The Last One of the Season...

Well tomorrow I am embarking on my last winter excursion for the season. I will be accompanying 24 3-5th graders of church on Whiteout along with eleven leaders. As always, I will be leading in singing on the way as means of making the three hour trip seem somewhat shorter. I believe this time will run much smoother only because they are more easily amuzed and have an easier time following these kind of things.

This time I am going to bravely teach the children I song I wrote and see if it flies. I actually had a few guinie pigs to try it tonight. I babysatt ten little ones under six years old for small group. They actually did a lovely job following it besides the fact I couldn't do my own motions right. After we did that song, we engage in some other worship songs. As their little voices sang, apparently their parents were praying upstairs and recieved great joy hearing their little ones singing praises. Meanwhile, Rachel was just leading in singing only because we had already cleaned the basement and did all the things the kids wanted to do. I was asked if we could make this time a teaching/worship time for them. Being that tonight went rather well, I will try to allow it to happen more.

So anyways, with success tonight with my song I will defintely have more courage to use it for the kids tomorrow. I think they'll appreicate it more, maybe. Pray for our weekend. Pray for safety, health, their hearts will be prepared for the lessons. If you find it in your heart as well, pray for me. For the last two weeks, everytime I eat, I seem to face unpleasant reprecussions from it. The worse it gets is pretty nasty nauseua that makes me feel really sick and ready to gag. If you remember that, it would be nice. Thank you.

Hope you all enjoy your weekends. I will be home Sunday night. I will probably head over to the Hutek's where Jenn has offered her shower and bed for me to crash at until bible study. I am pretty sure I will take her up on it. : )

Overview of Saturday

Today, after facing a restless night's sleep, I arose out of my bed at 8:15am. I put some comfy clothes on and left the door at 8:25 to head six blocks over to babysitt Selena and Savanna for the morning. We watched a Care Bear's movie that really took the majority of the time. In admitting that, I feel like a horrible babysitter that I used a movie as means of entertainment for the girls. Afterwards, we had lunch and then I changed them into their clothes for the day. I have dressed kids before but today, I for the first time got to pick what they would wear and I got to style their hair. Ugh...it pretty much was the highlight of my morning. Someday I will have my own...

I came home a half an hour after noon and hit the books studying almost immeaditely. I memorized the last fifteen terms for a test I have on Tuesday. I have it all the terms memorized three days early. That could be described as a record! After that, I quickly cleaned up my room since I just cleaned it a few days ago. I just picked up the random items that fell from my hands to the floor.


Dad, mom, and I spent some time on youtube showing each other various videos. Sitting between my parents felt so...I don't know, lovely. I love those two so much. After the video sharing, I outlined the next chapter of the same class I studied for earlier. We ate dinner together shortly after. Shrimp Alfredo...yummm!

I then started to clean up my little office space downstairs I have. I use it for studying, scrapbooking, reading, doing devotions, and other various activites. So I decided to organize and put more decorations in it all today. I got so into it I loss track of time and forgot about Da's (Dan Stephens) hockey game I was invited to go too. By the time I realized what time it was, the game would have been over in twenty minutes. Aw well. I took pictures of the various parts of my cozy little space. So here are some pictures of it....with my running commentary.








This is the whole space in general complete with old wicker bookshelf, various pictures I took that mom framed, pictures and reminders of people I love, the desk I recieved as gift from my high school drama teacher, and Frank Po sitting up my suitcase that will be packed in a couple days for White Out.






This treasure right here is a famiy heirloom. Okay not really. But it has been apart of the Moen household since I have been born. Dad almost threw away this priceless treasure away when I snagged it for my area. The top shelf you will observe carries a radio, a cute snoopy Vday card on top of it, my God box (I put prayer requests in there, things that concern me and come back later to see how God has answered them, its pretty encouraging), Graduation Bear, and Snorta.
Next we have, my collection of notebooks and DVD's. The notebooks generally carry stories. I also have some cards from my birthday that just warmed my heart. I also have a picture of my late Grandpa Tony and me when I was four years old.

