It's winter again!!!
It's finally starting to feel like winter again outside!!! Getting there anyway. It's been raining really hard for the last couple of days...but the temps are really dropping, and all the rain is supposed to turn to snow! I hope it does!!!! I'm dying to go do snow stuff! :D
So what else is up? Nothing much. We went to church this morning, and are going back this evening. Actually, Scott is going to be preaching! So that's pretty cool! the pastor asked him to. And guess what? Dad is going to be preaching next sunday morning! the pastor is going to be out of town, and asked my dad if he would do that. My dad wasn't sure if he wanted to, 'cause he hasn't preached in over two years, and also he didn't want it to seem like he was another preacher trying to take over sorta thing. But after praying about it, he felt like God would have him to.
What else? Oh...guess what?!?! I dunno if I told you this or not before, but Camela's family has horses!!! Cool huh? Weeeell, even more cool, she wants me to come over and go riding with her sometime! ACK! Oh cool is that? I haven't riden a horse for about 5 or 6 years!!! But I LOVE too!!! It's gonna be so fun!
Anyhoo, that's about all for now. I gotta get off here perty soon. Get ready for church, that sort of thing. Oh yeah, one more thing though. I worked on my website last night! a LOT!!! Added a lot of cool pics and stuff, and rewrote my LOTR page. Most of the stuff I had said on there has changed now that I've seen the movie and finished to book. But anyway, it's pretty cool!

Good times!
Okay, I haven't been able to write anything about before now, because it was a suprise. But Lisa, Beth, and I had been planning to have a suprise b-day party for Jasper for yesterday evening!!!! Next thursday is her 16th birthday, and we wanted to do something special for her. So, we just told her that we were gonna have a sleepover at the Wagars house. Well...what she DIDN'T know was that we had bought gifts for, decorated the whole basement, and were planning to try our best to scare the living daylights out of her!
So anyway...there lisa, beth, and I were in the basement, all set with camera, clappers, and horns! We were about to die from laughing, we were so excited, and the suspence was awful! FINALLY the Wolfs got there! And Mrs. Olive was like, go on down, the girls are in the basement. We were silent as the grave...waiting. As soon as Jasper got to the bottom of the steps we all jumped out shouting HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! Clapping our clappers, honking our horns, and snapping the camera! It was hialrious! I'm not exagerating ya'll but Jasper must have screamed for a minute solid! Without stopping for breath! When she finally stopped she was shaking all over. It was so funny!
(By the way...whenever you read this Jasper, I Luv Ya Girl!!!!!!!)
The rest of the time was a blast too! We watched movies, pigged out, played games, talked. Just were our generally crazy, but terribly fun selves! I didn't end up going to sleep until prolly 3:30. But we didn't wake up until almost 11:00 this morning!! All except for Lisa anyway... she had got up way earlier and had a big breakfast waiting for us! She's so sweet! It was lots a fun!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WoW!!!!!!!!!!! I can hardly believe that it is 2004! It doesn't seem like four years since the big millenium hoop-la. :D So much has happend over the past year...I can only begin to imagine what God has in store for me in 2004. It's so exciting, but scary at the same time. As my kindred spirit Anne Shirley would say, 'I'm deliciously scared!' ;p
So anyway, how about New Year's resolutions???? I usually don't go in for that. I mean, I figure
why bother? I'm prolly gonna break them by spring anyway! But I got to thinking about it today...and I decided that it was high time I did make some resolutions, with myself... and God. Not that New Years is the only time to go about doing this sort of thing, but there's nothing like a clean slate and a fresh start.
I want to live this next year totally and completly for God! I know I'm probably going to mess up big time, but I figure that if I make a vow to God, then He's gonna hold me to it, and help me keep it. I want to spend more time getting to know Him, instead of focusing on myself so much. I know I really need to spend more time reading the Bible and praying. It's so easy to get out of the habit. Sometimes, well a LOT of the time, I just don't "feel" like spending time with God. I tell myself that I can always come back and do that later. But I generally never do. And it's so dumb, because I'M the one who loses out and suffers for it! I waste so much time worrying about ME! And to be honest...it's a pretty unimportant topic! I'm the most happy, and feel the most, complete I guess you could say, when I'm walking with God.
I don't know what all the next 365 days are gonna hold. I know some of the obvious things like I'll be turning 18...going to college. But in those things, and in everything else, I'm going to need a lot of help. And I'm tired of trying to do everything on my own, or make things work out according to MY plans. This may be the last year I have with no other obligations other than pretty much just being a kid! This will prolly be the last "free time" I have in my life, until I'm old and gray. :D After this, I'm gonna be so busy with all that life starts throwing at me, that it's going to be even HARDER to focus on God. I want to spend this year for Him!

