It's not Thanksgiving any more!

So, my thanksgiving post is late. But just because it's not thanksgiving any more doesn't mean we should stop being thankful. What if we all remembered to be thankful ALL the time?
Counting my blessings takes ages.

A - Awanas. Apple cider - which would be good right now. My throat hurts. Advent -which we're celebrating this year!
B - Boys (and I mean that in a totally innocuous way. Boys of all ages. They're fun!)
C - Church. Coffee. My name. Choir.
D - Daddy.
E - Evening time. Email
F - Friendship, Food, Fun
G - God's Grace
H - Holy Spirit. He has to remind me of so many things so often. Hugs.
I - Intercession. I love knowing that I can help my friends through prayer.
J - Joy.Real joy. Not circumstantial happiness. :)
K - Katey and Alicia. (they just go together like that)
L - Laughter, Love
M - Music. Mama. and my "other mothers," Marmee and Mom.
N - New friends!! I gained a couple of new friends this year. Yay! (Rae, Becca, and church peeps.)
O - Orthodontics. ... I WILL have pretty teef one day.
P - Popcorn. PEACE. Peace comes first, actually.
Q - Quiet.
R - Rain. Relatives. Random rambling. Reading.
S - Singing!! Sunshine, Stars, Siblings.
T - Tall shoes. Teaching.
U - Umbrellas. **I'm siiingin' in the rain, just siiingin' in the rain..."
V - Vincent, my crazy little green bird.
W- Walking. Waiting. Yes, I can be thankful for waiting.
X - X. I'm thankful for the letter X. ... mostly because I can't think of any X words. It's a nifty letter.
Y - Yogurt? I'm thankful for that. ... I can't think of many Y things either.
Z - Zippers. Where would we be without them? Zippers and Zeros.

Be thankful, people. :) I hope you had a great thanksgiving.
I'm looking forward to leftovers tomorrow.
<3

15 Random Things

I read this on somebody's blog. At the end it says "your turn."
I took it literally. You should too.
lol

1. I just ate a large scoop of mayfield chocolate ice cream. Yum.
2. I still want to go to Starbucks. Caramel macchiato, please.
3. Spell check says "macchiato" is wrong. It suggests Machiavelli.
4. I read The Prince by Machiavelli and liked it.
5. I have ten orders to pack tonight, and ship tomorrow.
6. There is an amazing pair of silverware handle earrings making their way to my house.
7. I bought a ginormous salad at O'Charley's last night, and wish I hadn't. It was good, though.
8. Fried green tomatoes are delicous. Especially when you have the added satisfaction of cooking them yourself.
9. My Life Lesson Monday post was kind of lame, I think. I need better life lessons.
10. I don't include enough of God in my blog posts... If he's such a huge part of my life, you'd think He'd be more apparent in my blog. Bad me.
11. Yesterday the youth choir sang for the evening service. I heard we did awesome. Which was great news, because all I heard was me and Sadie singing alto. lol
12. Actually, our choir is "teens and twenties," but that's harder to say. It's a combination of the youth group and the College and Career class. And it's a lot of fun. yay!
13. Regular choir is fun too. I love being in choir.
14. My hair is blonde again. It's more like strawberry blonde, since we didn't take all the red out.
I'm gradually going back to my natural color.
15. Your turn.

Me in my blonder hair and Sparks uniform.

70

This post has nothing to do with the number 70, except for the fact that
this is my 70th blog post.
On blogger, anyways.
I'm sure I've hundreds of blog posts in other places. Xanga, for instance.
See, a xanga screenshot from a while back!

So, I want to blog, but I have no set topic, or any particular point of interest. No Etsy ramble to bore you with. I've made a sale or two lately, but nothing exciting is going on over there.

Perhaps an update on my reading habits would be in order. My phraseology and choice of words change as I read. I find it amusing to find myself writing differently depending on how much literature I'm taking in.
The most influential literature in days precedent has been Villette. You will remember my hesitation to begin the narration due to the undoubtedly depressing nature of the story. Begin it I did. Once I was listening, I could barely stand to pause the CD player, and eagerly jumped up for the next disc when the first was over. I do so love Charlotte Bronte's style.

