Lauren

I know I have not been on my blog much this month, but my life is crazy busy and I sometimes forget about the little things.

Please, please be praying for a friend of a friend. I only met her briefly, but I know because God made her, she is a precious jewel and highly valued. Her name is Lauren and she is fifteen years old. Tuesday night she had a brain aneurysm and went into a coma. She remains in this coma now.

Please also be praying for her parents and siblings, especially her twin sister. I cannot even start to imagine how they are all feeling right now.

New Year's Resolutions-ish

One of my very close friends asked me yesterday if I had any new year's resolutions and I said no. Now that I have been thinking about it, I think it is rather depressing not to have any goals for this year. I guess I don't call them resolutions more than I do call them goals.

My New Year's Resolutions for 2015:

• Read through the whole Bible
• Post on my blog once a week (at least)
• Listen to more classical music
• Learn to do a tour jete on both feet (with and without pointe shoes)
• Live everyday for God's glory
• Keep a consistent quiet time
• Move up a level in ballet
• Move up a level in piano
• Graduate

I don't know how feasible all of these are, but they are my goals and I will do my best to keep all of them.

Kosovo

When I did my highlights of the year, I left a huge something out. Now I am glad I did because I can dedicate a whole post to it.

I went out of the country to the first time to Kosovo. I went with some close friends and to a school where I know the owner. Instead of re-posting everything that I put on my other blog, here is the link to the post.

My outlook on life is different from when I left and I could not be happier that I went. Now I know my calling is to work overseas with young children and to spread the gospel everywhere I can.

New Years Day 2015

Most years at my house, New Years isn't really celebrated all that much. We do some small things, but nothing extravagant. Usually a lot of sleeping is involved. This year was a little different though.

When I got up it was a little bit after 10 o'clock in the morning, which is extreme sleeping in for me. Dad had to go to work for a while, so I thought it would be pretty calm until he got home. I was wrong. We cleaned the entire house. Almost all of the laundry go done, all of the dishes we done and the cabinets wiped off, the kitchen floor got cleaned and I had the joyous job of folding all of the laundry that was accumulating in the living room. The laundry was more interesting than the kitchen stuff because I got to watch TV while I folded everything. My room had a little bit of work left to do, so I almost finished it up. There is still a small amount of dusting that needs done, but other than that my entire room is finished.

After lunch, Caleb and I went to a friend's New Years open house. We got to stay for quite a while a visit with all of our friends that were there. I had a lot of fun (and joy)! While I was there, I got a phone call asking if I could watch the nunkey and her siblings for a while that night. Bella was rather insistent on me coming, and it is very hard to say no to her when she is saying how much she dearly loves me and wants to see me soon.

I got to go home for a little bit and get changed into clothing that was more comfortable for babysitting in, then they picked me up and I went and watched the kiddos for a bit. All the kids showed me their Christmas presents and told me about their vacation after Christmas. After a short game of hide and seek, the kids all wanted to take a break and lay on the couch. The oldest two fell asleep, so I just had Bella for a while. She was very happy for the one on one time, which she spent snuggling.

I highly enjoyed the first day of the new year, especially since I got to spend it with friends and my nunkey girl.

A Peek into the Past: 2014 edition

Whoa!!! I cannot believe it is already New Year's Eve! I have been way to busy to have any time to post anything, so I will just to a little more detailed "looking back" this year.

