Complaining

Tonight James Faris preached on Philippians 2:12-18. Verse 14 says "do everything without grumbling and questioning." He talked about how complaining is a daily part of our world's life, if you don't complain something must be wrong with you. James challenged us to try not complaining for a month, and to turn other people's complaints into things they should be grateful for. Overall, it was a really good sermon! :)

Thank you for bringing up a good point about my quote Nathan. I do agree with you. Friends should have some differences, and marriage should be a "single soul dwelling in two bodies," probably the kind of marriage Christ wants!

Goodnight everyone!!!!

Quote of the post:
"One must never lose time in vainly regretting the past nor in complaining about the changes which cause us discomfort, for change is the very essence of life." -Anatole France

Friend

"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies." - Aristotle

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Did everyone wear green today??? I tried to, but my shirt isn't green, it just has green words and little shamrocks! :)

Today I...
ran the shamrock run ( 5 miles )
went grocery shopping with my madre ( haven't done that in a long time )
read an entire book ( ready or not by Meg Cabot )
made stir-fry beef and broccoli for my family for dinner

I have yet to...
clean up the kitchen
call Charity ( hopefully I can get you this time )
watch a movie ( haven't decided which one yet )

Question of the post:
"Do you wake up or open your eyes first?"

Quote of the post:
"You are very squishy. So I shall name you squishy. And you shall be my little squishy."--Dory from Finding Nemo

Verses of the post:
"'O my God,' I say, 'take me not away in the midst of my days - you whose years endure throughout all generations!' Of old you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavesn are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the smae, and your years have no end." Psalm 102: 25-27

Please still try to comment on the last two posts if you haven't already!!! Thank you! :)

Writing

Until last summer I kept a personal journal and wrote every single day. Today I was reading through some of my old ones and it brought back a lot of memories. Do any of you journal? When I was doing it I kept telling myself that writing down what I did every day and how I felt about different things, would be such a great thing to have when I got older. Writing it out usually made me feel better if I was mad about something, or more down-to-earth if something happened that made me really happy. Reading some of what I wrote today makes me want to start journaling again and I might, but I don't know for sure.

Anyway, I had a weird habit of writing out the lyrics to the songs I liked in my journal. This is one of the songs I had written out part of the words.

Song of the post:
"Everything you want" by Vertical Horizon

Quote of the post:
"The loudness of your voice does not win an argument." - My Dad

Please read and comment on the next two posts too!!!! ;)

Cleanliness

My application of the week was to be clean. I already had cleaned my room this week, but this morning my sister and I took apart the bunk-beds that we've had forever, so now we have single beds. Then we rearranged the rest of the furniture, threw away stuff neither of us wanted and now our room looks much better. I am not normally a clean person, I tend to know where all my stuff is when I need it, but if you were to walk into my room ( just ask my mom ) it wouldn't look like it. Definitely something I need to work on! :)

Tomorrow I may be going to Arkansas with my dad, brothers and other people from my church. Some of you may know the Weather's family - they own a house there, but they need to sell it, so we're going down to do some final repairs before it's sold. I'm really excited to go because my weekend wasn't looking very great and it would be more fun then staying home!

Question of the post:
Which is worse?
Eating a handful of raisins to later find out that they were bugs?
Drinking a glass of milk that expired three months ago?

Quote of the post:
"If you have time to lean, you have time to clean." - Unknown

Andrew

Most of you have probably met my brother Andrew, and if you haven't I hope I've at least said something about him before.

Andrew is fourteen years old and he has down syndrome. Brown hair, brown eyes, short and slightly plump would describe him well. :) Sometimes cases of downs can be so severe that the person cannot talk, but that's not the case with Andrew. He loves to talk! He makes up names for people, ( mine include: miss hairdo, peas head and elephant, ) he also loves to talk about the weather. Although he still isn't always understandable, his speech has improved so much and he is learning to read.

Andrew and I have one big thing in common. Our favorite sport is swimming! I really should be thanking him, because my parents first joined the Rivi for Andrew. He swims with the Special Olympics swim team and I try to go and help coach when I have time. Andrew also enjoys basketball, baseball and bowling - all with Special Olympics.

It hasn't always been easy for me to have Andrew as my brother. He is different - he does weird things sometimes, or says embarrassing things about our family. I've gotten mad because it seems like all my friends have a sibling close to their age that they are close to, and I don't have that. But having Andrew as my brother has made me a stronger person. I know how to stand up for someone who is being made fun of and how even when someone seems weird on the outside, its really the inside that matters. Even though Andrew may never get married, and his brain will never grow older than a child, I love him! When my parents die, he'll probably come live with me - and I can't wait! :)

You can all pray for Andrew right now, last Saturday he broke his ankle and how has a cast and has to use a walker to get around. He's not allowed to go swimming or do any kind of exercise for at least 4-6 weeks. Pray that the ankle will heal quickly and that he won't get too restless just sitting around.

