So, it has been longer then I thought since I last posted. A lot has happened since I last posted, Jc has moved to the dorms, so I haven't been around her much. She did come home last night, though, and spent the night. So far, everything is going well for her.

Today our church had a "Servant Day," which means that members of our church signed up for different projects and we went all over town working at charitable organizations. I went with the youth to the Infant Crisis Services, a place that helps mothers with young children, and helped bag food and sort cloths. It was fun to spend time with friends, but I am so tired now.

This afternoon I had to brush down the pool, which is harder then it sounds. It really wears your arms out because the brush (mainly the handle) weighs so much. I also have entered many, many crafty things into the fair, and so I have to work on finishing those projects in about 2 weeks, which is not nearly enough time. So far, all I have started is the drawing, but I need to start everything else.

~Ellentia

Back to normal?

I have always thought that there isn't any "normal," but I am more convinced now then I ever was. I have done all sorts of things that don't fit into this category, from spontaneous outings with friends to simply having a different schedule every day. It wears me out so much that sometimes I wish there was a normal to return to.

Anywho, after we got home Sunday night (our trip was great, by the way), I have felt like I have had a million things to do, but I never can remember them all. Choir starts next Tuesday, as does my babysitting job, so I will have more to adjust to. The following Monday, the all consuming and imposing history class starts again. I am excited though, to be back to seeing people regularly again.

I really have so much to do this year, but it should be fun. I will enjoy babysitting, and my jewelry business is always fun (if time consuming). I am hoping to get a webpage for it this fall sometime. I will also get my license in a month or so, which will be cool. I don't have a car, but I will be saving every possible penny so I can maybe get one next year.

Last night I was at a small group sleepover, and we made a late-night run to Taco Bueno (not that terrific). Anyway, I jammed my finger getting out of the car (climbing over a seat), and it hurts dreadfully now. I iced it last night, but it is still swollen and a little purple in one spot, and I am starting to wonder if there is something I need to do about it.

I need to go do other things now, so I will go. Have a happy, un-normal day!

~Ellentia

Florida!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm in Florida! We came down here Monday and have gone to the beach every day since. It has been so much fun to be here in the summer. We usually come to visist our grandparents for Thanksgiving or Christmas. We still go to the beach, but there is so much more you can do when it is warm. I tried not to get a sunsburn, but I failed and now my back and shoulders are in pain
:( I am still having lots of fun. As my birthday was Wednesday, we were supposed to have a picinic by the bay with as many family members as possible (33, to be exact), but it raied so we re-located to our grandparents house. It has been great fun so far, but now I have to get off. I'll post again when we get back on Monday. Till then, goodbye!

~Ellentia

Dayspring!

To answer your question, Petr, in laser laser tag, at least the version I played, you have a laser gun and a vest with sensors on it and you just wander around shooting at other people's sensors. It records your score, and then prints out a score card. Very simple, but it can be quite fun.

As mentioned earlier, this last week was camp. It was totally amazing! First off, all of the girls from our church were in on cabin (there were two different rooms), so there were about 30-40 girls in one building having way too much fun way too late at night. The best part was how we did role call every night. The first night, when our name was called, we made animal noises (and gestures if we wanted). I was a lion, so I jumped over a few beds whilst roaring. The next night we died dramatically, the next we played the game where the first person starts a story and the next person adds on and the last person finishes it. The last night we played the no teeth game, in which you have to hide your teeth with your lips and then make the strangest noise possible without showing your teeth. It was good fun.

My small group was great this year. We were all focused so we didn't have to worry about staying on topic, and we had lots of good discussion. There were all different beliefs represented, and people were very open. I loved our leaders, they were very good about getting us onto good discussion topics.

I did manage to wear my ankle out the first day so I had it wrapped the whole week, preventing me from swimming, hiking, playing ultimate or volleyball and I wasn't supposed to jump or run. I did do a bit of that though. I injured my ankle playing softball in '06 and I think what happened with it is that when I went hiking on the first day, I worked it too hard, causing it to hurt.

