Killing two birds with one stone...

On facebook, there's a bit of a "note" craze going on. Everyone has been writing these "25 random things about me" notes, (kind of like a blog post), and then tagging 25 people to do the same... I was tagged a few time, so I finally wrote one. And then I decided I would post it on my blog for the few people that might have not seen it on FB...

Here it goes.

1. I’m a pretty picky eater, but I’m trying to get better.

2. When I was three, I had an asthma attack. Or so I’ve been told. I don’t actually remember.

3. I have three brothers. One older, two younger. And I love them, (most of the time). ;)

4. One of my brothers, Aaron, has autism. I love him so much. He has taught me and my family to really appreciate everything and to not to not sweat the little things that go wrong some times. I know who I am today has so much to do with growing up with Aaron as my brother and I’m so thankful for the lessons I’ve learned through it and the joy he has brought me.

5. When we were younger, my oldest brother, Michael, was caught on my grandparents’ porch cutting my hair. He also threw a cup at my head so hard it broke, (I have a crease on the top left side of my fore head to show for it), slammed my hand in our garage door, and told me I was adopted, among other things. We were little, but he was definitely a little terror. Thankfully he’s calmed down a little and focused all that energy into college and working multiple jobs. I like him much better now. :)

6. When I was seven, in the parking lot off the old Target on Hulen, (now Hobby Lobby), I slammed my thumb in the door of my family’s old minivan. Keep I mind this was before those convenient little “clickers” that go on your key ring to automatically unlock your car. My finger was stuck, I screamed. My mom had just locked our car. When she head me, she ran around the car to see what had happened, after she realized she ran back around the car to unlock the door, then ran back around to me to open the door. Luckily we had a towel that we wrapped my hand in and a nice lady came over and calmed me down, while my mom called the doctor. To this day I have a crack down the side if my thumb nail, (it just grows that way), and a scar down my thumb to remind me of that day. If you ever want to see it just ask. It’s pretty interesting. But whenever someone is doing my nails, it’s a great conversation piece. ;)

Wow, those three were long. I’ll try to keep the rest shorter. :)

7. Sour cream repulses me. My friends think it’s funny. I don’t.

8. Speaking of hating sour cream, I also hate Mexican food. OK, hate is a strong word. I strongly dislike Mexican food, but I do still hate sour cream. Most people think it’s weird that I don’t like Mexican food, because I’m from Texas. I don’t know what to tell them. I can’t help what I like and don’t.

9. I hate listening to people eat. It makes me want to throw up.

10. When I was in the seventh grade I played the violin. I really enjoyed it, but it took a TON of time to practice. After a year of playing, my thirteen year old self couldn’t handle it anymore.

11. I also tried playing the piano in spurts when I was younger, but I never stayed with it for long enough to get very good. I do still know how to play one song. And if you know me very well at all, you’ve heard me play it at least a few times and you have now gotten sick of it. “You’ve got a friend in me”, anyone? ;)

12. I’ve played the guitar since I was about fourteen. I taught myself on my brother’s older guitar. I’ve never played amazingly well, but I love it.

13. I will be seventeen when I graduate from high school this year.

14. Because after my seventh grade year, I skipped up to ninth. I lost touch with some friends because of it, but I gained some of my best friends. I don’t regret it.

15. I absolutely hate conflict with anyone, and I do my best to avoid it at all costs.

16. I have connect-y ear lobes and I’ve always hated them.

17. I always have had a hard time starting books, but once I get into a book, I can hardly put it down.

18. I LOVE music.

19. I LOVE photography. I so desperately want to be a professional photographer for a career.

20. I would watch old TV shows and movies over most current ones. I grew up watching shows like “I Love Lucy”, “Little House on The Prairie” and “The Cosby Show”. And I loved them.

21. I’ve tried to pick a favorite movie before, but I just can’t do it. I love too many movies.

22. I love Frank Sinatra. Even though he was a womanizer. ;)

23. The summer after my freshmen year in high school, I went on a month long mission trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin, with a small group of people from my youth group. It was the most amazing trip I’ve ever been on. I have so many awesome memories from it.

24. On this trip I was the youngest one, I was only fourteen. The others liked to jokingly point that out, to mess with me. I didn’t mind, I knew they were playing. But there was a point on the trip I got really insecure about it and I felt like everyone just thought I was a kid. I look back on it now and think it was so silly. The reason I’m even telling this story is because one day I was really feeling down about being the youngest one, and one of my best friends, who was on the trip, Kristen, wrote me a long note about how my age didn’t matter and I played a very important role on the trip and such. Then at the end of the note she put this verse…

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." -1 Timothy 4:12

To this day, that is my favorite verse, and that story is a big reason that it is.

25. I would pick hot chocolate over coffee, any day. Sorry, Starbucks.

Well, that's it. 25 went by quicker than I thought it would. :D

For those of you wondering I do have a "fabulous" coming very soon. I've already started it, I just need to finish. I should have it up in a day, or so.

Week at Kristen's!!! AKA The Long Post- Pt. 2

The Saturday after Christmas, I went back with my brother, Michael, to FW to spend the week with my friend Kristen.

The first day I just hung out at Kristen's house, but that evening we went to The Japanese Palace for Kristen's mom's birthday. It's a restaurant where they grill the food in front of you. I had never been to a restaurant like that, but it was really cool. I'd also not had much japanese food before and I'm a fairly picky eater, so I wasn't sure if I would like it, but it was actually pretty good!






Me and Kristen waiting to eat.











I definitely didn't use the chop sticks.






The next day was Sunday, s0 when went to church. Then later that afternoon we went over to watch Kristen's Cousins Melissa and David's little boys.






Caleb playing sorry.











