think it is about two hours," Matthew replied. "We took off from Azmi an hour and a half ago. We are going to have to land soon so that no one will see us from the castle. Actually, we should probably land right now, your dragon seems to be getting tired."
They found a big open field where they could safely land. Once they were on the ground again, Matthew got out his compass.
"Ymbrai is North of Azmi, we’re facing North right now and Azmi is South of us. So obviously we just need to go north."
Elizabeth laughed, "That is exactly what I was going to say!"
So they started walking north. Soon they could see the castle in the distance. It was very large and imposing.
Matthew suddenly stopped, "Elizabeth, we have not thought of a plan yet."
Elizabeth stopped too, "I did think of one. I do not suppose it will work to try to sneak in a window or anything. It is too obvious. So somehow we need to convince the guards to let us in. I decided that I need to have an injury, and then you can act like we need help. So maybe if we both act desperate enough, they will let us in."
"What kind of injury?" Matthew asked. "It would not be very convincing if you just acted sick or in pain. They would have to be able to see something."
Elizabeth sat down on the grass, they were in a little grove of trees where no one should be able to see them from the castle. "I know, so I am going to give myself a cut with my sword." She rolled her pants leg up to her knee.
Matthew shook his head, "No Elizabeth, I am not going to let you do that. Your father told me to take care of you, and watching you hurt yourself would not be considered doing that. Your plan is very good though, so maybe I can cut myself instead."
"That would not work," Elizabeth said. "Whoever has the cut will need to lean on someone, you are quite a lot bigger than me and it would be difficult for me to support you. Plus, I would be better at looking helpless."
Matthew sighed, "Fine, but make sure that it is not too deep."
Elizabeth was about to draw her sword, but decided to use her dagger instead. She pressed it into her calf and drew it across quickly. It definitely hurt, but it didn’t feel too terrible.
"Do you have something to wrap around it? I should have thought of that before!" she said.
Matthew ripped a strip of his cloak. He knelt beside her and wrapped it around the wound. Then he helped her to her feet.
Elizabeth laughed, "I am not going to have any trouble limping!"

Eventually, the two reached the castle. The whole way there, Matthew had been practicing acting frantic. Elizabeth didn’t have to act like she was in pain, though.
They were at the door now, there were two sentinels posted there. They drew their swords when they saw Matthew and Elizabeth. Elizabeth was leaning heavily on Matthew.
Matthew held his hand out to signify that he came in peace. "Please let us come in! My friend has a bad wound and she needs medical attention."
The guards looked at each other and then one of them said, "Do you have any weapons?"
Matthew helped Elizabeth sit down on the ground, then he took his sword out of the sheath on his back and laid it on the ground. Elizabeth took her dagger and sword and put them next to his. Matthew had a dagger hidden in his cloak, but they needed to have some kind of protection, so he kept it.
The first guard nodded and said, "Come with me."
They followed him inside the castle. He led them to another man, and told him to take them to the physician. Then the guard left. The man signaled for them to follow him.
When they were in a corridor with no other people and only a few doors, Matthew helped Elizabeth lean against a wall, and then sneaked up behind the man and hit him in the back of the head. The man slumped and Matthew let him down gently to the floor. Then he went back and got Elizabeth. They went back to the entryway and started to look for the dungeon. They figured that was most likely where Jacob was.
Elizabeth and Matthew were starting to get worried, they had been looking for at least an hour and they could not find the dungeon.
"I think we have been wandering around for six hours!" Matthew exaggerated.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "Matthew, it has only been one hour! But seriously, I think I really do need some medical attention."
"You cannot find the physician?" a voice said.

well, i hope you enjoyed it! don't worry, i will post the rest of it, i won't leave you hanging, lol. i should make it more exciting:

who is the owner of the mysterious voice?
will Elizabeth and Matthew ever find Jacob?
is Jacob even alive?
find out tomorrow in the next episode of 'unnamed story'!

there. now are you dying to read the rest?! lol =)

oh yeah, ok, this has nothing to do with the story, but i would just like to say that, chris rice is now my favorite singer! i just love his music!!!! i'd like to point out a few of my favorite songs by him that i have on my playlist:

'lemonade'
'smile'
'everything's ok'
'smell the color nine'
'the face of christ'
'the best song ever'
and then this song isn't written by chris rice, but he sings it 'come to Jesus'.

ok, sorry, i know that was random, but i've had his song in my head for like, a week. i just love him!

anyway, um......let's see......ok, i don't have anything else to post about....wait! i just remembered, flannel and frappucino is on friday nite!!!!!! i'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!! i've been looking forward to it ever since last year! ok, just in case you weren't reading my blog last year at this time, the 'flannel and frappucino film festival' is a youth group activitiy we do at our church. we are supposed to wear flannel pants, and we watch a movie. but it's like a drive-in theater b/c if you want to, you can make a cardboard car. and they make 'parking spots' with tape on the gymn floor. it's even a contest to see who has the most creative, most functional, and cutest cars! i think those are the categories, not sure though. i'll have to see on friday. last year, mine was pretty lame. but it was also pretty big, so erin and i both sat in it to watch the movie. it was kinda comfy! and i liked the shape of it, but i didn't like the colors. this year i'm making a suitcase. ok, i know that's not a car, but hey, last year someone made a BANANA! so a suitcase isnt' that big a deal. and since erin is gonna be going to it with us, we wanted to make a car together, but she didn't have time to come over. but then we found out that she was coming over after school on wednesday! i've already gotten alot done on my car though, so she's gonna make another suitcase to go inside it (you know how suitcase sets come like that, a bunch of suitcases inside each other)! i'm not positive it's gonna work though, b/c first i have to finish the big suitcase, and then i'm gonna have to draw the design on the other box so we can just paint it when she comes over. but the thing is, the box was the one that my dad's leaf blower came in, and it's bright red with 'troy-bilt' written all over it (i think that's the brand). so yeah, idk if the red will show through the paint or not. we'll see...
ok, sorry that was so long! =)
ipmt!!!

~beth

i just typed up the story

2009-02-01T20:12:00.005-05:00

that matt and jacob wrote a while ago. ya know, the one i complained about? well, i'd been putting off posting it on my blog b/c i didn't want to type it (i only have a printed copy). but i decided i would do it tonight. so you can finally read it now!!!!
ok, here it is, it is in a complete and unaltered form (well, i did fix a few grammatical mistakes, but other than that, it's the exact same thing that matt and jacob wrote):

A Tragedy
By Matthew and Jacob

Erin’s heart pounded as she ran through the forest. She could still hear the animal’s heavily padded feet racing behind her. She didn’t know what it would do to her when it caught up to her, but wasn’t going to find out either. She raised the ring she carried on a chain to her mouth. "Quickly, you must take it to the temple. I wish you success in this matter, I have failed. Take it and go, now." In a small flash of light the ring was gone. She looked back in a futile attempt to locate her pursuer when she was struck hard on the head and blacked out.
A young defenseless girl darted in and out of the shadows. She glanced around anxiously, carefully hiding a glittering object under her hood. As she reached the outskirts of the small village she had traveled through, she reached a small wooden bridge. Only a few more miles, thought Elizabeth, for that was her name. She was on an extremely important mission for the king to deliver an ancient artifact to its rightful place of rest. Stopping near a small tree to catch her breath, she reached for the ring that rested on a gold chain around her neck. The "Tear of Light" as it was called, would bring unimaginable power when placed in the Temple of Light. That was her mission, and she was but a few miles away from her goal. All that stood between her and the temple was this small, rickety bridge. She ran quickly towards the bridge, her pace quickened by the closeness to completing her mission. As she crossed the bridge, a shiver went up her spine as a shining blade erupted from the ground. She quickly drew her own short sword as a towering figure emerged from the bridge. His massive sword knocked her dagger into the icy swirling water. "Give me the Tear of Light," said the figure.
"I will never surrender!" shouted Elizabeth.
"Then you will die." The sword flew towards the girl, ending her mission forever.
Erin awoke to find Matthew standing over her. "Where are you hiding the Tear of Light, weakling?"
"I no longer have it; it is on its way to the Temple. When it arrives you shall be vanquished forever, for you will never succeed."
"We shall see about that." Pain screamed from every part of her body, and the merciless blade of Matthew the Unrepentant quickly put her out of her misery.
A rumbling laugh echoes through the Temple of Light as Matthew and Jacob call forth the power of the Tear of Light. "Now nothing can stop us!" But all is not lost as Carlee, Guardian of the Tear of Light, awakens to a sunless morning.

