March Update on New Year's Resolutions

Below are the New Year's Resolutions I made for 2017.  Can you believe 2017 is already A QUARTER OF THE WAY DONE?!  I can't believe it.  I'm turning 30 in less than 7 months, but I don't wanna talk about it.  Anyway, let's get a progress update on my resolution list, shall we?

1) Lose another 50 pounds - As of this past Sunday, March 26, I have completed one month of my 3-month weight loss challenge in which I've lost about 9 pounds in 4 weeks!  Between sickness and back pain, I haven't worked out as much lately, so my exercising has slacked off, but I must have built some muscle, because I can tell I'm still burning fat.  Well, it's at more of a simmer, but still...

2) Pay off all of our immediate debt - Still chugging along!  Even though we're down to about six bills (at least when it comes to paying off debt), they're still the largest chunks, so I'm having the mentality of "slow & steady wins the race" right now.

3) Rewrite Ravensboro - Still no more progress on this.  I'm ashamed to say between work (tax season is here and I work in a tax office), working out, and otherwise being married and being choir director at my church, I haven't had much time to do much else.  Including updating Ravensboro.

4) Finish Harkness - I really can't start on this until Ravensboro is done...  ='(

5) Journal/Blog more - I have SIX more book summaries waiting to be written and posted on my blog, which is awesome, but I've started slacking on the journaling front - unless you count the food journal I'm doing for my weight loss competition.

6) Find out where I should be career-wise - I just got a raise, so I'm sticking where I'm stuck right now.  Hopefully, God will continue to lead me in His will for my career, because I still don't know what to do.  I had lunch with a friend the other day, and we were talking about careers and finding jobs doing what we're good at and love to do.  Obviously, being a writer or working in a church would be preferable, but I have also considered guidance counseling or camp counseling before.  So maybe I'll look into that...


What about you?  Did you have any New Year's Resolutions going into 2017?  How are those working out?

February Update on New Year's Resolutions

Below are the New Year's Resolutions I made for 2017.  Let's get a progress update, shall we?


1) Lose another 50 pounds - As of Sunday, February 26, I have entered a 3-month-long weight-loss challenge.  I needed to do it, because I've been seriously slacking on the weight-loss front.  This past weekend, Mom and I took a little trip to St. Augustine (maybe if you ask nicely, I'll write a blog post about it).  I definitely gorged myself in order to have a high starting weight for the start of the competition (and to have several "last meals" to think back on fondly during the next three months).  Since my initial weigh-in for the competition, I've already gone down SIX POUNDS!  Also, I just started doing Jillian Michael's workout video called "Ripped in 30."  Guess we'll see how ripped I am in thirty days!

2) Pay off all of our immediate debt - We used part of our tax refund to pay off yet another bill, but then another $1,000 worth of unpaid debt surfaced.  So since then, I've taken a little break from thinking too much about our debt, because it hurts my head and my heart.

3) Rewrite Ravensboro - I'm ashamed to say between work (tax season is here and I work in a tax office), working out, and otherwise being married and being choir director at my church, I haven't had much time to do much else.  Including updating Ravensboro.

4) Finish Harkness - I really can't start on this until Ravensboro is done...  ='(

5) Journal/Blog more - I've written more than a few book summaries on my blog, AND I started a journal again last week.  Now to just discipline to write in it faithfully.

6) Find out where I should be career-wise - I just got a raise, so I'm sticking where I'm stuck right now.  Hopefully, God will continue to lead me in His will for my career, because I still don't know what to do.  I love writing, and I would love to work in a church, but I'm not finding any lucrative opportunities to do this  =/


What about you?  Did you have any New Year's Resolutions going into 2017?  How are those working out?

January Update on New Year's Resolutions

Below are the New Year's Resolutions I made for 2017.  Let's get a progress update, shall we?


