!!!!!!!!!

John is COMING HOME RIGHT NOW. LIKE HE'S GETTING ON THE PLANE RIGHT NOW. LIKE HE WILL BE HOME TOMORROW MORNING.


yay!

That IS the question

Should I go swimming? That would be the perfect way to cool down after today. But I have so many reasons to not go. I want the lake to be perfectly deserted when I go there, it's more fun when there aren't aren't people playing "King of the Dock" or doing anything equally as low.. haha... I'm such a lake snob. It's perfect to go swimming when it's quiet and I can take in all of the beauty. The beauty that I can see anyway. I just take in the general colors since I don't swim with my glasses on. :) The lake isn't as low as it was last year so the scary wooden shark thingy won't attack me again. But I still will get swimmers itch. Oh so many decisions.

I think I'll wimp out for today. Maybe sometime this week though.

Continued prayer request

I know this is the first time that most of you have heard about it but I want to ask you guys to keep praying for John, my brother.

He had a spinal tap a couple of days ago. The doctors concluded that he had meningitis, later they concluded that he had a mild form of viral meningitis. Today my parents talked to him and he said that he doesn't have meningitis, the doctors don't know what he has. He will most likely be released from the hospital in a couple of hours.

Please keep him in your prayers. Pray for healing for him, and peace about this situation for all of us.

Par-taaaaaay!

I love how our facial expressions are completely different in this first picture. I took five, Mary was only satisfied with two. lol.

Kaity looked very lovely. :)












Caroline and Madeline!!! Some of my favorite people ever.

My favorite!

Isn't it amazing! It's my favorite bug! It's a Orchid Mantis. :)

Family

Yesterday I went to Kaity's senior recital. It was lovely. Kaity did a wonderful job playing and she was wearing an evening gown. She looked lovely. After that mostly everyone packed up and went to Kaity's house. Then we partied. I think about 40 people were at their house. So it was packed. It was so much fun. By 7 o'clock mostly everyone had left. I stayed until 9 and then I left.

I love them SO MUCH. Mary and Caroline are some of my closest friends and I love hanging out with all of them. It's wonderful to find a family that thinks so like mine. Our views on dating and alcohol are pretty much the same. Other than just viewing the world in the same way they put Christ first in their lives. Their family means to much to me. I'm so grateful to know them. I think I'll write them a note.

Anyway, I took lots of pictures so I'll probably post them later.

Whaaaa????

Where is my sister? She now not only has a dog and a hermit crab but also a hamster....

Two weeks

Well my peeps it seems that John may be coming home sooner than expected, like in a little more than a week. It'll be good to have him home. I think he's had fun over there. At least when he gets home the house will feel a little more normal, with Boomer dying, Diesel and John gone the house is very quiet. Well, other than the punk rock playing right now. =P

ewwwwww

Spiders creep me out.

Today I was moving wood around in the backyard. I had to pick up nasty pieces of wood with all sorts of creatures crawling or ooozing all over them. It wasn't that bad. In the end the score was Elyse-6, Spiders-0.

I had to move three wood piles, two of them went into the wood shed and the third was moved against the fence. I saw some nasty big spiders and I'm getting the heebie jeebies just thinking about them. Anyway, tomorrow I still have more wood piles to deal with. It's all good though, I'm not bored. :)

Things that I've discovered this week

1. A letter to Japan costs ninety cents
2. Getting a package from Japan makes me happy
3. I love the musical My Fair Lady
4, I can possibly (most likely) go to camp this summer!
5. I still have homework anxiety (I had a dream that I had to write a paper and do math homework in two days. I was very anxious about it. Then I woke up and said to myself, "It's alright, you don't have to go to school until September." But I was still worried about it. After I woke up, I laughed at myself.))

Smallish?

I made biscuits a while back for dinner and I think I miscalculated the size........ My Dad made fun of me, but I think he should have just been grateful to get biscuits. =D

Gone

There hasn't been time to digest the thought that Diesel is gone. It was completely unexpected.

He's been gone for three days now. I think. I'm not sure. At times I'll walk around and think of how he used to stalk me, or attack me when I wasn't looking. Or when I see one of his toys, when I walk past one of his favorite spots to sleep I'm instantly reminded that he's gone. Eleven months went by so quickly.

Still hasn't sunk in. I don't feel like I'm really awake when I wake up in the mornings.... Diesel isn't there to wake me up. He used to attack my feet if I moved them at all.

He may come back, only God knows. For now I'm practicing living without him. I read this last night, "Leave your orphans; I will protect their lives. Your widows too can trust in me." Jeremiah 49:11 And today I realized I can't do anything to bring him home. I cried. But I looked at that verse again and read about the widow at Zarephath. My heart was quieted, and I knew God has Diesel in His hands.

I didn't cry before today. We didn't really talk about him being gone. But when I told Kristy about how unexpected all of this is I almost started crying. It's not good to hold things in all of the time.

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day. I'm always glad for the freshness of tomorrow.