The End?

there. now do you see why it disturbed me? and matt and jacob are very proud of this story. they are quite evil. jacob said he was gonna write a sequel, but i don't think he's started on it yet. i guess erin and i won't be in it....sniff.

oh yeah, this morning guess what song we sang in youth group? 'Your Grace is Enough'! can u believe that? of all songs! oh, and then we were doing an activity, and we had our Bibles open to...uh...2 corinthians something. and there was one line on the pages that i had open that was highlighted in red, so i read it since it stood out so much. it said, 'But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." ' (2 corinthians 12:9) Isn't that just weird?! it's so awesome!!!

ok, i just wanted to share that =) and i hope you enjoyed the story (ok, actually if u enjoyed it, that's just wrong, and i'm never gonna speak to you again! unless ur matt or jacob, b/c they can't help it, they're just like that).

ipml!

~beth

day seven

2009-01-31T13:33:00.003-05:00

saturday, 1-24-09

hey! sorry i don't know the time. unfortunately i don't have a watch, and i'm sitting by myself. i'm next to this gorgeous water fountain in the airport [in san diego]. OH! i just realized that i HAVE to take a pic by it! we have maybe an hour b4 we board the plane that will fly from san diego 2 charlotte, NC. it's prob like, 9:30pm or so right now. ok, i have 2 go! bye!

ok, now it is 10:31pm. i'm on the plane right now, but it's not in the air yet. this time we're flying w/us airways instead of delta. so far i like delta better b/c they had tvs on the back of each seat, but this plane doesn't appear 2 have any tvs.
anyway, i really enjoyed this trip. i think it was a big eye opener for me. i mean, i'd heard about, and see pictures of sever poverty, but to see it in real life is much different. it just makes it real. this was such an awesome experience. well, i was expecting some kind of amazing spiritual thing to happen, and it really didn't, but i'm very happy with all that i learned. it was just different than what i had expected. i met some really awesome ppl on this trip too! like barry 9who certainly ranks right up there with gary l. as one of my top fave ppl), janelle (she is such an amazing person! i'm so glad i had the joy of sharing a room w/her), david (what a sweet guy! he's not even a YWAM employee, but he did so much for everyone that he totally seemed like it), and MANY more!!!
so, the three minute showers. i was SO worried about those b4 we left! i mean, it wasn't even funny! but it was sooo easy!!! now i feel stupid 4 worrying so much. i guess that's why God doesn't want us to worry about stuff. also the thing with the TP. in case i haven't explained it, we weren't allowed 2 throw TP in the toilet b/c the pipes were sensitive or something, idk, but we just weren't allowed 2. so i was REALLY worried about that 2, but it was so easy! and now it feels SO weird not 2 throw it in the trash can! lol, that's just strange! oh yeah, another thing i'm having to get used 2 again is saying 'hi' instead of 'hola' and 'thank you' instead of 'gracias'!
oh yes, crossing the boarder 2day went really well. (lol, laura just gave me a barf bag!) (ok, we're in the air now!) (oh GREAT! there's a baby a few rows behind us) we didn't have any problems getting the pickup w/all of our suitcases (prob like 30 of 'em) across! that was the most important b/c if they had had 2 check all of those suitcases it would've been a huge delay. man, i'm writing in the dark (oh, laura just turned the light on!) so i hope i can read my handwriting later oops! i accidentally wrote 'tater'! lol).
i was looking forward to going 2 church 2morrow nite all week, and i just found out 2day that we're not going!!! i wanted 2 see everyone & tell them about our trip & show pics & everything! now i have 2 wait till wednesday! oh well, thank goodness for email!
well, i'm gonna stop writing now b/c i've been writing 4 a LONG time! =)
11:12pm

and then we made it home safely on sunday! the end! lol =) oh and i got to see my friends on wednesday, and it was very fun!!! and now bri, laura, and i have to give a little presentation in youth group on wednesday...bleck!!! i HATE talking in front of ppl!!!!!!!!! oh well. =)

ipml

~beth

day six

2009-01-30T14:26:00.003-05:00

friday, 1-23-09 9:30pm

hey, once again, srry i 'dinit' (as bri would say) write yesterday. ok, so yesterday we did another outreach & it was so cool! we actually went 2 a migrant camp this time. it was really sad how small the houses were & the conditions of the bathrooms. i'm really starting to realize how awful things r there! i learned some things about the ppl that i won't write down (since this is going on my blog =). but it is VERY sad! wow.
well, right now most ppl r packing up to leave 2morrow. i'm having difficulty really packing b/c i have 2 use alot of my stuff 2morrow morning b4 we leave. so that's why i'm writing in here right now =)
OH YEAH!!! 2day we went to the market & the beach & a really NICE restaurant! we had SO much fun!!! i spent like, 45 bucks at the market. i got a woven backpack & purse, and a [i can't write down the other thing b/c it's a surprise 4 someone =]
, & (whoa, a random car just drove by the visitor center playing mexican music really loud) a hat, and a BUNCH of bracelets [they're for my friends]. ok, right now janelle & laura were just talking about their hair & stuff u can do w/it. i can't do any of that b/c my hair is so short. i don't want to get it cut quite this short again.
anyway, yesterday we worked in the nut house shaving macadamia nuts. that was AWESOME! (whoa, just now laura & i were randomly talking about something really awkward! lol) [wow, i can't rememeber what in the world what that was!] i wanted 2 do that job again 2day, but we ended up cleaning the trailer that joy (one of our roommates that's gonna be here 4 6 weeks) is gonna b staying in. it was NASTY! hopefully it will be ok with her now =). ok, i'm gonna stop writing now =) GOODBYE!!! [i should have said 'adios' =]
10:00pm

wow, i can't believe i completely forgot about wednesday! we went on another child outreach. it was kinda like vacation Bible school. it was really cool. a mexican lady did a lesson with the kids, and then we gave them peanut butter and milk. they brought their own cups and spoons and we filled their cups with milk, put a scoop of peanut butter on their spoons, and put the spoon down in the milk. they LOVED it! we also handed out the toys we took. they really liked the bobble heads. it was really neat, during the lesson, the little kids had to go to another section of the room so as not to distract the older ones. so a couple of the older girls were supposed to keep them quiet. one of them (she looked about my age, when i get the pic of her on my slideshow, she's wearing a white jacket) even read them a story! they seemed so mature, they were really good at keeping the kids' attention. i thought it was neat. oh, and then when i was giving out toys, the girl in the white jacket was in line for one, and i didn't notice at first that it was her, and i gave her a bouncy ball. she nodded a 'gracias' to me and then left. but if i had known that it was her i would've given her a bobble head b/c i LOVE those things, and she was about my age. so i could tell she was a little disappointed, but she didn't say anything about it. but then later i saw her and one of her friends playing with their bobble heads. so i guess she traded with someone. i thought it was cool that she liked the same toy that i liked. i mean, i would've felt the same way. idk, i just thought it was neat that this girl that lives in another country and speaks another language, prob has the same interests as i do. the bobble head thing just made me think of that. sorry if it doesn't make any sense =)

ipmt!

~beth

wow, i just did my quiettime

2009-01-29T21:27:00.005-05:00

and b4 i read the passage for today, i prayed and asked God to help me focus on Him. and i asked Him to teach me something from reading His Word. so then i opened up to haggai (which is where i was supposed to read today according to my wol book), and when i started reading i was like 'WOW!!'. chapter one verses five and six say:

Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

and then in verse nine it says:

"You EXPECTED much, but see, it turned out to be little."

i mean, i was just amazed that i was reading this RIGHT AFTER what i just posted a little while ago!
the part i highlighted in green stood out to me. not that i don't have ENOUGH clothes to keep me warm, but i'm never satisfied with the clothes i have. i always want more! 'oh this shirt isn't cool enough anymore, i need that one, it's in style now.' that's how i always think! that is my weakest spot i think. i need to be very careful how much i focus on my looks and my clothes. and i've known this for quite a while. i try not to put too much emphasis on these things, but it is very difficult for me. i just need to work hard in this area.
anyway, i just thought i'd share what i found in God's Word. oh, and i wanted to say 'sorry' for criticizing the kids at that one outreach. i mean, i still don't think they were very nice, but i shouldn't have been so quick to criticize them for not being thankful towards us. that's not what we were there for. we were there to HELP them not to GET a 'gracias' from them.
well, i need to get ready for bed! good night!

