Unveiling the thoughts and amusements of Willis

2004-03-04T11:59:00.000-05:00

a great bumper sticker I saw on campus last night

I'd rather play Rugby and lose, than win in Softball.

2004-02-26T10:06:00.000-05:00

I went and saw The Passion of the Christ last night. I have not seen such a long line in the theater ever!!!! It reached to the middle of the parking lot. I brought a bunch of people from campus and we all barely made it in. The 200 people theater was packed out!

It was pretty silent in there. Very overwhelming. I squirmed. I cried. I prayed. He was innocent. He never did a thing! He went through all that for those laughing soldiers who scourged Him. He holds the Power. Go see the movie.

2004-02-20T19:12:00.000-05:00

Our computer has been down for awhile, we got a virus. So now I am sitting at the college's computers, all sweaty, because I just got out of the gym. My wrist is finally healed enough that I can lift again! I've done so much cardio work and leg lifting since I hurt my wrist, that now my arms are screaming at me. Nope, no more vacation for you.

I'm still loving my job at Greek Peak. I've been snowboarding a ton - strange isn't it? I still love winter and wish it would last a very long time! Go back to bed groundhogs!

I've got down Josh Groban's song "To Where You Are"! I've been playing it on the piano and singing it, and it's really coming together. We won't talk about my other pieces...

Well I'm a big girl now - at least I like to pretend I am - I got a cell phone and a credit card. Ooooo... So, what are you doing tonight?

2004-02-20T19:04:00.000-05:00

a quote from the sis

"I like it when Teresa drives. Because no matter what time we leave, we always get there on time."

2004-02-07T19:38:00.000-05:00

I'm back home! After a few delays, my family picked me up from the airport and took my out for my birthday dinner... Ichiban's Japenese resteraunt!!! It's awesome there, the chef comes out and tooks right at your table. You sit all around a huge skillet that he cooks on. He's amazing, he flips knives everywhere, juggles eggs, flips shrimp tails into his pockets and hat... it's so fun! I gave him mad props for his Patriots wear! His hat and kerchief had Patriots all over it. So what do you think of that team, eh? They kick, huh? Come on let me hear it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I watched the game down at Grandma's amidst all the Panther fans. But who won?? It was the greatest game I've ever watched. I did a little victory dance at the end and my relatives all through popcorn at me.

Jimmy, Michael and Shannon met us at Ichiban's and we bashed it up. The waitresses came out and sang Happy Birthday in Japenese! And I said "comenichiwaw", which some fruit told Dad it meant 'hi' in Japenese.

It's good to be home. Back to snow and ice and snowboarding!

2004-02-05T17:19:00.000-05:00

Well I did it. I went and saw Les Miserables!!!! WOW. WOW. WOW. Absolutely incredible. They came down here to Broadway at the Beach.

I turned 19 today. Sad. I'm becoming an old fart.

2004-02-05T17:17:00.000-05:00

I finally made it down here to Myrtle Beach to visit my Grandma. My flight was cancelled three days in a row due to snow. We got 2 ft in 48 hours! From what I hear, it's still going on. Down here it's been cool - or so they say - feels great to me! My awesome red-headed friend Jessie Long came and saw me the first weekend I was here! She's from August, GA, I met her at STEP.

2004-02-05T17:14:00.000-05:00

I walked down the street and saw squirrels running up and down a tree. A little further I saw a cat sitting in a driveway. I said to the cat "If you want dinner, there are some squirrels down the street!" A little further I walked, and a dog ran out and barked at me. I said "I don't know what you're barking at. But if you want dinner, there is a cat down the street!" Awhile later I walked back down the same street and saw the dog sleeping peacefully in the sun. I never found the cat or the squirrels.

2004-01-19T19:24:00.000-05:00

I haven't written in awhile (no DUH willis). I sprained my right wrist really bad and it's slowed my typing down quite a lot. I landed a jump wrong in the snowboard park. You should see my handwriting - it's atrocious! So no, maybe you shouldn't see it. Advil come to mamasita!

I went to Rochester this weekend for a friend's birthday party. Sarah and I went up Saturday and came home last night. When we got back my cousin Elizabeth was here! She just got out of the Marines boot camp last week. It was great to eat pistachios and hear her stories of yelling DIs. I wore my Marines shirt just for her. haha

2004-01-10T20:01:00.000-05:00

She walked in with her shoulders back and her head high. She smiled just a little to proove she was a 'nice' person, but her stiff back prooved her to be 'higher than'. She sat and talked and laughed just enough for everyone to like her, but little enough to keep her 'cooler than' status. The way she carried herself demanded everyone's admiration and submissive friendship. Once in a while she met with someone just like her. And a great dislike would fester in her bosom for such a person. She thought them rude and cold. She kept up her facade until final submission prevailed from the other person, or she wrote them off like she didn't care if they were her friend or not.

But what was on the inside of her? Did she care? Why was the 'cool' mask so important to keep up? What gigantic effort would it take to break her down to a real, genuine girl?

2004-01-10T19:51:00.000-05:00

"Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might
as well dance."

2004-01-03T18:37:00.000-05:00

For the first time I tried a skirt-over-pants combo. I wore black stretch pants with a big blue Irish scarf/shawl wrapped around. It felt awesome. I wonder how it looked?

2004-01-01T20:39:00.000-05:00

"I dreamed that seven fat cows were grazing on a luscious hill. Then I saw seven scrawny cows come up and gulp down the seven fat cows! What does the dream mean? I must know!

Then I dreamed that I was standing in front of a large group of people in my underwear. What was that about?"

2003-12-31T21:24:00.000-05:00

By the way HAPPY NEW YEAR to all persons who's eyeballs are looking at this screen! Yes that means YOU.... Alright now I'm happy because I feel like a cheesy radio announcer.

2003-12-31T21:23:00.000-05:00

YES. Ted and I went to Syracuse and we bought a spankin' brand new K2 Luna board! YES. I am way phsyched! I can't believe it! God is too good to me! I got some new '02 Burton bindings for it too. Way good name brand stuff. Sarah, Ted, Jim and Mike all pitched in money to help me out, since they were all a ton madder than I was about my old board getting jacked. So yeah, God is providing for me, and I don't deserve it. I almost feel guilty taking that money from them. I mean, come on, who's fault was it anyway? No ones! All I say is that theiving dude better become a Christian from that "John 3:16 Reborn?" sticker I had on there. Funny thing... Ted was saying how he told his fellow workers in the Rental shop how my board was lifted, and they were all like "Alright if we see a Nitro board come through here, we're taking that kid down with a ski pole." Ted told them "Yeah and you better save him til my sister gets here. Then you better call in the police way in advance cause you know bad stuff is going to happen when she gets here." And they were like "Wait and she works in the Welcome Center?" And Ted said "Yeah man she can be all smiley and sweet and professional, but man you rub her the wrong way too hard and that's it!"

I don't think I would hurt that kid, I'm over that. Thankfully I've mostly grown out of my severe anger/revenge problems I used to have as young fool.

Man I am so blessed though to have this suave board! I can't get over it. I don't want to think about how much cash I forked out, but hey, I'll have it for a long time. Though somehow I feel I will cry the day I get a scratch in the bottom. And Ted was such the best how he helped me out with shopping. The salesman I got it from was perfect too. It was the third shop we hit. He was real personable and was an overflowing cup of info. He sounds crazy good on the snow too. He instructs and also is a sponsored rider. I told Ted "I don't want to go anywhere else, I really need to buy a deck from this guy."

YES.

2003-12-28T18:31:00.000-05:00

Maybe I'm keeping it in too much. I haven't cried or yelled or pronounced curses on the offender. But is that good? Or am I bottling it in? Maybe I should go out and do all my crying, yelling and punching through walls, and after that I'd be alright? Or should I keep calmly going along and consoling myself by not thinking through what I should do about it? Man that was a long sentance.

2003-12-28T18:27:00.000-05:00

Someone stole my snowboard from the rack at Greek Peak. I went in to the resteraunt and when I came back out, it was goneso. Not funny.

2003-12-18T00:11:00.000-05:00

opening night

We got the tickets three weeks ago, and good thing since it was sold out the week after that. We got to the theater 40 minutes early and the line was already curved around the hallway and going the other way.
It's the awesomest movie yet. Yea baby Eowyn's time came! I'm going again.

2003-12-15T22:08:00.000-05:00

"Ladies and gentlemen, we got him."

2003-12-12T13:03:00.000-05:00

If I ever get encored during the Christmas season I want to sing and do the little Rockette dance to Melle-Kelliki-Maka. The little dance was choreographed by my sisters and I about 8 years ago while we sang into whisks.

