Shopping:

I love hate shopping! Ok, so hate is a strong word - so whatever word that is equal to hate is what I think about shopping!
Today was the 3rd day in a row that I have been looking for clothes for my new job at the bookstore. White blouse, khaki pants, nice shoes...ect. I finally met with success today. Let's all rejoice! No more shopping for me for a long, long, long, long, long, LONG time!
(Stop laughing Riah - I already told you it's not funny..)
:)
Love,

I'm Caught. Stuck. Forever immersed.

Books are my friend. I have reading in every spare minute I have.
It boggles my mind how some people don't enjoy books like I do. It seems so weird to me that my own sister has been "trying" to read a very small book for about 8 months now, and is only on chapter 4 or 5! The book is very good! I've read it a few times already. 
I guess some people just aren't avid readers like I am. If I could read 24/7 I would...as long as the book was good. haha.
There is just something about sitting down with a good book for a couple of hours...
The written word really does stir the imagination. It takes the characters that were created by an author and turns them into real people. People who become friends to you in a different way.
To me, books are more than just books when the story catches you, and immerses you in it. The books turn into an adventure, or a good escape for you. You "meet" new people and "see" new places all over the world. It just takes some words put to paper and an imagination.

Rain.

I usually don't like it when we have gloomy, rainy days, however, today when I woke up and found that it was raining I was soooo excited.
A rainy day sounded like a wonderful thing for a lazy Sunday.
Put simply: Today is rainy and gray, and I am enjoying every minute of it!

YES!!!

I have a job!
Sorta.
I have it for sure after my background check comes back and I'm not a bad person.
But I am saying I have it for sure because I haven't broken the law.
Ever.
Really, I'm not a crazy murderer or a thief!
lol.
I really do make myself laugh sometimes.
Now would be one of those times.
Being tired probably has something to do with it.
But I am sticking to the original idea.
haha.
Oh and I have a short story for you.
It's not from my childhood.
It's from yesterday and today.
Here goes:
I was driving home from dropping my mom off at work and as I turned onto a different road, my "check engine" light came on. It made me nervous.
There is just something about that little light that makes the worst-case-scenarios run through my head. The first one that ran through my mind yesterday was this: "What if my engine explodes...as in fire, and a loud BOOM?!" and then... "What if it doesn't explode, but just dies on me as I'm goin' down the road?!" and then... "What if a whole bunch of stuff is wrong and suddenly my breaks don't work?!... and so on and so forth.
Today, my mom and I had to go out, so we decided to go by Auto Zone for them to run a quick diagnostic on my car. (His name is Syd.) (Yes, I named him) (And yes, he is a boy) (And yes, I know it's just a car.)
Guess what they said... "It was probably a glitch in the system. Sometimes if you do some things a certain way the computer can't keep up so it will turn the "check engine" light on. It is very common in Jeeps (I have a '97 Jeep Grand Cherokee) to do that. You have nothing to worry about." They reset the light and sent us down the road.
Go ahead and laugh. I know you want to. I am. Now.
My worst-case-scenario thoughts were way over the top. A glitch. A small little glitch. And I was thinking explosions and crashes.
I think I'm going to go now.
Goodbye.

Oh, The Weirdness of Me!

Here is another story of my weirdness. I hope you are enjoying these stories, because I sure am enjoying writing them!

When I was little, somewhere in between the age of 5 and 7, I was next door at our neighbors house with my mom and sister. We were over there a lot. It was time for lunch; we were having sandwiches. After taking a bite I asked, "Mama, may I take the crust off my bread?"
"Why do you want to do that?" She replied.
"Because bread crust makes me coooooold!" I said with a shiver.
See, being so young, and not knowing all of the right words to describe things, I thought that when something gave you shivers, that it meant you were cold. And since the nasty bread crust gave me the shivers, I thought I was cold...
I still haven't lived that one down. yay me.

Another Little Kid Gone Weird...

Riah here, guess what?  I took Lyssa's hint to post something, so here goes...