~beth

last night in youth group

2009-01-29T20:49:00.004-05:00

when we were singing, one of the songs we sang was 'your grace is enough'. all i could think about while we were singing was how for all those people in mexico (and all over the world) that have nothing, God's grace REALLY is enough! they appreciate Him and his grace so much more than i do. the chorus just says:

your grace is enough
your grace is enough
your grace is enough for me.

and i kept thinking, "ya know, for ME His grace isn't enough! i always want MORE! it's always ME ME ME!!!" but i shouldn't need more! God's grace is amazing, and it SHOULD be enough for me! i don't know why i'm so selfish! i seriously need to start focusing more on God and others around me more than myself. and by 'others around me' i don't mean focusing on boys, and my bffs, i mean, i need to pay attention to them, but i'm talking about people that are in need. going to mexico and seeing all the poverty just really opened my eyes. i just can't get over how most of the people there that were so poor still seemed to have so much joy! the kids were thankful for getting a little sticker on their hand, for cryin' out loud! can't you just imagine trying to give a sticker to a kid here in america? most kids here wouldn't be satisfied with that! they need more! and i'm guilty of that exact thing, i'm not just talking about OTHER ppl. like, i EXPECT to get stuff for my bday and christmas, and when i don't get what i was EXPECTING i'm always disappointed. that's just how it is here for most ppl, we always need MORE! enough is never enough....
and the sad thing is that i'm writing all of this b/c i'm thinking about it and i'm in a 'godly' mood. ya know? like, i'll go to church this sunday and i'll be focusing on all the same stuff i always focus on - my friends, what the popular girls are wearing, who i'm just dying to talk to after the service is finally over, and so on. and i always feel bad for thinking like that, but i never DO anything about it! oh, and i just realized that i'm sitting here at the computer and i haven't even done my quiettime today! i'm going to do it right after i finish this post.
i just don't know how to get myself to WANT to focus on God! like, i WANT to have an amazing relationship with Him, but i just DON'T!! and i don't know how to WANT to do my quiettime, and WANT to think about Him when i'm singing during praise and worship, and WANT to actually pay attention to what the speaker is saying and think about God. i've asked Him to help me in these areas, but i guess i'm not actually trying. i think that's the thing, i always EXPECT Him to do things FOR me, and He can, but He wants me to work at it too.
anyway, i'm gonna go spend some time with Dios (God). sorry for totally dumping my feelings all over this post =)

ipmt (lol =)

~beth

day four

2009-01-28T15:14:00.004-05:00

wednesday, 1-21-09 8:00am

sorry i didn't write yesterday! i was gonna write last nite after we got back from the adult outreach thing, but i was really sick. i threw up 3 times last nite! that's the first time i've thrown up in like, a year! yeah, unfortunately the first time was in the van on the way back from the outreach (thankfully someone had a bag!)
ok, anyway, the outreach wasnt' at a migrant camp. i thought it was gonna be, but it was actually in a neighborhood. the boys there were really mean! they would use the little kids to get more candy for them & food and all kinds of stuff. and all the kids tried to trick us into giving them more candy & food. then after we had been passing out food for, like, an hour, i started feeling sick. so i went and sat in the van pretty much the rest of the time. that ended up being scary b/c a man that was drunk tried 2 break into the van. but when mommy honked the horn, he went away. it was so scary b/c the door he tried to open had been unlocked just a few seconds b4! God definitely protected us!
yesterday @ lunch, mommy & i had kitchen duty. i did NOT like that! but oh well. yeah, we would have it again today, but since i have a fever we switched w/someone. we still have it 2morrow though. i think we're gonna call daddy 2day. i'm glad we're gonna do that! i still haven't really read any in 'return of the king'! i'm sure matt is going to be disappointed in me. i just can't concentrate on it! ok, i think i'll try reading some now.

lol, i didn't end up reading any! i was planning on reading alot while i was there, but i read like, one page all week!!!!!! it was pretty sad!
ok, i'm gonna tell the story with the drunk man a little better, i didn't do a good job in my journal. so i was feeling very sick and i had to go sit in the van. the first time laura and i sat in there together. then one of the ladies that was in charge made us get out b/c she knew it wasnt' really safe for us to be that far away from the rest of the group - even if we were locked in the van. (it was funny, she was about to go get the water that barry had bought for me and then come back, and laura and i were like, 'we're fine, u don't have to come back' and then she was like 'ur not as safe as u think...' it was scary, but it was funny too.) so we followed her back to the group. the ppl were watching a Jesus film right then and the lady wanted us to go sit with some of the kids. but i was so sick, i just couldn't. so i sat down on the ground (until bri's mom came over and informed me that the kids pee on the ground...). then mommy and i went back to the van and sat in there. i felt so much better just from sitting! but these boys kept banging on the back door of the van (it was a fifteen passenger van). they wouldn't stop banging and yelling! so mommy told me to lay down in the seat so they couldn't see us. then we just laid there and talked, eventually the boys stopped bugging us. then barry (the guy that was in charge of our group. he's with YWAM [youth with a mission]) came to get some glowsticks out of the front seat. he just opened up the door, and mommy was like, "oh! i didn't know u had another key!" and he was like, "i don't....it was unlocked." after he went back to the rest of the group, mommy locked the door. and then just a few seconds later this man started banging on the van and trying the doors. he was yelling 'maria! maria!' or something like that. then he tried barry's door! so if barry hadn't gotten those glowsticks, he would've gotten in! it was so scary! i didn't see him b/c i was still laying down on the seat, but mommy did see him. i'm kinda glad i didn't though, b/c that makes it a little less scary for me.
yeah, that nite wasn't very good....the kids were so mean too! oh my goodness! they just didn't seem thankful for the food and everything! i mean, we weren't doing it to get a 'gracias' from them, but i kinda thought they would thank us at least! but only like, five ppl said 'gracias' to me at least.
lol, wednesday when my fever had gone down, that afternoon we went to a child evangilism. and b4 we got in the van someone noticed that there was a bag sitting on the little wall next to the van. it had a rock sitting on it and the bag said 'barry's barf bag'! it was kinda embarassing! then someone told me i was the most graceful barfer they had ever seen! yeah, it was funny!
anyway, i'd better stop typing. i have to go wash dishes.
ipml!

~beth

my slideshow

2009-01-27T20:01:00.003-05:00

is now at the bottom of this page. so if you want to see some of my pictures from mexico, they're down there. hopefully i'll be adding more pictures to it soon. they're all in order starting with the plane ride to california. hope you enjoy it.

last tuesday

2009-01-27T15:36:00.007-05:00

i didn't journal, so i'm gonna post a few pics instead. but unfortunately i can't post very many b/c the stupid computer isn't working very well today. so i'm quite mad at it right now.
anyway, these are just a VERY small fraction of the pics i took:

this is a pic from out the plane window

ok, BIG skip, we're in ensenada now. this is (from left to right) laura, bri, and i.

this is mommy and i

ok, this is a pic of a model of the orphanage. that's just half of it, but it's the half with the buildings. the other half just had macadamia nut trees.

lol, a random pic of the bathroom sign =)

me and a little girl in the daycare. the kids in daycare don't actually live in the orphanage. they have single mothers and the moms bring their kids there to be taken care of during the day. every morning, the ppl that work there give the kids a new change of clothes and then wash the clothes they came in. then at the end of the day the kids are sent home in clean clothes.

this is laura with a little girl at the daycare. she really bonded with this girl. her name is belinda but it's pronounced 'bay-leen-tuh'. she's adorable!

this is our room.

this is the bunk i shared w/my mom. she slept on the bottom, and i slept on the top.

this is my mom and a little girl in one of the houses at the orphanage. that was monday nite when we babysat for the house parents. they do that every monday night, the houseparents get a nite off and the visitors get to watch the kids. this little girl was doing a puzzle in the pic.

ok, sorry about the very small amount of pics, i'll have to figure something out so it'll work better. i might copy mommy and make a slideshow of all my pics...

ipmt!!!!!!! (i changed to 't' this time b/c 'i'll post more TOMORROW'!!!!! lol)

see ya!