Quote of the Post:
"Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." - Special Olympics Oath

Venti Starbucks!

This morning I slept in till nine. It wasn't really that late, but it felt nice not to have to get up. I cleaned my room, and then went through all the clothes I own sorting them into - clothes I wear, clothes I don't wear and clothes I sometimes wear. It was fun! Then since Philip had his tutoring at the Nora Library, my madre dropped me off at the Target in Nora. Sometimes I think shopping by one's self is quite enjoyable, though it might have been more so because I bought myself a venti double chocolate frappuccino (sp)! But sadly I used up the last of the money on the Starbucks card that I got for my birthday. (Actually I think there's five cents left.) Anyway, I had a pretty good day!

Quote of the post:
"We gather strength from sadness and from pain Each time we die we learn to live again."
-Source Unknown

Song of the post:
"Goodbye my lover" by James Blunt

Luncheon

I love when our church has luncheons. Its really fun to be able to sit, eat and have fellowship with everybody. Today was our soup luncheon, I really could live on soup and bread! It was so yummy! Pastor Johnston had all the people who worked yesterday get up and David and Becca talked. These "service projects" are the beginning of our youth events and hopefully we can do them more often!

I'm in a really good mood right now! I had a good morning at church, it was especially encouraging, and now I'm listening to music and posting on my blog!

This week, I have all my classes off except Spanish. What's really annoying about taking classes at different places it that the spring breaks are all different. Thankfully, all my other classes are off on the same week, so I will be able to have somewhat of a break. If anybody wants to get together to do stuff, like shopping or a movie, I would love to! :)

Quote of the post:
"You can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest. Honestly, its the honest ones you have to look out for, cause you never know when they're going to do something incredibly stupid." Jack Sparrow, from Pirates of the Caribbean

*Smile*

Today I spent six hours at my church helping clean. The majority of the time I scrubbed the floor in the women's bathroom because the grout that was originally white was a brownish color. It didn't really look that bad until you realized that brown was not the original color. After about three hours of scrubbing, and the bathroom looked completely transformed, we let it dry and sealed it. Hopefully the sealer will keep the grout from changing colors for at least another 10 years. :) Savannah took pictures of us as we scrubbed, so if she e-mails them to me I'll post them. We were definitely having a party in the bathroom! :)

Last night before we went to the opera, my mom and I went to a Thai restaurant. Its called Thai Cafe, and it's in Broadripple. Its small, but completely adorable. The menu is really cool, because any dish you order you can choose the level of hotness - one through five - that you want. I absolutely love Asian food! Anyway, I recommend it to everybody! The prices are very reasonable, the service is good and the food is delicious!

Quote of the post:
"Austin: Where are you going?
Sam: I'm late.
Austin: For what?
Sam: Reality."
- A Cinderella Story

Song of the post:
"Crawling back to you" - Backstreet Boys

Hmm

1. First thing you did this morning? I checked my e-mail and drank a cup of coffee

2. Last thing you ate? a milky way bar

3. Is your cell phone a piece of junk? nope

4. What's something you're looking forward to a lot in the next 6 months? going to echo, summer break, getting my drivers license

5. What's annoying you right now? people shrugging me off

6. What's the last movie you saw in a theater? Chicken Little? I haven't been to a movie in a long time..

7. Do you believe in long distance relationships? yes

8. When was the last time it rained? yesterday, and the day before that too

9. Is there someone you miss? duh

10. Who was the last person you texted? I don't text

11. If you could kill someone who would you kill? I wouldn't kill anyone

12. Song that sums up your love life: hmm... Dido's White Flag

13. Are there a few things you wish you were better at? Oh yes, I wish I were a better runner, a better writer, and a better friend

14. If you could be anywhere this second, where would it be? hanging out with Ana

15. What's your most vivid memory from 7th grade? well, I went to China went I was 12 and I have several vivid memories from that entire trip

16. Latest addiction? music, but I've always been addicted to that

17. Have you ever had the urge to kill someone? nope

18. How many people would you say you are interested in? weird question, so I'm not answering

19. What do you love doing? I love singing, swimming, smiling and serving God

20. Do you think someone thinks about you daily? yes

21. Who was the last person you saw or talked to? my dad

22. Name a goal, large or small, that you hope to accomplish within the next three months: I hope to be able to run the mini marathon

"The Marriage of Figaro" was very interesting. I think Nathan's comment that it was "mozart-ish and a soap opera" was right. I found the story very confusing and it didn't help that it was it Italian. (with subtitles.) Parts of it were very stretched out and I kept wondering when it would end. Probably I was worried because the post I had started before I left hadn't been posted and I didn't want to get home after 12, because then it wouldn't count for today. So this my post for the day! Night everybody! :)

Quote of the Post:
"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Others stay awhile, make footprints on ourhearts and we are never, ever the same." -Unknown

Go the Distance!

