My new phone cover :)

quotes on books

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. ~Francis Bacon


Books are a refuge, a sort of cloistral refuge, from the vulgarities of the actual world. ~Walter Pater

To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend; to read it for a second time is to meet an old one. ~Chinese Saying

This nice and subtle happiness of reading, this joy not chilled by age, this polite and unpunished vice, this selfish, serene life-long intoxication. ~Logan Pearsall Smith

Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books - even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome. ~William Ewart Gladstone

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. ~James Bryce

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read. ~G.K. Chesterton

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, 7 August 1991

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. ~P.J. O'Rourke

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. ~Groucho Marx

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. ~Mark Twain, attributed


A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog's ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins. ~Charles Lamb, Last Essays of Elia, 1833

“Ideally, we should like to define a good book as one which 'permits, invites, or compels' good reading” C.S Lewis

Summer 2010

Sheesh I am really bad about keeping up with this thing. Maybe I should set an alarm on my phone or something to help remind me to update it once a week instead of once every six months.

There are quite a few things that are new in my world. We have a new dog whose name is max. He is a chewnie which is a mix of a Chihuahua and a Dachshund. He has 4 times the amount of energy Buddy ever had and he loves people. His favorite thing to do is get up in people's laps and lean against them and lick their ears. And he LOVES to run! I think he would run all day if we would let him.

Another thing that is new is that I have a handle on my panic attacks and its not a daily fight to not have one. I don't think about them as often. I am still going to counseling to deal with some of the the issues that brought them on in the first place, but I am much more stable emotionally.

I should be graduating in December if all goes according to plan (you know how that goes). I am doing the Alpha Omega online Academy so someone other than family will be teaching me. I think that is probably a change for the good.

I have also made some awesome new friends this summer. I got really close to Sammie and Jessica at camp this summer. Sammie and I are a lot alike in that we both have panic attacks and we both are pretty withdrawn in new crowds. Jessica and Sammie are pretty much long lost sisters and it is hilarious to see them interact. I love hanging out with them. They always help left my spirits. We are having movie nights because there are soo many movies Sammie has not seen including the Princess Bride! I don't know how its possible for no one to have seen that movie. I think it is on of the best of all time!

Growing Up

Wow it has been a really long time since I last posted. I'll try to get you caught up on everything that has been going on. I have panic attacks and I am on meds for that. Also I am going to start taking counseling ( which I am less than thrilled about but realize I need it. ugh.) I am now working at Chick-Fil-A which is actually going very well. I like the people I work with and the work isn't too hard.

Basketball is almost over. Tomorrow is our last game of the season. There were not enough girls able to go to Nationals so we went to state instead. They played very well against some pretty tough teams. I really have enjoyed coaching this season but I hope I get to play next season. I miss playing.

Growing up is hard. I never thought about hard it would be to grow up. When you are a little kid you don't think about things like bills, car repairs, rent and paying for your own food. Now that I am at the age where I actually have to start thinking about those things, growing up seems slightly overwhelming. Ok actually a lot more than slightly. Then I have all he emotional and physical junk going on and that just adds more pressure. Life is tough and at this point it seems its only going to get harder. Does it ever get better? Or do you always have to strive just to be ok?

Sick and Tired of being Sick and Tired

Ever feel like you can't take anymore? That if one more bad things happen you'll just fall apart and crumble? That is how I feel. It seem the last 3 months have just been one thing after another. First the panic attacks, then what the doctor thought was gastroenteritis, then what they thought was gastritis, then we found out its probably an ulcer, then other problems since I was taking antibiotics, now I have no clue what is wrong with me, just that we don't know and I get to go visit another doctor. It could be anemia, it could be more panic attacks, it could be some unknown disease that I got from worry about all the diseases I think I have! Who knows? All I know is that I am absolutley sick of being sick and tired. I'm ready to move on, to gather what I can from this experience and get on with my life. Apparently God has other things in mind...

One of the videos we made

Senior Year

So this year I am a senior in high school. How weird is that? Time seems to be moving faster the older I get. In 24 days I turn 18 and become an "adult." Some how I don't think I am going to be very a good adult for my first year. I'm pretty sure I'll still act like a teenager.
In a way I miss being a kid. I could just play around and do whatever popped into my head with my friends. I watched a video I, my brother and my cousins made a little while ago. I miss those days when Courtney and I would put our heads together and come up with crazy sketch ideas that we would video. It was so much fun. But now it feels as if those days have passed me by, even though that was only back in April. It seems much longer than that some how.