In a way, I was right. It's a sad story. Unrequited love. Alas, alas. But it's so interesting! Such diverse characters, and such interweavings of plotlines! Though sad, it's not nearly so depressing and gloomy as I thought it may be. Granted, it's not a cheerful tale - how could it be? But it is lovely, and most things are enjoyable if well written, and Villette most certainly is that.
I had listened to so much of the story at once on Friday that by Friday evening, I was thinking in the narrator's voice. Now that is a weird experience. I've just finished the first disc of part 2. Perhaps you can guess what I'm going to do when finished with this post.
(That's my CD player/alarm. I asked for it for Christmas a few years ago.)

I began reading The House of the Seven Gables yesterday. I'm hardly past the first chapter, but I'm looking forward to the rest of the story. Beginning a book with a housewarming party, at which the new homeowner is found mysteriously dead in his office is certainly a way to pique curiosity.

You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.
-C.S. Lewis

The paragraph that used to be here has been written, deleted, re-written, edited, and deleted again. It had been my intention to write something about church today, but that wasn't working out. Though I shall reiterate (for perhaps I haven't made it known through my blog) how glad I am to find myself once again part of a fun, learning choir. It'd been far too long since the olden days of Senior Choir led by Pastor Powell. Yay for singing! I sing more on Sunday than any other day of the week, and singing makes me happy.
That random bit of information over, I think I'm going to find pictures with which to punctuate this post.You poor dears. I'm going to have to do better than this. Perhaps I should have you all interrogate me with unusual questions, so as to have new and interesting blog topics. Yes, yes, do ask me a question, and I shall answer it in a blog post. That sounds like fun. Please?

Well, I shall try to get around to some sensible blogging soon.
Until then, I bid you farewell.
And in case you were wondering, all of the word-pictures were taken from my real-life journal.
:)

I'll teach you how to bowl...

...the perfect gutterball.
I was offering lessons yesterday.
It was ironic, though - when I went to demonstrate my mind-blowing losing techniques, I got a strike. LOL

But yeah, I went bowling with a group of people from church yesterday. I haven't been since I was about 11, so I knew I wouldn't be any good. I had no idea how terribly bad I would be. A billion gutterballs in a row bad. You know, sometimes I take a certain odd, twisted sense of pride in being the worst at something. At least, when it's something of little to no importance.

It really was hilarious, though. I had a blast. I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did. Talking, laughing, and people-watching are the best of sports anyways, and I excel in those. :D

Plus, I can blame my score of 32 or whatever it was on my skirt, right? It was homecoming Sunday at church, and I decided I just wasn't going bowling afterwards. And so when I decided to at the last minute (when I knew for sure how many fun people were going to be there) I realized that people don't usually go bowling in their church clothes. I really wished for some jeans. But that's okay! Laura and I still had so much fun. Thanks to Amber for the ride there, and Matt for the ride home. And to all the crazy people who let me be my weird little self.
... Yay for my friends!

(To those of you who were at church - did the choir sound good? I felt like we nailed our songs, but... when you're surrounded by altos only, it's hard to tell.)

Um... I have lots to do today. Custom orders to work on, orthodontist apptmt at 2... um... well, nothing else super pressing, but that's enough anyways.

Tomorrow is movie night!! YAY! I get to see my non-church friends! ha - that kind of makes them sound bad. I don't have many friends that aren't "church friends," and it's fun to get to hang out with them. We have the bestest of times. Can't wait!

I can, however, wait for Wednesday. Awana kick-off. Not, not, not looking forward to that. Regular old wednesday night club time, yes. Kick-off, no. And from what I've heard from more experienced leaders, I have good reason to dread. lol ... Personally, I think that club should just start. No crazy shindig stuff. Maybe extra candy or points or something since it's the first day. But then, maybe that's the killjoy in me. **evil laughter** Could just be the dislike of mass confusion and chaos. ... I think that's what it is. I'm not usually known to be a killjoy.

I think this is the first time I've ever used the word "shindig" in my blog. And I've been blogging since... let me check... 2004. A lot of you didn't even know me in 2004. ha! Ah, yes... back in the days of Live Joural and AIM, which have long since been abandoned.

So. Now that you know a little more random stuff about me, I will leave you. Do me a favor and find something to laugh about today. (Even if it's me. lol) You'll live longer. ;-)

Caitlin

I Bid Thee Farewell

...
**solemn silence**
The time has come.
I am to have my wisdom teeth chiseled out of my skull in the morning.
(That's how I worded it for my prayer request in Sunday School. I love making people laugh.)