Nat was at camp too, and he did something most of you may not believe. On Wednesday, he shaved his head for one of the games. I knew it was coming, but I still couldn't believe it, and I'm still not used to it. He was pretty much bald when they did it, but there is some hair growing now.

I don't have pictures on the computer yet, but they will be coming shortly.

In other news, this next week is the kids musical camp, and I am going to have to learn all the hand motions today and tomorrow, and I will have to be working from 8-3 all day Mon.-Thur. plus extra on Thursday. I'll have to let you know how it goes!

~Ellentia

Once again, I am posting. As I mentioned earlier, I played laser tag last Tuesday, which was lots of fun. I didn't expect to like it, and I didn't do very well, but it was fun all the same. Unfortunatnly, one of the girls in my small group was in a wreck on the way to play, so she didn't get to come. She is okay though, and the wreck wasn't her fault.

Next week is Dayspring (church camp)! I am actually excited, and I am usually not really excited. I hope I have a good B.A.S.I.C. group (Brothers and Sisters In Christ), it will be sad if I don't. It should be a fun week, especially with the girls from church, we have all become really good friends these last few months. So, barring any major drama, it should be a great cabin this year. We recently got a new middle school youth pastor, and he will be at Dayspring. I am excited to get to know him better, he seems really neat.

Well, that is all for now, I'll be back next weekend with lots of pictures and stories to tell!

~Ellentia

So, this has been a long week, but not in a bad way. It just never seemed to end. We have a summer Bible/book study, and last week was a big bonding time for us. It isn't something to share, but it was an incredible morning, and if everyone in the Church could be part of something like this, the Church would be such a different body of believers. We are reading Acts and a book called Messy Spirituality by Michael Yaconelli. It is about spiritual growth, but it is unlike any book on the same subject. I didn't like the first 4 chapters at all, I disagreed with quite a bit, but the 5th and 6th chapters were good. It is an interesting read, at the least.

In two weeks is the annual Summer Arts and Music Camp (SAM Camp) and in preperation for it, Mom and I went to Dallas on Friday to visit a camp similar to ours that did the same musical that we will be doing, Go, Go Jonah! It was a fun trip, and we got to go into the different classes. I went to a handbell class and a quilting class, which was fun. That night we got to see the performence, which was good. The main kids did well, except that they didn't know the lines perfectly. The singing was good (thankfully) and overall it was very enjoyable. There was a bit of excitement during the show, about halfway through the fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate the building. Thankfully, there was no fire, one of the sensors accidentally went off, but we had fire trucks there and everything. The kids weren't shaken up too bad though, so after 10 minutes we went back in and finished the show. We got to our hotel about 9:30, and we had been up since 5am, so we were very tired. The logical solution? Stay up reading and watching Food Network, of course! Needless to say, we didn't leave very early. We did get to stop at DQ, a rare treat because the only one in OK is far south. It was a good trip.

On Tuesday my small group is going to play laser tag (my first time, can you believe it!) so I will let you know how I do. But until then, goodbye!

~Ellentia

Colorado!

So I just got back from a fishing trip to Colorado. It was great fun. Before we went, however, we stopped at Quartz Mountain last Saturday (the 20th) to hear Leighanne's first choir concert. It was fantastic! She did amazing. Funny story, we were going to have a picnic with her saturday for dinner, and so we brought KFC to the porch outside the cafeteria. Just as we got there, it started to rain. It didn't stop. So, we did the logical thing, and sat outside in the rain to eat our fried chicken, mashed potatoes and biscuits. I had to drain the water out of my plate several times, my napkin disitegrated
and we were all quite wet by the end of it.

My grandparents then took Nathanael and I to Colorado and we got there on Monday. We fished Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and didn't even get any bites. It was very discouraging. I did catch just about everything except fish, though. Rocks, trees, bushes, branches, grass, the bottom of the river, my jeans, my fingers, and lots of the long, slimy green moss that grows in every river on the planet.