Under that shelf, we will find more notebooks however these ones carry notes from school and notes I shared back and forth with friends. There are two bags in the middle, one holds a pretty design and the other is a Teletubbies one. I use these bags to carry encouraging notes people have written me over the years. When ever I find myself not loved, which I am ashamed to admit, is more often that I would like, I go through those notes. I should read the Word...but I don't. I also have three different Hoops and Yoyo cards from people who know I love a good Hoops and Yoyo card. A card a friend sent me from Florida while I was in Germany. Photo ablums that hold my favorite photography shots I have taken. One day I will use them to have prospect buyers look through. All four of my high school year books are lined up in order.
One the bottom we have my scrapbooking supplies. I think that row holds my favorite things to organize. I was able to organize my stickers...which for anyone who has ever scrapbooked with me can say that is a huge deal.





Here is the wonderful free desk. I was in the market for a cheap desk for a little over a few weeks. One day, as I was having lunch with my drama teacher, Ms Swan, I saw she had moved her desk in the garage to be pitched. I asked her what price she would allow me to have it for. She insisted I just take it. So I took her sixteenth birthday present and it nows sits in my basement. Amberlee, my laptop, sits there (with the Ignite group as the background) owning the show probably playing my newest instrumental music addiction- chinese music with an erhu playing as the main instrument. Pure beauty. I am not going to bore you, more than I already have, with all the items in the desk area. Hmm idea. *Thinks out loud* I could decorate the outside of the drawers with several different pictures. Ohhh that's a splendid idea. When I get my own house, it will decorated with so many pictures of the ones I love. Just watch.




I love Saturdays, no work, no school -plenty of time to be productive with stuff that cannot get done during the week. Most the time anyways there aren't many Saturdays spent like this. Usaully I am lazying around. However, there are many Saturdays I wish Sunday wasn't after. Days like today I will be wanting to charge various projects and stay up all night doing so. Like right now, I want to reorganize my bookshelf in my room. But being that it is almost midnight and I have not showered for tomorrow, I can not. *Looks down defeated* OH well...tomorrow is Sunday which is another glorious day. Goodnight and good luck! : )

His Greatest Loss

I am in the process of writing a fanfic. A fanfic is when you see a movie or tv show, and say you did not like the way the movie ended, you can rewrite it and people will review it. Anywhoo, I wrote one and here is the beginning...

Tears of the Universe

The leaves crunched under his dress shoes as he walked up the hill. His heart was drowning in a hundred sorrows to fill the ocean that stretched a few miles away. Tears filled his eyes that were the color of the midnight sky. Typically, they held the glory of the stars of the universe amongst them but since the fateful day a week ago, those stars lost their magnitude due to a heavy blanket of fog.

Lucas Scott never experienced pain like this, the roaring throbbing pain coming from his heart with every passing minute. Physically, yes, he had experienced such pain coming from his heart but emotionally this had been a first time. His thoughts faced a vicious spinning circle. He just could not let himself move pass the fact that Keith died. Keith, his uncle that sacrificed so much so Lucas could have a man to rightfully call father, had been killed the week before.

Months before, Lucas and his entire literature class had an assignment to write about loss. He could not place at that moment what exactly he wrote as his greatest loss but he knew that it would not compare to the empty hole Keith left behind. After eighteen years of selflessly loving Lucas like his own son, Keith went out to sign papers to officially adopt Lucas during school. Lucas and he would go out for dinner and a basketball game in Charlotte to commemorate the event after school. That day had been January 26. The day of the shooting.

Weekend Adventures

Currently Listening to:Any Other Name Thomas Newman (my favorite score as of right now)
Current mood: tired with hungry stomach
Current food in making: Mac N Cheese
In an hour I will be: leaving for school for the day



This weekend I had the chance to go up north from about Friday evening till well...about 7:00 this morning. As much as I wished that it would have been a vacation, it was more of a study retreat. While everyone did the various stuff- shopping, go into town to see a movie, sightseeing, I stayed and studied. Joy to the world...

