Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

"Well kids, I sure hope you've been good this year because it looks like Santa just took out the Pierson home. INCOMING!!!!"

-Scott Calvin, The Santa Clause

My friends and I had our annual Christmas party last night. It was a lot of fun and was filled with great presents! My favorite was the Galaxy Quest hoodie my friend bought for me. I have been wearing it all night and still don't feel like taking it off.

The most amusing part of the night was the argument between Michelle (who is pregnant) and Jeremy (who is just bloated) over who has the bigger belly.

Jeremy and Allie had me take their Christmas pictures.

Jeremy got a little distracted...

We ate great food!

And we were entertained by Anya (as usual).

Over all the party was a success and definitely will be remembered by all of us!

Boredom

About 3:00 pm, Nov. 23, 2011

I'm an hour and a half into my trip and boredom is setting in. My mom hasn't killed me yet, but she did give me some suspicious trail mix. If I start throwing up I will be concerned. Also, my dad informed me I need to pay for my own snacks. Isn't there like a daddy contract that states a father should always pay for his daughter's snacks? If not, there should be.
I look out the window and all I see is yellow grass, naked trees, and dilapidated, old houses. Don't let me forget the random out houses along the road. Gotta love North Dakota.

Thanksgiving, Don't Be Late!

"Dashing through the snow,

In our six-horse engined car,

to the hills we go,

underneath the stars."

-Fred MacDonald

Tomorrow afternoon I will be leaving to go to Rapid City, SD for 3 whole days. I'm not sure whether to be excited to see friends and family for Thanksgiving or worried about being in a car for eight and a half hours with my vengeful mother. (After my last blog, I think I might have to enter the witness protection agency.)
Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite time of the year. I love the feeling of love and care that come with them. Not to mention, the presents!

I am most excited to go Black Friday shopping with my sister Michaela. She's really good at shopping. I am also excited to see my nephew who I haven't seen since the summer. I am thinking he will be considerably bigger and probably won't remember me. I will hang onto a hope that maybe he will, though.

I hope you all have an awesome Thanksgiving! Enjoy time with friends and family. And, if I don't come back, my mother did it!

Boo!

See the cute little black schnauzer on the left? That's Jake. He is my baby.
See the ugly little rat on the right? That's my mom's dog, Boo. She is my arch nemesis.

If you think it is weird that my arch nemesis is a dog you should meet the dog. This is the most annoying dog on earth. Not only is she annoying, though. She also has about every psychological disorder you can possibly think of. Bipolar, schizophrenia…you name it, she has it.

Boo will stand outside for hours on end (I’m NOT over exaggerating) barking at absolutely nothing. At least, for me it’s nothing. Maybe she really thinks she sees something. She will also act like your best friend one second and the next she won’t go near you. She has to go everywhere Jake goes. If you take Jake somewhere else she worries about him, that maybe you are killing him or something.

If she is bipolar, I can handle that. One of my best friends is bipolar. But, schizophrenia? I have no previous experience to help me handle that!!!

I told my mom I have a great desire to kick her dog and watch her fly like a football. It sounds mean, but the idea makes me laugh every time I think of it. I know it would be funny too, because one time we were in a car and Boo was sitting on the arm rest in between me and my mom. My mom had to hit the brake for whatever reason and Boo took air! She flew forward like a bird and I was laughing hysterically! My mom said it wasn’t funny, but trust me, it was!

I was told not to write this blog, but I couldn’t resist. This dog is just too messed up to not write about her.



Disclaimer: No dogs were harmed in the making of this post.



Oh, Life

"Do you know what it's like to be cusping on adulthood and not know what you are, or who you wanna be, or even IF you want to be? It's ten shades of suck is what it is."

-Georgia, Dead Like Me

Growing up I always seemed to have an answer for what I was going to be later on in life. A firefighter, an astronaut, an animal cop straight from the TV show Animal Cops Detroit. I changed my mind a lot, but I always had an answer. I still have an answer, but I have no idea how I want to get it.

After high school you find out there are about a million colleges and you are supposed to find the perfect one for you. You are also supposed to find the perfect guy, the perfect place to live, the perfect everything.

I often feel like if I don't find the one thing God wants me to do and do it then I will be eternally messed up. Lately, though, i have accepted the mindset that no matter what I do, as long as I am doing it for the glory of God, I am in pretty good shape. It makes sense when you think about it. There are so many options, how can you settle on just one for the rest of your life? That would probably make life pretty boring.

Forgiveness

“Heartbreaks with the opposite sex tend to be explosive, and thank heaven, definite. But, when a friendship dies a painful, slow death, that profound sense of sadness is indescribable.”

-Ms. LULU

There is something different when losing a best friend versus breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe it’s because your best friend is supposed to be dependable. Someone you can trust. Then they let you down and you are left asking, “What happened? I was supposed to be able to trust you!” Even when things are patched up and you think everything is better, you still feel angry and hurt. You want to forgive, but the trust has been broken and the pain felt by that broken trust is one you would never want to feel again. I heard a quote from the movie The Grace Card. “Reconciling starts with forgiveness.” How can things be truly reconciled if you don’t first forgive?

So, starting now, I forgive.

So what does it mean to forgive? I looked in the glossary in the back of my Bible. Forgive: To pardon or excuse; to no longer blame or be angry with someone who has done you wrong.

OK! BACK UP! This means I can’t be angry anymore? Well, that’s the hardest part. Choosing not to be angry. It’s easy for me to say I won’t be angry until I think back to the hurt I felt and how painful it was. Especially if I feel they don’t deserve to be forgiven.

A big part of forgiveness is mercy and grace. “Grace is when you do get what you don’t deserve. Mercy is when you don’t get what you do deserve.” Forgiveness isn’t always deserved. That’s the beauty of it. Really it’s a gift to both you and the person you are forgiving. Choosing to not forgive and stay angry leaves you still hurt.

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you."

-Lewis B. Smedes

So you may be thinking, “What do I do when I start to feel hurt again?” Well, that’s only natural. Wounds don’t heal right away. Remember a simple truth. “Time heals all wounds.” (Menander)

I feel there should be a bit added on to the end of that statement, though. Time heals all wounds, unless you let them fester. Don’t let yourself fester in anger. Choose to let go of the anger then let time and God heal the hurt.