One of my favorite pictures!

This is one of my favorite pictures. It is a picture of Nathan and me when we were on vacation in northern Indiana. I believe I took the picture right after we left the beach or maybe we were actually at the beach. I took it on one of the first ever digital camera's. The kind that you put a floppy disk in to save the pictures on. NO JOKE. We still have it :0)
Yes I held the camera up side down, not on purpose mind you and apparently I forgot to zoom out. It is Nathan's mouth and my eye.
I'm not sure why I love it so much but I totally do. It makes me laugh.

To blog or Not to blog? That is the question.

So I feel like I should blog...but I really don't have anything to say. So do I need to blog or do I not need to blog...
I really thought more people would like the Hands song, it's not necessarily about the video but about the words of the song.
Christmas was great, this was the 1st Christmas that Nathan and I were alone on Christmas morning!
My house is terrible, everything is disorganized right now.
Nathan has a touch of the flu or something related.
I am reading Breaking Dawn for the 2nd time.
We just got some more money for our missions trip!!!!
God has blessed me.
Today I finally realized what an amazing, wonderful, mighty God we serve. We pray and pray and pray and he does not always answer us the way we like but prayers are answered. It hit me today that I love him and worship him even when times are bad. No matter what, it is well.
*I've always known what kind of a God we serve and that no matter what we should praise him, but today I think that some things just fell into place for me*
It is well...

Hands

This song says so much, especially with the way our world is right now. No matter what we CAN do the work of God, our wonderful savior.
Merry Christmas!

I BEAT PK!

Flipping Awesome, I beat PK! He ALWAYS knows who starts a blog before anyone else does. Well except that one time when Pink knew about Sari first...

Angel Silvers is now blogging! Check her out!

zzzzzzzzz....

It is 12:36 AM and I am now officially done with this semester. I missed 4 out of 25 questions giving me a 84% on my final. At first I was irritated but then I realized what time it was and how sleepy I am.
Woohoo to me, but now I am tired so very tired.
Here is to the end of the semester...swa-eeeet!

Just like family

Tonight our growth group had our (I think it might be appropriate to say annual) white elephant gift exchange.
It was mad chaos and tons of fun!
We had it at the Smith's house, Gary deep fried a turkey (YUMMIE) and the rest of us brought side dishes.
*In the words of Shelby "Would you like some side dish?"
The food was great and the presents were well....interesting.
I believe there were 17 adults and 13 kids tonight. Yes everyone showed up! Well everyone except one family but they had family in town that would have put us at 19 adults and 16 kids.
WOW
So we ate and then we drew numbers. Everybody brought stuff from home that we didn't want anymore. Gifts could be stolen twice and the person who had #1 gets to go again when everyone is done. We opened, stole, traded and grumbled at some of the junk we all got. The kids went first and they had a blast and when we were all done with presents we sat around and sang some Christmas songs with Nate C. leading on the guitar.
While enjoying the company of my growth group/church family I thought this must be what it is like when a huge family gets together and celebrates the holidays.
What fun!
Nathan and I are so very blessed to be involved in a growth group. Through up's and down's they have been there. We support each other, guide each other, keep each other on track, and just do life together. Just like a family. It's fun and uplifting.
So yeah this is my random plug for growth groups....
Just Do It!

Life Lesson #231

I went to Ivy Tech today to register for spring semester classes.

Wait hold up let me give you some back story......

I went to 3 different High Schools by my sophomore year. I started in one, my parental units got a divorce so I moved to another school with my dad. In the second school I was taking all AP classes. I passed all of my classes with fantastic grades. End of freshman year I high tailed it to Indiana to be with my mom. What I thought I wanted and what I really wanted were two different things so back to mom I went. *Props to all mom's out there in blog land*
When I got to Indiana they told me that based on the state requirements I would loose all my credits from my freshman year. After much fighting the generous Winchester Community High School decided I could keep my semester credit of Government.
Wasn't that nice?
Anyway they pulled every single credit I had with the exception of Government because at the time in Indiana as a high school student you were REQUIRED to take the basics: Algebra I, Biology I, Earth Space Science, etc... in high school. It did not matter that I had passed the advance placement classes.
*Side Note*
I would just like to point out if someone can pass AP Bio 2 then I am pretty sure they have Bio 1 in the bag. Ya feeling me?
So long story short I crammed 4 years of High School into 3 years and I went from graduating with honors to graduating with a basic diploma (not even a core 40). My guidance counselor wasn't paying attention and 1/2 way through my second semester of my senior year she told me that I was a science credit short of core 40.
And science was my jam yo!
BSU said "NOPE! NO CORE 40 = NO BSU"
They kindly referred me to Ivy Tech.
Went to Ivy Tech and due to my high school scores they let me skip all of my pre-req's. WHICH IS WHAT BSU WANTED ME TO TAKE THERE!
I had a car wreck and took time off of school.