2003-12-11T13:40:00.000-05:00

How have you been liking my sporadic blogging? Yeah I will definitely blame it on the time of year. I love this time of year, however it is a mucical overwhelming season! It seems like at least twice a week there is something to perform at. I have to mention my favorite thing I've done so far is recite Luke 2:1-20 to the soothing sounds of Sarah playing O Little Town of Bethlehem and Silent Night on the piano. Monolouges are fun. I've completed all my shopping. I will probably continue though, and then save some things for next year's birthdays. (-:

I started work at the ski resort - Greek Peak. I'm working in the Welcome Center doing Customer Service. I've only had two nasty people so far. Through both of them I was all smiley and they better have gone home and become Christians.

2003-12-11T13:28:00.000-05:00

language difficulties

I've been catching myself using a very out-there phrase - "pretty much mostly just..." For example: someone at work asked me where to put a pile of accounting papers and my reply was "pretty much mostly just right there in the counter." I mean, Hello Willis! What kind of vocab is that? That is pretty much mostly just unprofessional and non-english!!

2003-12-05T11:37:00.000-05:00

Innocently I marched through the snow towards the horse pasture. I was happily conversing with two friends, Kristina and Emily, about their two horses, who I was about to meet. Without warning, my boot came in contact with something very slippery, and I flipped backwards and landed in the snow as if I was going to make a snow angel! As I got up I looked behind me and said "WHAT was THAT?" Before I could look forwards again I stepped on it a second time, and 'vroop-whap' (that's exactly the sound effect I would use if I were telling you this in person) there I was involuntarily making another snow angel. I looked down and realized I had been slipping on large sheets of metal siding. Kristina, between her laughs, explained that they were going to use them for siding their horse shelter, and had laid them out on the grass, but now they were covered with 6 inches of snow! I carefully stood up. I was pretty shaky by this time from laughing. I took two steps, when what do you know Kristina steps on a sheet of metal, and 'bam' she falls and slides right into me, so 'ka-bam' I fall again. Emily takes one more step and 'ka-bam' she lands next to us! We were laughing so hard, I barely could wheeze out, "Land mines everywhere!!!!!!" We finally picked up all our bodies and carefully surveyed the deceiving snow before we took another step. "Now there's another one right there, I can tell," Kristina said, pointing to a large rectangel outline in the snow. "Good eye, good eye..." I said as I warily picked my way to the horses.

2003-11-28T17:07:00.000-05:00

We had a great Thanksgiving! We ate at about 3:30. After dishes, the 'merry band of sisters' did their traditional skit. It was quite funny! All the lines were poetry, and all along the way, were interruptions ("commercials"). For example... "Charles Sawyer was a pilgrim lad, who feeling very perky, once misty day set out to hunt the wild New England..." "Turkey! Turkeys for sale! Come on down to Loin Chopper and buy your turkeys!!"

We watched a Bill Cosby video. Jim, Mike, Ted, Sare and I stayed up way too late and talked about every random thing in the world. Yeah I think we've solved most of it's problems too. Shape up or whack!

I slept in today to 11:30am. Ahhhhhh. Beautiful thing. I had to get up to go to my chiropracter appointment. Afterwards Sarah and I went to the recording studio where our voice coach is recording her CD. We sang one of her songs for her. It went pretty well. I had to sing my track twice. It was easier the second time because I could sing with Sarah's track. The sound tech hadn't recorded hers until after I sang my first one.

Jim and Mike (the notorious cousins) came Wednesday and they'll be here until Sunday. Yeah! It's so nice to have guys around here!!! Balance this place out a little!

2003-11-21T07:43:00.000-05:00

Each time that I have decided to go to the fitness center at 6 am (when it first opens), I have thought as I drove there in the dark, frosty morning, "Why in the world am I doing this?" And then as I drive home an hour later, "I should do this every morning!"

2003-11-20T12:24:00.000-05:00

Dad and I took a big load of barn junk to the dump yesterday. While we were unloading it started pouring rain. And I mean POURING! We were so drenched it didn't even matter if we walked through a 6 in. puddle. As we got back into the truck, we were both sitting a little strange and Dad said, "Is it just me or does it feel like we're wearing wet diapers?"

2003-11-19T14:46:00.000-05:00

Editing Sarah's term paper with her

Me - How about something more like 'and Deborah's life took on several new avenues'.
Mom (from the living room) - As long as you don't put 'and stuff'!
Sarah - Ha!
Me - That's a great idea! 'And Deborah's life and stuff, took on some new stuff and stuff changed and stuff. It was cool and different stuff happened and stuff.' I like it!
Sarah - Noooooooooooooo!

Me - That's a stupid line, I don't like it. Backspace. Okay, you need to make this flow from one paragraph to the next. How about this....
Sarah - No that's stupid. It doesn't 'flow'!
Me - Okay fine, it's your paper. Your grade.
Sarah - Okay fine. What was that thing you were saying?

Mom (walking by) - I don't see how you girls can work anything out! You have the strangest way of communicating.
Me - Mmm-hmm.
Sarah - Hmm-mmm-MM. See we understand each other, Mom.
Me - Though the other person can be quite strange.
Sarah - Mmmm.

2003-11-19T14:40:00.000-05:00

talk about multi-tasking

While diligently pedaling away on an exercise bike, I noticed a middle aged women walking briskly on a treadmill while reading a book, listening to music on her headphones, and watching the TV.

2003-11-11T16:14:00.000-05:00

The peace of God is joy resting.
The joy of God is peace dancing.

2003-11-10T10:13:00.000-05:00

I am a white girl. And always will be. Can't change it.

2003-11-05T10:18:00.000-05:00

I voted for the first time!!! They were all laughing at me because I had to hugest smile on my face when I went in and hugest smile when I came out.

2003-11-03T22:19:00.000-05:00

military wisdom

"Aim towards the Enemy." - Instruction printed on US Rocket Launcher

"When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend. - U.S. Marine Corps

"Cluster bombing from B-52s is very, very accurate. The bombs are guaranteed to always hit the ground." - U.S.A.F. Ammo Troop

"If the enemy is in range, so are you." - Infantry Journal

"A slipping gear could let your M203 grenade launcher fire when you least expect it. That would make you quite unpopular in what's left of your unit." - Army's magazine of preventive maintenance.

"It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed." - U.S. Air Force Manual

"Try to look unimportant; they may be low on ammo." - Infantry Journal

"Tracers work both ways." - U.S. Army Ordnance

"Five-second fuses only last three seconds." - Infantry Journal

"Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid." -- David Hackworth

"If your attack is going too well, you're walking into an ambush." - Infantry Journal

"No combat-ready unit has ever passed inspection." - Joe Gay

"Any ship can be a minesweeper... once." -Anon

"Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do." - Unknown Marine Recruit

"Don't draw fire; it irritates the people around you." -Your Buddies

"If you see a bomb technician running, try to keep up with him." - U.S.A.F. Ammo Troop

2003-11-03T22:18:00.000-05:00

Samuel Thompson wrote: I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I'm not going to sue somebody for singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December. I don't agree with Darwin, but I didn't go out and hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his theory of evolution. Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be endangered because someone says a 30-second prayer before a football game. So! what's the big deal? It's not like somebody is up there reading the entire book of Acts. They're just talking to a God they believe in and asking him to grant safety to the players on the field and the fans going home from the game. "But it's a Christian prayer," some will argue. Yes, and this is the United States of America, a country founded on Christian principles. And we are in the Bible Belt. According to our very own phone book, Christian churches outnumber all others better than 200-to-1. So what would you expect-somebody chanting Hare Krishna? If I went to a football game in Jerusalem, I would expect to hear a Jewish prayer. If I! went to a soccer game in Baghdad, I would expect to hear a Muslim prayer. If I went to a ping pong match in China, I would expect to hear someone pray to Buddha. And I wouldn't be offended. It wouldn't bother me one bit. When in Rome... "But what about the atheists?" is another argument. What about them? Nobody is asking them to be baptized. We're not going to pass the collection plate. Just humor us for 30 seconds. If that's asking too m uch, bring a Walkman or a pair ! of ear plugs. Go to the bathroom. Visit the concession stand. Call your lawyer. Unfortunately, one or two will make that call. One or two will tell thousands what they can and cannot do. I don't think a short prayer at a football game is going to shake the world's foundations. Christians are just sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our courts strip us of all our rights. Our parents and grandparents taught us to pray before eating, to pray before we go to sleep. Our Bible tells us just to pray without ceasing. Now a handful of people and their lawyers are telling us to cease praying. God, help us. And if that last sentence offends you, well..........just sue me.. The silent majority has been silent too long.. it's time we let that one or two who scream loud enough to be heard, that the vast majority don't care what they want.. it is time the majority rules! It's time we tell them, you don't have to pray.. you don't have to say the pledge of allegiance, you don't have to believe in God or attend services that honor Him. That is your right, and we will honor your right.. but by golly you are no longer going to take our rights away .. we are fighting back.. and we WILL WIN! After all the God you have the right to denounce is on our side! God bless us one and all, ! especially those who denounce Him... God bless America, despite all her faults.. still the greatest nation of all..... God bless our service men who are fighting to protect our right to pray and worship God... May 2003 be the year the silent majority is heard and we put God back as the foundation of our families and institutions. Keep looking up...... In God WE Trust!

