Blog Switch…

Hey guys,

I’ve decided to switch to Blogger and leave HSB.

My new blog addy is http://whatdoyaexpect.blogspot.com/ . You can follow me there

And this concludes a long line of posts on HSB.

Bye

Peace, love, joy,

My virtual geometry teacher: “This is an Oblique Prism.” … “An old, bleak prison?!”

Wow, I’m a terrible blogger. The worst blogger in the history of bloggers. But I’ll try to blog more often from now on!

Okay, so, this is going to be under the “Random Ramblings” category. Read at your own risk.

First of all, I am SO excited about the movie Soul Surfer coming out April 8th! AHHH! Bethany Hamilton is…amazing–to say the least. If you don’t know who she is, here is the link: http://bethanyhamilton.com/about/bio/ Oh, and if you want to see the trailer for Soul Surfer, here it is as well: http://www.soulsurferthemovie.com/. I haven’t been this excited about a movie since Voyage of the Dawn Treader came out. I guess mainly because Bethany Hamilton is awesome and so is the beach and surfing and God and loving your family and following your dreams; all the things I love all summed up in this movie…you know I’m going to be excited!

Okay, moving on. I don’t know if I told the blogging world, but I joined a youth orchestra last fall. It has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life…no kidding. I knew I loved playing the violin before I joined. But being in the orchestra has made me a better violinist, more confident in my abilities, and it has brought a new passion for music. It’s been awesome. Not to mention I’ve made some really good friends

Guess what!!! I’m First Aid and CPR certified as of yesterday! WOOT WOOT! I can save your life! For the past 24 hours, every time one of my family members seems like they may be “in need” of first aid or CPR, I run to their side dramatically and say, “I’m certified in First Aid and CPR! Can I help you?!” But, really, the class was very interesting…and I feel a whole lot better about babysitting now. I highly recommend that you (whoever is reading) go to a CPR/first aid class. Even if you never have to use it, the things you learn could help you save someone’s life.

Alrighty, well, I guess that’s all I have to say. I promise I’ll try to be a better blogger!

Peace, love, joy,

I love it when the moon is full:)

Update: This blog post was filled with pics of my Yorkie puppy…but I accidentally deleted them just so you’re aware why there are no pictures where they are supposed to be.

Hello my blogging buddies!…if you are reading my blog right now…I LOVE YOU. Just so you know.

I know. I am the worst blogger……ever. I take full responsibility for being irresponsible when it comes to posting on this poor, neglected blog.

It’s been a great fall! I’ve had tons of fun. We went to the beach the second weekend of November…the weather was PERFECT. It was in the 70s all weekend. But…I was reminded that the sun still hurts in November. I got a pretty bad sunburn on my chest and shoulders…but whatever. It didn’t matter. I was on a beautiful beach, in a beautiful beach house, with my beautiful mom and sister, and our beautiful friends…can’t go wrong:)

Lucy has grown so much! She’s 3 1/2 pounds now! I know it doesn’t seem like a lot…but she was only 1 pound when we got her, so it’s a lot for her:) She and Punkin have become best friends. I really didn’t expect that to happen…but it did, and they are. Here are some pics:

She is such a puppy model;)

She’s smiling!!!

She thinks she’s a princess…

This picture is so funny to me.

Oh gracious. I just love this picture. It’s my favorite. They’re both posing dramatically:D

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving:) I’ll try to post again before this time 3 years from now

Peace, love, joy,

I Love Cheesecake :D

HEY!

You will be happy to know that I am, indeed, alive. I know, I know, I haven’t posted in about…hmm…ten, fifteen years? Yeah. I pretty much haven’t posted all summer, which is not good at all. So I am going to have to tell you about my summer. It’s going to be a long post. So be prepared for Rayray’s Random Rambling Rampage (cheesy, right?)