1) Lose another 50 pounds - As of this morning, I have lost 8 pounds this month!  Wheeeee! And last week, I joined Gold's Gym, so hopefully, having to pay $30 a month will help me get my quickly-shrinking butt in gear! ;)

2) Pay off all of our immediate debt - Slowly but surely, this is happening.  We did have about $250 worth of unexpected car expenses come up this month, as well as us make about $200 less than we normally do, but God is providing, and we are trying really hard to be faithful to our budget!

3) Rewrite Ravensboro - So far, I've rewritten the Prologue and the first 2 chapters :)

4) Finish Harkness - I really can't start on this until Ravensboro is done, but I'm in the zone!

5) Journal/Blog more - I've written a few blog posts about the books I've read on my Book List for 2017, but I haven't journaled yet.  I really need to/want to get back in that habit.

6) Find out where I should be career-wise - Honestly, I'm not really sure how to measure this goal, or to even go about this goal, other than keeping my eye out for job openings that appeal to my talents & schooling.  I'm trusting in God to guide me and take care of my needs (which He is completely doing) during this time of dissatisfaction with my current career path.  I know He has a plan for me, and I'm willing to be faithful where I am until He moves me.


What about you?  Did you have any New Year's Resolutions going into 2017?  How are those working out?

Book List 2017

I'm a book lover.  A Sci-Fi/Fantasy obsessor.  And a list-making fanatic (even if I don't stick to them).  So here's my TENTATIVE book list for 2017 (I pretty much just wrote down the books I either purchased or rented through Amazon Prime that I'm planning to read soon. lol)

1) Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
2) Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
3) Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
4) Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
5) Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
6) Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
7) Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
8) The Night Bird by Brian Freeman
9) The Ugly Stepsister by Aya Ling
10) Edgewood by Karen McQuestion
11) Timebound by Rysa Walker
12) Under Different Stars by Amy Bartol
13) The Mermaid's Sister by Carrie Anne Noble
14) The Blue Tattoo: Life of Olive Oatman by Margot Mifflin (Literally the ONLY Non-Fiction book in my book list. lol)
15) The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
16) Where the Heart Is by Billie Lets
17) Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz
18) The Pretenders by Lisi Harrison
19) Rewrite Ravensboro by ME!
20) Finish Harkness by ME!

The last two are added for benefit of rounding out the list at 20, but I figure this list should get me to end-of-April, maybe even halfway through the year if I get burnt out on reading.  Yayyyy!  Can't wait :)

New Year's Resolutions - 2017

By now, we all know how bad I am at making plans AND STICKING TO THEM.

But oh well.  Plans are still fun to make.  And then, when I ACTUALLY stick to them, it's AH-mazing!

So here are my resolutions for 2017:

1) Lose another 50 pounds (this will bring me down to my high school weight - which would be awesome!  I've already lost 25 pounds since mid-October!)

2) Pay off all of our immediate debt (by immediate, I mean everything that isn't my student loans - because that will take WAYYYY longer than just one year to pay off).

3) Rewrite Ravensboro (after stepping away from the book for a year, I've realized how haphazardly it was written.  I want to tighten up the storyline, simplify it a bit, and reduce the number of characters so I can really develop one or two.)

4) Finish Harkness (I'm about halfway done - WOOT!  But I'd really like to be ALL the way done, you know what I mean?)

5) Journal/Blog more.  It's been so long since I actually journaled my life, and that's definitely a way for me to reevaluate and emote about things.  Plus, I feel like it improves my writing ability.  So there ya go.

6) Find out where I should be career-wise.  I know I'm not working where I want to be for the rest of my life; I just don't know where my niche is.

Obviously, I have way more things that I would like to do, but these are my immediate focus.  Also, in the "Journal/Blog more" category, I would like to start keeping track of books I've read and recapping them.  My friend, Hannah, has a blog strictly dedicated to this at oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com - you should check it out.

ANYWAY, that's enough for now!  Do YOU have any resolutions?  What are they?  Do you feel like any of mine are unreasonable?  Would any of them be hard for you to do?  Lemme know in the comments! :)

An Exercise in Letting Go

I was sitting at my desk at work on Wednesday afternoon, and I was thinking, "How do people with kids live life?  Like, I'm married and have no kids, but I still feel overwhelmed with all of the demands I face JUST FROM work, church, bills, house, and marriage - how do people survive once kids are thrown in the mix?"