We (meaning my mom, Sar Bear, and her best friend Brooke) headed up Friday evening as I said previously. We all brought along tons of luggage and enough germs to bring back the bubonic plague. Mom had a pretty nasty cold, Sarah had just got over a fever, Brooke just recovered from Bronchitis, Laryngitis, and the Flu, and I had was home sick from work because I stayed up all night with stomach issues. Plumbing issues as my dad calls them. All in all the health of the group was overwhelming.

Half way to the cabin, we stopped at Bronner's. It is one of the biggest Christmas stores. We took a gander at all decorations. The Grinch that writes this blog really enjoyed herself despite the unsettleness in her stomach and the fact she likes Christmas to stay at Christmas time. I cannot wait to own a home where I can decorate it with stuff like that. I found this beautiful music box playing this most amazing music. I fell in love with it. It was this large honker of thing but it was just beautiful! I asked how much it was and to my astonishment, it was $13,000 buckaroos! I vowed when I come into tons of money, I'm going to go buy it. It's just one of those weird expensive things people want.

A few days later...

I thought I posted about the trip already but upon checking it, I realized I had not. So now a few days later, here I am, updating my update. Anywhoo, after Bronner's we headed up to the cabin. I also failed to mention that Uncle Kerry and Aunt Deda own this cabin up in the woods. Since the patriarchs of our two families have been best friends since eigth grade, we go up to cabin quite frequently. Well...we is the interesting word, I maybe get a chance to get away about once or twice a year. Which is truly great but being that my family was up there five times before my first time this past year, it's sad. It's tough being an adult. ; )

We arrived at the cabin a little after eleven o'clock. We put in Kung Fu Panda but since we all were not top notch healthy, we all fell asleep before the ending. Uncle Kerry and Aunt Deda, after dropping off Katey Bug, at Lake Ann for the Winter Advance, arrived at 3am. The next day was full of lazy souls...mainly me, procastinating against productivity and homework.

However, sicne it was VDay, I decided to take a romantic walk with the love of my life, God. I walked for three miles which equaled about two hours and a half. I brought along Gracey, the Weishaupt's dog. I prayed out loud since no one was around, I sang various songs even made up some too. It truly was awesome and needed.

After Saturday, I studied. Studying, studying, studying...did I mention I studied? By Monday night my brain was crammed about various ways to study children and methods. I studied for a bit on the way home. I took my two tests when we got home and they went extremely well. I got a 90% on one. : ) The other one, which I was more confident about then the other, I pretty sure I got an 100%. That excited my soul so much and has me motivated to keep studying. So with that said, I am going to get to that. : )

Pictures of the trip will be posted soon.

Valentine's Day

So this weekend holds the day of love, Valentine's Day. This day can be looked at one of two ways- total excitment to see what one's significant other did to honor them. Or looking at with total bitterness at your lack of a special someone that you could share it with.

Last Valentine's Day started off as my hardest you see, because I just went through a pretty painful break up and I worked at Hallmark. I remember sorting through the VDay cards and My Heart Will Go On came on over the radio. My fragile heart became bitter at that point wondering why in the world I didn't have someone to share the day with. However, that's when I thought of the idea of getting with a bunch of single girls in the church and spending the day with them. I told my best friend about it and we gathered up a few girls. We made cards for a bunch of the widows in the church. Then for the actual day, we dressed up and went out to see Defintely Maybe. It ended up as a wonderful night.

This year is not going to be so hard. This year I fully appreicate my singleness. If I went along with peer pressure, I might be inclined to feel as if I deserved someone. As I look around this year, I take notice that most of my good friends have someone special. Some of these friends are ones that this will be their first Valentine's Day with someone and for that I am excited for them. I myself am glad I do not have anyone right now. I have so much to work on with my walk with God, I am apart of a ministry, I have a load of classes, and other important relationships that are far more important right now.

Provided I do get married and that it lasts for years, I will spend many Valentine's Days with my future husband. But right now, I am single something everyone should cherish and take of advantage of. I can do so much right now without wondering what my boyfriend will think or how it will affect him. I am going to spend the day thinking of all the people I love and appreciate.

