Inside My Head

Only Two more weeks :o(

2006-07-22T08:12:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! It's the last full day of camp four! I can't believe
it. The new American team arrived yesterday and it's so weird that
they're the last ones. They seem like a good group though, they're
very enthusiastic and ready to go. All but one girl have never been
before, and they're a big youth group, so it's going to be pretty
different from the other groups we've had. This week of camp has been
really good. I love team four and I really don't want them to leave.
They've been a really good group of really fun people. For those of
you who know Jake and Taylor, they were here for camp four and they
were on my drama team. It was like the best drama team ever. They
were so great. At the beginning of the week both of them were like,
"We have stage fright. We've never done this before." But they were
both awesome.
I'm really not okay with the fact that I'm leaving in like two weeks.
Don't get me wrong, I miss everyone back home, but it just seems like
it went by too fast. Then again, the beginning seems like so long
ago. It's weird.
Okay, I really don't have anything all that interesting to say. Oh, I
don't think I've written about this yet, the health inspection came
and we had to hide all of the kids in the woods because there wasn't
supposed to be any kids here. But, everything worked out and they've
given us the go ahead to have the last camp. Praise Jesus! Okay,
that's about all I've got. I will see you all very soon...

mailto:jenna@radooga.net

The Truth

2006-07-12T15:25:00.000-04:00

The following are true statements:
Jenna is cool.
Stephanie is cool.
Team four arrives tomorrow!

So I'm sitting here with Stephanie and we are skipping out on evening
program. I asked her what I should tell you guys, because really the
only thing I have to say is that I'm excited about team 4 coming
because they are cool.

An update from Nurse Rita:

Hi, my name's Nurse Rita. I like to practice medicine. And in my
free time I engage in pilates and water aerobics. My favorite time of
day is 8:23 AM. It's just right...not too early, not too late. I've
been Miss Myrick's nurse at camp for the previous two camps and I'd just like to say that she
is in outstanding health...healthy as a large horse as my Father Henry
likes to say. I am single. No kids. My number is 423-338-9264. I
like grey goose martinis with two green olives. I'm 57 but don't
worry fellas, I haven't lost that wild fire just quite yet. Yes,
um..anyhow, camps are going great. Thanks to all who support Miss
Myrick by reading her entertaining blog.

Thank you *********(for the protection of the innocent, names have
been concealed)...I mean, Nurse Rita. I thought it was supposed to be
an update, not a personal ad, but I guess she's feeling lonely. Well,
I think "Nurse Rita" pretty much covered all the bases, so I'm gonna
go.

mailto:jenna@radooga.net

Attack of the Bugs

2006-07-09T13:45:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! It's the first day of camp three! We had a day off
yesterday, so the five of us summer staff who are on team B went to
spend the night at Lori and Amberly's apartment. We hung out in the
city for a while and then went back and hung out. It was a nice day
to relax and just get away from camp for a while.
In other news, bugs have invaded our hall. I don't know where they
came from, but two nights ago the camp was empty of campers and just
the staff were here. I was in my room when I heard Lauren, who lives
with JenniGray next door to Stephanie and I, slam the door to the
shower room. She yelled my name and I came running. She was like
"Look in there, it's like a scary movie." I opened the door just a
little and the window was practically covered in these big, black
bugs. A couple of them flew at me when I opened the door and the rest
just swarmed around in the room or stuck to the window. We have no
idea where they came from. Later that day there were a few in our
rooms, so we were spraying them with the Raid that Lauren bought at
the store the other day. Then we went into the hall and there were
some flying around, so Lauren sprayed at them while they were in the
air. When one flew by the light, she sprayed at it and a whole swarm
of bugs came out of the light. She kept spraying for a minute and
then we both ran to our rooms. We came out a few minutes later to a
ton of dead bugs laying on the floor. It was quite an experience. We
haven't looked in the shower room lately, because we use the hot
shower upstairs anyway, but we haven't had much more trouble. I think
the other bugs have taken the dead ones as a warning sign to stay
away.
As far as the water situation goes, we recieved another test the other
day that said that the water was bad again, and the health department
is still threatening to make us leave the campsite. So please be in
prayer for that.
Have a great week at Student Life Camp Northwoods' guys! I'll be
praying for you!