2003-11-03T22:16:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday night I saw the aurora borealis! Or maybe it was a solar flare. Whatever it was it was HUGE and RED and AWESOME!! It was pitch black outside, and this eery, hazy red streak stretched across the entre sky.

2003-11-03T22:14:00.000-05:00

This time I have a really great excuse. We haven't had a phone for a week! The reason being that we are getting 'real' power up here. We've been off the grid for five years and have made our own energy/electricity. But this past week we dug a long huge ditch and put in a chord to plug into the system. ("....that system is our enemy. It holds captive the very minds of the people we are trying to rescue...." sorry, Matrix tangent.) We got the phone back on today, and got a new phone line, so the business and the personal will be seperate. And the computer will be on the personal.

Yesterday my choir had their African-American Gospel Choir Festival. We rocked the house! Four other schools came and joined us. Since we were the host choir we got to open and close, so we sang six songs in all. It was powerful! I had the best time grooving and singing! We had big ol' robes on. So finally the girls breathed correctly because they weren't worrying about their 'fat'ness. This Saturday we are doing another concert at a Methodist church.

2003-10-23T11:25:00.000-04:00

Man it's been a whole week. And now I'm on the computer when I really should be doing something else. But that's normal right? I mean... when are you ever on the computer when it is what you really SHOULD be doing? Except of course doing school, research, or placing an order. But normal, everyday, on-the-computerness is usually at a time when we should be doing something else. Usually I do good at doing all the right stuff. So today I'm on the computer. And now I'm getting off to go do the stuff.

2003-10-16T13:18:00.000-04:00

Yes, No, and Wait

At BASIC last night the pastor talked about the three answers God gives to our prayers: yes, no, and wait. He read the passage about when God told David that He wanted a temple, but He didn't want David to build it. It was for Solomon to build. The pastor talked about having sex outside of marriage. When it comes knocking on your door you so want the answer to be yes! But God is saying no. And dating. You really want God to say YES this time! But God might be saying no, or wait. It doesn't mean that person is evil or wicked. It means God has something better for you in mind. As Christians we have the will of God to answer to. Aren't you glad we're not on our own?!

I do not take 'no' very well. This sermon really helped me to see though it may irke me, God's will is way better than the yes I want so bad.

2003-10-16T13:06:00.000-04:00

I love the black gospel choir I'm in. The difference between this and the white choir is that in white choir you read the notes and sing them out of a book. You sing the song the same way every time you sing it, just like the book says to. Usually the song consists of a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus, and maybe bridge, then chorus. In gospel choir you have to feel the music and pick out the notes after he plays your part for you on the piano. From then on you have to remember those notes and hopefully hit them everytime. The song usually consists of a couple lines about Jesus that you repeat whenever the director feels like you should. When he gets tired of one line, he cues you to repeat the next one. Then the sopranos, altos and tenors take turns saying them by themselves.

In white choir the director wants you to sing in phalsetto and blend nicely with everyone else. In gospel choir the director thinks phalsetto is when you didn't suck in enough air, and he wants balance, which means the altos aren't drowning out everyone else.

In white choir you have to stick your neighbor with a pin in order to get them to move with the music. In gospel choir everybody sways and claps together.

In white choir the director plays all the notes by the book. In gospel choir the director points and laughs and shakes his head, and raises his hands up and down for the different notes, and asks if anyone brought him some chicken along with the paycheck.

In white choir you sing, and then go home. In gospel choir you have church, and go home singing.

2003-10-14T15:11:00.000-04:00

I decided to quit dance for the rest of the year. Ted and I are signing up at the fitness center so that will keep me busy on nights I am not busy already. I don't have any thoughts about what to do to pursue drama/acting at this point. I'll have to keep waiting on God! "He will keep you in perfect peace who's mind is stayed on you."

Had a good work day at Hollenbecks. I got out for lunch just as the Petrellas came to buy donuts, so I ate with them. I could eat lunch with Mr. Petrella everyday! He is the funniest. I could barely chew my cheese when he said about a mutual friend, "Yeah he's the one that looks like a halocaust victim."

The guy that makes the donuts in the donut room is Mr. Collier, and then Jeff powders them and I wait on people. (You would be jealous is you could see my groovy apron and hair net.) Jeff is such a corny kid. He's got this thing about "the goony birds are flying". I have no idea what that means but it always makes me want to crack up. I try desperately to remain stoic but it's just so stupid that I can't help it! Ahh!

We all went to the zoo on Sunday for Anna's 8th birthday. That was great fun. I loved the tiger. He looks so majestic and powerful. The monkeys were a riot. They were swinging around and flipping upside down. The elephants were pretty neat. They did some tricks like balancing on their front feet.

This Friday Sarah's history class is going on a field trip to Philedelphia. So I'm going to. It should be awesome, I love visiting historical sights, and I haven't explored Philly yet.

2003-10-06T10:25:00.000-04:00

It snowed here!!! Yeah! My favorite season of the year is coming.

Thursday night at dance I had a break through, we were dancing to a song that talked about surrendering all. As I ended the dance I started thinking about my life and how I was doing all these things that might just be a waste of time. I needed to surerrender everything to the Lord and get my priorities straight. I thought about dance. We have dance Bible Study before we actually dance. The other members of the team get so pumped up and excited about what God's Word says about dance, and flags and banners. And honestly, I just don't feel it. I thought about different times a member and felt powerfully moved by watching a dance. And for real, I didn't feel it. Then I thought about what I DO feel. I feel drama and I fell music. You really want to get me going? Involve me in drama or music. They are what makes my heart beat. It's in my blood. So why am I dancing? I thought "The team needs me. I can't just leave them!" God said to me, "Hello kid don't you think I can take care of the team? Whose team is it anyway? You actually think you position in the team is so important that if I tell you to leave, you can't??? If you stepped away, I am capable of supplying that team with FIVE dancers, whose hearts beat for dance!"

The whole night I struggled. I kept going back and forth. I wanted to talk to someone, but I realized since I am so busy and do so much STUFF, that I didn't really have that many people I could talk to. God told me I should talk to Kerri, my dance coach. Oh great. Just the person who would probably NOT understand how anyone cannot feel dance! I told God "Only if a miracle happens and we end up together by ourselves." Sure enough, everyone left rather quickly at the end of practice, and there I was with Kerri. So I talked to her, and I cried, and she understood. She councilled me and prayed for me, and released me from the team, if that was what God was telling me to do. Wow. God orchestrated it all. I feel so much freedom, so much peace. My priority list has changed from Stuff, Stuff, and Stuff, to GOD, PEOPLE, and stuff. People are so important. I was so blessed to be able to have such a long good conversation with Kerri. It's been way too long since I'd had a deep talk with anyone. It's been forever since I've cried.

Just like the Bible says, He shook me. He shook my thought processes and what I thought was so important. He told me to hold things loosely and pursue the things that He's put into my blood. I'm not leaving dance this week. All I know is that I am going to hold it loosely and I will obey God when He tells me to drop out.

I've had so much JOY since Thursday night, it's incredible. I worked at Hollenbeck's making donuts for 10 hours on Saturday. I had the biggest smile and sang all day. Everyone who came to my window went away smiling. I smiled even bigger when Kerri and Nicole showed up with a big bouquet of flowers for me. My legs didn't hurt and I didn't get a headache. God You are awesome! And truly the joy of the Lord gives you energy!

2003-09-29T21:49:00.000-04:00

Mom is home! She's been gone a week, and she just walked in the door. I've been playing mom all week, plus doing my stuff, and it's been a good challenge for me! Meals, cleaning, laundry, picking up after the family... (-: (shhhh, don't tell them that or I'll be stoned) (no not in that way you sicko)

I worked at Hollenbeck's cider mill all day Saturday, making donuts and operating the donut window. It went really good and the day zipped by! It was opening day, so the line was crazy long. Then tonight I worked out at the front counter and learned to operate the cash register and the cider pump. That was pretty cool. It was just me out there. The owner was back in the bakery.

I went down to our music room and listened to Ted's songs. He's got some cool guitar riffs going on down there! He's written two songs in the past two weeks, and they are really professional. I asked him if he wanted to put them on the demo CD Sarah and I are making this fall and he was all excited about it.

2003-09-25T11:45:00.000-04:00

I love it when I stick my hand in my pocket and come out with money.

2003-09-23T11:03:00.000-04:00

call me she says

I can't get away from it.

Everytime I fly out of state, she says to me, "Call as soon as you get to your destination! And here is a 120 minute calling card. Call as often as you like, I'll be waiting to hear from you! Don't forget to call!"

I took her to the airport yesterday. She'll be out of state for a week. I fought the urge to say to her, "Call as soon as you get there so I know you're safe. And I'll be sitting on the phone waiting to hear from you everyday! Here's a calling card, call as often as you like!" I finally conquered that urge. Besides, no one needs to tell HER to call! And I didn't really care if she called or not, the urge was simply sarcastic.

