!!!!!!!!!

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.