Ok, so you already know from a previous post that my aweeesome cousin Joseph came and visited for a couple of weeks…and how we went to the beach and there was no oil, etc etc. You also know that I went to my grandma’s for a couple of weeks. And those awesome two weeks went out with a bang with a super fun (hence the name) fun show! My classes resulted in two bummers (which means I got no ribbon..haha), a second place out of four on the equitation test (:D), and a BLUE RIBBON in double bareback!!! Thanks to Bobbie and her gorgeous horse:)

The week after that my cousin Becky came for a week! We had tons of fun:)

The week after that was a week of true summer rest. Don’t you love those days? I do. Swimming at my Aunt’s pool, sleeping late every day…ahhhhh…

Now, we come to the third week of July. This week was absolutely life changing. I went to Worldview Academy (www.worldview.org) It’s a Christian leadership and worldview camp. It helps Christian teenagers get a better grasp on what they believe, and it also helps us figure out how to approach certain religions as a Christian. There aren’t any “campy” activities (besides sports during free time). And, really, a quick description would be: “It’s a bunch of lectures”. Most people would hear that description and decide not to go. But I went…mainly because Joseph told me that it really was more than that, and that I had to go to really know what it was all about. So, I went with him. The first day, during the time when everyone was waiting around for everyone to get to camp, I went and found my roommate, Noelle. I also met another girl in my small group, Vallery. Both incredibly sweet girls. Haha I will never forget almost being asleep and Noelle randomly saying…”…I just lost the game”. Good times!! Vallery is so cool…every time I hear the song How He Loves I will think of her. A random cool thing about her is that her dad owns a tattoo shop! Anyway, back to the first day of camp, we all went out and played a game to earn team points (red, blue, yellow, or green…I was on blue) and my small group leader just so happened to be on the blue team and just so happened to be standing next to me! Mary Kathryn..she is the most awesome counselor/small group leader EVER! She is so over the top happy! She is totally random (which made her the perfect leader for our small group…haha). But she also went really deep into heart to heart conversations with us…and to top it all off, she is a SOLD OUT Christian! I totally admire her. SO, after the game, all the small groups got together and went to lunch. I knew from the second I first started talking to my small group that we were going to be very close…but I had no idea that we would get as close as we did. The last day, during the last worship time, all of the campers were around the campfire…and me and my small group were huddled up in a group hug bawling our eyes out. All 7 of us were crying just because Noelle started crying. Oh it was wonderful. The people in my small group were: (left to right in the picture) Nicole, Ellen, Mary Kathryn (our counselor), Noelle, Vallery, Amy G, me, and Amy! Ellen is so funny…she was always best dressed haha. Love her:) Amy is one of those SWEET people. One of those people that if you think about them yelling at someone, it seems absolutely impossible because they’re so sweet..haha. Amy G is awesome. She can be pretty opinionated when it comes to things she knows to be true, but not so much that she hurts peoples feelings…and I like that about her. Vallery, like I said, is so sweet…so is my roomie, Noelle. Nicole and I got pretty close…we talked a lot. And the funny thing about that is that really, we don’t have much in common…but one thing we DO have in common is Jesus, and that’s all we needed to get along. Isn’t that cool? I love it.

ANYWAY back to the actual camp. So, every day we got up, had quiet time, ate breakfast, went to a lecture, had lunch, small group time, free time all afternoon, went to dinner, then to a lecture. After that was worship time (which was awesome!), then one more lecture. Finally, our last small group time for the day…which was always the best…then off to bed. Wednesday, however, was different. During free time, instead of playing ultimate frisbee, mafia, or soccer, we hit the streets. Yep, we went out and evangelized on the streets of downtown Rome, GA (did I mention the camp was on the BEAUTIFUL Berry College campus?) We were instructed not to look for someone falling down on their knees pleading forgiveness after we told them the Truth, though it would be great if that did happen. We were just going to let God use us how He needed to with the people we talked to. So I’m going into it thinking…my evangelism group probably won’t talk to anyone of a totally different religion. I mean this is Rome, GA we’re talking about… Guess what? The first person we talked to was a Buddhist. HAH. Talk about God proving me wrong! So we talked to him for a few minutes about what we believed. He listened, but he didn’t seem to want to switch religions. That’s okay, though. God is working in him, and who knows? Maybe we were the ones who really got him thinking.