~beth

day two

2009-01-26T11:10:00.003-05:00

monday, 1-19-09 4:42pm

ok, so this is our first day here actually doing stuff. well, first we had a tour of the WHOLE AREA! it was really looong! then we ate lunch, then we...um...went to the daycare. wait, no, FIRST we had breakfast, then 'sala' or 'chapel'. THEN we went on the tour. ok, just now we (me, mommy, laura, & [her mom]) got done cutting up A LOT of tomatoes. i'm serious, it was A LOT of tomatoes! i'm talkin' lik, at LEAST five hundred. ok, i'm being summoned urgently to lunch! bye!

monday, 1-19-09 9:18pm

ok, i was gonna write something but now i'm gonna go take a shower =) i'll be right back =) THREE MINUTE SHOWER HERE I COME!!! ok, now it is 9:53pm. my shower went well, i'm pretty sure i did it in 3min (or under). well, we just got back from 'house-sitting'. more like 'baby-sitting' 11 kids! it was AWESOME!!! there was this one little girl named dalia that was just SO adorable (well, they were all adorable)! but yeah, we had a lot of fun. i can't wait till tomorrow!

i'm back!!!!!!!

2009-01-25T15:46:00.003-05:00

i'm so glad to be home! wow, that was such an amazing experience. but i'm not gonna write about it all right now, i will post my journal entries from last sunday though. so here they are:

sunday, 1-18-09 6:56am

i'm on the plane to atlanta, georgia RIGHT NOW!!! i can't believe it's actually happening, we're going to mexico! ok, so far the only thing i've done on the plane is look out the window andread the story that anthony gave me b4 we left. it's a sequel to the story i wrote (which i still have to post on my blog, along with matt & jacob's story). thankfully, so far, i'm not feeling sick. ok, apparently right now bri is 'beeping'. i'm not gonna bother explaining that one [later i found out that it was 'peeping']. wow! outside the window is SO AWESOME right now! oh! we have 'approximately 40 minutes or so' until we get to georgia! ok, i'm just gonna write more if anything else happens on the plane. i'll def write more when we get on the plane 2 california. TTYL!!!

sunday, 1-18-09 8:50am

right now we're flying over new mexico. and, just to tell you, it's been alot longer than two hours. it's actually been three hours [ok, i thought it was like, four hours at least, but then mommy told me it was three]. the time change is weird! it has been so AWESOME looking out the window! it's so pretty!
i just got finished watching a movie called 'the city of ember'. it was pretty good. right now laura & bri r playing a trivia game on the little screen on the seat in front of us. OH YEAH! i read the stories that jacob wrote. they were really good! i also just used the airplane bathroom (an experience that, if i never had it again, it would be perfectly fine w/me!) ok, well, bri & laura want me to play the trivia game w/them. ipml =) lol

ps. wow! this game is SO MUCH fun!!!

sunday, 1-18-09 7:55pm

right now i'm sitting on my bunk in our room. so, yes, we're in mexico, and @ the orphanage! the taco run was AMAZING! and the van ride wasn't bad @ all! we're already getting to know one of the other girls (well, she's in college) that is gonna be here this week. her name is janelle. idk if that's how she spells it though [that is how she spells it]. i'm sharing a room w/mommy, mrs. [laura's mom], laura, bri, janelle, adn two other ppl that we haven't met yet [joy and barbara]. ok, well i think i'm gonna attempt to read a little in my book!
8:03pm

ok, i know this isn't the right font, but oh well. anyway, that was what i wrote in my journal on sunday (except the parts in black). ok, well, i'm gonna go take a nap now, i'm quite tired after travelling all nite!!! see ya!

~beth

tomorrow is the day

2009-01-17T15:51:00.003-05:00

we're leaving!!!!!!! 6:15 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *shiver* man, that's early! we have to be at the airport at 5:15, and we have to get up at 3:30!!!!!!! AAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! wow, i have issues with getting up at 6:20 on sunday mornings! well, i think we're all packed now. it still doesn't seem QUITE real. i mean, i don't think i'll really realize 'wow. we're going to another country' until we're on the plane tomorrow. like, obviously i KNOW that, but i don't FEEL it. ya know?
anyway.......oh yeah!!!!!!! mamaw gave me FIFTY DOLLARS yesterday! it's to use as spending money! that was just sooooo nice of her!
ok, on the plane tomorrow i'm pretty much just gonna be reading, writing, talking, and thinking. i'm gonna be reading 'the return of the king', and also jacob gave me a couple stories to read on the plane. they're stories that he wrote. and i'm gonna be writing in my journal. i'll be talking to whoever sits next to me (prob my mom or laura or bri). and then i'll just be thinking, too. i soooo hope i won't get too bored!!! i REALLY wish i had an ipod!!!!!! lol
we just finished watching 'the two towers' this morning. sometime when we get back, our whole family is gonna watch all three of the movies together (i hope mommy will watch them with us!). ok, well, i don't really have anything else to write about (which is surprising since i'm going to mexico tomorrow). so, i'll post all about it when i get back!!!!!! ttyl!

~beth

we're going to mexico

2009-01-15T16:54:00.003-05:00

in THREE DAYS!!!!!!! yay!!!!!!! i am sooooo excited, but scared too. mommy got our suitcases mostly packed today. ok, i just wanted to post SOMETHING today! i know i won't be able to post tomorrow b/c i have speech class. so, i'll be posting my journal entries from while we're in mexico. i'll post them when i get back.
well, i'm watching 'lord of the rings: the two towers' with ben right now, so i gotta go. i might post on saturday, but if not, i'll post when we get back.

see ya!!!!!!!!!!

so, i haven't even posted since

2009-01-05T18:24:00.006-05:00

december 23rd!!!!!! wow, sorry 'bout that!!!! my christmas was awesome! i had alot of fun with my family. me, ben, mommy, and daddy opened presents in the morning. then around one or one-thirty, grandma, grandpa, ANT janet, jessica, and mamaw came over and we ate lunch and played dirty santa. it was sooooo much fun!!!!!! and then that nite we went over to big papaw's house as usual. that was fun too. so our christmas was good.

then on new year's eve, jacob and his family (i only say that b/c i can't say their last name =) came over. we always do something with them for new year's. we had alot of fun. we played apples to apples. that is one of my favorite games. unfortunately we don't have it, so jacob brought his game (he got it for christmas i think). it was awesome.

so that covers the holidays. lol

wow, so my mom and i are going to mexico in exactly two weeks from yesterday!!!!!!!!! i'm soooooooo scared! i'm hoping that God will give me peace about it when we actually go (well, it would be nice to have it now, but later is fine too =).

oh yeah! ya know that story i told u about that matt and jacob wrote? well, jacob finally agreed to let me put it on here. ok, so i have to type it up now b/c i only have the printed out version of it. so i'll do that a little later b/c i don't really have time to do that right now =)

jacob and i decided to write a story together (another one about me, him, erin, and matt). so we were gonna do that on new year's eve, but it just didn't really work to actually type it up together. so jacob was gonna go home and write it, like, we both came up with ideas for it, but he was just gonna write it. so anyway, then i couldn't stand it and i had to write my own version. so i did that. and then we were gonna combine them somehow, but they are so completely different, i don't think we can! lol but anyway, my story is six pages long. jacob's is three pages (so far, it'll prob end up being a book lol). i think they're both really good. pretty much the only thing that is the same about them is that jacob and i are siblings. and i'm a princess and he's a prince. we are having alot of fun with this! and i think we should put all of the stories that have been written about the four of us into a book. like, jacob has written at least two by himself. and then he and matt wrote that one that i'm gonna put on here. and then i wrote one. and we will prob write more! so i think we should put them all into a book and get it published! lol. that would be awesome!!!!!!!

ok, well i might put that story on here tonite, but idk if i'll have time. daddy and i have to go over my math (ew!) lol

ipml!!!!

just a little while ago

2008-12-23T13:46:00.003-05:00

when ben was playing super mario galaxy on the wii, i kept saying "GO BEN!!!!!" and then like, every time i said that he would die on the game. so finally he was like, "this is no chicken-joke!" i have NO idea where that came from, but it was HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!! he is quite a silly person.