It seriously baffled me.

Since Tyler and I have been married, we left Faith Baptist (the church I pretty much grew up in) and started attending Life Church.  Right away, we got involved in their music ministry - Tyler, playing the bass guitar, and me, singing in the choir and on the mic.

We've been attending & serving regularly for a year and a half (I was even promoted to choir director), but during that time, I've only led two songs on the mic, and both of them were on Wednesday nights.  This has been a struggle for me, because ever since we started attending Life Church, I've wanted to lead songs on Sunday Mornings.  The longer we've been going to that church, and the more I've felt like I've had to fight to prove myself vocally, etc., the more stressed I became.

Long story short, about a month and a half ago, a part of me woke up.  "What is the big deal with leading songs at Life Church?" a voice in my head asked me.  (Not like the Schizophrenic kind of voice, but you know what I mean.)

Let me just say - Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.  It's true.  And I decided to find avenues to use my voice that aren't a constant fight or struggle and that don't have me second-guessing my ability/gift at every turn.  So I joined Lakeland Choral Society.  And I committed to singing in the Christmas cantata at Faith Baptist this December.  And my mom and I are singing in a choral performance at the end of September.

So just when one door was closed to singing Christian contemporary music in the way I wanted, another door has swung WIDE OPEN to get back into singing classical choral music - which is something I've sorely missed!  And I know I'll be so busy with these things, I won't even have a CHANCE to miss leading music at Life Church.  And why was I so bent on doing that anyway?  For external validation of my voice?  Man, what foolishness.

Anyway, God is good.  He provides for our needs and blesses us with things that we didn't even know we wanted until it's in our lives!

So back to my initial statement - my life is busy.  My life is full.  With:

1. All of the aforementioned musical endeavors (Lkld Choral Society, FBC Christmas Cantata, and the September Choral event)
2. Writing a sequel to the novel I wrote last November (I'm almost halfway done!)
3. Being a wife & caretaker of my amazing husband (this involves cleaning, laundry, cooking, budgeting, grocery shopping - all things I've never really had to do before being married)
4. My job - of course.  Full time.  It's a lot.
5. Being the choir director at Life Church

This list is not all-inclusive, but it highlights the main things.  How would kids fit in there anywhere?  I have no idea.  I'm not saying I never want kids.  I'm just saying, they would be a huge adjustment.  But I'm ready and willing to do what God's will is - if that's to have a child in the next year, I will do it with joy.  If it's to wait a few more years, I'll do that with joy as well.  And if it's not to have any children biologically - He is Sovereign God, and I will abide by His Will.

What about you?  What is God doing in your life?  What has He blessed you with that you didn't even know you wanted until you had it?

What I've Been Reading Lately...

So I go on random tangents a lot of the time.  Like, some months, I'll be REALLY into Netflix - so much so that I dedicate every free moment to some sort of show or series that I want to watch all the way through.  My most recent addiction?  I watched all eight seasons of Charmed and all six seasons of Drop Dead Diva.

And in case you're wondering - why Drop Dead Diva, just look at this:

Look on the very right.  Holy Dermot Mulroney, amiright?  Okay, I realize it's not really him, but seriously, they could be very hot brothers separated at birth.  And in case you're like, who the heck is Dermot Mulroney - just look at THIS:

Or you can go rent "The Wedding Date" or "My Best Friend's Wedding" and watch it RIGHT NOW.  Seriously, I'll wait...

Anyway, back to what I was saying.  After my most recent binge, I decided to take a break from Netflix, and my addiction turned into this APP called "Episodes."  Basically, it's like if the game SIMS married a Choose Your Own Adventure Book and had a little girl who was a lot like "Cher" from Clueless.  Does that paint a mental picture?  So I was spending all this time with this APP, and then, all of a sudden, I just lost interest.  Boom, onto the next thing!