Well, all in all, I had a great week. there are plenty of other things that happened at camp, but I need to move on before this blog post gets too ridiculously long…hehe.

So, after Worldview, me and my family went up to Joseph’s house (in the GA mountains…yes, I am a little jealous of him:P) for..wait I forgot how long we stayed……..stop laughing at me! It’s late! I’m tired! sheesh. It’s been over a month…leave me alone! I think we stayed for 5 days. Annnd we went to the Georgia Mountain Fair. And almost got sick because Joseph’s big sister, Kayla, insisted that we go on a spinny ride. It was fun while we were on it, though we were praying the whole time because we didn’t want to die. But when I got off…ugh. Blech. I’m not a spinny ride person. But it was still fun:)

Then, we came back home and started school. And I went through a little “I’m in highschool? WHAAT?” shock.

And to conclude our summer…we got a puppy. YES, I’m serious. I know, we’re cat people. But now we’re Yorkie Poo people. Her name is Lucy. And she is the most adorable puppy you will ever lay your eyes upon…but she doesn’t take great pictures because she moves too much:P We have all fallen in love with our little fuzz ball:)

Well, I guess that’s it for now, all five people who read my blog Congratulations on reading this whole blog post.

Peace, love, joy,

P.S…I do adore comments *hint, hint*

What Purity is to Me

Before I begin, I’m going to go ahead and let you all know that this is my opinion. Feel free to disagree and post a comment about what you don’t agree with. But I’m not getting into any kind of debate, so I won’t be responding to any comments. Again, this is my point of view and what I believe it means to be pure.

Purity is more than just wearing a purity ring and saying “I am going to keep my body from evil.” It is more than waiting for your husband for your first kiss. None of these are bad things at all. In fact, they can be extremely important. Physical purity is absolutely a beautiful gift from God.

Here’s where my opinion comes in.

I believe that it is okay to wonder about your future husband. It’s okay to think a guy is good looking. It’s okay to talk to God about him. Father knows the desire for a spouse that many women have…He placed it in our hearts. We don’t have to be anti-boy to be pure. And when it comes to husbands…it isn’t like we don’t have any choice in the matter. Yes, God knows who we are going to marry. But I’m not so sure that love at first sight is totally real. We have to get to know the guy before we know if we love him or not. That is the purpose of courting.

What comes to mind when I think of courting is getting to know a guy with a group of people, whether it’s with your family or some friends. Courting isn’t wrong by any means. In fact, we have to court to find our future husband. Whether you agree with teen courting or not is your decision, but I probably won’t court until I’m 18 or older. This doesn’t mean I will be absolutely anti-boy until then. It means that I know for a fact that pursuing boys as a young teen doesn’t do much except hand out free heartbreaks.

Now you may be wondering what the difference between dating and courting is. Dating has many different meanings to many different people. But to me, dating is something that should be saved for when both the man and woman know that they love each other. My parents “courted” (were really good friends, hung out in groups, etc.) for a few years, and their first real “date” was when my dad told my mom that he loved her.

My promises:

Wait for courting until I’m old enough to take it seriously. Date only when I’m sure that I love the guy (I probably won’t be a teenager at that point). Treat my first kiss like a precious treasure…and be sure that the man I give it to treats it like a precious treasure, as well. Remain pure before God and for my future husband.

Though it is my greatest hope to fulfill all of these promises I’ve made to myself, God, and my future husband, I know that Father is a loving and forgiving God. If I make a mistake, I know without a doubt that He will absolutely forgive me and cover my sin with His grace and mercy…just like any other sins I’ve committed in my life.

Here’s a little short verse that I wrote about falling in love

“I don’t know when I’ll fall

Or where I will land

But I know that I’ll always

Be safe in Your hands.”