i'm going to a party at jaymee's house tonite. i can't wait! like, all of my friends are gonna be there. there's gonna be A LOT of ppl. it's gonna be really fun! we're going to do a gift exchange, and we're going to go christmas caroling in jaymee's neighborhood. and i think maybe they're going to do a campfire or something. and i'm supposed to bring scattergories, so we might play that too. that would be fun! but anyway, i can't wait.

ok, well, i don't have anything else to blog about. oh yeah, except that jacob said i could put their story on my blog IF i payed for the copyright. and he also said i was nuts because i wanted to put "the ultimate tale of my failure" on the internet. but i told him that it would actually just show everyone how cruel he and matt are. and then i asked if i could PLEEEEASE put it on my blog without having to pay for it, and now i'm just waiting for a reply. so HOPEFULLY he'll say yes!!!! it is QUITE a story.

well, ipml =)

~beth

ok, so i don't really have much

2008-12-21T16:25:00.003-05:00

going on. umm......today we went to church (pretty obvious). oh and jacob and matt gave me this very um....interesting story. yeah, i just emailed them and asked if i can put it on my blog. it's about me, erin, matt, and jacob. it is certainly unique.......i just emailed both of them and complained lol =)

um.....i've been working on christmas cards lately so that's one of the reasons i haven't posted in a while (sorry 'bout that =). i've also been wrapping gifts and stuff. i cannot WAIT until dirty santa!!!!!! if u haven't been reading my blog since last christmas, my family gets together every christmas (it's not always on christmas day, although it will be this year) and we eat, exchange gifts, talk.......and play DIRTY SANTA!!!!!!!!! we do gag gifts, so it's always hilarious! my gift last year was a glue stick that looked like deodorant, and i took the label off of my deodorant and put it on the front of the gluestick. and then it just so happened that my deodorant stuff fell out of the plastic thing that it's held in so i could use the bottom of the stick (which i hadn't used) to rub on the gluestick for scent!!!!!! so it totally looked like dove deodorant! so then i was REALLY hoping ANT janet would get it, but grandma did, and i was like, "oops!" cuz i didn't want grandma to use it =) so then i told her that ANT janet should try it, so then she did and she came out of her room after using it, and didn't say anything to me. and then she went into the bathroom and took a shower b/c she had 'sticky armpits'. it was sooooooooo funny!!!!!!!! haha!

i would tell u what this year's gift is, but i can't cuz my mom would see it adn it's s'posed to be a surprise =)

ok, well i gotta go, i hope everyone has an AWESOME christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~beth

i'm sorry

2008-12-12T13:01:00.003-05:00

i haven't posted in a while! ok, so on sunday nite we had our christmas cantata at our church. it was sooooooooo much fun!!!! our choir (the teen choir) was only in the last three songs (well, actually four b/c we repeated one of them at the end). but they were AWESOME songs!!!! on the first one, all the teens were sitting out in the audience. so then when the music started (we all had our cue) we got up and walked onto the stage. then we just kinda stood in groups on the stairs for that whole song. i just LOVE that song! it starts out with chanting (ok, i know that sounds bad, but it's really not. all it is is we're whispering) we're saying, "sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing we now! sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, now!" yeah, it's much better when you actually hear it...believe me! on the 'sing, sing, now!" part, in the choir book it had this little squiggly line that went down after it. so laura said we were supposed to hold it out and go down with the note. so we did that all the time and exaggerated it. it was fun! so then after the 'chanting' part there was some music in between (it was AWESOME! it had a 'celtic drum cadence' and a 'pennywhistle' lol laura adn i memorized where the drum cadence started every time and also each time the pennywhistle started. we had alot of fun with that =). then the next song inside that song was 'sing we noel' that song rocks! it is soooo pretty! and then there's some more of the music, and then the next song is 'o come, o come, emmanuel'. i love that song too! and then mine and laura's favorite song (and the last song) is 'God rest ye merry gentlemen'. laura made up motions for the whole thing. so as u can tell, we had tons of jokes about this whole song (the whole song was called 'sing we now'). so then when we were up there singing, laura kept nudging me to remind me of each joke! so i was laughing soooo hard, but trying not to look like i was laughing. it was very difficult! i was trying to sing, laugh, and try not to laugh at the same time! but i didn't succeed. everyone noticed that i was laughing so it was quite embarassing. oh well. it was fun! the other songs we sang were 'my song to the King' and 'still the Lamb'. those songs are very pretty. i especially like song to the King. it's so cool, the whole song is building up to 'my song' and it's talking about how 'i don't have much, but i give everything' and then it just keeps building up. and then it comes to a 'bridge' (i think that's what it's called =) and it's like, 'and all of creation hesitates now, all of the angels stop singing now. as the King of all glory listens to my song!' and then it goes into 'what child is this' and that's supposed to be 'my song'. it's soooo exciting, but you have to hear it, b/c music always makes all the difference in how it makes your emotions soar. it's just sooo cool! i love music. ok, i'll brb, i can't stand it! i'm gonna try to find that song SOMEWHERE on this world wide web!!!!!! ok. nevermind. i couldn't find anything that had the whole song on it!!!!! but i found out who sings it! it's a group called 'pocket full of rocks'. oh well, i'll just have to be satisfied with hearing it in my head and maybe singing it with my friends. *sigh*

ok, well, i think i'm gonna go now cuz i don't have anything interesting to write about.....ok! see ya! ipml =)

wow, so last nite was superbowl!

2008-12-06T11:50:00.004-05:00

we had sooooo much fun....at least i did. but i'm QUITE positive that everyone else did too. ok, in case i didn't explain what superbowl is before, it's a youth activity with word of life (wol). so we get to our church at about 6pm and then get back at 6am!!!!!! we first went to the ice rink and watched an ice hockey game. that was my least favorite part b/c i am not in to hockey, but it was good for ppl that are. so laura and her friends (she brought two friends) and i just hung out in the...lobby i guess. idk what it's called......where the concessions stand is.. =) anyway. after that part we went to the place that they were having the rally and the message at. the message was awesome. at the end, the guy that gave the message prayed the prayer of salvation and asked ppl to repeat after him. then he asked everyone that had prayed that prayer to look up at him (that was while everyone else had their eyes closed). then he looked each one of them in the eye and asked, "did you pray that prayer?" and then when they nodded he asked, "did you mean it?" so i thought that was pretty cool of him. then he asked all the ppl that were looking at him to come down on the floor where he was. when i heard all the clomping that went on after he asked that, i just had to cry. it was AMAZING how many ppl had prayed that prayer!!!!! i even knew who 3 of the ppl were! i mean, i don't KNOW them, but they are friends of some of my friends. so that was just awesome! then the guy had all of them go into another room and they had a little one-on-one counseling thing. it was really cool.
so then after that, they gave away prizes. oh my goodness! the prizes were AWESOME!!!!!! there were ipod shuffles, a digital camera, a nintendo ds, and a wii! (and there were some smaller things like stuffed animals). then there was one prize left and it was wrapped up so no one knew what it was. then the number was called and the guy that won came down and unwrapped it. as soon as he got the wrapping off everyone started screaming b/c it said 'dell' on the side! it was an awesome laptop! it was one of those new super thin ones! wow, i was quite jealous i must admit, but i was happy for the ppl that won those prizes. especially the kid that won the wii. he was sooooo excited! he was like, right next to us and he was running down the bleachers and it was so cute. he looked alot younger than even 7th grade, so that's why i'm saying it was cute. he looked like he could be like, ten or eleven. but it was funny.
after that we played on all these big blow-up things. that was sooooo much fun!!!!!! on one of the things you had to knock your opponent of their stand with a thingie (grandma came up with a good description of it, she said maybe it was like a mini punching bag. it was kindof that weight and stuff, but it was long and skinny). so i played with laura first, and after a grueling battle...she won. she pulled my hat down over my eyes with her stick thingie so i couldn't see. and then i fell off. then later matthew asked me to do it with him and i did, and he beat me after like, ten seconds! it was quite pitiful.
then after we left that place (the ppl on my bus had to wait for me cuz i got kinda stranded from my group. it was soooo embarassing! ppl i don't even know are going "oh there's beth! finally!" yeah....) we went back to the ice rink and went ice skating. it was completely dark in the rink except for like, a disco ball type of thing. it was fun.
then we went bowling. that was fun, i came in third in our group. well, i tied with someone for third, my score was....ahem.....69. yeah, it wasn't very good. actually i got two strikes, but i missed most of the time.
then after that, we went roller skating (or roller blading). that was AWESOME!!!!! i hadn't been roller blading in suuuuch a long time! i have bruises all over my legs though b/c laura and i discovered that it is FUN to get going as fast as we can and then slam into a wall. yeah. it was a really short wall that came up to my waist, so we slammed into it and then almost flipped over it. i know it sounds stupid....and it really was stupid, but it was fun! haha
after the roller rink, we went back to the church, i almost fell asleep on the bus! then we got home and i went to bed at about 6:45am and got up at around 11am. it was an awesome night!!!!!!!
well, ipml!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we had alot of fun