As we approached the security check she turns to me and says, "Now call me as often as you need to. You know the number. So if you have any questions at all give me a ring, I'll be there! I don't know when I can call, because I'll be busy, especially when I first get there. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you! Bye! Don't forget to call!"

I can't get away from it.

2003-09-23T10:55:00.000-04:00

For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flowers falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.

James 1:11

2003-09-20T17:02:00.000-04:00

Went to the Syracuse football game this afternoon against Central Florida. We didn't have tickets, so I got to watch Dad banter back and forth with a scalper. That was humorous! Dad did great. Pretty funny how Dad and the scalper walked away smiling because they both thought they got a bargain. The tickets were the BEST seats I've ever had... right in the season ticket section on the 50 yard line, about the 15th row.

SU won 38 - 14!! GO ORANGEMEN! They are now 2 - 1. It was 14 - 14 at half time, so yeah it was an exciting game.

2003-09-20T16:56:00.000-04:00

I watched Matchstick Men two nights ago and I'm still trying to figure it all out!

2003-09-19T15:12:00.000-04:00

Another thing I found in my desk: my notes from Bush's State of the Union address, dated January 28, 2003. A couple quotes I just had to post:

"The course of this nation does not depend on the choices of others."

"Sometimes peace must be defended."

2003-09-19T15:09:00.000-04:00

I was cleaning out my desk and came across this list. It's dated "Palm Sunday, April 13, 2003".

What I Am Thankful For:
travelling
STEP
financial stability
Christian awesome loving Dad
my sister Emily - our friendship
driving a 4x4 Chevy pick-up
visiting Valerie
dance team
a voice to sing
God's mercy on Ted
our church fellowship and the whole Body of Christ
Mom - her terrific friendship and love
Sarah - her love for God, her encouragement
Ab & Anna - fun times we have together!
my horses
James Kirkwyland [boy I babysit]
Jim & Mike
today
radio & TV
rescued POWs
ways God has changed me
President Bush
Syracuse b-ball won championship
my instruments I can play
oppurtunities to act

2003-09-18T22:41:00.000-04:00

Weird dream. Most of my dreams are weird. But this was plain funny. Funny because there is a .1% chance that it could actually happen. I was at Valerie's house. We were outside in the rain, walking down the street having a great conversation. Suddenly and without warning, Valerie sits down in the middle of a big puddle.

The closest thing that actually happened was that we discussed puddle jumping. Valerie has never done that before. Before she makes a mistake I feel the need to explain to her the difference between puddle JUMPING and puddle BATHING.

Meanwhile (in the dream) David was inside chasing Luke around trying to feed him a spoonful of applesauce.

Don't ask.

2003-09-12T10:24:00.000-04:00

Sarah and I went to dance last night. It ended at 9pm, but then we waited outside the college for awhile waiting for some of the girls to be picked up. Finally their ride came, and we got in our truck. I started it up, pulled out, and shifted into drive when it stopped. Dead. Nothing. Nada. No moveay and no sounday. I pumped the gas pedal and tried starting it again. The starter was clicking but it was not turning over at all. It wasn't the battery because the music could turn on and off and the windows went up and down. I thought it must be an electrical problem, which I have no clue how to fix. So I put it in neutral and told Sarah to steer it back into the parking spot while I pushed. Well she couldn't because there was no power steering, and I almost pushed the truck into a pole because she wasn't steering, then she put the brake on while I was pushing (didn't tell me). Meanwhile a bus was coming toward us and had to wait for me to push us for enough over for him to get by. Then I ran to the driver door, put the window down so we could communicate and turned the steering wheel where I wanted it. It wasn't going to move anywhere so Sarah came out and helped me push it backwards (away from the pole), then I turned the wheel into the parking space and pushed it in.

We tried calling home on the cell, but it was busy. We guessed Ted must be on the internet. Sarah wanted to go ask someone for help, but I didn't. I wouldn't let her call anybody else or go ask any of the football hulks walking by to help us. I wanted to wait and call Ted after he got off the web! Besides, this was an adventure! Might as well enjoy it. Sarah did, however, try to start the truck everytime a guy walked by to see what they would do. She probably wanted them to come rescue her, but usually they just looked at the truck really funny.

I wanted to walk down to Footie's Freeze and wait. I mean - we might as well be eating ice cream and waiting! But Sarah didn't want to walk that far. So we had some great talks about our lives, and finally we got a hold of Ted at 10:40pm and he came and picked us up.

2003-09-12T10:09:00.000-04:00

best 9/11 quote from the NY Times

"At a ceremony at the Justice Department, Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson, whose wife, Barbara, died on Flight 77, said that an unrelenting fight against terrorism was the best way to honor the memory of those who died on 9/11."

Another 9/11, and the Nation Mourn Again, by James Barron

2003-09-12T10:06:00.000-04:00

It's so good to be home! The first night I was here I jumped on the trampelene with Dad and my sisters. At one point Dad was sitting in the middle and we were all trying to bounce him onto his feet, when suddenly I got bounced really high.... I went sailing through the air.... I looked down and all I could see was Dad's head.... yep I landed smack on Dad's head! A second later we were both laying flat on our backs on the trampelene laughing really hard, and the next moment groaning.

On Wednesday Mom and all us girls went to Rochester to pick Ted up. He flew in yesterday from Phoenix. He says God did some really big things in him, and he is totally done with Phoenix! He deleted 30 phone numbers from his cell phone because he doesn't even want to be tempted. WOW! He's got a LOT of 'stuff' he has to work through, but he is now asking God to help him do it, and he knows God can and will save him when he cries out to him. He was totally honest with us about his life, and for the first time in seven years I respect him. Not because of his life, but because of his blunt honesty.

2003-09-09T17:14:00.000-04:00

home sweet home

Life is a adventure. For real. I left the Sillimans on Sunday morning. I said to good-bye to all them and went out with Dave and Val for breakfast ('second breakfast'). After which I said good-bye to Dave and then Val drove me to the ferry. I sadly said good-bye to her and watched her drive off into the distance. I rode the ferry over to Seattle, where Jacqueline picked me up. I spent the night at her house. Her mom took me to the airport Monday morning. I got on the plane on time, but air traffic was heavy, so we sat on the runway for an hour! By the time I landed in Newark it was 8:40pm and my connecting flight to Syracuse had already left! The 'service' people gave me a flight the next morning at 8:30, but wouldn't give me a hotel voucher because 'it wasn't their fault'. I called my parents and they wouldn't let me spend the night in the airport (wasn't 'safe'), so they booked me a hotel room at the Holiday Inn. I caught the AirTrain to the shuttle bus and went to the hotel. I couldn't find my room (didn't realize that since my room # started with a '9' my room was on the 9th floor.... learn something new everyday), so a nice pilot helped me out. Got to the room and watched the rest of the football game, wow the Bucs whooped the Eagles!! I ate a big salad that I got downstairs with my food voucher. By this time it was 11pm. I called Valerie and she thought my predicament was quite hilarious. I did too! Though it would have been 'more funner' if she had been there! I went up and jumped on the bed.... forget to the check the height of the ceiling and knocked my head. Went to sleep around midnight. I had asked the clerk to give me a wake-up call at 6:30am. Good thing because the alarm did not ring!!! Drank a couple cups of coffee and caught my flight fine to Syracuse!

Valerie says I just keep extending my vacation....... Now I am home at last. Back to real life!

2003-09-06T18:48:00.000-04:00

Had a lovely rest last night.... slept for 11 hours!!!!!! Helpus corpus! Felt greeeeeeat. Kind of funny to get up at 12noon though! Val and I are now at the library. I'm trying to see if my mom sent me the pizza recipe I requested. Better go do that now. I'll be back in New York in 2 days.

2003-09-06T18:47:00.000-04:00

It is impossible for Valerie to help me with my blog without posting on it.

The good part is now I don't have to write about my experience on the set of "Lord of the Bracelets".

2003-09-05T03:07:00.000-04:00

Well, is this the best we can do? I don't like the size of the type of your header. Shall we add comments and counter, or try another one?

My name is not Willis, but I am a girl.

Today we were elves. We had the most lovely pointy ears. I hope it was all filmed properly and that it makes it through the final editing of the movie. Willis and I (not Willis) helped everyone transform from ordinary teens, to ancient elves. Wigs on the guys, hair styling on girls, ears on all, a bit of blush, powder, ear makeup, long white robes, capes and we were elves.

Now, I suppose I ought to sign off of my friend's website. She will be quite horrified.

2003-09-04T02:16:00.000-04:00

BTW I just read what VALERIE posted two posts back. We were looking for templates for my blog (I detest the totally BORING one I have now. It was an accident), and those were our exact comments about some of the templates were came across in our search. (-: Quite scary if I had used the one of the man and woman kissing under the palm tree in the sunset.