I know the future isn't going to be all bad. I know God has some pretty good things in store for me. And I am looking forward to those. I just am realizing that I'm never going to be a kid again. and I feel like i'm losing something in that. Some form of innocence, of curiosity, of wonder at the world around me. When you become an "adult" you are required to start thinking "logically." You have to face facts and deal with those facts. There is not much wonder and mystery in paying bills.

I just don't want to those that sense of wonder and mystery that I get from the world around me. It makes me think of that verse in the Bible where Jesus says we have to become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven. I think he said that because we have to have faith in God to do things we can't see or understand. Children are good at believing and having faith without asking questions. I want that kind of faith.

Boys....

So it seems to me as if everyone and their dog is getting a significant other! ok maybe not the dogs but the people definitely are. Courtney and Deanna are now both taken as well as Melanie and various other people i know. Only 2 of my close friends do not have boyfriends. Its sad. I kinda wish i was still 10 when the only thing you had to worry about with boys was them coming over to bug the daylights out of you. I would almost go back to those days in an instant, almost.... I would not want to have to go through all the other things in life. But I miss just hanging out with the girls. Now all they want to do is hang out with their guy. They keep telling me I'll be singing the same song soon but I don't believe it. I won't be singing that song for at least the next couple of years. It gets tiring when all they can say when i complain about them having bfs is that pretty soon i'll have one too. That seems like a lame excuse to me. no offense. i mean on friday alone i had 7 different people tell me that soon i will get a guy! I'm convinced it is a conspiracy! So you guys might as well fess up.... :) And DON'T YOU DARE try setting me up!! Yes Courtney i'm talking to YOU!

Wow it has been a long time since I've posted. I need to write more often. This summer has been filled with more things than normal. My dad, my mom, me, and half our church is working a Chrysalis and we're trying to get the other half to go on it. The rest of this week is full of doing stuff to get ready for it. I'll try to write more soon

Prom

On friday I went to homeschool prom with my cousins Courtney and Brian. It was a lot of fun. At first I didn't really want to go because I really didn't see me having that much fun. I can't really dance all that well and I do not like being in awkward social positions. But it turned out all right. A lot of my friends from basketball were there so I hung out with them. And as it turns out nobody really knew how to dance either, so I was not out of place. There was a lock in at a local church afterwards and that was a lot of fun too. We stayed up the whole night. Everbody was soooo tired by 8 am! We played a very different version of spoons that turned into a scavenger hunt. We also played carpet ball,basketball, air hockey, and we played with these cool hover disc things. All in all it was an awesome night.

If I could be invisible....

If I could become invisible whenever I wanted to, I think I would be invisible most of the time. It would be much easier to hide whenever you did not want people to find you. It would also come in handy if you were in the habit of being chased by people, like if you were a celebrity or a popular band. But since I am not either of those I think I would use it most of the time to sneak off and read books all day or to creep out my family by suddenly appearing in front of them. Although I would have to be careful not to give my mom a heart attack, otherwise that could be painful for both of us.


I also think it would be cool to use in basketball games. It would be funny to see the confused looks on the other team and referee's faces. The only problem with that is that my team would not know where I was, therefore defeating the purpose of confusing everyone else. Maybe I could just be the distraction.

It would be especially interesting if I became invisible based on my emotions. Suppose if I were really sad or really mad I turned invisible. Whenever I wanted to be invisvible I would have to make myself mad or sad. I would be an even more emotional person. I think it would be cooler if I could just turn invisible without having to feel a specific emotion. My life would be very interesting if I had that power.

If people never co-operated

If people never co-operated then nothing would ever get done. The whole world would be in constant chaos, there would be endless wars and there would not be much of a population. There would not be enough food to feed people because nobody would be able to agree on what to grow, how much of it to grow, how to grow it, how to harvest it or how much to give out. Eventually people would just spread out and live alone. There would be a lot of feuds. If nobody ever got along, even from the beginning of time, then we would not be as technologically advanced and there would not be as many people in the world. Things would be a lot more primitive and hostile, it would be pretty much like when the settlers came to America and the Indians did not like it, only way worse.It would be horrible.