Last Night
The candle light service went well, I guess. I mean, I played fine, was super nervous though. I'm not sure how good our song in general sounded.
The party was a blast! At first it started out kinda slow and awkward. I mean, it was hard to interact with all the younger kids around. The ages went from 25 down to 11. (that was the people who were actually there for the party. Then there were some younger kids who were just there, tagging along.) But anyway, we played ping-pong, ate, then tryed to start a game of Taboo...but it took a while to get going. There were so many people wanting to play, and it was soooo loud, we couldn't here each other. We did end up starting it, but only got half way around, then we had to stop for the gift exchange! :D
The gift exchange was a LOT of fun! We played White Elephant, or Dirty Santa, whichever you wanna call it. It was hilarious. People kept stealing everyone's gift! I got to keep mine though! It was one of the nicest too. A c.d case filled with chocolates! (which was of COURSE the best part!) Actually, that was what Camela had brought, and she ended up getting what I brought, a jewelry box. (I'm suprised I found it! The price limit was 3 bucks, and the box was exactly that amount, on sale! It was cool.) Then after we were done, the guys went. Most of the stuff was dumb. But some of them had had some cool ideas. Like someone had brought giant tennis balls, and Scott wrapped his entire gift in duct tape, complete with a duct tape bow! It was awesome! He wrote something about a 'red neck holiday' on it. I'm gonna have to do that next year to someone's gift. :D Lisa would love it!
After the gift exchange, we were all just sat around, not sure what to do. The party was suppposed to be over by 10:00, and it was 9:30. Me, josh (he went too btw!!) Camela, Rebecca, Scott, Quinton, and Laban were all sitting together. At first we were just talking about dumb stuff, and being crazy. Scott and Quinton were showing us some pics of their older sister and brother (we've never met them) and they had some pictures of themselves when they were kids. It was hilarious! We were all laughing at them and "making fun" of them. They took it well though. ;P Then one thing led to another, and before we knew it, we were having this big debate on theology!! LoL! Josh loves to argue, and so does Scott. And it happend that Josh was beliving something different than all the rest of us. So we were like all ganging up on him, trying to convince him to our point of view! It was so fun, and he loved it too of course! It was so fun! Ya know, most peeps wouldn't think so, but I LOVE to debate! I guess I get it from josh, or wherever he got it from. But he and I used to go at it all the time, over anything we could think of. It's so fun to use logic and your head to try and convince people of something. It's really cool when you've got a whole group of people going, who know what they believe, and know how to argue! We weren't mad at each other or anything last night, but we did get going pretty good! It's awesome to be able to talk about the Bible with other people my age. Then you're not really using logic, just the Bible, and your head too of course.
I would have wrote last night, but alas, I had to go to bed. To tired to write. But anyway, now you know it all. :D

I'm bored...so I'm gonna talk to you
Yeah, it's rather quiet around here. Mom had to go to work, josh went to the library, and dad is watching sports. Soooo, I don't know what else to do.
We stayed up 'til 1:30 last night watching 'White Christmas'! I love that movie! We always start our marathon of all-time favorite Christmas movies right about now. Let's see, what are some of the other ones we watch. 'Christmas Carol', 'Little Women', 'Jesus of Nazareth', 'Miracle on 34th Street, and of course 'It's a Wonderful Life' My ALL time favorite Christams movie. That's the one we always save for Christams Eve! :D
Tomarrow evening our church (funny, I've started calling it that) is having it's candle light service. I'm playing 'O Holy Night' again on the flute. I had forgotten about it until just now, and now I'm really nervous! Yikes! My stomach just went flop. I know it'll be fine though, everyone said we sounded awesome.
Anyway, after the service the youth/college kids our having a Christmas party!! I'm really excited about going! It's gonna be fun!
Oh yeah, and speaking of holiday get togethers...Camela told me the other day that their family is wanting to have us and the Whitakers over New Years Eve. It's not definate yet, but I hope they do, and I hope we can go.
Well, now that I've finished ROTK, I need to find something new to read. I haven't come up with anything yet. I'm in the mood for a mystery, I think. Actually, I'm in the mood to WRITE! But I dunno what. I have all these great book ideas, but I'm not good at sticking with them, and finishing them. Maybe I should just start writing anyway.
I need to sew too. I started working on some quilt squares last week, and need to do some more. There are 12 in all, each a different flower, one for each month. But I don't know if I'm in the mood for that.