Flash forward to last semester

I decided to go back to school, I got signed up and student affairs would not let me in one of the classes I wanted to take because I had not met the pre-req's. *Yes the same pre-req's that they let me by pass*
She told me "You'll need to get copies of your high school transcripts....."
I said "Um...you have them"
She said "No, not likely"
Me "Yeah, yeah you do"
Her "I'll look but we don't keep them back that far"

I wait patiently until she comes back with MY FOLDER
She fixes it and I am in my classes.

Flash forward to this semester
I am finishing this semester and that means it is time to register for next semester.
Same thing. Student Affairs said I hadn't met the pre-req's and I needed a copy of my .......

Me: "You actually have them in a file back there"
Her (yes the very same person): "No, if we had them then they would have been transferred to our electronic files"
Me: "I had this problem last semester and they were in a file back there"
Her: "NO...if we had them they would...."
Me: "Yeah that was what was supposed to happen last semester..."
Her: "Hold on"

She comes back with MY FOLDER

Her: "I can't believe that they are still back here. Someone didn't do their job last semester. They should have put this in our system. I don't understand....blah blah blah blah"

She basically went on to trash who ever helped me last semester while glaring at me like I did something wrong.

When she finished I smiled ever so sweetly and said "Yeah that's what you said last semester when you helped me"

Her face dropped. She silently got up and went across the room and asked another person to upload me into the electronic filing system. When that was complete she signed off on my classes and I was on my way.

So LIFE LESSON #231 Don't trash other peoples work or lack of, it very well could come back to bite you on the rump!

Compassion

We received our second letter from Brigida today. Brigida is the name of the little girl we sponsor through Compassion International. I must say she is absolutely adorable. She is in kindergarten and she is a genius! She writes her own letters and her printing is near perfect. Of course Compassion has to translate it for us and they print it under her writing. She tells us that her favorite color is red and she likes chicken!
Nathan is reading what she wrote right now, since he took a zillion years of Spanish. It is amazing to me that the little amount of money we give to her has made such an impact on her life and we don't even miss it.
God is good.

Cuz I wanna

Things I want to do soon not in any certain order:

Learn how to play the guitar

Become amazing at playing the piano

Relearn the clarinet

Learn how to play the violin and viola

Become a herbalist

Skydive (Bonzai)

Drive a motorcycle

Be a size 6 (Inside joke)

Belch the ABC's

Become a marathon runner or whatever they are called

Be a Martha Stewart understudy

Be the valedictorian

Hair and makeup artist for movies or famous people in general

Be able to tackle a MAC

Read the entire Bible

Swim with dolphins

Go horse back riding

Star in a movie

Scuba diving

Sky diving

Learn how to paint (really great stuff) not just happy trees

Master the BBQ

Be able to do a handstand out side of the water

Work for a suicide hotline

These are just a few.

I karate chopped a spoon in a hole because I'm a Ninja!

So this is a fun email my mom sent to me. You simply follow the directions. Her line was "I had lunch with my neighbor in your bathroom because I'm sexy and I do what I want!" HAHAHA that is hilarious coming from my mom.
Anyone else want to play? My line is in the title of this post. Let me know if you play!

Pick the month you were born:*
January-------I kicked
February------I loved
March--------I karate chopped
April----------I licked
May----------I jumped on
June----------I smelled
July-----------I did the Macarena With
August--------I had lunch with
September----I danced with
October-------I sang to
November-----I yelled at
December-----I ran over*

Pick the day (number) you were born on:*
1-------a birdbath
2-------a monster
3-------a phone
4-------a fork
5-------a snowman
6-------a gangster
7-------my mobile phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friends' boyfriend
10-------my neighbor
11-------my science teacher
12-------a banana
13-------a fireman
14-------a stuffed animal
15-------a goat
16-------a pickle
17-------your mom
18-------a spoon
19------ - a smurf
20-------a baseball bat
21-------a ninja
22-------Chuck Norris
23-------a noodle
24-------a squirrel
25-------a football player
26-------my sister
27-------my brother
28-------an iPod
29-------a surfer
30-------a homeless guy
31-------a llama


What is the last number of the year you were born**:
1--------- In my car
2 --------- On your car
3 ----------- In a hole
4 ----------- Under your bed
5 ----------- Riding a Motercycle
6 --------- sliding down a hill
7 --------- in an elevator
8---------- at the dinner table
9 -------- In line at the bank
0 -------- in your bathroom