Ouch

Did you know there's a town in between Texas and Arkansas? It's called Texarkana. This pretty much makes my day.
So I've started doing yoga again. Oh my word!!!! I love it so much. I'm really sore today but it's a good feeling. I love yoga because it is so good for the body. It's made me more flexible, made me stronger, and has helped with releasing tension. No, I'm not talking about meditation or some weird demonic type of thing. Yoga is great because it's relaxing and also difficult.

Other than that nothing too uplifting has been going on. I have quite a few projects that I'm working on. One is a baby blanket (or blankant for those of us that are in the cool club... lol.) and the other is a dress. I've been working on the blanket off and on. I think I'll work on the dress today.

M.I.A.

I miss my baby.....

Unsure

You know that feeling when nothing feels right? Well it feels like that now.

I know God is in control. I know that. Other than that I don't know anything.

"13Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." James 4

I'm reminded again that this world is not my home. I can't imagine a place where I will never face a trial again. I will always be with the Lord. Why do I act like this world is my home? It's not, it doesn't even come close to where I will live for eternity.

"For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come." Hebrews 13:14

"13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." James 5

Pray with me, pray for me. Prayer is important, and like James 5 says, it is powerful and effective. I need to be reminded of that, I need to know that my prayers are heard. I really know that they are. Sometimes I just wish God would do things the way that I imagine they should go. Thankfully He has a better plan. Still, I feel sad today and something is amiss. Three things that I can think of. Some of them won't be back to normal for a couple of months, some of them might be back to normal at any time, and one of them will be gone soon. Then I'll have to get used to that normal. For now I just wait, it's hard to wait and watch something die.

And it is taking so long, and that is harder than a quick death.

I still have so much to learn from God. This time He is reminding me, again, that my plans are not supreme. Things don't work out the way I think they should. Problems and trials pile up, life never stops happening. People die, pets die or disappear, people leave, people get mad and have arguments. Even so, life is so good right now. God is so good. I won't say I wouldn't change a thing because at this point I want one thing to change very badly. But I know God has a purpose for this.

I also know that no matter what happens in life we should never stop loving. C.S. Lewis said "Other than heaven, the only place where one's heart is completely safe from the dangers of love is hell."

No matter what happens I must continue to love and trust that God knows what is best. I'm still learning, that will never stop.

Happy Birthday!

"WOOT!"

Puppies!

I want one.... They are free!!! And they live down the street.

Please pray for Boomer (my dog). He needs to die, I'm actually very serious. His health has deteriorated rapidly, and he will die soon. No, this doesn't have anything to do with the puppies. My dog is in pain, and his life will end soon. But he needs to die soon. I don't want to go into all of the details, but please pray.

Little one....

To Be Alone with Me....

"I'd swim across lake Michigan
I'd sell my shoes
I'd give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room

To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you

You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your goals

To be alone with me
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

To be alone with me you went up on the tree

I'll never know the man who loved me"

Sufjan Stevens' "To Be Alone with You"

Fun Times

Amelia and I punked Mary's car yesterday, it was amazing. Mary thought it was hilarious. You can read about it here, at our joint blog. Then we studied at Albertsons for THREE HOURS! We took our final today and it was easy, as in we really over prepared for it. But that's okay we had so much fun studying. I saw a lot of people that I know, it was good times... Tomorrow we are going to eat at the Mongolian Grill as a end of the quarter celebration. Hopefully we can get Mary to come as well.
PEPITO!!!!!!!

BTW I love Sufjan Stevens.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday Ruth!

I must say...

I love google! I love gmail! And I love gtalk! We are talking to John through gmail right now. It's free! From Japan to the U.S.! And my brother is on youtube. It makes me miss him and he's only been gone for 2 days?!

Only about 43 more days to go....

Rainy Day

Well today was a little bit of a downer, except I'm not depressed. It's stormy and we went to a funeral. My Grandma's cousin's wife died last Saturday.

Oh how appropriate, Flogging Molly's "If I Ever Leave This World Alive" just came on.

Moving on. The "reception" (??) was held at the widower's house. At one point I was stuck in the middle of the house, some old friends of my Grandma's cousin, Ben, were talking in the doorway. I was blocked, finally I worked up enough courage (or perhaps discontent with being stuck in the dining room) to stand there, and the man moved for me. I wanted to go and ask Mom to come with me to get some food. Mom was talking to an elderly lady and then I was brought into their conversation. This lady was very nice, but I think she might have had some memory problems because she asked me what my name was, so I repeated it loudly. She was like, "Oh that's lovely." Five minutes later she was like, "What's your name?" "ELYSE." "Elaine?" At this point I was like, whatever... So I was trapped in the middle, and then when Mom and I finally started to head towards the backyard she was stopped about three different times. It was still raining..... But there was a cool dog there! Nels, or Ben as his name actually is, is a very nice older lawyer and it's very sad for him. We ate and then we were ready to leave. I was cold and wet.

We went to Costco and I saw people from school. I called Amelia to tell her who I saw and she was in the doctor's office. She tripped while playing football. Anyway she called me a couple of minutes ago, she's fine. She just has a sprain. You can read the account of her accident here.

