Update

First of all, my last day of school is exactly 7 days away. (wknd included) I am ready to be done! I've got all sorts of stuff planned out for the summer! I promise you that I'm going to say the words "I'm excited" about 10 times during this post.

I am so excited! Heading to the beach on June 1st with my youth group! My birthday is on June 3rd, so I will be in FL on my birthday!!!! I am super super excited! :D
Then I'll come back on the 6th and on the 7th we have our swim party for the middle school girls. (I recently started a middle school girls bible study! I need to just do an entire post on that. It was awesome!) On the 8th I'm babysitting. HOPEFULLY sometime between the 9th-13th I can get my driver's license. I had to cancel my original appt. (June 6th) so I could go to Destin. :D

On the 14th we're heading to VIRGINIA!!!!!!!!! That may not sound that exciting to you but I am SO ready for this! I get to see Tate and I haven't seen him since Christmas! Might go look at Liberty University while I'm there, and we might go to Bush (sp?) Gardens or King's Dominion which are two theme parks around where Tate lives. I seriously don't even have words to say how excited I am. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D D: :D :D

We have VBS coming up around the corner! I've done puppets the past two years, but this year I volunteered to do music/dance. It's going to be awesome! I'm excited!!!!
Towards the end of July I head off to Kidzkamp! I am super excited about that too! We've been working on decorations and stuff for awhile now, and I think it's gonna be awesome!

Magical Places

Have you ever been somewhere magical?

I don't mean Walt Disney World or a theme park in St. Louis. I'm talking about a place that has a special, magical memory attached to it.

This place may be something as simple as a field in the park where you and your best friend used to spend time roaming around. It might be the hotel in Florida that you took your first ever trip away from home to. This place might be a small church camp that you visited last winter where you met some amazing people and had the time of your life. Don't you have a place like that? Somewhere that makes you think of happy memories, exciting stories, and wonderful occasions...

I don't want to burst your bubble, but here's the reality: that field is just a field. The hotel is just a hotel. The place you went to camp? It's just another campground. What makes your memories of those places special is who you were with. You could be standing in a blank, white, room with 12 of your closest friends but still have the time of your life. It's not because this room was awesome. It's because the people you were able to spend time with.

Life's too short

I wrote this a while back, but never posted it. :)


You cannot change people. I don't mean painting someone's nails, or cutting someone's hair. You can not change the attitude or mentality of another human being. We'd like to try sometimes though, wouldn't we? Here are just a few examples: that obnoxious man at the baseball game shouting swear words louder than anybody, the woman at her desk who is constantly tapping her fingers, the boy in your class who kicks your chair or talks too much, the drama queen in your 7th period class who thinks every single thing is the end of the world because she wants to be the center of attention. Wouldn't you just love to do something, ANYTHING, to make them quit their annoying habits and change their annoying personality traits? I'm not going to lie, I absolutely would.
(Not to say that I don't have any annoying habits myself! Because I absolutely do! :) Just thought I'd make sure I mention that before I continued...)
Unfortunately, I cannot control others. The only thing I have any control over is my own attitude and the way I react to things. I have to make up my mind on the front end to take a deep breath and have a better attitude about people. Life is too short to waste your time being angry or annoyed.

11 Questions

...this is one of those posts I did in 6th period (TA for my yearbook teacher so I can use computers...)


What are you reading right now?

• I just finished "Heaven Is For Real" by Todd Burpo. It was pretty good, but I don't think I would recommend it.

Have you met anyone famous?

• Band members of The Advice
• Matt Mahr
• I somewhat fell on the lady from Group1Crew. Does that count?
• Matt Papa
• Mickey Mouse (DisneyWorld...duh)

You are on death row and have to choose your final meal - what is it?

• Pasta

How much time do you spend on the Internet?

• WAYYYY too much

What is the bravest thing you have ever done?

• HA! I went free falling on one of those rides in a theme park in Florida. It takes you like 12 stories up, drops you, and then you swing back and forth...
• I told a guy I liked that I really liked him. It may not sound all that brave to you (not that anyone reads these anyway....) but it was probably one of the bravest things I've ever done. LOL

If you could live anywhere (and all your friends and family would magically be there too), where

would you choose?

• Orlando (DisneyWorld...duh)
• Ireland
• A beach
• The mountains
• I really do like Memphis though. Not just saying that...

What was the last movie you saw in the theater?

• The Muppets for the 2nd time with my cousins.