2008-11-29T15:47:00.002-05:00

last nite! i'm not gonna put all the pics on right now cuz i'm having quite a difficult time figuring out how to resize stuff, so i'll just put that video on here. i did take that video of us playing pit. it's hilarious! ok, here it is:

NEVERMIND!!!!!

wasn't that funny? oh yeah, the part where ANT janet pushes daddy and he falls over, the reason she did that was b/c he gave her the bear right before grandma won (when she rang the bell). so that meant that ANT janet lost twenty points. that happened 4 times in a row! daddy game ANT janet the bear and then grandma rang the bell! it was sooooo funny! and then after the fourth time (ANT janet now had -80 pts) she decided not to trade with daddy anymore. it was soo funny! ok, you're prob thinking, "wow, i'm sooooo never gonna play that game!" i know it's loud, but when you're actually playing it, it's not that bad. it's just when you're listening to it. plus the sound on my camera is really weird, so it sounds even worse. but it really is fun!!!!!

last nite grandma and grandpa gave me 25 dollars! and mamaw had already bought me batteries, a memory stick, and a case for my camera. so she just gave me a card last nite. then ANT janet gave me three sets of adorable earrings and some make-up. plus today she gave me the shoes she was wearing last nite! she said the heel was too short for her. then ben gave me some AWESOME sunglasses (i've been wanting cool sunglasses for like, a year! and he got me the exact kind i wanted =) that was actually my christmas present, but he wanted to give it to me early. and then my parents gave me an aeropostale jacket (YES!!!! and actually, i picked it out, so i knew i was getting it =), and some cute pjs. so i pretty much did get just about everything i wanted!!!!! we had a lot of fun!

oh yeah, we had enchiladas (my favorite meal) for dinner. we also had refried beans, onion shortcake (YUM!!!!), southwest cheescake, and chips and salsa. and then for dessert, grandma made PEACH COBBLER!!! she makes the best peach cobbler in the world!!! and she also made german chocolate pie (i'd never had that before, but it was really good!). oh yeah, and we had leftover fat ladies!! so we had quite alot of food! it was all sooooo good!!!!!

well, i gotta go! actually i gotta wait until the video is done loading....(i should hum the jeopardy song! do, do, do, doo doo, do, do, doooo =) ok, i think i'll go fold clothes while i'm waiting! lol

AAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! GRRRR! there was an error in uploading my video!!!! *sigh* oh well. i guess i'll just (eat worms....not! jk) try again later......sniffle.....tear.......

so....today's my bday!

2008-11-28T12:45:00.005-05:00

i don't really know what to post about though! ummm.........oh yeah!! tonight we're having grandma, grandpa, ANT janet, jessica, and maybe mamaw over for dinner. we're gonna have sooooo much fun!!!! i haven't seen jessica in quite a while, so i can't wait to see her!!!!! just in case i haven't said this before, jessica is my dad's sister, his other sister is ANT janet.

oh yeah, i'm not actually fourteen yet. unfortunately i have to wait until about six o'clock tonite.

um.....er! i can't think of anything to post about!!!!!! um......we had fun yesterday at our friends' house! we ate, talked, and played games the whole time. it was a lot of fun! we actually only played two games, but we played them each for quite a while. we played 'pit' first. that game is sooooooo much fun! we got it at a yardsale, and we LOVE it! so we taught them how to play it, and now they like it alot too! then after we all had a headache from that game (it's really loud =), we played 'catch phrase'. i love that game too! my grandparents have it, but it's an old version. i would like to get the new version of it sometime.

we'll prob play pit alot tonite. we all love that game, it'll be VERY loud with jessica, daddy, and ANT janet there! haha! if you've never played that game, the reason it's so loud is b/c....well, i can try to explain it.

ok, so there are eight different commodities. examples: wheat (100 pts), flax (5o pts). wheat is the most valuable commodity and flax is the least valuable. but anyway, you start out with 9 cards each. the object of the game is to get 9 cards of all one commodity. so when someone rings the bell, you start. you are trying to collect all of one commodity. so you hold, for example, one card in your hand and yell, "ONE! ONE! ONE!!!" and just keep yelling that until either someone trades with you or you give up and try two. you can trade up to four cards at a time. if you have more than one card, they all have to be one commodity, you have to have like, all wheat or all rice, or whatever. you can't trade rye and flax at the same time. hmm....this is prob very confusing....so i'll try video-taping a round of it tonite. it'll be very loud and hard to understand but it'll be funny! (heh heh =)

ok, anyway.....um....oh yeah, i need to email all the tipos and tell them the idea my mom had for 'flannel and frappucino nite'. that's a youth activity we have at our church. it is sooooo much fun! we all wear flannel pants, and drink frappucinos! but that's not all we do....yeah, that would be pretty boring if that was all. so it's like a drive-in movie. we're supposed to make a cardboard box car. it's soooo much fun! and we watch a movie while sitting in our cars. if you don't make a car, then you have to pay 2 dollars to go. i made a car last year. it was kinda um....not cool. haha! well, we have this thing where you vote for the coolest car, the cutest car, and the most functional car (i think that's it). yeah, i voted for laura's car for the cutest, and she wanted to vote for mine for something. but she couldn't decide which catagory to put it in cuz it was kinda lame. yeah, that's what happens when i come up with the design and then paint it myself! my dad helped with the shape of it, and that was pretty cool, but the colors were kinda weird. it was like, blue and mauve. lol! it was blue with mauve flames on it. heh heh...yeah. i have a pic of it on my parent's computer. oh yeah! one cool thing about it was that the headlights turned on and off! they were two of grandpa's flashlights and they were the same color and size, so i just cut holes out in the front and stuck them in there. oh and i borrowed two of grandpa's license plates too! he collects liscense plates. so that was something cool about it.

ok, anyway, my mom had the idea that me, laura, bri, erin, and kat could make a train. we could each make a train car! wouldn't that be cool?! yeah, i already have the box for my car. it's the box from my mom's stand mixer. it's pretty big. ok, we just remembered that someone made a train last year, so that prob wouldn't be good. oh well. last year, someone also made a banana for a car! it was awesome!

ok, so i'll have to put the pic of my car on here! i also need to put the pics of my nails on today. well, i g2g! ipml!

so....today's my bday!

2008-11-28T12:45:00.001-05:00

happy thanksgiving!!!!!!!

2008-11-27T13:32:00.006-05:00

i hope everyone is having a great time with their families and friends today! i would just like to say how thankful i am for my family. i just love how much fun they are. also i love how even though my family is so silly most of the time, they can also be very serious when necessary. i really appreciate that. i'm so thankful that i have been raised in a christian home.

i'm gonna try to say something about all of my close family members:

daddy- i love how much fun you are! you can be sooooo silly sometimes! and even though i act like you embarass me and also that i don't like it when you tease me, i really do! so please don't stop! i'm so thankful that i still have you! i need to thank God more often for allowing you to make it through your surgery! i love you so much. i'm so glad that i've been blessed with such a godly father! (also, i'm glad we've finally come to an agreement about the light switches! lol =)

mommy- i'm so thankful that i have a mom that i'm so close to. i feel like i can tell you anything. alot of kids aren't so blessed. thank you for putting up with me almost 24/7! and thank you for being there for me when i'm going through hard times. and i'm so glad that you can be funny and silly too! i love you very much!!!!!!!!!

ben- even though i pick on you almost nonstop, i love you! thank you for being so nice to me even sometimes when i'm not very nice to you. i'm very thankful that God blessed me with such a sweet little bro!

mamaw- i'm so glad that you live right below us! God has blessed me so much by letting me live so near alot of my family! i always have so much fun when you go shopping with mommy and i! i love being able to laugh with you! i'm so glad that i have you! i love you!!!!!

grandpa- i love how you are just sooooo funny and silly! you are so much fun to be around! i love how you are constantly making up silly songs (yes, even the worm song =). thank you for being such a godly example to daddy so that now he can be a godly example to me and ben!! i love you!!!!!

grandma- i am so thankful that i can always talk to you! i love walking over to your house and talking with you for hours! i love how we can always talk about fun, silly stuff. and then we can also talk about serious stuff (even politics!!!). i love you!!!!!