I tried going back to writing - currently I'm working on "Harkness" (the sequel to "Ravensboro") and a Choose Your Own Adventure story called "Senior Year."  Well, both of those have come to a shrieking halt, because this past Saturday, I went to Books-a-Million with my mom and found FOUR BOOKS in a series that were on sale for less than $8 - SCORE!  So I bought them.  And read the first two books in a day.  Don't judge me.

The series is called The Lux Novels by Jennifer L. Armentrout.  At the risk of turning this post into an episode of Reading Rainbow, I will go ahead and give you a brief rundown.

There's this guy named Daemon (gee, I wonder where she got that name from - Vampire Diaries, anyone?) who has a twin sister, Dee.  They live in some minuscule town in West Virginia, and this girl named Katy moves in next door.  Well, to be fair, the books are all from Katy's perspective, not Daemon's, so I probably should have mentioned her first ... ANYWAY - so Katy meets Dee and they become fast friends, but her and Daemon don't get along from the get-go.  Oh, and she finds out Dee and Daemon are ACTUALLY triplets, and their other brother, Dawson, had gone missing (assumed to be dead) a year earlier.  Plus, most of the town stays away from Daemon, Dee, and this other set of triplets, Ash, Adam and Andrew (who all came to town at the same time and hang out together all the time - coincidence?  I think not).  Then Katy finds out who - or should I say what - they really are, and all hail breaks loose from there.  I'm kind of addicted.

So I read the first two books in the series, and then realized I didn't have the 3rd and 4th books, so I ordered them off Amazon.  As I was ordering them, I ran across ANOTHER series (by the same author) about descendants of Greek gods and goddesses.  Well, anyone who knows me knows that is RIGHT up my fantasy-reading alley, so I'm currently also reading that series on my Kindle.  lol

Needless to say, I am face-deep in Sci-Fi book mode.  What about you?  What's your current tangent or addiction?

New Book Idea

So a lot of my book ideas I get from dreams, and last night's dream was no exception.  Here's my idea:

Society for Wandering Adventurers (and Anyone Else Who Happens to be with Them)
Basically, this book will be about Hannah and I (yes, I'm using our real identities - I know, crazy, right?!) on the run from the law because our male friend (still haven't decided what his name will be yet) made some poor life choices.  Anyway, as we're speeding down the highway from the cops (which I would never do in real life by the way, because my brother-in-law is a law enforcement officer - hello) we start to see signs on the side of the road like "In trouble with the law?  Exit right in 6 miles" and "Running for your life and not sure where to go?  Come on in to the S.W.A. and leave your problems behind!"  So we figure, "What the heck, why not?" and we turn into this seedy looking rest stop and....long story short, we end up going on an adventure.  I'm not going to give it all away here, but let's just say it may or may not involve time travel, temporary amnesia, and foreign countries.

I'm still trying to decide if I want this to be a novel or a Choose Your Own Adventure story...which I've never tried to write before.  Hmm.... Dunno.  What do you think?

Erikson & Graham

So the title of this post isn't in reference to a law firm - don't worry, I'm not going to court or anything.  Whew.

Although (side note) I am currently addicted to this show on Netflix called "Drop Dead Diva."  Ever heard of it?  Ever watched it?  It's about this model who dies in a car accident and her spirit gets recycled into an overweight lawyer's body who just so happens to WORK WITH THE MODEL'S EX-FIANCE!!!!  Say what?!!  I know, it's crazy.

ANYWAY...

Back to what this post is for real supposed to be about.  Have you heard that song "7 Years" by Lukas Graham?  Read the lyrics here.  Or just watch the below video.  Whatevs.