2003-09-04T02:13:00.000-04:00

Today I went with Val to a cleaning job in the morning. Had to vacuum all the dog's hair out of the couch. It was pretty cool - the lady gave us a tip to go out to dinner! A lady did the same thing for us yesterday. What would Valerie do without me? ha ha Then I stayed home and took a nap while she went and did another job (mean lady didn't want anyone but Val). Then we went to piano lessons. Valerie taught and I noodled around on the grande in the display room. Sight read "Kiss Me" and "My Heart Will Go On". Found those books on display. So fun to play them! I started picking out some songs from my new Josh Groban book too. I drove over to the store and got Val and I a drink while she was teaching. Spoke to the clerk about the elderly man she had just waited on. He had been telling her about the new hot chic he was going to see that weekend. How funny.

We went out for dinner, then went for a bike ride. Which we started at 8:10pm and it was totally dark! But we made it to the Railroad bridge where our other car was parked around 9:30pm. It was really fun riding in the dark.

On the way home I was driving Valerie's car (she was driving the other car in front of me) and I had a great praying time with Jesus. Prayed for everyone I could think of, including myself. (So how are you all feeling?) It was an awesome 'alone' time with Him!

I leave on Monday the 8th. (sad) I'm going to Seattle on Sunday early afternoon though and I will spend Sun. night with Jackie!!

2003-09-02T00:57:00.000-04:00

"Ooohhh....that would be kind of cool. It would completely freak my friends out."
"And they'd be like 'What is Teresa doing in Washington?'"

2003-09-02T00:41:00.000-04:00

Under construction. Please excuse the mess.

2003-08-31T02:33:00.000-04:00

We went to Victoria, Canada today! We as in Valerie, Sarah Craft and I. It was very beautiful there! We were the attractive tourists who went to all the tourist attractions.

I prolonged my visit here for another week. YEAH!!!!!!!!! Can't imagine leaving TOMORROW! That would have been horrible.

2003-08-21T11:26:00.000-04:00

good-bye

I've been packing all day because tomorrow.....(dunt-da-da) I'm flying to Seattle to visit Valerie!!!! I'm going to hang out with some STEP girls on the first day (tomorrow *grin*): Jaimee, Jackie, Abby, Patti and Julie. It's going to be AWESOME to see them again! I'm so glad Val gets to meet some of my STEP-sisters.

Six hour plane ride........ pray they'll serve me food and a movie.

I probably won't be blogging too much while I'm there, so do something wise with your time during my absence. Okay Valerie here I come!

2003-08-18T19:46:00.000-04:00

Professional Golf Association Championship

Yesterday Dad and I spent the day up in Rochester at the PGA Tournament. One of Dad's friends gave him a couple tickets. It was an incredible experience, I will never forget it! We hung out at hole 1 and 14 (same tee-off) for a bunch of hours and watched everyone go through. There were 80 guys in all. I stood 10 feet away from Tiger Woods. He was pretty much the only name I recognized besides Mike Weir. I enjoyed watching them all, they are so laid back and are perfectionists. I think you have to be a certain personality to play such a slow game as golf. And you definitely have to be in shape. I was never surrounded by more buff guys in my life! You should see the caddies, they are absolutely incredible. They run for miles up and down fairways and greens carrying big golf bags. And the TV guys run everywhere as well!

I'm not that great at golf. But it was awesome watching them. I saw only about 3 miracle plays, like when Shaun Makeel (the guy who ended up winning the tournament) chipped up onto the green from about 100 yards away, and the ball landed 1 inch from hole 18!!

A good thing about being short: people don't mind it when you wiggle your way to the front and stand in front of them.

We went to Mike and Jim's around 8:30pm and ate pizza and watched the X Games. Mostly motor crossing and skateboarding. I drove most of the way home, Dad was too tired. I turned on Josh Groban and sang in my best baritone voice all the way home.

2003-08-16T21:39:00.000-04:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our performance....

That's how my introduction speech started at 1:10pm this afternoon.

I left the house at 8:30am. I picked up the flowers and went to the church. Everyone else arrived at 9:30. They all got their make-up and hair done. The sound/light man arrived at 10:30 and we ran through the skits and play for him. We cleared ourselves from the stage at 12noon and ate lunch. The two cute children (Isaac and Isabel) who handed out the programs arrived at 12:30 and people began arriving! I started with the intro speech. Then the performers did four skits: Misconceptions of God, Sin Chair, Race, and Me. After that we had a ten minute intermission. During that the skit performers got in their play costumes and we set up the stage for the first scene.

It went SO WELL! I was so proud of everyone! There were a couple mistakes, but they recovered very well. After the bowing Nicole handed me a bouquet of roses and a card from the entire cast. I was blown away when I opened the card and found a gift certificate to Old Navy!!!!! We filed into the lobby and greeted everyone. The audience said they really enjoyed it and praised all the actors and actresses. They said it was very professionally done. Hoop skirts and all!

Praise God for all His blessings!

2003-08-15T19:45:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!!!!! Yesterday and today we had dress rehearsals at the church. Yesterday was long, we had to move all the props and costumes into the church. The acting went a little rough too since there was so much to get used to. But the first dress rehearsal is always the 'hump' in the road. Today's rehearsal was smooth sailing!! It was terrific! I'm so proud of my cast! And the backstage people as well. We have one girl doing all the hair, two girls on make-up and a number of people helping change scenes. I love how everyone ads their talents and gifts to make the performance be all it can be!

I thank God so much for His marvelous blessings! I am so happy and can't wait for the performance tomorrow! It starts at 1pm. I have to leave at 8:30am to go pick up all the flowers and pick up the church key again. Keep us in your prayers please!

2003-08-15T19:41:00.000-04:00

where I was during the power outage

It happened in the middle of our Little Women dress rehearsal yesterday. I was in the light/sound booth, and the lights on stage starting fading in and out. Everyone looked at me like "Stop fooling with the lights", but I wasn't touching anything! Then ALL the power went out in the building. The music stopped and the emergency EXIT signs turned on. We thought a breaker had blown. We finished the play and started packing up. Then some people drove up and asked if we had power, then told me power was out all over the state!

Man was I thankful for our alternative energy! Showers anyone?

2003-08-15T19:35:00.000-04:00

out of the mouth of my sweet sister Sarah

While driving down the road at night, a car tries to pass Sarah, but then has to go back behind her because another car is coming the other way. As the car was slowing down so it could get back in it's lane, Sarah declared: "Get behind me Satan."

2003-08-12T19:18:00.000-04:00

You're Japan!
You tried to beat everyone around you physically, and when that didn't work, you turned to mental arts. Not only is this more acceptable to those people, but you're really good at mental arts. Somehow you're able to fit a great deal of industry into small spaces, and this has generated a lot of income for you. Now if you could just stop eating whale meat, you'd be making real progress.

I took the Country quiz and can NOT figure out how to paste it in with the graphics!

2003-08-12T18:52:00.000-04:00

my weekend

Friday morning I went and watched my friend's horse lesson. My dad would like to me to advance myself in horseback riding so make sure I am in tip-top condition to be instructing. I think it's a great idea and I am having fun looking at different barns and watching different lessons. After that I came home and took Ab out to the new Chinese resteraunt in town. It's so cute, I think the owners are from NYC because they have beautiful framed City posters in there. I really like the decorating. Then we went to drop off a Little Women script to "Mr. Brooke", and then hit the mall. When we left we each had $1 in our purses! I got home in time to teach a horseback lesson.

On Saturday some of us (Dad, Ted, Tony [he thinks he's our brother], Sarah and I.... we picked up Ethan as well) went to the Lafian's cottage on the lake with a bunch friends from church and did water sports. I went on the jet ski with Ted. It's so fun to do stuff with him! He drove first, and then I drove. He was holding on to me while I was driving and he yelled "You're going to flip us off!!" I was trying to fishtail.... and we DIDN'T flip off, so there! I went water skiing as well. Mr. Dovi said last summer that I was ready to drop a ski, so I tried to and did a face plant in the lake! So then I just practiced holding one foot up about a foot above the water and just practice balancing on one ski more. Then the BEST part... tubing! Keira, Liz and I went on the tube. Mr. Lafian is evil with the tube! He whipped us all around that lake, trying to flip us off! We fell off so many times in the beginning! But then we figured out his evil intentions, so we really started to think seriously about balancing. Liz was in the middle, and Keira and I were on the outsides. So I'd yell "Lean towards Keira!" and we'd all lean that way. Then "Lean toward me! Towards me!" And we stayed on!!! Then Mr. Lafian took us over huge waves, I tell you we got like 2 ft of air over them!! Dad later said he could see the shoreline under the tube. Then we hit a really huge wave and I went flying! It was the weirdest feeling ever. I literally flew into the air about 10 ft (if felt like) and splatted in the lake about 10 ft away from the tube! It was great. At the end of the ride Mr. Lafian swung the boat sharply to try to spill us all. Liz and Keira went flying, but I hung on! I was so excited. Everyone was cheering. I yelled "I won Mr. Lafian!" He said, "Yes you did! Bravo Teresa!" I stood up on the tube with my hands in the air so Dad could take a picture. Mr. Lafian was nice to me and didn't zoom off and make me fall!