Actually, maybe they won't have to chisel so much. Hopefully they're not impacted in the bone. I'm thinking it will hurt a lot worse than otherwise if they are. But I'm not sure if they're impacted, or if they just haven't come out yet, so I'll let you know when I'm capable of doing so. In the meantime, just keep praying that it will be over quickly, and that I'll heal quickly.


Great news! I made 2 sales on Etsy recently! Both custom orders, and one a return customer. You know what this means, don't you? People like me!! (Okay, so that might have already been established, but... ) I've had 2 or 3 return customers. That's great! People coming back means they really really like my stuff! And people sticking around to ask for a custom order instead of wandering off to someone else's shop means the same thing, too. Yay!

And I have a cool new yellow background.

Also, Leslie tagged me. So, here goes:



The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person know when you've posted your answers...

1. Favorite ethnic
Favorite ethnic?? Ethnic what? Ethnicity? And after repeating that so many times, I can't help but think "ethnic" is an odd word. Anyways. Um... I like [american] Chinese food? But I don't know that I like Chinese culture so much... And I like Mexican food too. But beyond food, I really don't have a grasp of enough different cultures to tell you my favorite... The English seem sort of quaint...

2. something you've always wanted to do.
Ride the biggest, tallest, fastest roller coaster in the world. In the front car.

3. Favorite color
yellow

4. Something you collect
I have to force myself to not buy teddy bears because I already have like 13 and nowhere to put them. Does that count?

5. something you do to relax
self acupuncture.

No, I'm kidding. I usually just close my eyes, breathe deeply, and think "relax, you idiot!"
It doesn't always work.

7. bloggers i am going to tag:
Abby, um... Oh, man. I know it's totally not fair to only tag one person, but I can't think of anyone else. I'm sorry! Oh, wait, um.. how about Tiffany. And... maybe somebody from the Ant Farm over there.

There. It's over with. I always feel bad for tagging people. The same way I feel bad when I call people. Like I'm intruding on their lives or something.

I thought there was something else of interest I was going to say.... Oh! Laura and I spent most of yesterday at Mema's house, just hanging out and swimming and stuff. Pepa let us take out the jet skis for a while. That was fun. We hadn't seen them for a while, so I'm really glad we got to just go over and hang out.

Today we joined the choir. Practice was great. I'm really looking forward to being a choir member.

Aaaand, I'm not supposed to eat or drink tomorrow before I get my teeth out. That means no coffee! I think I may have a cup of decaf while I go pack up those Etsy orders.

And so, dear friends, I leave you now. Whether for a couple days, or an entire week I know not. But I will be back.

:D
Oh! I just remembered I was supposed to post 6 Flags pictures. ... well, I didn't get many good ones, so it can wait.

I'm really leaving now.
Bye!

Lately

So much has been going on lately!


I've been working at VBS this week.
The first night was crazy and fun. The second night drove me crazy and wasn't really fun. The rest of the week was a blast. And I wore my pirate belt all week! I was glad to have a reason to wear it.
You can see more photos here and here.

I read Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. I wrote a review on GoodReads, and decided to make it into a post on Caitlinesque (so that those of you who don't want to sign up at GoodReads can see it, too.) I would have posted it here, but that would have made this post - which looks like it may be longish- even longer. Of course, you're not under any obligations to read it, but if you would, here's your link.

I've also been reading Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Roald Dhal) the past couple of days. Just a snippet here and there. I love some good, light reading. :) It's absolutely hilarious. Reading it makes me think Tim Burton and Johnny Depp did a brilliant job portraying Roald Dhal's characters in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the movie. ... Not to say that duo doesn't still give me the creeps...

I listed more fingerless gloves on Etsy today. It's been a while since I made any.
These are bone colored. I think I like black better.
I also went to Michael's and bought yarn to make more black ones, and some gray ones. The red pair I made for myself has disappeared on me.

In other Etsy news, I got my peppermint lip balm today. Tis lovely.

In other Michael's news, I bought 3 photo albums and a poster frame for all of the prints I've got from the trip to Wisconsin. And everything was on sale. Hoorah!

Y'all, I seriously want a cup of coffee. I'm probably going to have to give in and make a little cup of decaf in about 10 minutes. I've been resisting for the past hour.

So. Guess how late I stayed up last night? ... Actually, you know, I don't think I'm willing to admit to that right now. It was very late ...erm, early. (Get it, Katie?) Laura and I didn't show up at Katey's house for our movie night until around 10 PM. They had watched Mansfield Park before we arrived, but I brought the feature film of the night - North and South. No, not the war one. The romantic one, adapted from Elizabeth Gaskell's novel. Which I have yet to read. (Horrors!) Anyways. This brings me to having watched the whole thing in it's entirety four times. You could say it's a favorite.