When I was little I drank strawberry milkshakes, I didn't like them, but I drank them because they were pink!

I used to think that Malts would be like liquid malted milkballs.

Lyssa's mom has this big clock, a grandfather clock... I thought it was a door to another world, but I couldn't go up to it and open it, because that would just be rude.  It wasn't, afterall, our clock and besides I would have been in big trouble if I had touched it anyway.

You know how fast-food resturants have speakers in the ceiling to play music?  Well I used believe that people were in a room above us playing music and we could hear it through the "holes" in the ceiling.

I used to think saltine crackers were cookies until Kay told me they weren't.  I think that was a sad day for Mom, she could no longer trick her poor little child into think that crackers were cookies.  You can feel sorry for me now... I was deprived of real cookies for three years of my life!

I thought my Nana and Pawpaw were Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus.  Hey! He had a beard, she baked cookies, plus he has a workshop behind his house...  It could be true.

I always thought it was comepletely unfair that Kay got to do all the harder school first, plus she got to do CAT's which looked really fun to me.  Oh, did I mention that I adored school?

I started reading a little when I was three.

I wanted to go to Mars (my favorite planet after I did an essay on it).  I changed my mind when I figured out how hard the training was on full-grown, "big", men.  Then I wanted to be an Astrologer... it was the next best thing to being an Astronaut.

There was a tabacco barn out in the woods behind our house (the one we lived in before the house we are currently living in), I thought a man lived in it.

And I think thats about it... For now.

~Riah

About the 3 Men in My Basement.

It was a lie told me by a rude girl who lived across the street. I was three years old and we had just moved into our new house in the mountains of NC. The girl was around seven years old, I believe.
The day we moved in, she came by to say hi to Bee and me. After a little bit of conversation (whatever conversation a 3yro, a 6yro, and a 7yro can have...) the girl says, "Oh, just so you know, I saw 3 men go into your basement before y'all got here, and they never came out!"
Being 3 and willing to believe whatever I was told, I thought she was telling the truth, and was forever scared of the basement. To this day I don't ever want to see that basement again. (Good thing we don't live there anymore).
Now, you have to understand, our basement could not be accessed unless you went outside, down a flight of steps, and unlocked and exterior door. It was an incomplete basement filled with jumpy spiders, and Bee and I were too short to reach the light to turn it on. We kept our bikes down there and all of our other outdoor toys.
Imagine, if you will, a dark, unfinished basement with no light you can reach, and the thought that 3 men were living down there. And then imagine that, oh I don't know, your sister "accidentally" locks you in there with no light, and jumping spiders all around you...and the 3 non-existent men. Also imagine your eyes playing tricks on you as you are screaming for someone to let you out, and you "see" figures moving toward you.
Imagine being angry at your big sister for leaving you alone in the dark, scary, horrid, evil basement!
I had nightmares for weeks after being locked down there. You know the kind of dream where you can't run, talk, scream, or do anything to escape impending doom?! Yeah, that's the kind of dream I had every night.
That is the story of the 3 men in my basement.

 Glad to have said "goodbye" to that basement over 9 years ago,

A Little Kid Gone Weird.

When I was little I used to think that Santa Clause had a key to my house since we didn't have a fire place. (a very short lived thought process, but still...)

I used to hold my breath whenever someone I didn't know walked by. Weird, I know, but I had learned in science that germs, that cause the common cold, can be passed by breathing on each other. I thought that by holding my breath when strangers walked by, that it would keep me from getting sick.

I used to think that 3 men lived in our basement. That wasn't my fault though. I will tell you the story later.

I used to dream in cartoon most of the time.

I used to love to eat cups of ice. Not weird. I used to put salt on the ice before I ate it. Weird. I always thought the taste of it was gross, but I still ate it. Very weird.

I used to think it was weird that my sister pitched a fit if we had to take naps. (even if I didn't want to most of the time.)

Riah and I have many weird childhood memories. Perhaps one of these days she'll post a story of her own... *hint hint*

A "weekend" at Riah's!