On Sunday we had church at the Village Hall. Sarah and I opened with two songs (with our NEW sound system (-: ). Mr. Lafian greeted everyone, and announced that Liz, Keira and I held the tubing record for staying on the longest!!! He said the guys will have to go next time. Can't wait to see that. After church, Keira came over and we went horseback riding, then went to her house and swam in her pool.

2003-08-12T18:43:00.000-04:00

The Little Women play is to be performed this Saturday! I am so excited. Yesterday was the last regular rehearsal. Thursday and Friday are dress rehearsals, and then..... dunt-da-da! The cast is doing excellent remembering their lines and adding expression and gestures. I'm praying the skits for the pre-show will go smoothly, we haven't practiced those very recently. We'll see Thursday. If any of you live in the are, please join us. It's going to be held at Reach Out for Christ church in Freeville on Johnson Road, at 1 pm.

It's great to see the costumes. The hoop skirts are quite the interesting attire! Abby tried one on yesterday and she looked like a little bell. Whitney (the girl who's playing Beth) wore her costume during the first scene and it was funny to see her try to figure out how to sit down. You have to LIFT UP the back of it!

I copied the programs today. I went to the store and picked up extra hair spray and bobby pins - can never have too much hair stuff, right??

2003-08-03T13:59:00.000-04:00

The guys hooked up all our sound equipment outside on the porch, and they are playing a WOW worship CD really loud, and are singing to it on the mics and playing the keyboard too. It sounds awesome, I gotta go join the party!

2003-08-03T13:57:00.000-04:00

Awesome day at church today! Jim, Mike (my cousins) and Ted came with us and we went to Nicole's baptism. We learned a new song "In Christ Alone". The one from WOW, not the hymn one. It's so powerful and led us right into God's presence for the rest of the service. Then we went to the Rozzoni's pond for the baptism. Mr. Dovi and Jesse got in with Nicole. I was so blessed to see Jesse in there with his younger sister. Made me so happy to hear them testify that they are now brother and sister in Christ, not just biologically. Praise God. I took a lot of pictures with Dad's Rebel. I love that camera. After the baptism, Mr. Rogati gave Nicole a rose, which had a lot of meaning behind it that Mr. Rogati explained. All that is to say that I got this great shot. I stood behind Mr. Rogati a little to the left, so all of the rose you could see that he was holding out was about 3 inches of the top (including blossom), then behind the rose were Nicole and Mr. Dovi looking at Mr. Rogati, and a little of to the side was Jesse looking on as well. It was so beautiful, that is my fav shot of the day. I had to take three because Nicole kept glancing down, and I wanted her looking at Mr. Rogati. The shot was Dad's idea.

2003-07-30T20:30:00.000-04:00

The New York Times
Bush Looking for Means to Prevent Gay Marriage in U.S.
by David Stout
Washington, July 30

"As someone who's spoken out in strongly moral terms, what's your view on homosexuality?" a reporter asked the president.

"Yeah, I am mindful that we're all sinners," Mr. Bush replied. "And I caution those who may try to take the speck out of their neighbor's eye when they got a log in their own. I think it's very important for our society to respect each individual, to welcome those with good hearts, to be a welcoming country.

"On the other hand," Mr. Bush continued, "that does not mean that somebody like me needs to compromise on issues such as marriage. And that's really where the issue is headed here in Washington, and that is the definition of marriage. I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman. And I think we ought to codify that one way or the other. And we've got lawyers looking at the best way to do that."

2003-07-28T10:41:00.000-04:00

Wow I have the best dad on earth (in my humble, though terribly biased, opinion).... he surprised Sare and I a couple days ago with a brand new PA system!!!!!!!! Speakers, power mixer, microphones.... it's so incredible I'm still walking in a daze! A guy we know who owns a music studio (Mr. Hopper) came over and showed us how to use it. I've always wanted to know how to use a mixing board - all those knobs just enthrall me! We hooked up our DVD player to it and played one of our soundtraks through it and sang "When You Believe" for Mr. Hopper, and it sounded really impressive and professional. He turned the effect knob to 'vocal reverb' and made our voices all silvery. It was cool.

Dad walked into the house and said "Hey girls. Why don't you come outside and help me carry in a few things from the truck." He opened up the tailgate and our eyes jumped out of our heads and we had to reel them back in! We were like "No way Dad!!" He had mentioned he wanted to look into sound equipment a long time ago, but we had no inkling he meant this week!

It came just in time for us to practice for our voice recital, that was on Friday. It was great to be able to practice with mics. The recital itself went really well. God used us in His own way! I sang classical, spirituals, gospel, and contemperary. I sang two duets with Sarah: Laudamus Te and Nunca Solo. And three solos: Deep River, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and Somebody Loves You. And the finale was a trio consisting of Sarah, Naomi and I, and we sang You'll Never Walk Alone (the one by Point of Grace, not Rogers and Hammersteins). We prayed before we walked out on stage that God would be glorified. Each piece I sang I felt certain phrases He wanted me to emphasize. When I got to those phrases I knew that is what the audience needed to hear, and needed to grasp.... "You're not alone. Somebody loves you so. His name is Jesus! Ohhh Somebody loves you so!" or "Oh don't you want to go to the gospel feast? That promised land, where all is peace?"

2003-07-28T10:27:00.000-04:00

dunt-da-da... the man from the desert returns

Ted is on his way home! He's actually moving back. Praise You Jesus! He'll be here tonight. Can't wait to see the man again. I've missed him tons.

2003-07-22T14:51:00.000-04:00

Something terrible happened to my blog and now it is boring and plain and nasty looking and I lost all my comments and sidebar stuff and I'm so sad and now I feel like deleting this whole thing.

2003-07-21T17:06:00.000-04:00

Sunday at church we talked about humility. There is a misconception that humility is contrition. But really contrition is the beginning of humility, and humility should be a life style! Our life style. Humility is not just repenting of our sins. Jesus was humble in heaven, before he came to earth. He had to humble Himself in heaven in order to come to earth. And he never had sins to repent of!

What is humility? How did Jesus live it? By not doing anything except what the Father told Him to do. That is true humility.

2003-07-16T20:30:00.000-04:00

Somebody pinch me.... they're coming out with The Hobbit in 2006!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2003-07-04T12:35:00.000-04:00

what else could could happen?
a lesson in flexibility

We went to dance practice, and the whole second floor of the college was locked off! Kerri was pretty mad about it. So there we were... Sarah, Nicole, Cynthia and I standing on the sidewalk trying to figure out what to do. Finally we went to the soccer field to practice out there, but some guys were using it. So we jumped the fence into the baseball field and started dancing out there. Kerri's CD player had batteries, so we decided to dance until the juice ran out. We were right in the middle of Garments of Praise, when this man comes into the field. He goes to the side, picks up the hose and starts walking towards us. By this time we were into the irish part of the dance and were going in a circle so we starting laughing and saying to each other, "Oh great now he's going to spray us! What is this? We're going to be sprayed off the field!" Kerri went and talked to him and he said, "I am watering the field. You don't have to get off, but if you stay you'll get wet." So we got off and went under some trees and continued dancing. Next thing you know, some people come by with their dogs and start talking with the watering man! The dogs came over and were right in the middle of us, making us dance around them, and of course they had to pee! We put leaves around the "Caution" areas (-: , and kept going. One of the dogs was a Burmese Mountain dogs, and the other dog was "Benji". The mountain dog's tag said "Kaylee", so called them Benji and Kaylee. Oh my goodness it was too funny! We learned to laugh at everything that happened because, hey it's better than getting an ulcer!

2003-07-04T12:25:00.000-04:00

Two days ago was Kerri's birthday! Kerri is our dance team's coach (Hearts of Gold Worship Dance Team). And also my good friend and sister in Christ! She is 25 now! Dad made 30 year old jokes all night. (-: After dessert, Kerri asked if she could lick the chocolate cake spatula, and starting licking away. Mom jokingly said, "OK Kerri, now you have to get it all over your face like you did when you were 1!" Kerri stood there for a minute, then burst out with "Oh you mean like this?" And she wiped a big finger of chocolate frosting on her cheek. I was sitting next to her and yelled, "Camera! Camera! Who's got the camera?" Kerri took another finger full and said "And like this?" and tried to wipe it on my face, but I dodged and so she got it on my shirt. She was like "Oops." I grabbed some cake out of the pan and smooshed it on her face, and then cake, spatulas, arms and legs were flying everywhere! The moms gasped, the dads laughed, the little kids were thinking "I wanna do that!", and the ditzy girls were like "gross".

Then of course we had to go inside and wash each other off with washcloths. Kerri had sat on some cake with her khaki capris, so yeah, it looked pretty bad!