Okay, so anyway, I was listening to this song the other day, and it kinda reminded me of when we used to study Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development in my college Psych classes.  For those of you who didn't take Intro to Psych in college, the stages of development can be broken up into the following:

1. Stage 1 - Trust vs. Mistrust.  Occurs between ages of birth to one year old.  The child develops trust based on care of primary caregivers, and without the formation of this trust, the child can grow up to be insecure and distrustful for life.
2. Stage 2 - Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt.  Occurs during early childhood.  The child becomes more independent and starts making choices about personal preferences and clothing selection.  If this stage isn't navigated successfully, the child may experience feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.
3. Stage 3 - Initiative vs. Guilt.  Occurs during the preschool years.  The child begins to develop leadership and social interaction skills through play.  Successful completion of this stage will give a child confidence and leadership skills; without it, they will have self-doubt and lack of initiative.
4. Stage 4 - Industry vs. Inferiority.  Occurs between ages 5-11.  Through social interactions and encouragement from parents and teachers, the child develops confidence and pride in their skills and abilities.  If this stage isn't successfully completed, the child will have doubts about their ability to succeed in life.
5. Stage 5 - Identity vs. Confusion.  During Adolescence.  Which is kind of a hard word to spell, amiright?  Anyway, basically this stage is like, "Who am I, really?" and can usually last well into adulthood.  Sad.
6. Stage 6 - Intimacy vs. Isolation.  Early Adulthood.  When the adult looks around and realizes, "Hey, I'm single, and I'm not okay with that," and they try to find someone to marry them.  According to recent statistics, it only works out about 50% of the time, so a lot of people are failing at this.  (NOT IT! hahahahahhaha)
7. Stage 7 - Generativity vs. Stagnation.  Adulthood.  AKA finding a career beyond working at Mickie D's during high school and excelling at said job.  This is hard, y'all.  I should know.  I'm still trying to surmount this.  #adultingsux
8. Stage 8 - Integrity vs. Despair.  During old age.  When you're sitting in your recliner (hopefully by choice and not because you no longer have use of your limbs) and you look back on your life and think, "Was it a good life?"  We all pray the answer will be yes...and also, we hope that we can remember that far back.  #alsheimersawareness

So those are the stages.  If you've made it this far into the post, congratulations, you're a reader!  For all the rest of the people, I don't have a message, because they won't see it anyway.

So back to the "7 Years" song.  Here are the ages he mentions and what happened to him during those ages.  Let's see if he failed or succeeded:

• 7 years old - Trying to make some friends and learn stuff.  Social interaction - check.  Learning (which probably involves parents and teachers) - check.
• 11 years old - Smoking, drinking, and told to find a wife by his dad.  I'm sorry, what?  Things just went waaaaay off track.  He's still supposed to be gaining confidence in his skills and abilities, not hindering them by being drunk or high all the time!  Also, his dad doesn't sound like a great, encouraging role model.  Just sayin'.
• 20 years old - Sometime between age 11 and now, he started writing songs/stories like his dad did.  I guess that's a good way to find identity, so we'll say he completed this stage...ish.
• 30 years old - He hopes to travel, continue learning about life, spend time with friends and his woman and children.  By the way...what exactly does it mean when someone refers to someone else as his "woman"?  Shouldn't that be offensive?  Because I would be offended if Tyler called me his "woman."  I'd be like, "Call me that one more time..."
• 60 years old - He's hoping his kids will come visit every once in awhile and warm the cold years.  A worthy goal, I'd say.

Overall, I'd say this song does a good job of following Erickson's stages.  Except for age 11.  Don't know what happened there.  #tweenlifecrisis

Well, that's just my little random thought of the day.  What do you thing of Erickson's stages?  Which one are you in now?  Are you having trouble, or acing it like a boss?  Do you like the song "7 Years"?  Are all of these questions annoying?  Lesbi-honest.  Haha.  Pitch Perfect reference.  Sorry.

And with that, I'll leave you with these two recent Pentatonix songs I just discovered, so I'm fangirling a little bit over here.  Watch them and you're welcome in advance for enriching your life.  Have a good day!

Hello Again!

Well hello everyone - it's been awhile!  Since I last posted, Tyler and I moved into a new house that we're renting for the next year and...yeah, that's all I got.

Exciting stuff, amiright?

