Once Upon A Time..

...silly people did not exist. Annoying people did not exist. There was no stress. There was no drama.

Yearbook was left to the professionals, not two poor little 11th grade girls who went crazy trying to produce a 152 page book alone.

Gym class was not mandatory. Ever.

Boys liked girls, and girls liked boys. End of story.

There was a boy for every girl and a girl for every boy. And you found your significant other right away and stayed with them.

Everyone had a prom date.

Losing 50 pounds was easy.

Tie-dying was not messy. And if it ever was messy, someone else cleaned up the mess for you.

Children did not have to do chores.

Mr. Right existed. I promise.

Chocolate did not make you gain weight.

Wallets refilled themselves with money every time you ran out.

You never yelled at people or called them names because they never made you mad. Everyone was in harmony.

The library always had the newest books.

You could download music for free and not recieve computer viruses.

Every job made the same amount of money, which was a very high amount.

You never had to fight with your parents about where you'd go to college or what profression you would have. They automatically supported whatever you wanted.

At the age of 16, everyone got a car.

And you never had to pass a test to get a license to drive that car.

There was a Taco Bell on every street corner, and it never made you sick.

It was paradise.

I'd Like To Chuck My Phone...

Smashing it into bits and pieces would be a lot healthier than staring at it for two entire days in a row.

Pathetic.

Courting

It may seem old-fashioned. It may seem awkward or even boring.

But a courtship is the perfect solution for someone entirely fed up with the normal modern dating scene.

A definition of "to court" from Webster's Dictionary says this:

"To seek the affections of; to seek to win a pledge of marriage"

Maybe it's just me, but doesn't that sound so much more incredibly romantic than saying, "He's my boyfriend" or "We dated that one time?"

To have someone seek out your affections sounds thrilling. You would feel cherished and desired and pursued.

Courtship doesn't have to be old-fashioned. It's simply an alternative for dating. It's spending time with only a few people in your dating life that God will put in your path to prepare you for marriage as opposed to dating many people and testing out the waters with many different types of people. It's not wasting your time casually dating, giving little parts of yourself away to person after person. It's selective; it's romantic. It's more serious.

And honestly, ladies, aren't we normally complaining to our friends that all we want is for that one boy to "get serious and commit?"

Hello, courtship.

Bedtime Story

As a writer, I have always respected and enjoyed the work of so many incredible authors. It has amazed me to no end to read these stories and plots that seem to be spun from magic.

For a long time, however, I forgot about the most amazing author of all. I forgot about the author of my life.

God is the most amazing author in the world. His characters are exciting, daring, and unique in every way. His plots flow seamlessly from one event to the next. His stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end, like every good story should.

The coolest part of God being this wonderful author, though, is the fact that he wrote my story.

He took time out of his busy schedule of ruling the universe to write my entire life story.

And in that life story, I have to believe that there is a fairy tale. I have to keep hoping and dreaming of the one special guy that God is going to eventually write into my life. Until then, I cannot trust my own self to write my story.

I cannot rule my own life. I cannot allow characters to enter into my story that God didn't ordain to put there. I can't rely on my self to give myself a personal happy ending.

The only thing I can trust is that God has everything under control. He planned my life down to the smallest detail, and I cannot wait to read what he has for me in life.

I Measure In Picas

I'm at Yearbook Camp. We're having a great time. The new book looks great, and we have some really amazing concepts and ideas.

I have discovered there are a few very important things that I need when I work on Yearbook. A lot of these are true for my friend Abby, too.

#1 - Pretzels
#2 - Water or Cherry Coke Zero
#3 - Music by Safetysuit

By the way...for anyone who hasn't heard them or realized it yet, Safetysuit is absolutely amazing. Go listen to them. Right now.

That's all for tonight. I'm waiting for my Yearbook program to load. Cross your fingers that it will work for me!

Arizona...and here!

My best friend is here! I got to spend an entire day with him today. It's nice to know that some things don't change. It's nice to know that some people don't change.

He's still my very best friend. He's still the nicest, most honest, most pure guy that I have ever met. He is the standard that I hold every guy to.

I am seriously so blessed to have him in my life. I'm so thankful for him and his wonderful family.

I am a very lucky girl.

The 4th

I had a great time with my family today.

This morning, my dad woke me up by banging on my bedroom door at 6:50, saying that we were leaving to go to Andover to buy (surprise!) more plants.

We piled in our van - mom and dad in the front, grandma and uncle in the middle, us three kids in the back - and met my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents. Then we went to the flea market and picked out all kinds of plants.

I have decided that plants cause most of life's problems.

Then, when we came home, we had to plant everything. I absolutely detest planting.

Yesterday, I managed to burn my hand while taking bagel pizza bites out of the oven. Somehow, amazingly enough, today I managed to stab myself all over my hands while planting a rose bush. The stupid rose stabbed me right in the middle of my burn. I feel like I have an infection.

Tonight, my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents all came over to see our house, have a campfire, and set off a few fireworks. We had a great time making s'mores with coconut marshmallows.

I really love spending time with my family.

My Sister's Keeper

I went and saw My Sister's Keeper today. I've read the book, but I totally forgot what happened, so the movie strung me along anyway.

It just made me realize what a total jerk I am to my sister. I am so amazingly lucky to have her in my life, and I take her for granted so much.

My sister is wonderful, and although I will admit that she often makes me mad and jealous and sometimes sad, I love her. I really, really love her.