I think it is important to co-operate because it gets things done. Co-operating helps both sides to get what they want done. If I agree to do things your way this time, then chances are you will be more likely to do things my way the next time. If we co-operate we show that we have respect for the other person. I think that is important

What I am pessimistic about...

Aunt Laura says I am pessimistic about guys. I am not pessimistic, just realistic, there is a difference. My viewpoint is that guys at this age are not worth my time trying to like. Most of them are immauture and idiots. Harsh, but true. Eventually they will grow into good young men. But by that time I will be too busy with whatever God wants me to do, that I will not care about guys. Therefore liking guys at all is pointless. Now I do not mean that I do not have guy friends, I have plenty of them. And as friends guys are not so bad. They can be interesting to talk to and fun to hang out with.
Not all guys are bad at this age but they do tend not to make the best decisions. Sometimes you just want to punch them, because they tend to say things that are dumb. Sometimes I think they say things just to make you mad. It is like they want to get punched or hit. Maybe it is for the attention. That would make sense, if guys made sense. :P All I know is that this point, I am not interested.



Is that what you would like me to say Aunt Laura? or should I be more critical? lol just kidding.

My Parents

My parents are what some people would call old fashioned or strict parents. Some people would call them run of the mill, ordinary parents. But I know quite a few people who would call them kind, caring, wonderful people.
My parents work as chaplains at our local meat packing plant. They also are life boat captains at our church (which is just another way to say they lead our small group on Wednesdays), and my dad also works at the youth center (A.K.A juvie). As you can tell they are pretty busy people. Both of them are also going back to college to get a degree in psychology so they can become licensed counselors. They work hard to earn the money that we need to support a family of five.

Their job as chaplains involves listening to people when they need to talk, helping people find community resources to help them with things like food, money, or clothes. They make hospital visits and go to weddings and funerals. Sometimes my dad writes columns to put on the bulletin boards for people to read. My mom also takes people to doctors appointments and things like that if they do not have transportation. It is a very versatile job.

My dad's job at the youth center is to just be there and watch the kids. I am not really sure what all he does because he only recently started it.

As small group leaders they study the Bible with a group of friends that come over once a week. Everyone eats and they talk. Really this isn't a job, it's more of just being a friend.

Whatever they do they work hard at. I appreciate them working for us and for making sure that we have the things we need.

What I Think Should Be Done About DWI

DWI stands for driving while intoxicated or impaired. It means that you are drunk while driving a car. On average in America someone is killed every 40 minutes by a drunk driver. Drunk driving is extremely dangerous for the health of the person driving and for the other people on the road. Accidents involving drunk drivers kill around 13,000 people a year. It is a very costly traffic offence, for the people in the accident and for taxpayers.
"Alcohol-related crashes in the United States cost the public an estimated $114.3 billion in 2000, including $51.1 billion in monetary costs and an estimated $63.2 billion in quality of life losses. People other than the drinking driver paid $71.6 billion of the alcohol-related crash bill, which is 63 percent of the total cost of these crashes."*

Most of the public think that drinking while driving is a serious concern. A lot of people are in support of requiring drivers who have been convicted of drunk driving to use preventive measures like an ignition interlock device, which makes you blow into a tube to see how much alcohol is in your breathe. If it is too high it will not let you start the car.147

I think another good thing to do would be if someone is drinking at a bar and the bartender knows that that customer has had too much to drink, that he (the bartender) is required to call a cab for the person. The person should not be allowed to drive. The bartender could take the person's keys and make sure that he did not drive away. Then when the cab gets there he could make sure that the person got in the cab and give him his keys back. If the bartender could not do that then maybe the bars should hire someone to do that. It would save a lot of people heartache and loss. The bar may complain about having to hire someone else but in the long run it would pay off for the city.

Another thing that I think should be done is stiffer sentences for people who have been arrested for drunk driving. They got off too easy sometimes. I think for your first offence you should have to spend at least a 9 months in prison and pay a $2,000 fine. And it should get steeper from there. I think that if you have been convicted for drunk driving 3 times then you need to be in jail for at least 6 years. It may seem kind of harsh but it only takes driving drunk one time to endanger the life of someone else.

*(All statics by found on http://www.madd.org/Drunk-Driving/Drunk-Driving/Statistics.aspx. The website of MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.)