Anyway, I just wanted to take some time to talk about my most recent obsession - writing.
This past November, I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where authors are challenged to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days - and I did it :)

The book I wrote is called Ravensboro, and it's a Young Adult Fantasy book.  If you're interested in YA books, Fantasy books, or just my writing in general, let me know if you'd like access to my super-secret book blog :)  Sequel is pending.

There are two other books I've been working on for quite some time now, and these are open to be perused by the public:

• Camp Tandy - this is a fictionalized account of the summer I worked as a counselor at Camp Gilead in 2007.  Names and circumstances have been changed to protect certain identities ;)
• The ITDS - this was a super-ambitious Sci-Fi story that I started awhile back.  I didn't plan out the plot or anything before I started writing it, and I'm afraid I wrote myself into a corner, so I don't plan on adding anything to it anytime soon.

And here are three books I have an idea for that I haven't started writing yet:

• Kissing the Waves - basically, this is a Christian Fiction book about five women who are friends and how their Faiths are tested by miscarriage, marriage problems, and men problems.
• Untitled - I haven't named this book yet, but I got an idea from hanging out with my niece, Bella, and discussing which Disney princesses are best.  This story has to do with a young girl who is sucked into a world where fairytale villains are imprisoning princesses.  The young girl has to rescue the princesses, and in doing so, restore her faith in all things fairytale.
• Nearly Dead Naomi - Honestly, I just got the idea for this book JUST THIS MORNING.  It's about a girl named Naomi who escapes death and lives her life as half-human, half-ghost, trying to stay off Death's radar and have a normal social life at the same time.

So, do any of these stories strike your fancy?  Or are you more of a non-fiction type reader?  Because lemme tell you, I'm not much of a non-fiction type writer, so my stuff might not be for your eyes.  The more encouragement I get for one particular story, the more apt I am to focus on writing that story, so FEEDBACK people!  :)

#30DayChallenge

Guys, not to brag, but I'm a genius.

That is to say, I'm really good at coming up with these awesome plans for my life that I rarely ever follow up on.  Character flaw?  Maybe.  Okay, yeah, pretty much, but this plan I REALLY want to follow through on.

Let me start back at the beginning.  So I was watching this show on Netflix called "30 Days," and basically every episode, a person from one background/culture/belief system would spend 30 Days immersed in an opposing lifestyle.  The four episodes I watched were: a conservative Christian living with a Muslim family in a majority Muslim town, a conservative Christian veteran living with a homosexual in the Castro district in California, a health-nut mom who binge-drank four times a week to get through to her 19-year-old college-partying daughter, and an atheist living with a non-denominational Christian family.

These episodes really had me thinking.  A lot.  Mostly about how Christianity and today's culture don't mix very well, but also about how Christians don't know how to LOVE their neighbors in truth AND mercy (they're either "loving" them by unmercifully shoving the truth of scripture down their throats or "loving" them by watering down the truth or casting it aside altogether in favor of "tolerance").  So I was like, "Hey, I should create a Bible study centered around all of this and introduce it as a small group at the church I'm currently attending..."  But the more I meditated on that, I realized it would be too much of a commitment for me at this point in my life.

BUT here comes the exciting part.  I was praying all afternoon and evening for God to show me how He wanted the concept of 30 Days to impact and effect change in my life, and He woke me up at 2:00 AM this morning with the answer!

Thus, #30DayChallenge was created.  Physically, my body is a mess.  I've gained a ton of weight and developed some pretty unhealthy habits lately, and I keep getting sick and missing work as a result (not cool at all).  So something needs to be done about that.  Spiritually, I'm incredibly undisciplined.  If I could change any area of my personal spiritual walk and my relationship with my husband, it would be that we would pray together more.  Also, I've felt for a long time now that God has gifted me with the ability to write and a passion for doing so.