• Went on my first college visit, which was with my dear friend Winter. :D
• Met my new friend Audrey
• Had my first Spotlight Youth Theater showcase
• Saw Pentatonix live (I was going to saw it was my second concert ever, but that would have to not count all of the orchestra concerts I have gone to, so I don't think I can say that!)
• Saw Sharyssa being a Who in Seussical 
• Mrs. Genau, Mr. Gene, and Ms. Janet went to join Jesus in Heaven
• Have a FrozenFest with my amazing friends
• Bella boo turned 4 (Where has time gone?!?!?!)
• Caleb got a new car (plus his drivers licence)
• Had my first guitar recital
• Learned my first Chopin piece for piano (and loved it!!!)
• Saw Sharyssa as Prudy Pingleton in Hairspray
• Went to Worldview Academy with Rebekah (and we got to be roommates!!!!)
• Caleb graduated
• Went to Spotlight Youth Theater camp and got to be an Ozian for a week :D
• I turned 17
• Sharyssa turned 18 and graduated
• Josiah graduated
• I finished school in August, because I could
• Rebekah had a Pride and Prejudice marathon and we got to see Diane from Worldview and spend the night :D :D
• I started dancing with Ms. Jodi-Ann taking ballet and tap
• I started ballet with Ms. Jenae
• Went to Audrey's 12th birthday
• Bella acknowledged 4 as a number (for those of you who do not know her, this is quite an accomplishment!)
• Caleb turned 19
• I accomplished walking in pointe shoes
• Bella learned to hula hoop, which is absolutely adorebubble!
• Had Audrey, Kyrie, and Avery over to make maple leaf cookies
• Went to fall festival and got neck paintings (those who were there will understand)
• Stayed the weekend at college with Winter and her friends (we brought cheesecake, so they all loved us quite a bit!)
• Found out Bella loves the ukulele
• Went out of the country for the first time to Kosovo 
• Had the smallest table in Christmas Tea history (Rebekah, Katherine, and myself), but we had the most fun :D
• Curled Bella's hair with foam rollers and found out she really does not like being called a "Bella-asaurus" (generally she did not like the curlers, but the nicknames did not help.)
• Learned how to put on fake eyelashes (It was for my dance recital!)
• Had my first dance recital at the studio, as well as my first ever pointe recital!
• Had my Christmas piano recital
• Had an amazing Christmas sleepover with Sharyssa where we made gluten free, dairy free sugar cookies and buttercream frosting and had lots of general fun and joy!!!
• Walked around in releve plie for hours with Sharyssa (on the balls of our feet and our knees bent and our arms out to the side resembling a dinosaur) pictures of this will also come in a later post)
• Had a marvelous Christmas
• Got a Bosu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (pictures to come later)
• Helped Sharyssa's brother and sister-in-law paint their new house
• Thoroughly cleaned my bedroom

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

A Crazy Busy Type of Summer

Wow!!! Summer is gone, fall is upon us, and I have not posted anything since Worldview!

A quick overview of my summer:

• Worldview Academy
• Caleb graduated
• Spotlight Youth Theatre camp
• My 17th birthday
• Oshkosh week
• Sharyssa graduated and turned 18
• Josiah graduated
• I finished school for the year (in August)
• Pride and Prejudice marathon 

What has happened since school started:

• I started ballet, pointe, and tap
• Bella has returned and started ballet
• Guitar has restarted

As wonderful and brief as this was, it is not very detailed, so I will post more specific descriptions of everything as soon as I get around to it. :D

An Overview of Worldview Academy 2014

How to shrink it down? It is so hard, but I will do my best. (If you want more information than I put here, you can read my last few posts with detailed descriptions of each day.)

Worldview Academy has always been amazing, but this year felt different. I made new friends, but got to spend a lot of time with old friends and treasured all of the special time I got to have with them. My leaders we awesome, as usual, and I got to have the new experience of having two leaders, which I highly enjoyed. :D All of our faculty was epic and there was not one lecture I did not enjoy and learn something from. Evangelizing went really well, at least as well as you can expect when high schoolers go out and ask people what happens when they die. Not everyone walked away from us and we had several really good conversations. Overall, it was an amazing year!!!

People have asked me which year has been my favorite, and I do not think that is a fair question. Each year has been special in their own ways and have had different impacts on my life with different lessons to learn. God has used each year in a unique way that fit what was going on in my life at that time, and I could not be more amazed at how perfectly He has done this!!!

If anyone reading this is between the ages of 13 and 19 next June, I highly encourage you to go and experience this life changing camp! I love it and plan on going back every year for as long as I possibly can!!!