Pick the colour of shirt you are wearing:*
White---------because I'm cool like that
Black---------because that's how I roll.
Pink-----------because I'm NOT crazy.
Red-----------because the voices told me to.
Blue-----------because I'm sexy and I do what I want
Green---------because I think I need some serious help.
Purple---------because I'm AWESOME!
Gray----------because Big Bird said to and he's my leader.
Yellow--------because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars
Orange--------because my family thinks I'm stupid anyway.
Brown---------because I can.
Other----------because I'm a Ninja!
None----------because I can't control myself!

Now type out the sentence you made and let everyone see!

So Blessed

Nathan and I are going to Jamaica in January 2009 on a mission’s trip with Farmland Friends Church.
Nathan went to New Orleans this past summer on a mission’s trip and he loved it. He came back on fire for God and ready for another trip.
I am a little more apprehensive.
The Jamaica trip isn't free. We have to raise our funds and I was having trouble not worrying about it. After much prayer and asking someone totally awesome to pray also (They offered to take prayer requests on their blog...how awesome is that!?!) I turned it over to God.
This Sunday while Nathan and I were on stage doing a run through for worship, Pastor Marggy picked up my purse and put an envelope in it. I checked it out later and found some cash in it for our mission’s trip to Jamaica. It was an anonymous donation (not to mention the 1st donation) that still brings tears to my eyes. I put my trust in God and he opened the flood gates. How simple.
We are no where near the amount that we need yet but I have faith that with what we have saved and what donations will be coming in (through the grace of God) that the financial status of this trip will be A-OK!
So I want to say THANK YOU to whomever it was that gave us our first donation. The blessing that you have bestowed upon us has forever touched our hearts.

If any of you blog stalkers would like to contribute to the SEND NATHAN AND KIMBERLY TO JAMAICA FUND just make a cash donation (any amount helps) or make checks payable to CSI Ministries and put our names in the memo line. You can mail it to CSI here in Muncie or you can give it to us personally *we prefer this so we can thank you in person :0)* or if you would like to remain anonymous then pass it on to someone who works at FFC and they will make sure we get it!

So long story wrap up, we were so very blessed this Sunday by someone's generous giving heart. Thank you again whoever you are!

Lyrics?!? What Lyrics???

I bought the Twilight soundtrack before I saw the movie. I wanted to be prepared for the movie you see.

I think most of us have a tendency to make up our own lyrics to some songs. I mean who really needs to know the actual words?

Well there is a song called SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE on the Twilight soundtrack and I was jamming to it in the car the other night and Nate singing along to it sang..."I want to play Whack-A-Mole"

Song: Glaciers melting in the dead of night...Supermassive Black Hole
Nate: "do dooo do do do I want to play whack-a-mole"
Me: ....."What?"
Nate: "I wanna play whack-a-mole"
Me: hahahaha it's SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE
Nate: No, I'm pretty sure they say I WANT TO PLAY WHACK-A-MOLE!
Me: hysterical laughter

Tonight I am listening to the soundtrack while doing my online class and on came SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE and I could see the wheels turning in Nate's mind, so I thought I would share it with my wonderful blogging community.

Ashlee Simpson has a song that says "I'll greet you at the door...I'll be your french maid"
I sang "I'll meet you at the door...I'll be your bridgemate"

I always wondered why she sang about playing cards, at least I think that is what bridge is?


Do you have any of your own lyrics to actual songs that you would like to share?

Um Yeah...

Do you ever look at something and think "Um, how did this happen?"

That's where I am at tonight with our linen closet.

We do have a crazy amount of towels, wash rags, sheets and blankets but I am pretty sure that at some point I had that entire thing organized.

I spent 3 hours today at our laundry mat catching up on laundry, at one point a woman who had been in and out said "Your a trooper I'm here to tell ya"

It wasn't just our normal clothes, I had to wash towels and sheets too. We have our own washer and dryer, however our apartment is not equipped to hook them up so boo for us we have to use the laundry mat. A what's with people not cleaning out lint traps? "Um Y.U.C.K I really don't want to touch your lint. You take care of yours and I'll take care of mine. Thanks."

Nate conked out early tonight and I stayed up. I was getting ready to go to bed and I decided to put away the sheets and towels. I opened my linen closet only to stand there confused for an undetermined amount of time going "Um, yeah. How did this happen?"