Our grandparents starved us the whole time, giving us oreos, chocolate, ice cream, hot chocolate, pork chops, stew, burgers, mexican food, and other yummy things, making a hike on Wednesday very necessary in order to lose some of the weight I'm sure I gained. We hiked upriver to a big rock that we climbed up, and the view of the mountains (we were in a valley) was spectacular. I also love climbing rocks, so that was fun. But we had to go back after that, because it started raining.

It rained Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, so we had to stay inside. We played games, and I drew for a while. Wednesday, when we tried to eat outside for lunch, it started raining. This time we were able to go inside, though. After not catching any fish, we went to visit my Aunt who lives in Colorado for her birthday on Thursday. I had to order trout at a restaurant in Pagosa Springs in order to get my fish! It was good though.

The drive from Antonito to Bayfield was totally amazing. Words cannot describe how beautiful the mountains were. My camera died just as we got to the best part of the drive, but I got some pictures later. I don't see how people think that the world could have been created by chance after seeing something like that.

For my Aunt's birthday, we went to the Bar D Chuckwagon, which is supposed to be outside. You'll never guess what happened. It rained. So they had to pull the cover over all the tables to keep us dry. It was yummy food though, and the show afterwards was quite good, and very amusing.

Friday we drove to Albuquerque to see my other Aunt and Uncle and cousins. For dinner we went to a place called Genghis Grill, wich was "Mongolian Stir Fry." I don't usually like stir fry, but you went through a line and put all the raw ingriedients (only the stuff you like) into a bowl and then give it to the cooks who all stand around a big, round grill. It was good.

The biggest problem with the trip was that the bathrooms were very primitive, and there were no showers, so I only got to shower once in the 5th wheel. I was glad to get to my Aunt's house just so I could feel clean again. Saturday morning we got up extremely early in order to go back to Quartz Mountain for Leighanne's second concert. Once again, it was amazing! She even had a part in a small ensemble that were the bells in the most difficult song the choir director had ever directed in his life, and he directs a professional adult choir! She did fantastic, of course.

Amazingly, we got home Saturday evening in time to swim (the pool is finally open!). It felt great, seeing as the temperature at Quartz Mountain was about 107. And I was used to the nice, 75-80 degree weather of Colorado!

(pictures to come later)

~Ellentia

Summertime

I keep thinking to myself, why am I so busy? Am I not supposed to be less busy during the summer? But somehow, I feel more busy. But, I am enjoying everything that I am doing. I had so much fun in Nac two weeks ago, I wish I could have seen more people, but there's only so many people you can see in 3 days.

This next week is VBS at our church, and I am signed up to be a crew leader. I am very excited, but by the end I will wonder (as I always do), why did I sign up to help this year? It might not be so overwhelming, except that we have around 500 kids come every year, so the whole church is covered in decorations and crazy kids running around causeing as much trouble as possible.

I will get a rest the next week, though. On Saturday we will be meeting my grandparents at Quartz Mountain to hear the choir that Jc is in perform. The next day, my grandparents are taking Nat and I to Colorado to go fishing! I am so excited! The last time I went fishing, though, I fished for several days and watched everyone but me catch a fish. Even my 9 year old cousin caught a fish on her mini barbie doll poll. But, maybe I will catch something this time. I really just want to eat it though, fresh grilled fish is delicious!

~Ellentia

Pictures!

These are from last weekend. I and my brother and cousins all walked down to this park in our neighborhood.


This is after graduation.


The other senior that I will miss the most!

They just had to jump into the picture!

The cake! We ate, and ate, and ate that cake all weekend!
This was the party at our house afterwards. This isn't everyone, there were still several people yet to come.
One of the guys paid some girls to spray her with silly string.
She wasn't the only one who got sprayed.
She got a laptop!
Measuring the hair....