I've grown very attached to Sufjan Stevens lately, and Bjork. Bjork is VERY weird, but her music is AMAZING. Sufjan Stevens is mellow, but I like mellow music. I want to get all of his albums.

Funerals are depressing. This one was especially so, I don't think many people there are Christians. The pastor said the Lord's prayer and everyone repeated it like automatons. I wondered how many of them actually know the life giving and freeing power of Jesus.... Almost all of them looked depressed and bored with the Scripture that was read, they were probably thinking about what TV show they would watch when they get home. Or they were thinking about how life is horrible and they wish they were dead, just like Nels' wife. How sad! What was even more sad was seeing a person worrying all of the time (I'm not going to name anyone...), worry is a crippling thing. The pastor was off in what he said, he talked about how Jesus died for us but he didn't present the Gospel or give the prayer. There wasn't a lot of hope in that funeral. If Nels' wife was a believer she is better off than we all are!!! She's in heaven with the Lord, free from pain.

We stopped at T.Albertsons so Mom and I could get something to drink. So now I sit here in dry, warm clothes with my iced black tea, happy and warm.

"Whenever you feel like using a comma in a sentence, use a semicolon."

lol. If only the Ninja were my English teacher.....

Weird

Diesel thinks that he's the bomb, but he just ends up looking retarded. I love my cat. I found him a couple minutes ago sleeping in that same flower pot, I'm not sure how that is comfortable.

Entertaining

This quarter is almost over, and I must say.... My English teachers lack of humor has been made up by having Amelia in that class. We almost die laughing. We will be taking chemistry together in the fall quarter.

THIS QUARTER IS ALMOST OVER. I rejoice.

What amazes me is thinking about my first day at school, I had a really bad attitude about the whole day. God worked on my heart, and a couple of days later I got over my attitude.

A month or so ago I looked at the entry for January 2 in My Utmost for His Highest. I was astounded at what I read.

January 2, 2007

Will You Go Out Without Knowing?

He went out, not knowing where he was going —Hebrews 11:8

Have you ever "gone out" in this way? If so, there is no logical answer possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, "What do you expect to do?" You don’t know what you are going to do. The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually examine your attitude toward God to see if you are willing to "go out" in every area of your life, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in constant wonder, because you don’t know what God is going to do next. Each morning as you wake, there is a new opportunity to "go out," building your confidence in God. ". . . do not worry about your life . . . nor about the body . . ." (Luke 12:22). In other words, don’t worry about the things that concerned you before you did "go out."

Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do— He reveals to you who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you "go out" in complete surrender to Him until you are not surprised one iota by anything He does?

Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him. Then think how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is! Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to "go out" in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to "go out" through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.

My heart was hard toward God I didn't want to hear what He had to say on that day. When I looked back on that day I almost cried... God gave me what I needed to hear, but I wasn't about to listen to Him. It took Him speaking through my sister, my youth group leader, and Philippians 2:14-15 (Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe) before my heart was softened. I'm so glad God never gives up on me!

!!!!!!

Rudolph Valentino!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3<3<3<3<3

okaybye.

Industrious

Diesel likes to work at home.....

A Prison without Walls.

Not long after my rescue
I let my failures get me down
My sin had robbed me of the joy I had in you
Then you saved me from that too

(chorus)
All I wanna do is talk about Your grace
I don't wanna go unless I go Your way
Get a little closer to You everyday
I'm gonna turn around and go Your way (X2)

What I thought of as my freedom
Was a prison without walls
I held on tightly to the shackles that I hate
But this wasn't freedom at all

(chorus)

I thought that I'd gone too far
Then I heard You call my name
Return to me child
I am eager to forgive
But leave behind the chains (X2)

(chorus)
-Go Your Way by the Supertones

I was listening to this on the way home from youth group tonight, and it made me
think of all the people that have fallen away.  My friends that think it's cool to
be a rebel, and they think that the way I'm living is repression.  It's not. 

"What I thought of as my freedom
Was a prison without walls
I held on tightly to the shackles that I hate
But this wasn't freedom at all


I thought that I'd gone too far
Then I heard You call my name
Return to me child
I am eager to forgive
But leave behind the chains"

God is always close, and He always wants us to come back.  He desires mercy, not
judgement!  I hope my friends come to realize that God gave us His laws to set us
free.  And if you know someone that is deceived, like my friends, keep praying! 
God has a way of working on people's hearts.

BEHOLD!

My brother has a blog! Go ahead and drop him a comment. He will be leaving for Japan on Thursday and will probably be gone for 6 weeks. His blog will be entertaining (believe me.... He has a good sense of humor) and it will cover his travels in Japan.

!!!!!

!!! OK my peeps, I tried on this dress at Macy's yesterday and I totally LOVED IT. Unfortunately it is many-much monies..... :'(

It was like it was made for me, and I felt like a princess or something...

I think I'll go to Macy's and try it on every once in a while....

Oh and if anyone is wondering, life is good for me. School is almost over and I'm looking for a job, so I can squirrel away monies so I can buy the dress. But what would I wear it to? I'm not sure....