On Sunday I left for a fun-filled weekend at Riah's. We have never had a sleepover before, so we were both very excited!
We took a ton of pictures, made a chocolate cake, messed around on the computer, talked, ate dinner, played flashlight tag with the little girls, watched "Leap Year" and ate popcorn, talked, laughed, talked, got ready for bed, and talked until after 2am. (Not all in that order exactly).
Monday: We ate breakfast, talked, did some other stuff, went outside and took a ton of pics for over an hour, went back to her house, had lunch, talked, got on the computer and designed an awesome blog design for "The Focus Point", did a blog design for Kay who is planning on opening a blog, played with the little girls more, did other random stuff, I played "zombie" with the little girls in their room (basically hide and seek in the dark), got ready for bed, began to watch "Lost In Austin", I was a party pooper and said I needed to go to bed, Ri and I talked for a few minuted before zonking out.
Tuesday: Got ready for the day, ate breakfast, talked for a bit, and headed out to get milk, and then head to my house. I got home and took a nap, watched some of "Pollyanna", then "The Apple Dumpling Gang", there was a black and white movie that came on, but a dozed through that one, and then I watched not quite half of "Gone With the Wind". I wasn't very happy with the way that movie turned out. BOOO! But it was fairly good.
While I was at Ri's house I discovered that I am still, in fact, allergic to cats. **sniff** I thought I wasn't anymore because I am around the cats at the barn all the time... it wasn't so. I am still very much allergic to cats, unfortunately, and Ri's cat has it out for me. I can tell. It glares at me. Ri's boyfriend think it has it out for him too. Riah keeps telling us it doesn't but we don't believe her. After all, she isn't on the receiving end of that cat's evil stare.
Sorry to all of you cat lovers out there, but I don't like cats. Especially Ri's.
With apologies and happy memories from Riah's house,

I Got Kicked in the Face...

...by  Bee when I was 6 years old. We were playing on one of those kid slides that are made of plastic and are about 2 feet off the ground. She went down it head first and was kicking her mean feet to try to keep my off of it until she was done. I must have not been paying attention to her feet, for I was kicked right in the face and (brace yourself) blood poured from my nose. Both sides. We didn't know it had been broken until about 2 years ago. It was crooked and I had a ton of nose bleeds all the time. I had to have nose surgery. It was re-broken and now all better!
End of story.
Oh, Bee still claims she wasn't kicking on purpose....
See ya,

Not a Story

I have something exciting to share. I AM GOING TO RIAH'S HOUSE ON SUNDAY AND STAYING UNTIL TUESDAY!!!!!!!!
Ok. thanks for listening.
:) :) :)

A Story About Riah, Kay, Bee and Moi!

Once upon a time way back when we were fairly little, Riah and Kay came for a visit. Bee and Kay went their way, and Riah and I went our way. Somehow or another, Bee and Kay got into a spat, and came charging at us. Bee took Riah to go play, and Kay took me. Needless to say that Ri and I weren't happy at all! After all, we were playing together and our sisters dragged us to two different parts of the yard all because they were mad at each other!
I don't think we ever figured out what the fight was about, or if we did I don't recall what it was. Riah and I, however, didn't put up with it and told them to work it out themselves, we wanted to play with each other not them! We did, and had a great time, just the two of us!

On that trip, I believe, Bee and Kay were getting along again, and left Ri and me alone. But we got mad at them because they took our walkie-talkie when they already had one!
Get this: They stood facing each other talking amongst themselves on the walkie-talkies! Ri and I fussed at them and tried to get it back...I don't remember if we did or not.

Ah the stories I can tell. I will be telling a bunch of stories in the next little while. I find it to be very fun!
With fond memories, and some not so fond,

Randomness Wednesday (story about me)!

