This and that

  I love my praying friends!  I have friends that I haven't seen or even maintained contact with, suddenly reconnecting with me and praying for me.  I have a group of ladies older than me in age and in faith that all pray for each other.  My Sunday school class prays for me.  My karate class prays for me.  My parents pray for me.  The Teagues pray for me because of the Friday Bible study.  Chera and JC pray for me.  I'm sure there are many more people that pray for me that I don't know about or just don't remember.

  It seems like I'm suddenly much more aware of who's praying for me.  I think even this is an answer to prayer.  I've been praying for a new understanding of God's love and working in my life.

Good times

  Zeke and Justin hosted a party at their place this evening.  I drank too much hot chocolate and coffee (my own mocha with tiny little marshmellows on top!) while there so now I'm up at an ungodly hour feeling strangely hyper and contemplative at the same time.

  Needless to say, I had a wonderful time.  I know the most incredible people!  I know I say that a lot, but that's because I know so many incredible people!  I wish all the incredible people I know could also know each other.  Most of my friends know Dad and all of them that do like him, but I feel like Dad still has some residual anti-socialness that keeps him from being friends with some of my friends.  And I wish Chera and JC just lived closer.  There were some folks at the party tonight that I just know y'all would have loved.  I know Jesse would get along great with the Murrys (although we might need to carefully monitor Jesse and Tyler for safety and sanity reasons).  Luke and Ethan started wrestling (they were perfectly matched, nobody won, and they didn't break anything) tonight which made me start to wish that Luke could meet Josiah and Luke from karate.  Amber socked Isaac a good one in the gut, so now I really want her to start karate.

  At one point tonight I was sitting in a comfy armchair in the living room.  Jesse and Sarah were on the guitars of and Emily on the vocals of Rock Band.  They sang Eye of the Tiger and then Living on a Prayer.  Next up was No Sleep Till Brooklyn, which no one knew.  By this point things had gotten traded around and Jesse ended up improvising all the words to it.  It was hilarious.  Anyway, at one point I got to looking around.  There were Jesse, Emily, and Sarah rocking out in all their coolness.  Across the way were Zeke and Ricky, enjoying the show.  Joshua was standing next to me.  Further through the house I could see Ethan.  I couldn't see who he was talking to, but I knew since I had just been over there basking in their pure awesomeness: Ryan, Chloe, Haley, and Cassie.  Next to them was Corey with two laptops and two ginormous stacks of cds, copying music.  BJ and Samuel had left a little earlier, but they had been there.  And I was just overwhelmed with how wonderful my life is.

  There's a verse somewhere about God giving blessings to the top, shaken down and overflowing.  My life is like that.  I had already been overwhelmed by God's goodness today when the whole family was eating lunch together.  It's so wonderful to have all of them and for us all to be together and healthy.  And tonight at Zeke's I realized that God really does bless me shaken down and overflowing.  Not only do I get to have the most incredible family all together, I get to have incredible friends.  This is certainly blessings over the top.

Break time!

  Of course, we all know that Thanksgiving break is an illusion because there's still homework due on Monday, but I'm going to completely embrace this fantastical illusion!

  So far, (Praise God!), I have not come down with the throw-ups.  I've had a lot of the same symptoms, but haven't actually thrown up, and am already feeling better.  Everyone else is well, getting well (Dad), or hanging tenously in the balance (Naomi).  Lord willing, we will all be wholesome in time to drive to Archer Thursday.

  Tomorrow I get to call Chera!!

  Friday or Wednesday I'm hoping to get together with Emily!

  Friday or Saturday I'm hoping to get together with Jesse!

  And of course, all sundry friends will eventually show up during December, including Kristina, Nick/Hanna/Nora, Chloe, Haley, as well as Jesse and Emily again.  I love getting to see friends!

Gratefulness

I know the awesomest bunch of people. I love y'all!

Howdy hey!

I'm taking the Comp II advanced standing test Thursday at 11. Everybody pray for me!

I've been at school almost all day working on the paper that is my Perspectives final. I'm almost onto the 4th page (limit is 10 pages) and I've only done the first two points out of 6 total. I think I'll write it and then do some serious editing. However, points 2 and 3 are the largest so maybe it'll be just fine.

There's a concert by the jazz band tonight that I really want to go to (I've only gotten to hear them play at basketball games, which doesn't really count) and I'm trying to decide if I should just go ahead and stay here or go home and then come back. I should probably check the time of the concert and call home to see what they're up to.