I FINISHED READING...THEN SAW RETURN OF THE KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WoW! It was so awesome! I stayed up until 1:30 last night reading. I had to find out what happend to my dear little Pip! When I got to the part where you find out that he didn't die I was SO wanting to jump up and run around the house cheering, but nearly died restraining myself, seeing that everyone else was asleep, and I didn't think my mum and dad would be sympathetic to my joy. None-the-less, I was so happy! I love the little fella! Anyway, then I got up at 8:30 this morning to read the last few chapters. I DID run around hollaring then!!!!! It was sooooo good. Reading the book first definatly made me appreciate it more.
Last night josh and I watched FOTR, then this morning we watched TT. I was so pumped by 2:30 when we left to go see ROTK!
Okay, my thoughts on the movie. Yes...it was amazing! But reading the book definatly made me a critic! First off they left Beregond out completly! He was cool! And what's more, because of that, they left out a lot with Pippen, and Gondor. I did think Gondor was awesome! They did it very well, and the major battle was really good. I thought they dragged the second battle and the part where Sam and Frodo destroy the Ring. I mean, that was the climax, things were supposed to be racing, and it was like "okay, let's pick up the pace! People are dying out there!" They completly left out the romance part with Faramir and Eowin! And The Scouring of the Shire. That part was sad, but it was a BIG part. Without it, it leaves people who haven't read the book wondering what in the world happend to those creeps Saruman and Wormtongue? I mean, if I hadn't read the book...I wouldn't be sleepin' easy! Okay, maybe not that bad...but you get the drift. I like Shelob, she was great! I didn't like the part leading up to her though. Sam should have gone into her cave WITH Frodo. And the whole web/mummy thing was a little wierd too. Oh yeah, and one other thing and then I'll be done slamming it. Who in the WORLD was that moldy potato looking ork at the battle of Gondor?!?! He wasn't in the book! He was so dumb!
But enough of that! That's what comes of reading the book first. 'They'll be no living with me after this!' :P I really did like it though! And I plan on seeing it several times. But I think the extended edition will be MUCH better. It will take of most of the problems I have with it. Well, all except Mr. Potato Head!

PS~~~Wasn't Pippen AWESOME when he sang?!?!?!?!? I love him!

Many Meetings *tee hee!*
Sorry, I couldn't resist saying that. But it's true! I finally got to see my girlfriends again, for the first time in just almost two weeks!!! I hadn't seen them since last book club. Lisa, Jasper, Beth, I luv you guys!
Lisa bought me this really cool necklace/braclet, really perty colors.
Anyway, where did I see them? At the Y of course! Finally went for the first time in I dunno know how long.
oh and guess what? TOMARROW I SEE RETURN OF THE KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I can harldy wait! At the same time though, it'll be kinda sad. 'Cause once I see it, then all the anticipation is over. I mean, I've been doing this for three years now. But it'll be worth it. Anyway, I have GOT to finish the book tonight. Where I left off Pippen supposedly dies. But I keep hoping that he didn't really, that maybe it was another mean move on JRR Tolkiens part, like what he said about Eowin and Frodo. He likes making you think people are dead! But Pippin can't die!!!! He's my favorite character! Poor little tyke!
Well, I'll find out tonight, for tonight, I shall stay up until the last page is read and for better of worse, I know the fate of my little friend! And then tomarrow... *shivers with anticipation* It's bitter sweet, but that's the way it goes!

Catching Up....
I haven't posted in ages!!!! It's been kinda busy and crazy around here lately, but in a good sorta way. It's all part of the holiday season! I love it!!! It snowed for the first REAL time this year! Almost two inches, I loved it! It started snowing saturday night, which was really cool 'cause we had friends from church over!
Speaking of which...it was the Whitakers and the Milyards (you've heard me talk about Camela? Well, this is her family. She has three older brothers too.) We had been wanting to have the Whitakers over again, especially since Josh is home. They have all been really wanting to meet him, and he did to kind. Actually, he wasn't very enthusiastic at first about the idea. But it turned out that he hit it off really well with Scott (which is cool, since they both go to Cedarville) and liked Quenton and Brent too. Which btw, I finally got to met Brent! Anyway, it was so much fun with all the peeps that were here. At first it was kinda weird, 'cause it was just me and Camela with EIGHT guys! But it was still fun. We played Pictionary, Taboo, Dutch Blitz, and Clue. And we talked and just hung out. Fun stuff!
All the guys are really nice. They talk to me like they are really interested in talking to me. And they are fun to joke around and have fun with.