When I was four years old I had something happen to me. It is the one thing I really remember from being that age. Here goes:
My mom, sister, and I had stopped off at the local church for mom to do something (I don't remember what it was). While she was inside with our neighbor and someone else, Bee and I decided to go play outside. The game was...are you ready?... "Hide From Cars."
We made the game up.
I'm sure you knew that.
The object of the game was to get as close to the church sign as we could, so no cars (aka people in the cars) could see us!
Simple right?!
We had been playing for a little while, when Bee decided to go inside for a minute or two. I stayed behind the sign. The next thing I knew was that I had hit my head on the stone part of the sign and (brace yourself) blood ran down my face. I think I remember screaming. Bee came back out, stopped, and ran back in. My mom came charging out of the church and brought me inside. I was freaking out. My bloody hand-prints were all over her white t-shirt, and the dish towel that was being held against my gushing head was already soaked. Our neighbor drove us to the nearest urgent care, and she then called my dad. He was working so she had to leave a message. She told him, "You don't have to come. She's bleeding pretty good, but we're at the urgent care, and everything is under control."
He came. YAY!
After what seemed like forever, the doctor brought us back for him to have a look. (Brace yourself again) He said that my head was busted open all the way down to my hard-head-skull. (Sorry...gotta put details...)
My mom and sister were instructed to stay outside (mom was a basket-case). My dad and our neighbor held me down on the table as the doctor prepared to stitch me up.
Now here is the interesting part. Ready?
The doctor started to tell me what he was going to do, step by step...as in... needles...poking...pain... (excuse me, I need to take a break).
(I'm back).
My dad asked him not to tell me these things, to just do it. Logical...seeing as how I was only four years old, and freaking out as it was.
He stopped...for a minute, and then continued to tell me what he was doing. The rude man! Mean! Horrible! Scary!
Sorry.
My dad really got onto him this time! Go daddy! You tell him! Booyah!
Sorry.
So after a long and drawn out process, it was finally over and my daddy took me home to give me a bath and to wash my now-bloody-hair.
The wound was above my right eyebrow, but now, after so many years, the scar is very near my hairline. Cool huh?!

I remember a couple of days after the ordeal, I asked my parents if we could go back to the spot that I hit my head at.
"Why do you want to do that?" They had asked.
"Because I want to find my head." I said as if it were obvious.
"Um...what?"
"I want to find my head! If it was busted open then I want to find the part that went in the hole!"
I think they laughed a little...maybe chuckled. "Honey, you won't find it."
"Why not? Did someone throw it away?" I asked with a scowl.
"No, there was not a piece that fell out."
"Oh, I thought it would be like an apple core." (Don't ask me why I said that.)
The end.

Little House on the Prairie...

...the best TV show ever created.
To quote Laura: "Pa, I've decided something: Home is the nicest word there is."
She just said that a second ago.

Sometimes...

Sometimes in life we look at all the bad things from the past or present and completely ignore the good things.
We often look at every flaw and never look past it to the beauty.
There are times when we think that no one is on our side, when, in all actuality, God is always there even if the people around us aren't.
We are all known to try to fix things that are out of our hands.
The way we think can completely change our attitudes.
If we stopped focusing on the bad things and look at the good, if we stopped looking at the flaws and look at the beauty, and if we stopped telling ourselves that no one is on our side, and believe that God is there, then, I do believe, the general attitude of most people would be a little bit better...especially if we stopped trying to fix things we have no control over.
Just one of my random thoughts,

A Wonderful Weekend.

This weekend there was a wonderful friend reunion for me. Over four years ago, through some interesting circumstances, my friends and I didn't talk any more. It was a mess. It was painful. Let's just say it was drama.
On Friday evening, one of my friends (who I talked to through a few emails over the years) stopped by (she lives across the street). She was selling cookie dough for volleyball. We ended up talking for two hours, roughly. We made plans to go see a movie the next day with her older sister, who was coming home for the weekend from college. We went and saw Eat Pray Love. It was slow but good.
It was so good to see those girls again. They were always like sisters to me.
We are going to be hanging out more often. I am very excited that God brought them back into my life!
Love,

Adrenaline Rush.