So Happy Valentine's Day to everyone who has shared a part of my life. I love you all so much! <3

A Few Honest Confessions

Currently Listening to: Undertow- Jordan Anderson

Currently Snacking on: Toast with peanutbutter and cinnamon

Current Novel Reading: Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks

Current Topical Reading: Let God be God by Ray C. Stedman

Over the process of the last few days I have found out a troubling fact about myself. I have become complacent in my walk with God. I go to church twice on Sunday, Wednesday nights, I serve in a ministry, I attend bible study Sunday nights. I also pray quite often. I even open my bible to read it everyday for a quick read so I can check it off my list of things to do. However, I realized today that I make the bear mininum a Christian does to honor God.

I spend more time reading fictional books and get more out of them then when I read the precious word of God. I open up my Bible, read the verses my devotional says for me to read, and journal thoughts- on somedays. There are days more often then not, I'll just read the verse and not even let myself think of what I just read. What I just read will fade from memory as soon as another thought comes along. It's truly sad more than anything that it's how much I value reading the bible.

I humbly admit my prayer life isn't bad. It is not the best or the worst. It certianly could be so much better. People used to say that I was a huge prayer warrior and even one friend said he knew when I was praying for him. Now, I just pray for easy stuff if you will. I have random reminders to help me pray for others. Everytime I see wild berry skittles I pray for Jeremy for instance or when I use my wipers and see sour patch kids, I pray for Kevin, or when someone says something about a Mac I pray for Josh. Things like that... but I hardly pray for the unsaved souls in my life or in the world, for my own purity, that I will glorify Him every moment of my day. My best time to pray is infact when I am driving. I actually pray out loud and talk to God. So if you ever pull up next to me and see me talking out loud, more often then not Im praying.

Anywhoo...that's what Im wrestling with lately. Pray that these convictions will get me to change. God's grace is more than enough for me to get out of bed in the morning or to climb a mountain. : )

Winter Blast

Since I am horrible at updating this blog, I am going to talk about what happened two weekends ago. We had the chance to take the 6th graders from church, out for Winter Blaze. We drove a few hours down to the Kalamazoo (which isnt too far from Hell) region. Yours truly lead the beautiful chorus of angels in singing on the way. The singing didn't go as well as last year's White Out but the kids in the group were younger and excited. Anyways, we got there safely right in time for a pizza party and then late night tubing.

My darlings, (the girls) all were amazing to spend time with this weekend. I was so glad to be able to kick back and relax with them. I love those girlies, but boy they are sure talkative. I am not even talking about during the day, at night they were talking in their sleep. It was stinking hilarious! : )

I have been to a total of three camps for the winter Lake Ann, CoBeAc, and Bair Lake. By far, Bair Lake has the best hill. You would jump on a tube and found yourself speeding down the hill without speeds up in the 100's...well maybe not but hey it felt like it. The hill was easy to climb back up which is nice. I love Lake Ann's hills...despite the 3rd one on the right giving me a pretty nasty concussion but they are hard to climb. Anywhoo, we had tons of fun with the hills and the kids. We had a very large tube that we attempted to put ten kids including myself on. The hill went down a few feet and then flipped over. I flew forward doing a flip that started on my neck so I could rush the arthritis that is building there. I fell to the ground on my back. I lied there with my neck and back hurting when I heard someone saying one of my girl's were hurt. I got up and ran to her side. She had tears streaming down her cheeks as she said she hit her head on the ice. Though I dont have the memory or witnesses to prove it, that is how I got my concussion at Lake Ann. After a little love and care though, Elizabeth was okay. We proceeded to have an incredible time tubing through out the weekend. Note: soccer punching yourself in the stomach is not the way to enjoy tubing to its full extent.

We sat under the amazing teachings of Kevin. All through his internship I have heard great things about his style being really awesome but I had not the chance to sit under him until this past weekend. I am surely glad I had the chance. He challenaged me if not the kids.

I believe the trip went very well despite a few drama issues that Miss Rachel had to come down on. After this trip, my love for my little darlings just increased. I love them so much! : )