An excellent summary of these two!

~Ellentia

Graduation and Family

I am worn out! Since Jc graduated on Friday, we have had lots of family in town. I have really enjoyed seeing all of them again, we have all 9 grandkids/cousins in town! On top of all this, there were of course lots of grad parties, lasting late into Friday and Saturday nights. But it was all lots of fun! I can't believe Jc is graduated though! This means she will be moving out at the end of the summer! I won't get to see her every day! It will take a lot of adjusting.

This afternoon, Jc had her dance showcase, and so we all went. I didn't enjoy any of the dances, except for Jc's (hers were the only ballet). Everything else was bad dancing, bad choreography, bad costumes, and put to bad music. Afterwards, we went to Bricktown and shopped at Bass Pro, then ate dinner. I had way too much, considering that I wasn't particularly hungary when we ate. I am glad to have a chance to relax, now. I feel like I have been going non-stop for the past week. I will enjoy the break, because soon I will be busy again.

(pictures to come at a later time)

~Ellentia

Home Again

I am ready to lay down and do nothing for a week or two. We had a blast on tour. I don't have any clue where to start. We did well in our competition on Friday. Not amazing, but much better then last year. On the way to Atlanta, we stopped at John Brown University and did a workshop with the choral director there, and got our t-shirt material there (the idea for what to put on the t-shirts that we made later). While Dr. Smith was trying to get the sopranos to sing, he had all of the ladies say "I am woman, hear me roar!" in a very high, silly voice. So, that's what we put on our shirts. The funny thing was that one of the tenors was better at it than the sopranos.

I lots of fun at Six Flags, and I got to ride a coaster called Superman, that you ride laying on your stomach, in order to simulate the flying sensation. It was very cool. On Sunday we went to a church that was very similar to our church in Nac. I enjoyed going, and it makes me miss First Christian. We had some down time on Sunday, so some of our room pranked Micaiah's door. He was somewhat surprised to find a giant Zoborg on his door. That night, we went to a Japanese steak house that is like Shoguns. It was a lot of fun, I haven't ever done anything like that before. The next day, three of us pranked two of the girls' doors (including Jc's). The door pranking is for seniors, and the other girl is one of the original pranksters, so it was fun to do her door.

Over all, it was a great trip. I could go on for hours telling you all about it, but you probably wouldn't be too interested, so I'll stop now. I will have to post pictures later, they're not on the computer yet. On Friday and Saturday, the OCHEC Home School Convention was going, and I had a booth to sell jewelry. I haven't ever had a chance to sell before, so I learned a lot. I didn't sell a ton, but I did really well, considering my total start up cost, and the experience that I gained is invaluable. I am so tired though, I had to get up early and act "perky" and awake both days. I almost fell asleep sitting at my booth! All in all, I am so happy with how it all turned out.

~Ellentia

Concert and Tour

Choir concert is over! It was, in my opinion and my parents opinion, the best concert since we have been in the choir, so out of 5 or 6 concerts, it was the best. We sang really well (as far as I can tell) and it was not particularly long, although it could have been shorter. Ladies ensemble did fantastic on our first song! I was so proud of everyone, we all breathed together when we were supposed to! Our second song was not as great, but it was still really good.


Jc had the big senior solo/duet this year, and she did amazing! It was beautiful, Jc, you did great!

The choir did quite well second half, we nailed our two a Capella pieces, one even had 4 key changes that went perfectly! It was amazing to be part of such a good performance with this choir.

After concert, we of course all went to IHOP, the standard after-party location. We had great fun, and I even got a picture of Jacob on my first try!

Then, the traditional syrup chugging! All seniors who come to IHOP must chug syrup before they can leave. This year, four of them did it! Miciah drank the full bottle. I don't think anyone has ever done that, most just drink some of it. The girls allways pour it intlo spoons and only have 1-3 spoonfuls.