What is something popular right now (could be an activity, TV show, song, etc) that you just don't get? (This may take a minute. These things really frustrate me)

• Twitter. Please don't judge me. I know like e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e has it, but I just don't get it. You post what you do. You talk about what you do. It's constantly just status updates. You stalk other people's statuses. You "tweet" about your life. I just don't care. Ha! #whydoyouhashtag?
• Why people think it's cool to have their pants around their ankles. I just want to staple their pants to their butts! For goodness sake! JUST PULL THEM UP! I do N-O-T want to see ANY of that. At all. None of it.
• Yogurt Mountain. It just isn't that amazing. It's expensive. It's usually overcrowded. It's good, and it's decorated pretty cool, but it isn't spectacular. I would much rather have a blast from Sonic, or just a scoop from Baskin Robbins.
• Planking. Need I say more?
• #hashtags
• @jillmonkey7cooljay#taggingmybffstomakemytweetlookcooler
• have I mentioned how much #hashtags drive me CRAZY? #gotaproblemwithyourspacebar? 

Show me your last pin on Pinterest (hopefully your answer to #9 wasn't Pinterest!).

I think it was this? A "DIY Wood Block and ScrapBook Paper..." thing

But this one made me laugh so hard...

If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to?

• I don't know

A Little Happiness

The little things. That list that comes to your mind when you think of something small that makes you happy. Whether it be a walk in the park or spending an hour or two on Pinterest, even on the worst of days there is always something on this list that can make you feel a bit better. Here's my list (In no particular order!) what's on yours?

• Watching the Duggars (19 kids and Counting!)
• Coffee
• Ice Cream
• Pinterest...don't judge! You like it too.
• Reading
• Not doing anything...at all. Preferably in my pajamas.
• MUSIC!
• A call or text form a friend
• Doin crafty things
• Baking....even though I really REALLY suck at it.
•  My church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Fuzzy Socks and my Fuzzy Penguin pants. :)
• A bouquet of flowers
• A smiling face
• A hug

Make your own list.  You not only get a little smile yourself, but you realize how thankful you should be for the little things.

'Round Here...

You can get a variety of these things in other cities, but in my personal opinion Memphis wins first place with the following:

Graceland

Mud Island

The Memphis Zoo

Beale Street

The Peabody

Elvis

BBQ
The Mississippi RiverWalk

There are countless things you can experience only in Memphis. In fact, when it comes down to it I really like our city. When you Google "Memphis" the history of the city, the tourist attractions, the most recent news, and a handful of pictures pop up. What DOESN'T show up is what I'm writing about today.

Our weather.

Only in Memphis will I find dandelions growing on our front lawn in the middle of January, will it be 60 degrees in the middle of February, and be snowing a week later. Seriously! Yesterday it was 75 degrees and today it's a little below 50. Our weather is bipolar and absolutely insane. I wouldn't be surprised at all if we come back after SPRING break in a few weeks and have a snow day in March. That's specifically because I live in Memphis. :)

Music. Tag! You're it!

There is this tag going around.  So name your top ten favorite music artists before reading the questions below.

1.) Tenth Avenue North
2.) Carrie Underwood
3.) Jesus Culture
4.) Jack Johnson
5.) Sugarland
6.) Francesca Battistelli
7.) Taylor Swift
8.) Lady Antebellum
9.) Rob Thomas
10.) Chris Daughtry

1.) What was the fist song you ever heard by 6? Free To Be Me
2.) What's your favorite song by 8?  I Run To You
3.) What impact has 1 left on your life? That I am more than the sum of my past mistakes because I've been remade by my heavenly Father who loves me unconditionally
4.) What is your favorite lyric of 5's? Ain't no rhyme or reason/No complicated meaning/Ain't no need to over think it/Let go laughing/Life don't go quite like you planned it/We try so hard to understand it/Irrefutable, indisputable/The fact is psssh it happens
5.) How many times have you seen 4 live? Zero
6.) What is your favorite song of 7? Tim McGraw
7.) Is there any song of 3 that makes you sad? Nope
8.) What is your favorite song by 9?   Little Wonders, Problem Girl, or Streetcorner Symphony
9.) How did you first get into 2? American Idol! And I got her first cd that year for Christmas
10.) How did you first get into 3? I heard a couple of them at church, my youth minister played music by that band at youth group before we started alot
11.) What is your favorite song by 4?  Upside Down
12.) How many times have you seen 9 live? zero :(
13.) What is a good memory concerning 10? American Idol and jamming out in dad's car
14.) Are there any songs from 8 that make you sad? Not that I can think of
15.) What is your favorite song of 1's?  By Your Side!!! Times, You Don't Owe Me, You Are More, and Hold My Heart are my faves too. And All the Pretty Things, Oh My Dear, and Let It Go. Ummm lets just say all of them. In love with their lyrics
16.) How did you become a fan of 10? He was dad's favorite contestant on American Idol that season, and we were just pulling for him the whole time.