Speaking of music, Mama got the Josh Groban's new CD, Noel, for her birthday. His voice is so beautiful it actually makes Little Drummer Boy and Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire sound good.

Dad has this week off. He's doing his usual working vacation. This time he's re-roofing his tool shed, while recovering from a head cold. Superdad, that's him.

I had a blast Saturday at Chloe Cobb's birthday party. I have such awesome friends.

Oh, and I get to see more awesome friends this weekend when we have a birthday party for Mama, Naomi, and Stirling.

Chera, can I call you Sunday between 5 and 8? This might end up getting cancelled as we both hurdle towards finals and realize how desperately busy we are, but we can still try.

Uncle Fred was denied parole again. This is the second time and he won't be eligable again for another 3 years, at which point he would have been in jail for 13 years. I really think prison is only making him harder and prouder, not to mention the danger he's in because he is not a member of any gang and is much older than the average inmate. Please be praying for him.

This picture needs a lovely poem about God's stairway or Jacob's ladder or something along those lines to go with it. Any submissions?

Random Late Night Thoughts

I had no school Friday and will have no school next week, except for Monday. I thought about skipping Monday, but a couple different teachers seem to be expecting that, so have scheduled important things for Monday. I pretty much have them (things scheduled) done, so I'm only working on biology this week so I can take the CLEP Monday or Tuesday.

I'm at Stirling's right now. We went to Dickens on the Boulevard and had a blast. Stirling had never been before. Mama made Naomi a 1890s skirt that she wore with a hat with matching band, a matching necktie and one of my blouses. Mama is making a jacket that matches but didn't have time to finish it in time for tonight.

I was really tickled with how much I got done this weekend, before coming to Stirling's. I read everything I need read for Monday, wrote my persuasive speech outline, put away laundry, cleaned my desk, turned in a research paper, did some heavy duty research for the Perspectives group project, went to the doctor, worked out, packed up and came here with a real load off my mind. The only things I need to do school wise before Monday are writing a wrap-up of some of the reading and typing the speech outline I already wrote.

I'm really hoping to do some visiting during my break. Emily Bethea is in town and I've really missed her. There are several gals that I pass in the halls at school all the time but we never really get to visit so it would be fun to get together with them, too. That list would be Katie and Amy Sova, Sarah Lovin, and Sarah Hanback.

On the subject of friends, I really need to email Haley Williams, Charity Reed, Leslie Branson, and Lucy, and write Uncle Fred, Mercy Cepeda, and Matthew Sutherland.

And of course, I need to call Chera dear.

I got to see Ratatouille this week. It wasn't a Pixar masterpiece, like Monsters or Nemo, but it was very entertaining. Everything Pixar makes is good.

Mr. Orwig gave us some handouts from a different Hebrew text book that really cleared up some grammar questions we had. Mr. Orwig is not terribly happy with the curriculum for this class and will probably change it the next time round. Don't you love being the guinea pig?

I need to start thinking about books for next semester, a job (starting sometime in January), Christmas presents, and about not having to do anything during Christmas break.

I was really discouraged earlier this week with how much I have to do, particularly with how few CLEPs I've taken this semester. I just took a deep breath, looked at what I had done and what I needed to do and found out that it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. I'm feeling very confident about this biology CLEP, which I'll take sometime next week. After that is the Comp II test, which ought to be not-quite-a-breeze-but-definitely-easy. Also, I got several large projects for current classes turned in, went to the Missions tournament, and got a couple nights of good sleep and all of a sudden life looked a lot more manageable. Then, of course, it struck me that I should quit worrying so much about managing life when God can do a lot better job of it.

I have so many wonderful friends, close and far. I love you guys!

Sometimes I'm just overwhelmed with how lost some people are. You always have proof of lostness generally, but some people are just so desperate to get away from God. It's not like they're looking for God and got lost, but like they're buffalo stampeding off cliffs in order not to find God. Nothing seems to even dent the shell they've built around their souls. God's been working on my faith with this. Do I really believe that God can save anyone? Am I trying to reach people in my own strength? There's a convicting aspect, too. Is there anything in my life, visible or not to people around me, that quenches the Spirit or damages my witness?

OK, this has gotten a lot longer than I had planned. Bravo for reading it all the way to the end.

"Peazs are loyal to ze end!"

"There they are, officer!"

"Ze end." *walks off*