mailto:jenna@radooga.net

Water Update

2006-07-05T08:01:00.000-04:00

Hey guys, just a quick update on the water situation. The tests came
back within the norm, so that was good, but it wasn't all our water because we've been borrowing water from
the orphanage next door ever since our water pump broke a few days
ago. But, as an answer to prayer, the health inspection isn't going
to be here until the day between camps, so there will be no kids here, just
as they wanted it. We are not completely home free yet, but things
are looking positive. Please keep praying.
We had a picnic yesterday for the 4th of July. We went to this little
park nearby and had a cookout. I was thinking about the 4th of July
celebration at Northwoods. How did it go? I wish I could have been
there, but we had a great little party here. We also sang the
National Anthem in morning celebration and said the Pledge of
Allegiance before we started rec. It was cool to see the Ukrainians
waving American flags and getting into the Independence Day spirit.
Tomorrow is the last full day of camp two and team three also arrives.
Time goes by so quickly. Tonight is repentance (altar call) night,
so please be praying for the kids. Last week we had about 30 come to
Christ, praise Jesus! Thanks for your prayer. God is doing great
things!

mailto:jenna@radooga.net

Camp Two Already!

2006-07-02T13:37:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! A lot has been going on, so let me update you. Today
was the first full day of camp two. It's really weird, because in
some ways it feels like I just got here and in others it feels like
it's going by too quickly. The team is kind of small this week, but
it's been good so far. We can definitely use some prayer. I know
that we have amazing things in store, because we've had a lot of
attacks. First of all, if you guys could just pray for everyone's
health, because pretty much everyone on staff is at least a little bit
sick. Second, we had a summer staff ask to leave last week, and she
left with the team from camp one. It's a situation that Radooga has
never had to deal with before, and it's a weird story, but it was and
will continue to be hard on the rest of us on staff here. We are all
having to pick up the responsibilities that she left behind and fill
in for her gap, so please be in prayer for that. Also pray for her
and the situation, that God would work in her life and work through
this tough situation. Another request is for JenniGray, Lauren, and
MerriCameron, whom some of you know. A good friend of thiers passed
away last week and it's been hard on them. JG and Lauren are both on
summer staff and MC was here for camp one and then ended up staying
for camps two and three also. So please keep them in your prayers and
also the family of their friend, Neil. Lastly, we have had some
trouble with the health inspection. Apparently there is a problem
with the water here at camp, and the health department is threatening
to shut us down and make us leave the campsite. We assume that the
results of the water test are being falsified and exaggerated by the
corrupt system that Ukraine is under. When Oleg asked the camp
director who runs the campsite about the problem she asked him if he
had any enemies who would want the camp shut down. So, the health
inspection will be back tomorrow to check everything out and there
isn't supposed to be anyone at the campsite. We have over 200 kids
plus the Radooga staff here, so that's not happening. Please pray
that everything will work out and we will continue to be able to run
camps no matter what happens. Thank you all so much for your emails,
they've been really encouraging. I'm doing great and loving it, other
than having a cold. The weather right now is perfect and I love it.
Last week it was really hot, but this week has been beautiful. I will
try to put some picutures up soon, if possible. :o) Love ya'll!

mailto:jenna@radooga.net

I'm alive!

2006-06-27T19:37:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! Our email just started working two days ago so I haven't
been able to write. Let's see, what's happened since I wrote last?
Ummm...seven of us got stuck in the elevator in the apartment building
we were staying at before camp for like 30 minutes. That was really
fun and funny. Camp one is almost over and the South Carolina team
leaves in a few days. I'm really sad about that because they are the
best and I love all of them so much. I really don't want them to
leave. Most of team two arrived today. It's going to be pretty
small. Three people came in today, two more come tomorrow because
they missed their flight somewhere, one was already in Ukraine and
came in today, and three from this camp are staying for camp two. It
should be good, and I get to lead drama next week, so I'm excited
about that.