ANT janet- hmmm.....this one's tough! jk! i love how you just about always make me laugh! and i also love how i can always tell when daddy's talking to you on the phone, he is always grinning this mischievious grin, and laughing! you are soooooo much fun to be around! i love you!!!!!

jessica- i'm always so happy when we get to have time together to talk and stuff! i really wish that i got to see you more often, but when you are here, it makes me appreciate the time i get to spend with you even more! i have always loved watching you, daddy, and ANT janet teasing each other! i always wanted to join in, but i was never witty enough to be in on all the sarcasm =)! maybe now i'll be able to contribute more to the joking! anyway, i love you!!!!!!!!!

i am so thankful for my family! i love everyone very much!!!!!!! i wish everyone was as blessed as God has seen fit to bless me! i hope everyone had an awesome thanksgiving!!!!

oh yeah, i need to say something about someone else too!

symon- i know everyone (except me) makes fun of you all the time, but don't pay any attention to them. they're just jealous of you!!!! i love you!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway.....happy thanksgiving!!!!!!! (again =)

once again,

2008-11-26T22:29:00.004-05:00

i would like to draw attention to my friend's blog monkey power. she has written an amazing post! it is soooooo hilarious it's just.....wow. i don't even know how to describe it. but if you need to laugh (which we all do every now and then), please go to her blog and read the latest post! and if you haven't read the other post, you should read that one too! but definitely read the one entitled 'vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!'. oh yeah, just to let you know, you can't leave a comment b/c it doesn't work for some reason. so don't even bother to try. i wrote out this looooong comment and then it wouldn't let me post it....so i was kinda sad. i just emailed her and told her.

ok, ben just came in from walking suzi, and he was like, "BETH! GUESS WHAT! I WAS WALKING SUZI AND WITHOUT THINKING, MY EAR THINGIES (translation: earbuds) FELL OUT OF MY EARS!!!!!! NO! NOT THAT PART WITHOUT THINKING! ANYWAY! WHEN THEY FELL OUT, WITHOUT THINKING I WAS LIKE, 'GGGGWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' HAHAHAHA!!!!!! YOU CAN PUT THIS ON YOUR BLOG IF YOU WANT TO! (and then i was like, 'but i don't exactly know how to spell ggggwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwkkkkkkk!!!!!!!! and then he was like,) YOU CAN JUST SAY BUHGAWK!!!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!! WAIT!!! (and then i was like, " happy thanksgiving?!!!!!!!!! ben, 'buhgawk' is a CHICKEN, not a turkey!!!" and then he's like,) AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

yeah, so isn't that strange? well, i would expect that from him....have i ever told you that i'm not related to him? yeah....he was adopted! (jk........unfortunately......jk again! lol) so anyway, oh yeah! after i explained to him how different a chicken's sound is from a turkey's (something most preschoolers know) i was like, "i'm gonna call NATHAN!!!!!!!!!" yeah, it was funny! ok.....well.......um......i guess i'll just go now....i've run out of stuff to talk about!

wait! i forgot! we went to church tonite and i was VERY glad that i didn't wear the orange wig! we were in the chapel, and we actually had an organ (which we don't have in the new building) and it was kinda a serious service...plus none of my friends that would have found my wig funny were even there! so yeah, it's very good that i just went to church as myself! =)

well, now i'll GO!!!!!!! (wait......nvrmnd......laura would get it.....haha!)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh yeah, i just remembered something again. during church tonight we had a prayer time. we all broke up into small groups and prayed. while we were doing that, i thought about how absolutely amazing it is that while we were all praying, God was able to listen to all of our prayers at the same time. isn't that just awesome? and i'm SURE that we were not even the only ones praying at that moment! i know there had to be alot of other people praying to our awesome God at the exact same time! and He heard and understood every one of those prayers! wow. our God is an AWESOME GOD!!!!!!!!

anyway, HAPPY THANKSGIVING AGAIN!!!!!!!! ipml =)

ok, i'm very sorry,

2008-11-26T14:46:00.003-05:00

i know i said i was going to put some pics on here prob today, but i can't!!!!!! last nite i was downloading all those pics i took (including that video i told you about) and i was also watching a tv show that we watch every tuesday nite. so i was going back and forth between the tv and the computer. so i downloaded all of those pics, and then i realized that i had ( "i don't DAAAAANNNCCCE!!!!!!!!!!!" sorry, i was singing with a hsm 2 song =) forgotten to click the option for deleting the pics off my camera. so i was like, "aw man!!!!" so i had to go through them all and delete them individually. so i did that before i looked at the downloaded pics on the computer. then after i had deleted them all, i went to look at the pics on the computer....and guess what?! THEY WEREN'T THERE!!!!!!!!!! so now i have officially lost ALL of those pics i took!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah, i was not very happy....actually i was so UNhappy that i cried.

well, as my mom said, "at least they weren't pictures from mexico or something" so i can retake most of them. but not that video unfortunately! but i'll take my camera to church and i can prob get an even better one. actually i was thinking that next week on wednesday nite i'll take my camera and video tape us singing our INCREDIBLY AWESOME christmas song for the christmas cantata!!!!! that will be very cool....laura and i always sit together during choir and we have sooooooooooooo much fun! i would love to capture it on video!!!! ok...now i can't wait until next week!!!!!!!! unfortunately we don't have choir practice tonight...we don't even have word of life.

ok, well......oh yeah, there is this funny (at least i think so) part on this awesome song that i would like to type out. the song is 'lemonade' by chris rice. it's on my playlist down at the bottom of the screen. also some other songs that r down there that r by him that i LOVE are 'smile' and 'everything's ok' those songs are so amazing! ok, anyway here's that funny part (well, actually i have to listen to the whole song so i can get to that part and write it down =)

"i've got it made, rest in the shade, and hope my love, while God above stirs with a spoon. we share the moon. smile at the bees. more sugar please. He really loves us after all. we're gonna need another straw! we're gonna need another STRAAAAAWWWWW!!!!!!"

isn't that awesome?! well, it might not make much sense but maybe if you listen to the whole song it will. i'm not sure about the part "and hope my love" i don't think it makes sense, but maybe it does....idk! lol =)

anyway.....um.....oh yeah!!! i should paint my nails today!!!!!!! i decided that since it was a three-way tie on the color thing, i'm gonna paint one hand a pattern of (wait a second....did i already say this? oh well) orange and blue-green, and the other rainbow! except i really should just do one orange and the other rainbow since kat cheated and voted twice!!!!!! but i'll do it anyway, it'll look funnier! hahaha! my mom is gonna be so embarassed by me tomorrow at our friends' house!!!! (mwahahahaha!!!!!!!!) and if i paint them today, all my friends plus my family are going to be ashamed to be near me because i'll look so ridiculous! i'll say, "my dear friends, this is what happens when you turn fourteen.....you become very hyper all the time and your nails turn weird colors!"......not......i'm already hyper most of the time!!! and so are my friends, and they're not even fourteen yet (well, neither am i, but that will change on friday!!!!). OHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! i should wear my dad's orange wig tonight to go with my nails!!!!!! if we weren't gonna be in church with all the adults i prob would wear it.....b/c i'm used to embarassing myself in front of my peers. so it wouldn't matter that much.