Nothing Much
Let's see, what can I catch ya'll up on? I haven't written for a few days, have I? Well, for starters, I'm sick. *sniffle* I know! It's terrible! I think I caught it when I was working at Susan Denlingers (the lady who owns the greenhouse)because she was feeling bad that day. And, ya know how I was supposed to work wednesday and thursday too? Well she called and cancelled 'cause she was sick. So anyway, I'm not feeling my best right now, but that's okay. I just hope I'm better by next sunday for the play. We had practice last night, and I didn't do to hot. Have you ever tried playing a flute with a head full of snot, a dry throat, and a cough? Well, if you haven't, then I don't think you can sympathise! It's not a fun thing! But it is very interesting, I'll give it that.
I did work at Susan's on saturday though. From 9-4, talk about a long day. I worked with her and Camela. (I dunno if I've told you about her or not, but she is Rebecca's cousin, goes to the same church we do, at works at Susan's *duh* She's really nice, and a lot of fun. I've known her for about the same amount of time that I've known Becca, but I've only started to really get to know her in that past few weeks.)We cleaned the entire day, and I mean CLEANED!!! We had to do the boy's bedroom, girl's bedroom,the hallway, and the bathroom. We started by picking up all the stuff from the floor, which was a major job in and of itself! There was stuff everywhere! Then we moved all the furniture around, cleaned behind it, wiped them down, washed the walls, vaccumed, sorted thru stuff, throwing things away, finding places for it. It was a huge job, and if I had been by myself, I would not have been having fun, but Susan is a lot of fun to work for and with, and Camela and I were cutting up too. So it made the work easier and go quicker. I'm going back week after next, and we are going to clean the rest of the house, and I think put up new wallpaper in the hallway.
Let's see, I went to bookclub last friday. That was sooo much fun! It was the last one of the year, and we had just finished Christmad Carol too, so we watched The Muppet Christmas Carol (my favorite version btw!) and gave each other our Christmas gifts! It was a lot of fun. Beth made some awesome stuff out of clay for me! I'm telling ya, she is good with that stuff! She made Arwen's pendant, Aragorn's pipe (tee hee! I reeeaally liked that one!) and a picture frame with Josh Groban in it! We pigged out too, as always, on my pumpkin roll (Oh yeah, I made one for the first time! And it was a big hit too. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.) cheese nips, apples, all that good stuff.
Also, the Christmas banquet at church was this friday. It wasn't what I wanted to go to that evening, but I still had fun. I made a pumpkin roll for that too. :D I'm going pumpkin roll crazy!!!

Loooooong day
I am so pooped! I've been up since 7:00 this morning, and working since 8:30-5:00.
I went over to a friends house last night, well actually it was Rebecca (Mast). Me, her, and her younger sister (susannah) are all going to play a O Holy Night for the Christmas play going on at our church (well, it's not really ours, we've just been visiting there). And anyway, they had been having a lot of trouble with counting and stuff, and I hadn't even had a chance to play with them ,so we really needed to practice, because the play is about two weeks away! Becca's playing the piano, Susannah is playing the violin (which I was gonna play too, but decided not to) amd I'm playing the flute. And to add to the hardness (that's not really a word, is it?) of it, Quenton (told ya about him to) is supposed to be singing with us!
So anyway, to make a long story short, we needed to practice, had been wanting to have a sleepover (I've known her for over 3 years, and we've never done that!) and we both had to work at the greenhouse today. So it all worked out just dandy! I had a really good time at their house, especially after everyone had went to bed. She and I stayed up talking until 2:00 a.m!!! Which was fun at the time, but it was awful having to get up this morning!
Working at the greenhouse was fun though. The lady, her name is Susan btw, who owns/runs it is German Baprist, and really nice. The work is fun too, this was only the second time I've worked there, but I'm already learning a lot about flowers, and taking care of them, running a greenhouse, that sorta stuff. It's really cool. I had no idee that so much went into it! I worked with Susan, Becca, and another girl who happens to Becca's cousin, and also goes to the same church we've been going to. Her name is Camela. :D Those two only stayed until 12:30ish. After that it was just me and Susan. We kept working in the greenhouse until about 3:00. then we went inside, and I graded papers (she homeschools two of her kids) for TWO HOURS! My brain was a veritable (don't ya luv that word?!) Jello Jiggler by the time my dad picked me up. But it beats working someplace like Burger King.
I'm going back to work there all day tomarrow and Thursday, and both of those days we are going to be cleaning. *groans*
Maybe I should explain...Susan is in a wheelchair. She isn't exactly paralysed, but her legs are kinda small and don't work like normal legs. I think she's had some kind of disease, but I'm not exactly sure what. But anyway, with that, trying to run the greenhouse, take care of 4 very energetic kids (not to mention homeschool them) she needs extra help around the house sometimes, in addition to running the greenhouse. So anyway...
I don't mind thought, seriously. Even though the work can be hard sometimes, I'm glad to get to do it. Right now it's supposed to be her off season, and she only calls people to help on an as-need basis. And she pays pretty well too. Like today, I think I prolly made around 45 dollars. I dunno for sure, cause she isn't going to pay me until thursday, i think. But when I worked before, I was only there for four hours, and she payed me 21.00. So, that's not to bad!
But i was so tired when I got home, I took a long veerry hot bath. And *tee hee* I started Christmas Carol!! It's about time, seeing I have to have it read by Friday...