We had prayer together after we ate dinner. We know some missionaries in Liberia, the Deahs, and they had e-mailed us and asked us to pray for peace from the war over there, and to pray that the President would send troops over to help them. And we prayed for Kerri. Then we sang "Draw Me Close To You". On the way home I sat thinking about that song and how that is incredible if that is really the prayer of your heart. "You're all I want, You're all I've ever needed, You're all I want, Help me know You are near."

The next morning I flicked on the radio to hear that President Bush had just ordered some of our troops to go to Liberia.

2003-06-30T12:16:00.000-04:00

sitting
We are birdsitting, rabbitsitting and babysitting part of this week and all last week. We have Cynthia's bird Callais, Christy's rabbit Maggie, and the Martens baby Galen.
Anybody else? Please call 1-800-SITTING between 9-5 ET weekdays.

2003-06-30T12:13:00.000-04:00

PRAISE YOU
words by willis
music by sarah (which you can't hear unless you come hear it)

I run through the grass
With my arms outstretched
The sun is warm on my face
The breeze is soft through my hair
My eyes sparkle with Your Life
I open up my mouth and...

Praise You, praise You oh God
King above all things
King above me
With all my soul, I praise You

I sit and reflect
As the rain hits the pane
Dark clouds roll up the sky
Swift wind sways through the trees
I lift my hands with your strength
I open up my mouth and...

I can't can't help myself...

2003-06-25T08:56:00.000-04:00

The only club name suggestion so far is Gleeman. Which is Irish for actor/entertainer.

2003-06-24T19:19:00.000-04:00

drama club

I had our first drama club meet yesterday afternoon! Oh it was so fun! I taught three skits... Sin Chair, Me, and Misconceptions of God. All the kids did so awesome! Some of their adlib they did was hilarious. Had me rolling.

I'm trying to figure out a name for our club. Suggestions?

2003-06-24T19:14:00.000-04:00

I had a great weekend! On Friday night, Charity came and visited for the night! She is leaving for YWAM Montana this week, and we HAD to get together before she left. Sare and I met her downtown at and we went out to A&W for root beer floats, fries and onion rings. We talked forever in there, I bet the waitress was like "when are these people going to leave?" Then we went to Wal-Mart and sprayed 20 different purfumes all over our bodies, since Sare was smelling them all because she didn't know which kind she wanted. Dude some of them smell BAD! Like Windex or worse. Some smell good, but are too girly. In some all you could smell was the alcohol, we thought that we would be bad to get, because then you'd get high on your purfume! You'd go to church and it'd be like yippee! And people around you would be going nuts. We finally got home and talked with Mom for awhile. We were laughing so loud and hard, I wonder what my dad and sisters though (who were in bed upstairs). We were laughing mostly about impersonations, especially Don Knotts... which made us repeat funny scenes from movies that he's done. "Theodore, your butt's on fire." "Oh thank you sir........... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Or (he's in the desert) "Water, water, water...." (thinks he sees a mirage, but it's really a pond, falls into it and starts dog-paddling) "Air, air, air!!"
By the time we got up into my bedroom, we were tired so we went right to sleep. The next day we showed each other our dances, then after lunch, Charity left.

Then Sat. afternoon Dad took all the girls to see Finding Nemo. ("First you were like 'whoa'. Then you were like 'WHoa'. Then you were like 'WHOA'.") On Sunday after church we went to the Lafian's cottage on the lake. We went tubing. I didn't bring a swim suit or anything, just shorts. And guess what, yep I fell off the tube into the water!! At least I wasn't wearing a white shirt. Actually I didn't fall by my fault. Emily and I were doing all kinds of amazing acrobats. Flipping over and sitting up and that. But the way we fell off was that the boat slowed down too fast, and our tube nose dived.

2003-06-19T09:10:00.000-04:00

I was just reading my awesome sister's blog. Sarah is pretty funny! Then I checked out Doug Phillips' blog for the first time. I highly recommend it. You'll love the pictures.

Let me know what you think!

2003-06-19T08:59:00.000-04:00

It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves under the flag
and Whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

-Charles M. Province

2003-06-19T08:58:00.000-04:00

my sisters are turning gruesome

First Emily kills an ant by tinking it with the end of her pencil. Now today Sarah insists that she killed a bee by locking it in her window between the glass and closed mini blinds, until it starved to death.

2003-06-18T12:33:00.000-04:00

happenings in my house

My three youngest sisters are limping around due to sunburned legs. I remember that from STEP. I limped for one day. My legs got burned twice, because of canoeing! I finally wore sunblock, what an amazing invention!

Sarah made oatmeal this morning that looked like....yeah, but tasted great.

Emily was impressed with herself after she killed an ant by hitting it with the end of her pencil.

2003-06-17T18:51:00.000-04:00

I finished one of my equine course lessons yesterday, and took both tests. But I don't have to send the tests in until I've completed all of the lessons in the course on Confirmation that I'm currently working on. It was a really interesting lesson, all about the horse's skeletal system. I had to know what 40 of the bones are called and write them down. Metatarsus, Tibia, Metacarpal, Maxillary, Distal Sesamoid, Coccygeal Vertebrae... I had to impress you. (-: A horse's skeleton has 305 bones - which are either short, long, flat, or irregular. Amazing. Okay I'll shut up now.

2003-06-17T18:46:00.000-04:00

long time, no see.... yet some things haven't changed

Rachel visited today! She is my longtime friend. She used to live up here with me, but a few years ago she moved to Ft. Worth, Texas. She is up here for a visit for a few days! She is staying at April's house. I went and picked her up at 8 am and we went horseback riding at my house with Keira. Then I took her to Collegetown Bagels for brunch. Without talking to each other about it, we ended up ordering the exact same thing! I gave my order "Sun-dried Tomato bagel with Veggie cream cheese, and a Mochaccino please." And she was like "That's what I was going to get!" But she decided to be different some way and got Hazelnut coffee instead. (-: Those were the days... when we were so alike we always wanted to play the same games and talk about the same subjects (mostly).

We talked a lot about God. Rachel has come through a time when she was hurt and lied to by 'Christians'. Now she is back to being strong in the Lord. She just wants to hear the Word now, not man's hour long opinion about it. We talked about how we have to love people and be faithful friends, even if we don't agree with them on every little subject. Romans 14 says, "Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. But to him who consider anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Yet if your brother is grieved becaue of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.... Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another." We have to let God do the convicting on the small doctrinal subjects, that's the only way it will be real! We also have to learn to love unconditionally, without compromising ourselves.

2003-06-14T18:38:00.000-04:00

Had my piano recital today. Sarah, Emily and I went 2 hours early so we could help set up, and practice. Sarah and I sang with our instructor on a couple of worship songs she wrote. We had only heard them once before, so we had to learn pretty quick. We could only come up with one harmony for the chorus of Close to Your Heart. It went really well! I played Liebestraum by Franz Liszt and Agnus Dei by Michael W. Smith. Sarah sang to Agnus Dei. That song has six pages, but I memorized the first two, so I just put the other four up there. Well when I got to the part that I usually look at the pages, I noticed the first page was wrong! I quickly glanced at each one and realized I'd put them up there backwards! So page 3 was on the way right! It was funny reading from right to left. Good thing I had tried playing it from memory the night before!

The last song we did at the recital was Remember Me by Mark Shultz. Sarah played the arrangement and sang harmony, and I sang lead. It's a beautiful piece! Our instructor introduced the song by saying, "This is last because it is for the parents. Remember how your children play today. You can think back and remember the time they were young and at home practicing piano!" I wanted to cry towards the end of the song, when I was singing and holding, "Remember Me......" But I didn't of course. I tried not to think of it. After the recital Dad told us girls that he had made a decision: "You are never leaving! I just decided. We're keeping them, right hon?" he said to Mom. "For now," she said. "I just won't be able to take it when they all leave!" he said forlornly.

Sarah looked so gorgeous today in her outfit and earrings and hair (I did it, yep). I was glad there weren't any guys her age there. Only because I want to keep her with me for awhile longer! But then again, I guess we're not leaving home ever, so we'll always be together!

2003-06-11T11:26:00.000-04:00

We've had really beautiful days here. Good time to go horseback riding and jogging. My summer job is giving horseback lessons. I love doing it! I have 5 students now, with 5 pending.

Race and I decided to go jogging together every Thursday morning. It's so fun to go with other people! By the way, she just graduated! Yeah! Her grad party was so fun, we did square dancing and ate good food. "Swing your partner, swing, swing, swing. Prominade, go round the ring." I took pictures for her. Got a hilarious one of the Coombs making strange faces. I didn't tell her, I wonder what she'll say when she gets them developed. I should have taken a bunch of myself. That would be funny!