Nick came back from Germany on Monday and after meeting his family, he came up to Okc and met with us and Carolyn, one of our friends that has been talking with him on Facebook and then over the phone. He came to concert and to IHOP afterwards. This is the best picture I got with him in it. Carolyn is the one who is hiding her face.


TOUR IS TOMORROW! We are going to Atlanta, GA, and I am so excited, I can't even tell you how excited I am. Especially since we are spending all day Saturday at Six Flags! And they have lots of big rides, including a roller coaster that you stand up on the whole time! I am so glad we have plenty of time to spend there. We are going to do all sorts of fun things, like go to the aquarium, dialogue in the dark, and a Japanese steak house! We will, unfortunately, be visiting The Body exhibit, but I will be going with the group that stays outside that part. I have no interest in seeing what the human body looks like. I am sure it is made wonderfully, but I don't need to see it, especially since I get grossed out just looking at the advertisements for it! I also have moral issues with it. Unless they can prove to me that the bodies were honestly retrieved, I don't want to support it.

So, since we are leaving tomorrow at 4am, I won't be on again for a while, but I will let you all know how the trip was as soon as I get back!

~Ellentia

Happy Easter!

~Ellentia

Thoughts of Good Friday

Good Friday, probably the most hopeless day that ever occurred in history, especially for Jesus' Apostles. Have you ever thought about how they must have felt? In a few hours, their whole world as they knew it came crashing down. The man that they had followed and believed in for three years was condemned to die. My thoughts would be mostly wondering about what would happen next. Would He manage to avoid the death sentence? What would happen if He did? If He didn't? Where will I go now? What will I do? Will I be next on the cross? Probably this would have been the scariest day in the Apostles lives. We are so blessed to live now, and to be able to look back on this day, knowing that it all turns out better then any story ever could. We can look at the Cross with the hope that comes with knowing that it couldn't last. If only we always looked at everything this way, with the hope that comes from knowing that no matter what happens, no matter how we hurt or how much is taken away from us, we will someday meet again in heaven, and that can never be taken away by anyone, not even the Devil himself.


~Ellentia

Thoughts

I have decided that a person's life, any person's, could be compared to a faceted gem. There are many different kinds of gems, and within each kind, there are many different colors, sizes, grades, shapes, clarities and inclusions. Just like there are all sorts of people. The facets represent the different parts of our lives. When light hits the gem one way, a particular facet is illuminated, while others are only partially illuminated or else are completely dark. In the same way, in life (at least in my life), there are some areas that are working out beautifully, with "everything goin' my way." But at the same time, there are invariably those areas where it seems that everything is crashing down, and nothing could go worse.

The past month or so has been an excellent example of this for me personally. And now, to add to the dark facets, Jessie is still in the hospital in Colorado, unconscious and in critical condition. Yesterday evening, about 70 people went to her house and we all wrote messages or scripture on big yellow or green ribbons and tied them all over their property. By the time they were all up (including some that were there before yesterday), everything was fluttering with yellow or green. The more time goes by, the more I realize how serious this accident was. It is going to be months before she is significantly better, and maybe longer, because she hasn't woken up yet. I can't possibly imagine the pain and worry her family must be going through. However, there has been lots of good that has come from the accident. Our youth group is pulling closer together and many people (myself included) have said that they have started to pray more throughout the day. I personally have started to think about my priorities, and whether or not they are straight. Life is so short, what if it had been me that was hurt? If I were to die today, am I ready?

Jessie's house is 30 min away so Jc and I rode with a collage guy there and back. On the way back to the church, we came up with 5 things we wanted to do before something happened to immobilize us or before we died. One of mine was that I want to learn how to rock-climb and repel and work my way up until I can climb up and repel down Devils Tower. Chase said that if I did, I would be the coolest person he knew. It will probably be a while before I will get to rock-climbing, and after that it will be even longer before I make it up Devils Tower. And yes, there is no apostrophe in "Devils."

~Ellentia