Sweet Lucas.











Lucas pulling my hair... haha.











The aftermath.










Caleb and I, having a light saber fight. :)





After that we went back to Kristen's and invited our friends Jennifer and Katie over for a little Rock Band Party!!! Since Kristen and her sister had just gotten it for Christmas, we thought it would be fun for everyone to come over and try it out. Let me just tell you it was hilarious!

We took a TON of pictures, but I'll just share some of my favorites...






Me, Rockin' out on the mic. This wasn't actually when I was singing, I was just posing for the picture. :)











Jennifer really got into it... if you knew her you would understand.











Katie, again with the mic. I promise there's drums and a guitar too!











Ahh, there we go. Kristen on guitar.










Katie on drums.





Monday I spent most of the day at the Botanical Gardens, having a picture day, with my friend Katie.

I have a a TON of pictures from this too, so I'll try to just pick a few...
















































































































Tuesday I spent the day shopping and hanging with Kristen. We went over to the parks mall in Arlington, because our favorite store there, Steve and Barry's, was having a huge close-out sale. It was bitter sweet, because our favorite store was closing, but we got some awesome deals! After that we grabbed lunch and headed back to her house and spent the afternoon watching episodes of one tree hill. :)

I don't really have any pictures worth posting for this day, so I'll just pass.

Wednesday morning we slept in in preperation for the new years eve all-nighter we had that night. After we woke up we just hung out and played some Rock Band. :)

Then I went out with my friend Katherine for one of our TC's, which was, as always, very therapeutic.

After that I went back to Kristen's to get ready for the all-nighter.

Once we got to church for the all-nighter we headed to see a movie, then we went ice skating, THEN we went bowling. Yep, it was a long night, but it was lots of fun! After all of our adventures, we headed back to the church about 4 AM.

here are some pictures, of course...




Katie, Jennifer, myself and Kristen, ice skating.







Katie, Me and Lindsay, playing broom ball. And our crazy youth minister creeping in the background. :)










Jennifer bowling.










Kristen Bowling.












Katie is excited about bowling.









Group picture after bowling!









Dodgeball in the gym.





Thursday morning we headed back to Kristen's and basically slept and watched more one tree hill. It was a lazy day, but we were exhausted.


The next day Caleb and Lucas, (the boys we watched Sunday,) Came over and we played with them for a while.





Caleb playing Rock Band!










I'm not sure what he's doing here...










Lucas fell asleep while he was over, so I just had to sneak a few pictures.










I loves his chubby little cheeks!








And his little feet!







Later that afternoon Kristen and I went out with Katie for one more fun night, before I had to leave the next morning. We went to eat, then Katie came over and spent the night and we watched Anne of Green Gables - a classic. :)





Oh, Gilbert...









Hey, Carrots! hehe









This picture makes me laugh. :)






It was such a great week. I'm just sad it had to end.

Christmas Time WAS Here... AKA The Long Post- Pt. 1

Well, for most of us Christmas has been done and over with for a while now, but I'm just now blogging about it...

This post is actually going to cover my whole Christmas break, from the decorations, to the week of Christmas and everything we did then. I've decided to put up a separate post about the week I spent at my friend Kristen's house.

Okay, okay I'm going to attempt to do this...

I put all the pictures up small, because there are SO many, but if you want to see any of them bigger you can just click them.

let's start with Christmas decorations...






Our Christmas tree.










Our mantle.









I put icicle lights in my window this Christmas. :)











The reflection of our Christmas tree in our cool mirrored stocking holders.








My grandparents' house is surrounded by a hundred (and a couple more) year old, rod iron fence that we decorate every year with garland and red bows. So classic and pretty looking.









My grandparent's house, all lit-up at night. :)








OK, how about some pictures from all of our Christmas festivities?

All of our Christmas gatherings lasted about 3 days. And I've decided since I don't really like any of the "normal" pictures I'm just going to tell you what we did each day and then show you some of my favorite random "photography" from each day.

DAY 1- Christmas Eve

This is usually the biggest day of our Christmas gatherings, because it's the day we go over to our grandparents and have dinner and open Christmas presents AND then we go back to our house and open presents at our house... But it was probably the shortest gathering of all three days this year. Mainly because not all the family had even gotten there yet...

The first two are actually from the night before Christmas eve, but it was so beautiful, I just have to put a couple pictures up.





Seriously, it was even more amazing in person.











Maybe I just have a thing for sunsets, but I think this is gorgeous.




OK, now onto Christmas eve...





Michael and my grandpa having a chat.












Aaron jumping on the trampoline. For some reason I absolutely love this shot





Some of my favorite holiday treats, that my grandmother makes every Christmas...






Hello Dollies- possibly my fav.












carrot bread- it's better than it looks. :)










Pralines- YUM!






DAY 2- Christmas day

This was probably the most full day of the week, but I just have a few pictures to share...

two to be exact, from a tea party that my cousin Aliyah insisted I have with her. ;)


























DAY 3- The day after Christmas

This probably wasn't the longest day, but in my book it was the most fun! We went out to our cousins', who live on a big property with lots of goats and all kinds of good picture-taking opportunities. :)






I took a lot of pictures of the gate that keeps the goats in... I don't know why, but I like it.





















Oreo- the cutest baby goat I've ever seen.











the field of goats.









Evan hanging out in the field of goats, he loved them, he was out there most of the time we were there, he even got to name a new baby goat.











The goat Evan named. He named it butterball, like the candy, he said.











Evan holding butterball.











A couple more of Aliyah... She is pretty much always up for a photo-op.











Which is OK with me, because she is so darned adorable.







Stay tuned for part 2! About my week at Kristen's! It should be up in another day, or so.