I cannot even explain how much I hate running. But this year I got signed up for the mini marathon in May and so I'm going to have to start training. Swimming is almost over for short-course season, and when we don't have any practices anymore then I'm going to to try run everyday. There's a 15k on April 15th that I'm going to run. Mrs. Edwards is going to get a group together to start running, but if anybody wants to run with me besides that I love to. I definitely run better with other people then I do by myself.

Tomorrow I'm going to see an opera called "the Marriage of Figaro" at Butler. Has anybody heard of this or seen it? My mom says its very good. Anyway, after I see it, I'll be sure to post about it.

Quote of the post:
"Doors don't slam open" - Unknown

Song of the post:
"Fix you" by Coldplay

Chemistry

I am not doing any science this year, but next year I have to take chemistry. My mom is still trying to decide where I will take the class since she doesn't want to teach it to me at home. It's possible I could take it at Castleton Christian Church with a group called Northpoint, or take it at College Park Church with Wisdom Builders. I'm not exactly looking forward to it, because Ruth and Grace say its hard. We all did Biology with Alania last year, it was an awesome class because we were together. What's your experience with Chemistry?

Wednesdays are usually lowkey at my house because nobody has any classes. Some weeks we go ice-skating, which is hopefully what we'll do today. Usually I go to Butler and do a book study on "No Little People" by Schaeffer with Shannon Koons, but she's sick, so we had to cancel. :-( But here's a quote from Schaeffer:

Quote of the post:
"Quietness and peace before God are more important than any influence a position may seem to give, for we must stay in step with God to have the power of the Holy Spirit." - Francis Schaeffer

Okay

Yesterday I forgot to mention that I'm in a blogging contest. For those of you who are not in the contest know that each of your comments gives me points. So if you read my blog, please leave comments because it'll move me up in the standings.

I had to read and then write a report this past week on Animal Farm by George Orwell. I didn't think it was a hard book to read, but it had a lot of underlying principles and things to figure out about how it relates to World War II and Communism. The basic story line is about animals who live on a farm with master who is very cruel which makes them unhappy. There is a rebellion and they get rid of the master and resolve to rule themselves and have a better life. It doesn't go so well, they take a whole circle and at the end are right back where they started. I don't want to say too much and ruin the story for all you people who haven't read it. But, I will say that my favorite character is Boxer. :)

Quote of the post:
"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals." -George Orwell

Brownsugar Cinnamon Poptarts

I'm not usually a picky eater, but I only like one kind of poptart. Brownsugar Cinnamon without the icing. My mom got some when she went shopping today, I just ate two. I usually set them upside down for 30 seconds in the microwave and then eat them with a glass of milk. Did you know that each pastry has 210 calories? But, I'm not feeling guilty because this past weekend was a divisional swim meet.

It was held at Noblesville highschool. It was a really long meet because the prelims were in the morning and the finals were at night, meaning I had to swim twice. I placed in the 200 breast and got a medal for seventh place.

I'm really excited because my Mom ordered me sheet music. We ordered "100 years", "Incomplete" and "Wake me up when September ends." I don't know how well I'll be able to play the music, but hopefully between Ruth and I we'll have fun with vocals and piano! :)

Quote of the post:
"Sometimes we do not do things we want to do so that others will not know we want to do them." - Ivy Walker

Song of the post:
"100 years" by Five for Fighting

Today...

This is an episode in the life of Ellie.

Ellie's mother asked her to make dinner. After examining the cabinets in search of ideas of what to make, she decided on spaghetti because it wouldn't be too complicated. She took the ground beef out of the freezer and defrosted it in the microwave. Ellie placed the pan in which she intended to cook the meat on the stove and busied herself with something else until the meat was defrosted. Taking the meat out of the microwave she put it in the pan and left the kitchen intending to retrieve her book while the meat started to cook. She took around six minutes to do this, and came back to the kitchen expecting to see her meat cooking, but to her dismay she had forgotten to turn the stove on. She sighed and thought to herself, I should post this on my blog.