Today, my mom and I were out running some errands and we were in a very busy part of town. We got into the turning lane and some person decided to turn left out of the parking lot and cross five lanes of traffic. They came flying out in front of us, and mom had to slam on breaks while swerving out of the way. We didn't get hit, but it was within a couple of feet of that happening. Talk about an adrenaline rush. yikes! My heart was racing, and I felt like my limbs were jello.
I am so thankful that we didn't get hit and that there were no cars coming on the other side of the road where we had to swerve to.
Glad to be at home,

I know, I know...

...this is my 4th post of the day, but I wanted to introduce you to someone.

Everyone in blogger world, meet Shorty!

Shorty, meet everyone in Blogger World!

Y'all remember me mentioning shorty, right?

Good.

He is so small and short! Hence his name.

I think Billy Goat would like him.

My deepest apologies for the many posts today. I guess I'm just making up for time lost over the Summer...
With my deepest apologies,

It's still me.

As you can see, Riah has finished my new blog design! She did such a great job!!
I love it.
She made the blog button so that whoever wanted to put it on their blog can! So feel free to post it on your sidebar. :)

By the Light of the Silvery Moon.

I just watched this movie earlier today and discovered a new favorite. The song is quite catchy too!
Doris Day and Gordon Macrae play in it.
Watch this. I think it would be awesome to sing this way.

An email to me from Hillsong.

"What do you need to accomplish something extraordinary? Ambition? Money? Power? Or perhaps... supernatural power?


Do you realise that you have supernatural power at your disposal every time you connect with God in prayer? In fact, when you begin to pray, heaven begins to stir in response.

I really believe that.

I don't know about you, but there have been plenty of times that I haven't felt very extraordinary. There have been times that I have prayed, "God, this is too big for me. This is more than I can handle." But it's comforting to know that when we do that, when we confess our utter dependence on the Lord, when our God hears one of His children relying totally on His power, He responds.

The truth is, when ordinary people like you and me connect to the power of God through prayer Extraordinary Things Happen.

I want to share with you a glimpse of how you can trust and rely totally on God for your future. As you begin to place more of your trust and hope in the Lord you will start seeing amazing things happen in your life.

So, how do we pray with extraordinary power?

First , get real. If you want to be effective in your prayers, just be open and transparent. You don't have to hide your feelings from God. I love King David. Listen to part of his prayer from Psalm 13. ‘How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?' Do you see what David is doing? He is telling God exactly how he feels. David is praying honestly. That's exactly what we need to do. After all, God already knows everything that is going on in our lives, so come before Him every day, just the way you are. Be real!

Second, think outside the box. So many people pray safe. They're afraid to ask God for the big dreams and desires of their heart. Do you remember when God offered to give Solomon anything he wanted? With the en-tire world before him, Solomon prayed for wisdom to guide God's people! And what did God do? He granted him wisdom, but He also added riches beyond our imagination! When we pray unselfishly, God will do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask, think or imagine.

Finally, get your words right. Our words don't have to be high and lofty. The Word is Jesus. You don't need to pray, "I most humbly beseech Thee that Thou may truly impart Thy blessing..." Let me encourage you, just be yourself. The words you use are not as important as the heart behind them. Pray from your heart and pray in the name of Jesus. Jesus is the authority through whom all prayers are answered. Prayer is simply a conversation with God. You don't need eloquent speech, just an open and tender heart.

Friend, the only thing we need in order to do something extraordinary is to connect with God in prayer. The Bible tells us, "with God all things are possible."

The Lord's desire is that you live an overcoming, extraordinary life.

With love and appreciation,

Brian Houston"

 

Today.

1. Today I went to the Greenway.
2. Today I saw a little black goat and named him Shorty.
3. Today I was entertained by three donkeys.
4. Today I teased those three donkey's about their ears. (see my photography blog and you'll see for yourself.)
5. Today I drank a Grande Pumpkin Spice Latte while taking pictures.
6. Today Riah has been intently working on the blog design. (it looks awesome so far)
7. Today...well... not much else has happened so far.

The end.
That's all
Really, that's it.
Goodbye.
Maybe forever.
Nah, I'm just kidding.
I'm gonna go now.
Buh-bye.