God taught me so much stuff at STEP! I keep sharing at church about "At STEP........." I wonder if they are getting tired of it! But I feel like for the first time I have been really broken. At one of the meetings at STEP, the speaker told us to give up to Jesus everything that we take pride it, write it down on a piece of paper, rip it up and put it at the foot of the cross. Then we took a little pebble to remind us of the altar we built to the Lord for our sacrifice. I gave up everything I 'thought' I had - my personality, physical strength, competitiveness, points and scores, my team, control, and friends. I cried that night when I gave my testimony. I realized Jesus doesn't want what you think you're 'born' with. Because you will trust in those things and not in Him. I felt such freedom after that! I was crying because I was so thankful for the mercy of God on me, that He didn't have to do something drastic to get a hold of me.

2003-06-07T20:31:00.000-04:00

I worked all day yesterday at the NY homeschool convention. It was great fun, I'd never volunteered before. I saw lots of people I 'knew'. The only session I got to here was the beginning morning one. It was so cold in that building, I seriously thought about buying a cup of coffee. While at STEP, Green went out to Starbucks one day, and I had a frapiccino. Those things are good. I made need help on the spelling, but it was good.

Today Sarah and I went to the state homeschool graduation. I went to see 2 friends who were graduating, and was surprised to find 3 other people I know who were graduating. Wow! That was cool. I took a pic of Race throwing her cap. I was up on the balcony looking down on her, it should turn out good.

I just tried to post a whole long story I wrote about toilet papering Becky's house, but it disappeared. I'm serious! Zippo, gonso! Grrrrr! Now you'll never know.

2003-05-30T09:15:00.000-04:00

I got my pictures back! It is so fun to 'see' my STEP friends' faces again. And now I get to show them to my family and friends. Sarah had almost all of them memorized now. I heard her the other day telling Mom who was who in a group shot! I wish they could meet all the girls in real life. They're all so cool and sweet and fun. (-: Okay.

I have to tell you how STEP was set up. There were 3 groups. Red, Blue, and Green. Each team had a Group Leader. I was Green, and my GL was Hannah Smith. Each group had two teams. In my team there was Green 1 and Green 2. These teams had a Team Leader, which they picked from among the STEP girls on the second day we were there. I was Team Leader for Green 2! There were 11 girls on my team (including me).

The first thing every morning is PT at 6 am. Then during the first week of STEP, Green had CPR/First Aid class in the morning, and Electrical, Plumbing, and Auto in the afternoons. By the way, in class we wore our khaki pants, but had to change to khaki skirts for lunch and dinner. We were always changing! Some girls wore skirts over there pants to meals, to save time! The second week, Green had Ropes and Knots and Rapelling in the morning, and Canoeing in the afternoon. This was my FAVORITE week! The third week Green learned Search and Rescue in the morning, and Navigation/Orienteering in the afternoon.
On the fourth week, all it said on the schedule was "TBA. Lots of fun and excitement!" So each day was a surprise to us! Each day we did some outdoor activities. A lot of races and competitions and games, and survival classes. They took us camping at a state park for 2 1/2 days!

On that last Friday, we had what they called the "STEP Challenge". It was all day competitions (timed events) in all the stuff we had learned the past 4 weeks! For the Challenge we split up into teams. My team had so much fun! We ran from here to there seaching for a missing person, portaging our conoes over a bridge, doing CPR on an unconscious victim, starting a fire with flint and steel and boiling water within 5 minutes, crossing a river on a rapelling line with all our backpacks... etc. By the end of the day we were so hot and dirty, but we whooped it up all the way back to our dorm. We were so elated by our team work!
That night they had a banquet for us. (The next day we all left.) They read the scores for the STEP Challenge. Green 2 WON!!! Then they read the scores for the 4th week, and the Green group won! And for the overall score of all 4 weeks, Green got second place! We were only 60 points behind Red. Red (in general) did really well on the Scripture Memory, so they deserved it.
They gave awards for those who got 100% on Scripture Memory, I was one of the ones that got called up for that, so I got a little gift (a book).
Then all us girls sang "Fairest Lord Jesus". We had learned to do it in 4 part harmony. The last verse was acapella. It was so beautiful! I sang 3rd part. Harmony is so fun.
Then we went back and 'tried' to go to bed. Becky (the 'boss' (-: ) said we could do sleep over, so as you know I slept in Heidi, Rebecca and Sarah G.'s room. Judi and Sarah S. slept in there too.

2003-05-28T11:55:00.000-04:00

willis is back

I'm back from STEP! I returned on Saturday from Texas. It was a very long day on 4 1/2 hours of sleep, but that's okay. I left the ALERT campus on the 9 am bus, and flew into New York at 9:40 pm. So yeah, a long day. I 'slept over' in Heidi's room that last night, and got up with some crazies to play our 'last soccer game' at 5 am. Room inspection was at 6:30 am, so we had to move fast! After sleeping well the last two nights, I am sane again. Feels wonderful.

My family had a bonfire/party for me Sunday night. It was so cool to see everyone again. The Bricks came, and the Crawfords, Caugheys, Dovis, Conways, and Rogatis. Jim and Mike came with Tim, Bear and Jeremiah. It was fun to talk to Bear, since he's been to ALERT. We both could laugh about Lt. Jarrell. Oh my goodness, he was my favorite instructor. He's so hilarious. He'd always call everyone Miss. Like "Miss Hugez, is there something funny about my class?" Since I was a Team Leader, he'd say to me (if the girls were giggling) "Miss Rhinehart, would you please take control of your class?" He'd always put great emphasis on certain words. "Please do not forget to hydrate yourselves after this hike."

My pictures should be done today. Yeah! Now hopefully my family can understand where I'm coming from more. I try to say inside jokes and no is laughing except me! I talked to Jaimee and Keilah last night. So we got to laugh as much as we wanted. (-: I called Ashley Ross too. It is so good to talk to them again. I miss them! My STEP-sisters.

I met so many people, and God did so much in my life. The biggest things he taught me were about competitiveness, being servant-hearted, pride, and flexibility. I am busy at home again. So I'll have sneak times to come blog about it!

2003-04-27T19:29:00.000-04:00

good-bye

I packed all day yesterday, and I have a few things to finish up tonight. I have 2 big duffle bags and a backpack. I'm packing them pretty heavy, so I'm afraid I will need to see a chiropractor for an adjustment after I unload at my dorm! Hopefully not. Pues, it's been very nice. But the time has come. The time is now. I will tell you all about my adventures when I return. I'm off to Texas for 4 weeks! I have to leave at 3:15 am. Many of you will be in sweet na-na land. Except for strange people, like maybe Valerie, who will be happily reading blogs, and blogging herself, in the 'prime of the day'. If any of you are up at that hermoso hour, please think of me and pray that I would get there safely.

Hasta luego mi queridos amigos, adìos.

2003-04-24T15:42:00.000-04:00

I brought the pie out of the pantry and placed it on the counter. I reached for the knife and glanced at the top of the pie. My heart warmed at the sight of a big "T" etched in the crust. "Awww, Mom, thank you so much for putting a T on the pie! That is so sweet." I said, and went over and hugged Mom. She smiled, "Oh I'm so glad you like it. Teresa, what am I going to do without you?" It was my turn to smile. Mom put her head on my shoulder and said in a little whiny voice "DON'T GO!" Her and I both cracked up laughing, and couldn't stop for several minutes. She sounded just like the people on the movies!

2003-04-23T10:57:00.000-04:00

practice makes you get better (wow)

I am getting so much better at guitar!! I've been playing a lot more lately. On Saturday Kerri, Sarah and I went to the Dovi's and played worship songs with them for a few hours. It was awesome. We were all musically inclined, and at some points we had four part harmony going on! Mr. Dovi played guitar, as well as Kerri, Jesse and I. Actually Jesse played my guitar too, so I had to be sharing. He knew some songs I didn't know though, so it worked out. My fingers were all sore, but it was too fun! Jesus was right there with us and it was hard to stop playing and singing all night!

On Sunday we had an Easter service here. I played my guitar during that too, I am in love again! We had a great Easter Sunday. We had breakfast all together, had church, then went for walks. Our homechurch is made up of three families - us, the Conways, and Rogatis, and then about 8 college students. They are not all college students (for your sakes Kerri, Mandy and Oscar), some graduated and now working in the area. On Sunday I referred to them at 'singles' and they all laughed at me. (I was trying to take a group shot of them.) So what DO I say? Joan and I were wanted to go horseback riding, but we didn't. )-: And she is graduating this year! And I will be gone until after graduation, so I don't know when we can do it.

Katie, Bryan, Joe and Kerri hung at our house for awhile, then Kerri went with us girls to the park to play basketball. Kerri and Anna played on the playground the whole time, it was funny, Kerri was having the time of her life on the elementary playground! But then again, I guess I like it too. Especially 'no-touch gravel tag', and you can climb all over the tops of the rides.

The Rogatis had us over for ham dinner that evening. Then we played Mennonite Manners. It is a crazy, loud game that includes rolling dice, grabbing paper and pencil from whoever was writing before you, and writing numbers to 100 as fast as you can. Don't ask me why it's named Manners!! It's totally fun though. And I won three times in a row, so they were really mad at me.

2003-04-23T10:44:00.000-04:00

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. -Jane Howard