Song of the post:
"I'm with you" by Avril Lavigne

Dido

My car officially has a name now. I had come up with Charlie, and then George, but neither of those really fit my car. Then last week in Worldview we started reading the Aeneid by Virgil. For those of you who haven't read it, its the continuation of the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer. The main character is Aeneas who is trying to get to Italy obeying the will of Zeus. In the story there is a beautiful queen named Dido. She was married and loved her husband very much, but he died and she decided she would never love again and became very bitter. When Aeneas visits her kingdom, Hera and Aphrodite devise a plan to keep Aeneas from going to Italy by causing Dido to fall deeply in love with him. They used an arrowed from Cupid, and performed a marriage that wasn't official. After all this, Zeus tells Aeneas he must leave and Dido is heartbroken and so she commits suicide. Later in the story Aeneas goes to the underworld to visit his father and he sees her, but she won't even speak to him. End of story - and so my car is named Dido.

Song of the post:
"Vincent" by Josh Groban

Happy Valentines Day!!!

I was trying to think of something profound to post, but nothing came to mind. So here's a verse, quote, and a song for you to think about.

Verse:
"I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I warn you whom to fear; fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows." - Luke 12: 4-7

Quote:
"Love. What is love? No one can define it, its something so great, only God could design it. Yes, love is beyond what man can define, for love is immortal, and God's gift is divine." -Unknown

EDIT: I decided to change the song. :)

Song:
"From this moment on" by Bryan White and Shania Twain

Utopianism

I am reading No Little People by Francis Schaeffer, this week the chapter was about the Weaknesses of God's Servants. Schaeffer goes into great detail about how terrible utopianism is. A utopian is a person who believes in impossibly idealistic social perfection or spiritual perfection. Utopianism is terribly cruel because it expects the impossible from people. Its bad in a marriage relationship, a parent-child relationship, in friend relationships, pastor- church relationships and in one's relationship with himself . One side makes up an image of the other and expects them to be just like that image, demanding more than is possible to give. Here's Schaffer's quote: "If we demand, in any of our relationships, either perfection or nothing, we will get the nothing." I definitely think this is something we need to be reminded of once in a while. Sin is sin and we shouldn't try to explain it away, but having a standard that is too high is also wrong. Can you guys tell me what you think about this please?

Yesterday I was able to go snowboarding with my friends! I had a blast. I drove with the Youngs down and back. It was Jessica's first time snowboarding so she had to learn from the beginning, but I think everyone that went had a good time. Today I am really sore, my butt hurts, my arms hurt, my knees hurt and my neck, head... all of me. lol. But, despite the soreness I want to go again this winter. That means we need to plan another trip soon.

Quote of the post:
"Pain is no evil unless it conquers us."

Song of the post:
"May it be" by Enya

Sports

This morning I had another swim meet. It was held at the Nat, the pool at IUPUI. I think it went well overall, I dropped time in 3 of my 4 events, but the 200 breast is being depressing. Every event I've swam this year I've dropped at least 5 seconds in, except for the 200 breast. Each time I swim it I always get a 3:01. But Therese said I just need to do more breast pull and work on a greater range of motion with my arms. Hopefully I'll be able to see results.

Daniel ran the first of his training races for the mini this morning. I wasn't very happy when it was snowing this morning, but I'm sure he was even less excited. Now that I'm home, inside and warm I'm happy about the snow, but when you have to go outside with wet hair - its not pretty. Anyway - I'm very proud of Daniel for running the 5K in the snow. Which reminds me, I need to start training for the mini, definitely not something I'm looking forward to. :P

Question of the post:
What is your favorite sport and why?

My answer is obvious. Swimming is my favorite sport, I love it so much. Why, is harder to explain. I suppose it might be because its one of the only sports I can do and enjoy. But also because you can do it all year round and see results. Being fast doesn't account for everything, swimming works so many different muscles and its hard to be a fat swimmer. I guess the one downside would be "swimmers shoulders."Almost every swimmer has them, both girls and boys. Anyway, I'm excited to hear what you all say. :)

Song of the post:
"Hero" by Enrique Iglesias
I know this is the same song as before, but its one of the those ones I can listen to over and over and never get tired of it. :)

Feelings:

I was reading some of my old posts and I remember loving this when I posted it before, so here it is again. I changed several, but it still shows the way I feel right now.

I am not: normal
I hurt: deep in my soul
I love: with my whole heart
I hate: sin
I hope: in God
I hear: voices in my head
I crave: coffee
I cry: every night
I always: dream
I long to: grow up
I feel alone: in this world
I listen: but I don't hear anything
I hide: where no one can find me
I drive: everyone crazy
I sing: and can't stop
I dance: with you
I search: for meaning
I feel: sad
I fail: constantly
I sleep: when my mind and body are tired
I need: a hug
I am: scared
I think: so I can do right
I exist: to glorify God in everything I do