Dear, tired Laura went to bed sometime during the second episode, around 12:30, I think. The rest of us not only finished North and South, but we watched Persuasion afterwards as well. Think we like period dramas much? Erm ... and maybe handsome British men with their awesome accents. But I didn't just say that. =D

Katie, Katey, Alicia, and I stayed up talking for a couple more hours. So. Yeah. That was fun. We won't see them again for quite some time, because next Tuesday, Laura and I are going to be out of town for 4 weeks.

Yes, friends! 4 weeks. Going to stay with our dear aunt and uncle and cousins in Florida. That'll be fun. :)

This week, I'm babysitting Gen's kids 5 out of 7 days. I expect to be thoroughly tired out afterwards. But she has 4 very cute boys, and I love little boys. :) Although in this circumstance, a girl would probably be helpful. Which is why Laura is going to come hang out with us some of the time.

Yesterday some survey guy came to our house. I was randomly selected to complete a survey on my travel habits. If I took it, I would receive $50 cash right then. So, I took it. And I got the $50. Which was very cool. Until I had to put $30 of it in the van today.

More random news: I have been dabbling in French. Only dabbling, I assure you, but I would love to honestly learn. I can say a few phrases that do me no good on their own, but it's fun.

And now, away with me. I shall speak with you again some other time.
Have a lovely whatever day it is you're having as you read this.
Sincerely, and most Unusually,
Me

Jesus is Alive!!

It's easy to just hear things and not give them much thought, isn't it?
For us "church people," it's so easy to tune something out, thinking "I already know this."

"Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures"

I've known that verse since I was little. But I'm guilty of only really thinking about the reality of it around holidays, or after a particularly convicting sermon.

It's hard to comprehend. Such a simple little verse, but absolutely impossible to fully understand.

He took ALL the sin, evil, sorrow, pain, and guilt of a fallen world; past, present, and future. All of it, into himself. That doesn't even make sense. People talk about how Jesus was tortured and crucified, and how they can't imagine what it must have been like, but I recently realized that wasn't the worst of it. The physical pain was probably bearable in comparison to the dead weight of thousands of years of guilt and pain inflicted on his perfect soul, shutting Him off from His Father. I mean, I hate it when I do something mean, and feel sick and guilty until I make it right. He took so much more than that. And so many can't even understand how it is that we really deserved to die.

But, the point of this holiday is to focus on his resurrection. I just wanted to expound a little on the "incomprehensible" part.

He rose again! He died, was embalmed, the stone was rolled over the door, and 3 days later, the stone was rolled away, his coverings were folded, and the tomb was empty. In the words of Julia from my preschool class: "His friends thoughted that some people had stolened Jesus's body, but they really hadn't. Mary was crying, and a man asked her "Mary, why are you crying?" and she turned around and saw that it was Jesus. He had rose up from the dead!"

Now THAT is pretty neat. He was dead, then he came back to life. And he's STILL alive.
The preacher this morning was saying that Jesus didn't die for us so that we could have a better life. He didn't. He didn't die for us to be close to us. He died for us so that we could have a completely NEW life, and so that his Spirit could live IN us. That is so amazing. And it doesn't even make sense. Not to a human perspective.

The fact that we serve a living God, the Son who was the ultimate sacrifice, the Spirit who dwells within us to give us power to live blamelessly and righteously, and the Father who loves us with a love we could never understand any more than the rest of the whole story, should so fully consume us that we should be as overwhelmed by it every day just as much as we are on Easter Sunday.

I really just wanted to post a short little reminder, but I have this way of turning things into sermons, without even making much sense. :D

The whole point is, Jesus is ALIVE! Let's live like it.

Happy Easter. :)

Finally!

Really, I have been meaning to post for ages, and just haven't gotten the chance.
I'm finally here.
With pictures.

I really don't know where I left off in my life happenings last time I blogged, but - OH! I just remembered. I meant to blog about visiting Calvary a few weeks ago and I never did. That was 'mazin' fun. Really. Lots of love to all of my Calvary people. I'm sad I didn't have more photos, or better ones. Beth-Dear, I should like to see the ones you got. :D

Me, Ham, and Andrew

Tabitha, Laura, and Becx

Next interesting happening: I colored my hair strawberry blonde. Mama did a great job. Only the people who know me SUPER well said "oh, you dyed your hair!" The other ones all say, "something's different with your hair... I can't tell what, though..?!"