There were sheets (not folded precisely as they once were) on the towel shelf and the blanket shelf looked pretty skimpy and other misc. things were strewn about here and there. I took out the sheets that were messy, they are going to take more than a minute to fix and reorganized my towel shelves.

Laundry is put away, homework is done and I am going to bed to read some more of New Moon.

So have you ever had some "Um...yeah, how did this happen?" moments?

Oh Winnie...

I have wasted soooo much time today, well only after I got home from taking Winnie to the vet this morning.
She had to fast last night so she could have blood work done to determine if she has diabetes.
I am torn right now because I am not sure what I want the results to be. If it comes back positive for feline diabetes that means she will have to see a new vet and stay for 2 or 3 days to have her insulin adjusted to the correct amount. That means I will be shelling out cash for insulin for my cat! and giving her a shot every day.
If it comes back negative then that means she just likes to urinate on the carpet. The first two places we lived with her the carpet was ruined BEFORE WE MOVED IN by the animals that lived there before us. I chalked her urination up to the smelly carpet, but this apartment had brand new carpet put in before we moved in. I feel like we spend all of our time cleaning it now.
Someone suggested that I just "put her down" :0/
Not funny
She is one of our kids, if I have to shell out the bucks to keep her healthy then that is what I will do, you don't just adopt a pet only to throw it to the curb when they have a few issues. People are so bizarre!
but... we can't be having her pee everywhere when we have children crawling around.
Ugh
What to do what to do?

New Background, You like?

So yeah I actually devoted some time to my blog today. This is not something that I normally do, I feel there are sooooo many other things I could be doing, like reading the Twilight saga!

So what do you think?

I am digging the black and pink but not so much feeling the diamonds on the side. I just don't do round cuts! LOL

small town...BIG impact.: Urgent Prayer Needed!!!

small town...BIG impact.: Urgent Prayer Needed!!!

Doors...Ugh!

I realized today just how many wonderful friends Nathan and I have and we continue to make more wonderful friends. God has truly blessed us with people who love him and can help us keep on track.
Tonight in youth group Pink talked about being thankful. It just hit me that I am THANKFUL to God for the friends he has lined us up with.

It seems weird to me that as one door opens another closes. I sometimes wonder "Why? Why do any of the doors have to close? Can't they just all stay open and we can all wonder round and round?" Obviously some doors need to be closed and sealed forever but others, well why just one door?

Today while thinking about my true friends, (You see I am very picky about those I actually consider a friend. I feel that I have many many many wonderful acquaintances but friends don't usually come in groups, unless you have an amazing growth group like me. I also believe that you can only have 1 best friend. I have never really got the whole "I have 2, 3, 4 etc. very best friends" what really makes them special if there are more than one of them? But hey each person is different so whatever.) I came to the realization that I am losing a friend.
I have been friends with this person for quite awhile now and I have felt over the last several years that our friendship has been crumbling.
Why is it that we sometimes cling to any shred of hope we can grasp, to hang on to something that is one sided, only to be disappointed again and again? Are we gluttons for punishment? We put ourselves out there just to be taken advantage of and absorb more hurt and pain than necessary.
Why?
I am not trying to be a martyr a victim or whatever here. I have in soooo many relationships been a terrible friend and people clung to me when I should have been dropped off like yesterday's trash and not looked back upon.

I realized that with some people it is just easy to be a God loving, caring person around them. With others it is far too easy to have "fun" around them and lose sight of who we really want to be.
I have tried so hard not to be a bible beater with people who do not have a strong faith but looking back I wonder if that is what God wanted me to be. I just kind of feel like at this point no matter what decisions I made, I could not have made the right choices.
Ugh! How frustrating.

So to make a long story longer ;0) at what point do you know what you need to do? Do you keep fighting remembering all the great times? Do you just let yourself fade into the background? Do you take a stand and say "Hey..."?

I believe that God loving people can be friends with those who do not know our loving father, after all someone needs to be their unintentional shining star, so it is not a matter of that. Perhaps as we grow we change and that is why relationships die.

My best friend, Marva Rhea, once disappeared from my life for awhile. We went months with out talking and hanging out. We just let it slip. When we came back together it was like we never missed a beat. At one point she told me that she purposefully avoided hanging out with me during that time. When I asked her "Why" she said it was because I made her want to change her life and give up the bad choices she was making and at that point she did not WANT to give up these things. ~I can respect that, who am I to judge anyone?~
In our conversation she said that I never harassed her about these things I did not agree with or made her feel bad, but just being around me made her desire to be a better person.

Please believe that I am not delusional enough that I believe that I make people want to make positive changes. It is pretty cool that I made her feel that way but we had a very special friendship, that's why we were very best friends! The funny thing is that she made me want to be a better person too!