oh yeah, speaking of embarassing myself. on sunday mrs. g asked our class if anyone had a birthday this week (if you do, u have to get up in front of everyone and they sing a HORRIFYING round of 'happy birthday'. it is so scary that whenever we have visitors and someone has a birthday, mrs. g appologizes to them for having to hear it, and says she hopes that they will come back to our church!). so, my bday is this week, but no one remembered it except me of course, and alek (he kept looking back at me expecting me to raise my hand). so i didn't tell mrs. g that my bday was on friday, and no one else had a bday this week, so she walked off the stage. but then jaymee was like, "beth, so is your birthday next week?" and i was like, "well......" and then she was like, "MRS. G!!!!!!! BETH'S BIRTHDAY IS THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!" and i was like, "JAYMEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!" and then mrs. g marched over to me grabbed my wrist and started to drag me up to the front of the room, she wouldn't have had to drag me if i wasn't trying to put all my stuff on my chair instead of carrying it with me. so in the midst of all of this, i stepped on my skirt! THANKFULLY it did not fall down! wow....that would've been soooooo bad! *shiver* so then i got up there and mrs. g was like, "this is what happens when you try to avoid getting up here!" so yeah, it was very funny! all my friends (except laura b/c she's on vacation) came up and sang to me! and then i got a pack of m&ms. mrs. g was like, "now wasn't that worth it?" and i was like, "NO!!!" the whole experience was quite hilarious. lol =)

ok, well, now i'm finally gonna get off here! maybe i'll paint my nails......

ipml!!!!

right now i am quite mad

2008-11-25T13:51:00.004-05:00

at the parental controls on our computer! i was just trying to download photoshop onto this computer and it wouldn't let me b/c i had to have a password. my parents are the only ones that know the password, so i couldn't download it. my mom has a headache and so she is taking a nap, so she couldn't help me. and of course daddy is at work, so he couldn't help me. so that is why i'm not putting pics from my camera on here today. sorry.

yeah, also on sunday when we had matt and his family over (i'm not allowed to put their last name on here so that's why i'm calling them that), i wanted matt to see the pics from my bday party, so i turned on the computer and got on my blog and waited for it to load, and that took quite a while. then i finally got it up, and the parental controls blocked the pics....yeah, i was very mad. so then i got on my parents computer, and as soon as i got it up, we had to leave to go to church. grrrr! oh well.

anyway, sorry for complaining. wait....that sounds familiar.....oh yeah, i had to tell that to laura in an email...oops. ok, i know it seems like it, but i really don't complain all the time. just lately i have a little....sorry!

we had alot of fun on sunday. i didn't take very many pics, but when me, ben and matt were in the car on the way to church i took a hilarious video that i'll have to put on here. i'll just warn you though, daddy burps in it, so if you can't stand crude things, i advise you not to watch it. actually it was dark and you can't really see much, but you can hear everything. it's hilarious. i really want to put it on here, but i can't yet!!!!!!! grrrrr. well.....maybe i can figure out a way to just put the video on the computer without downloading the other pics......hmmmmm.....

ok, well, i think i'm gonna try to figure that out now...so i'll prob be posting again soon!

today my mom and i

2008-11-22T22:18:00.004-05:00

went to the craft show at our church. it was really cool. a couple years ago we sold some stuff in is too, but we haven't done it the past couple of times. it's really quite amazing how many ppl make stuff to sell. there were ALOT of ppl there!

after we were there for prob at least an hour and a half, we went to the mall. i needed some black slacks for a christmas party i'm working at and also for our christmas cantata (idk if that's how you spell it or not). so we found some pants, they're pretty cute.

then we tried to go to sam's club b/c they are having this thing with lots of samples of food for christmas. so we were going to go have a free lunch! lol, we would've bought something there if we had eaten anything. but we didn't go in b/c there were SO many people there! it was amazing.

so after that attempt we went to walmart to get some stuff we need for tomorrow. then we went home to clean the house. but when we got home mamaw offered to take us out for dinner, so we did that. it was fun.

tomorrow after church, matt and his family are coming over for lunch. it is going to be alot of fun. we just got done cleaning (well, i guess we're done =)

well, i can't really think of anything else to write about! i know i still need to put some pics from my new camera on here, but right now i don't really feel like downloading anything onto the computer.....i know, i'm just being lazy, but oh well! lol =)

i'll prob post something about tomorrow sometime soon! so ipml! lol

ya know how i've been talking about

2008-11-21T21:57:00.003-05:00

debate alot lately? well, i thought i would ask the question that i'm supposed to research, on my blog! so if anyone has any opinions PLEASE state them in the comments!!!!!!!!

ok, well i guess it's not really a question....it's more a point that i'm supposed to prove. (oh yeah, in case you haven't been reading my blog long, the subject of debate is women in leadership. i'm on the team that is for women in leadership.) anyway, the point i'm supposed to prove is that 'gender doesn't determine whether or not one is a good leader.' also, i'm supposed to find examples of bad leaders in both genders. we're trying to prove that leaders of both genders are needed. a quote i found that we are using in our debate is:

"The way a woman's brain works, with respect to making decisions, is significantly different from how a man's does. Men tend to be more "mechanical" in their processing, whereas women take more of an intuitive approach. By intuition, a woman can more often come to quick, ready decisions.
Men however, tend to critically analyse and go through a whole process when making a decision. Often, this amounts to the moment being lost, by the time the decision has been made. Of course, in the case of both men and women, there are always exceptions. Nonetheless, both types of leaders are necessary: someone who can act on reliable instinct so the moment isn't lost, and another who will perform lengthy analysis before arriving at a decision.
Furthermore, nature positions women for leadership roles by the ultimate fact that they are the cradlers of creation. "

-Dr. Asquith Reid, Clinical Psychologist

i thought that was a very interesting quote. so we are trying show that quick decision-makers AND more analytical decision-makers are needed.

if anyone has any good ideas or points or just opinons, please share them! also if anyone has any examples of good OR bad male or female leaders, PLEASE tell me about them on the comments!!! thank you!!!

~beth

i would like to draw attention

2008-11-21T16:50:00.002-05:00

to the list of the blogs that i read, my friend just made a blog and has her first post on there now! yay! unfortunately i haven't been able to comment yet b/c the parental controls on this computer won't let me. but i'll get my mom to fix it. so yeah, i just wanted to let everyone know that! oh yeah, and i know i still need to post some pics from my camera, but i just haven't gotten around to it yet. sorry!

we didn't go

2008-11-16T11:42:00.005-05:00

to church today b/c ben has a fever, and the rest of us have coughs. so we decided to stay home.

yesterday it was raining really hard outside and i took some pretty cool pics of the flag in the rain. here they are:

ok, and here are some pics of my new camera! =)

well, that's about all i wanted to post. i'm having alot of fun with my camera. i'll post some pics that i've taken with it sometime. ipml

catcrazee

I had a pretty fun

Today I have a lot of

The past couple of days

November is a pretty cool

This weekend

I haven't posted in a while,

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 10

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 9

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 8

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 7

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 6

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 5

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 4

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 3

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 2

GBC Diaries 2011: Entry 1

GBC Diaries 2011

I was trying to decide

yep...I'm writing a blog post

I totally cannot

I am now going to

Why, hello there!

so, there was something

well, today

this is the story

i still need to tell you guys about camp!!!

i'm leaving

yay! pictures!! :)

you may have noticed

guess what...

i know, i know, once again

ok, i just wanted to say that EVERYONE

wowowow! how does this keep

IT'SSSSS.....

tonight is the first

i am so nervous and excited

hahaha! wow...

hey! wow, so i feel like i've deserted

yesterday i went to the doctor

*cough cough* my throat hurts

hey, i just wanted to

hey, guess what?!

this morning

wow, i can't remember

here's a pic

Laundry Wars Episode 1.0

this is such

yesterday was

hey! so, i'm getting ready to watch

i'm gonna post some random pics

so...well, i feel like doing a

dude, pay NO attention to

hey, ok, i'm just gonna post

wow.

right now i'm solving for y

at this very moment

i just finished listening

right now i'm bored

here is my

today i wanted to share

it snowed

right now i'm adding songs

while i'm on here

hey, this is really weird,

this is a very random

well, i don't really have anything to post about,

i found this

here's another section

FLEAS???!!!!!!

our spring resolve for debate

ok, wow, that is really bad,

you know that story

i just typed up the story

day seven

day six

wow, i just did my quiettime

last night in youth group

day four

my slideshow

cough cough my throat hurts