ALL of that to say, each month for the next 8 months, I'm taking on a #30DayChallenge to sharpen one of these areas of my life.  I'm pretty excited about all of them.  Take a look:

• May - #ExerciseChallenge (30 min./5 times a week)
• June - #WeightLossChallenge (Exercise + Healthy Eating)
• July - #DrawingChallenge (1 drawing per day - I'm pretty excited about this one)
• August - #GuitarChallenge (Learns 3 chords & 1 song per week - hopefully Tyler will help me on this one)
• September - #LoveMyHubs (Going above and beyond to show Tyler how much I love & appreciate him)
• October - #DevotionalBlog (Writing a total of 20 devotional blog posts - 5 per week)
• November - #NaNoWriMo (Yep, I'm finally going to participate - and hopefully finish writing "Camp Tandy"!)
• December - #PrayerChallenge (30 min./5 times a week)

I'm going to try and write one blog post a week to chronicle my progress, but I can't make any promises.  lol  I'm really excited to see what God shows me through this process, and hopefully I can cultivate some healthy habits that will last me for the rest of my life!

Your prayers and encouragement would be greatly appreciated during these next 8 months, and if God lays a #30DayChallenge on your heart, I encourage you to consider doing it.

So here we go!

Laptop Love

Happy Easter everyone!

I hope you all are having a FANTASTIC day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Church today was amazing - we started off in all black, and by the end of the service, the band came out wearing all white.  We did a song at the end of the service called New Creation - I tried to find the YouTube video link, but I can't find it. Sad.  Anyway, my friend Brittany and I came out with paintbrushes and got to paint the singer while he was singing the song!  It was so cool!  There were also two people there playing drums with glitter and water - LEGIT.  I can't wait to watch the video once they get it uploaded to the church website.  Don't worry, I'll let you know when that happens.

Then, Tyler, his friend Billy and I went to Tyler's parents' house for an Easter cookout complete with hot dogs, hamburgers, deviled eggs, sweet corn on the cob, and homemade banana pudding.  Mm mm, good!  As we were leaving, Tyler's grandma gave us a LAPTOP to take home with us.  I was ECSTATIC.  I can't believe how much I've missed having a laptop.

I FINALLY GET TO BLOG AGAIN.  LIKE, A LOT (I bet you're happy about that, Hannah!).

And hopefully soon, I can start CONSISTENTLY updating my two books! :)  Although, I am kinda over I.T.D.S. right now.  But Camp Tandy for sure.  It's happening.

Right now, Tyler, Billy and I are chilling in our living room watching some random YouTube videos of people drifting.  Fun...  I'm trying to decide if I'm hungry again yet, but I will say it is nice to be in some pj's right now!

Anyway, hopefully there will be another post soon.  Hannah has inspired me to start posting regularly on my blog, because then people may actually start reading it more.  *fingers crossed*

Have a good day!

So Many Blogs :)

I have added 3 new blogs to my collection :)

Two of them are private, because they are stories that I am currently in the process of writing.  If you would like an invitation to read either of them, let me know!

The other blog can be found by going here.  It's a compilation of my many writing endeavors (mostly right now, it's just journal entries from middle school.  Embarrassing for me; entertaining for you).

I'm also wanting to write a blog post soon about "lifting up holy hands."  It's a phrase found in 1 Timothy 2:8 that struck me as very interesting.  Coming soon!! :)

Writing

For those of you who know me (I mean, really know me), you know I like to write.  I just have a big problem with laziness, procrastination, and finishing things I start.

FOR EXAMPLE, there are at least 2 writing projects I have started and 2 I would like to start.  My question to YOU is: which one should I give my attention to at present?

1. Camp Tandy - fictional story based on my summer as a counselor at Camp Gilead (I have about 4 chapters written)
2. The I.T.D.S. - a fictional Sci-Fi story about a boy, a girl, and meeting in the girl's dreams (that's all I'm saying about that right now - but I am at the beginning of Chapter 2)
3. An adult choose your own adventure book! - I've never written one, but it can't be that hard, right?!
4. A devotional book - I don't have a format in my mind yet, but this is something I have briefly thought about before

Also, instead of focusing on any of these, I could go back and work on typing out my many previous journal entries, songs, and poems...

So what do you guys think? Opinions, please!