I love it.

I interrupt this irregularly scheduled blogging with a breaking news story.
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Cheeseburger's Shortcoming Gets Him Kicked to the Curb

It was an unusual end to a Sunday night for the Butler family. They had been to church, and were on their way home. Tired and hungry, Mr. Butler decided, for the sake of his sanity and satiation, to stop at Checkers and buy cheeseburgers and hot dogs for everyone. Taking advantage of the "69 cent Sunday" deal, they ordered ten cheeseburgers, ten hot dogs, and ten apple pies. Unusual as this was, the story grew stranger.

While waiting for the immense order, something unusual was spotted on the ground beneath the service window. A double with cheese, made unusual due to it's location. Upon hearing that such an oddity had been sighted, all members of the family pressed the member nearest the door facing the burger to open it, for all to see the unfortunate sandwich.

The authorities have nothing to say on the subject, and nobody knows exactly what happened. It is presumed that, in transit to a vehicle, it was simply dropped. Dropped, and left on the pavement to grow old and cold. Perhaps this abandoned burger was rejected, and thrown out the window of an unhappy customer? This picture was taken some time after the actual defenestrating of the burger. It leaves many questions unanswered, one of which being "what happened to the wrapper?"

Stranded on the curb, this burger's future isn't looking so hot.

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Week before last was pretty uneventful, I think. Last week was great. The beginning of the week is a blur. Wednesday, we went to the park with the Looneys and other friends of theirs. Laura and I had especially been wanting to meet these friends of Katey and Alicia, so I was super happy to finally have the chance. Laura had to be at school, though. :( She missed out on some amazing tag. Wish I had pics of the game. lol!

Nicholas, on top of the monkey bars.

Famous Matt's hand, Famous Garrett, the most adorable Ryan in the world, Nicholas, and Morgan

Thursday, I had my follow up exam at Dr. Peck's, from whence we determined not even Acuvue Oasys lenses will work for me. This week I'm on another trial pair. It's my last hope, apparently. If these don't work, I'm stuck with glasses for life.

Laura and I were dropped off at Katey and Alicia's that night. We got all dolled up in lightning speed, and were out the door to the HMV concert. The band was great, the jazz band was good (not quite as good as usual), the choir was awesome. It was fun, and afterwards we went to McDonalds. Most of the HMV people did.

There's more to the story, but I'm going to save it until I get a hold on the photos I need for it. ;-)

Once back home at the Looney's house, we crashed.

Friday was a little gloomy, but still fun. In the evening, we had party food for dinner. It was strange, and delicious. Then we watched August Rush. I think we teenage girls were the only ones that enjoyed it. I love it. So there.

Everyone went to bed while Laura, Alicia, and I stood outside for about 15 minutes just watching the amazing lightning. It was indescribable. Id never seen anything like it. Brilliant, silent flashes of light, illuminating the stormy clouds from behind. I know I overuse the word "awesome," but this really was one of those awe-inspiring experiences.

Then we killed the awe by going inside. Laura, Katey, Sheesh and I watched Red Eye - a pretty good suspense movie. Then we went to bed.

Saturday morning was good. We went home at noon, then went to babysit for the church drama at 5. Got home at 11. Ate too much cotton candy. Went to bed far too late, after staying up even after I told Beth-Dear I was going.

It was so good to go to Sunday School this morning! I'm going to scan my notes. I meant to tonight, but I forgot. We always start late. We technically begin at 9:45, but our lesson never starts until 10:15. We take our time getting settled in, and doing prayer requests. From 9:45 to 10:15, I was the only girl in a room full of guys. I felt a little small and alone. And amused. And I was very, very happy when Anna Leigh came in. lol! We learned about water bottles. (I'll show you later.) Never know what Phillip's gonna talk about.

This afternoon has been nice, too. Laura, Abby, and I went to Mema's house for a little while, and just relaxed. I finished up my secret project this evening. I was going to show you all tonight, but this post is so long already, it, too, shall have to wait until another time. Here's a picture, though.

you don't know what it is, do you?
(family members, shush.)

Wow. That was a lot of text.
Maybe I shouldn't wait forever, and then bog you all down with a huge post. But it's better than not posting at all, and leaving you all hanging clueless, right?
Right. ^.^
I wish you all a happy week, and a very green St Patrick's day.

Love, Caitlin