So I thought "Do I make this person feel bad about the decisions they are making?" I have not tried to and I am not judging them but I didn't with Marva either. We often surround ourselves with people who are making or have made similar decisions as us. It is a natural comfort, they have NO room for judgment at least that is what we think.

I do want better for this person but I am not someone who thinks that I can "fix" people. I am but a mere tool for God and we all have free will. No one can control our actions or our decisions.

So I will be praying about what I should do. At this moment I feel like I should just let myself fade into the background. But who knows perhaps God will lite a fire in me.

Cheese just may make the world go round!

So yeah I like cheese. I mean it is just so good. In lots of forms.
White cheese dip, cheese cubes, blocks of cheese, cheese sticks, shredded cheese, sliced cheese, melted cheese, fondue cheese, cheese on top of stuff, cheese under stuff, cheese that's not really cheese (Velveeta), cheddar cheese, pepper jack cheese, smoked cheese, I mean the list can go on for a while...
Oh and Tonya makes really good shredded cheese when we have tacos!

However I do not like
String cheese. ~I O.D. on it and then jumped on a trampoline when I was like 7, not a good combo~
Generic Cheese
Powdered Cheese
Cheese on veggies
Moz. cheese in pizza crust
or Swiss cheese
Seriously why did they attempt to ruin cheese with these?

Other than these few items cheese is great.

So yeah I like cheese, it kinda makes the world go round.

Oh Me Oh My

I was a poor witness tonight.
Nathan's cousin Collins passed away today. He was only 15.
We went to the family's house because Nathan has a deep history with them.

I should have stayed home.

I am very sorry for their loss but I do not mourn for Collins. He is free now. Free from the crazy that life spun at him. He can walk, talk, run, dance, sing and praise our WONDERFUL God.
He is home.

Collins had a difficult life.
He couldn't move, speak, focus his eyes, eat, etc.... Nothing.
He existed.
His parents thought that they were doing what was best for him and maybe they were. People are entitled to their own opinion and I have one.

Opinions are like buttholes.... everyone's got one :0)

They are older and could not lift Collins and give him the proper care he needed but they could not sacrifice and place him in assisted living or a group home either.
I can't say that I blame them, if I was faced with the same situation I have no clue what I would do. I would like to think that I know what I would do but...

It is easy as an outsider to say "Well if that were me, I would blah blah blah"

Yup easy to say what you would do, but you just never know until you are faced with that particular situation.

Anyway there we were and I remembered exactly why we do not really hang around these people. They are so self absorbed.

There was enough smoke in that house to make it a bar.

Oh and here's a real treat...

Another cousin, is 8 months pregnant with her 2nd baby was SMOKING!
Now if you followed me when I first started twittering I was furious one night because this same person, pregnant with the same baby, was SMOKING and DRINKING.

Yup read it again...

Yet everyone acts like its OK... "Well, she's smoking Marlboro Lites!"
"Oh, excuse me, I guess I didn't see the LITE part above the Surgeon Generals WARNING!"
.
.
.
.

Ya know it also kinda bugs me when people say "You have/had nothing to feel guilty about..."

Really?

Hum...if it is necessary for you to point it out, out of the blue mind you then ya know, maybe, just maybe there is a reason to feel guilty....

Perhaps that is just me and my philosophy!?!?

There are a few funny parts, you see with this family here is a basic equation:

Celebration= Fry something up
Tragedy=Fry something up
Rain= Fry something up
Holiday= Fry something up
Sun Shining= Fry something up
Nothing to do= Fry something up

They love to deep fry things, lots of things, well actually ANYTHING.
They deep fried a hotdog for me once :0/
Tonight they were deep frying steaks...WHOLE steaks...
and they were talking about putting syrup over corn chips and baking them.

What? Who does that?

When I stepped out of the vehicle 30ft away from their house I could actually smell the grease from inside the house.
I thought I was gonna hurl on their lawn, yeah for me I kept it in!

These are just a few examples of some of the crap that went on tonight.
I hate when people jump on the TRAGIC BANDWAGON, I am NOT one of those people. Seriously you can touch base with them, feel for them, help them, pray for them but you don't have to immerse yourself in the tragedy and make it your own.
Get a clue people

So yeah, I was a terrible witness, I was negative on Twitter, I could not say a whole lot, there is some rule to life...
"If you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all"
So sorry Tweets that you had to read my complaining.

It is sad that someone passed away, but it is even more sad that people want to make it an event of themselves and the person who passed gets lost in the fight to claim the attention.

Is it in You?