Calyn says, "Hello walls. Do you want me to type?" to which I said,
"No, I just hate this keyboard." I asked her to tell you something
cool.
Calyn: "Something cool. What's something cool that happened today?
Oh! I got a bouquet of hair! Amanda cut Roma's hair today and he
walked onto the Rec Field and gave me a bouquet of his hair. It was
very exciting."
Roma says, "I have a stapler and I'm not afraid to use it."
Okay, thanks guys. That was great.
Calyn wants you all to know that Roma found a staple in his chicken at
lunch the other day. We hypothesize that that is how they killed the
chicken. We were going to say something else but it's too late and it
is gone. That is all. The end. Email me. Now.
mailto:jenna@radooga.net

I Made It

2006-06-14T08:39:00.000-04:00

Well, I made it to Ukraine. There were a few times when I thought I wouldn't, but I'm here. It started with a bomb scare at the Tallahassee airport that put the flight behind, but I made the flight. Then I met up with the other 6 people on summer staff that weren't in Ukraine yet in Atlanta. Our flight there was delayed because of weather and we got kind of scared because we were already going to be cutting it close to catch our flight in New York. When we got to New York we only had like 20 minutes before the flight left but when we got off the flight they told us it was closed and they had already made arrangements for us. So they sent us to Milan, Italy because the next flight out of NY was two days later. So we went to Italy, arrived there when we were supposed to be arriving in Ukraine, had a three hour layover there and then got on the plane to Kiev. We got in about 5:30 pm on Tuesday and have just been sleeping and meeting with the Radooga directors today. Well, we move to camp on Friday, but for now we're living in an apartment that is really nice. I'll try to update again soon, but I can't promise anything. :o)

Leaving

2006-06-12T00:31:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, it's been forever. The sad thing is I actually had stuff to post about. But I don't remember any of them right now, so that's not important. Basically, this is all you need to know: 1) We re-did my room 2-ish weeks ago and it's just amazing and 2) I get on a plane to leave for Ukraine for 2 months in less than 11 hours. So, I will most likely be updating this quite a bit so I can let everyone know what's going on over in Kiev. For those who don't know, I'll be working at a Christian English language camp, the same one I went to last year for two weeks. So, I'm really exctied, but I still have things I need to do before I can go to sleep, so I'm afraid this must be short. Please be praying for me. I'm not real comfortable navigating airports by myself, so please pray for that.

I get to see Calyn in less than 2 days!

"We're gonna need plaster bandages and vasoline."

2006-04-28T02:32:00.000-04:00

Quote o' the day:
"I'm just sick of all this crap...I mean, why can't we just go back to the days when we walked around barefoot eating apples all day?" -Chris Myrick

So we (me, Calyn, John, and David) tried to make molds of our faces using plaster and guaze and vasoline tonight. Yeah, it didn't so much work. Our little arts and crafts night turned into play with vasoline and plaster night. We really did try though. Calyn was our guinea pig, and, well, she couldn't breathe through the straws while she was under the saran wrap, so we had to stop mid-plaster. We're going to try a different method tomorrow night...hopefully it will work. I'm sure that pictures are on the way from Calyn, but we're tired, so we're going to bed.

(Quoting Strongbad:) It's Over!

2006-04-26T09:03:00.000-04:00

I'm officially done with school and on summer break! Just thought I'd share that with ya'll. I had my last exam at 7:30 this morning (blah!). It's really weird that I'm already done with my first year at FSU. I mean, in a way it seems like I've been there forever, but it also seems like I just started yesterday. But anyways, it's summer for me now, and that's also weird, because it's only April, but I can't say I'm complaining. It just feels good to have everything done and out of the way for the summer. So for now, I'm going back to sleep. :-)

Quote o' the Day:

2006-04-18T02:50:00.000-04:00

Random kindergartener at work: "Coach Cody, guess what! My mom's prenannant!"
Cody: "Your mom's what?"
Same random kindergartener at work: "Pregnant! The baby's like a peanut right now!"

Twees it out!

2006-04-12T01:45:00.000-04:00

Everyone must go see this. Right now.

Quote o' the day: "I'm gonna go ahead and need you to never say 'twees it out' ever again." -Strong Bad

Happy Birthday Calyn!

2006-04-05T09:57:00.000-04:00

I am so thankful that God gave me a friend like you to share my life with. I'm so glad that we've been able to spend so much time together. One day, we will prove everyone right and really will be roommates. :-) Have a great birthday, I love you!

Anthony Rapp!

2006-04-04T01:11:00.000-04:00

I went to a lecture by Anthony Rapp (Mark from Rent) tonight. He read an excerpt from his book about making Rent and Jonathan Larson and he answered questions about his career and everything. He was really nice and very funny. Then he sang "Seasons of Love" a capella, and it was beautiful of course. Afterward, me, Calyn, and Bekah stood in line for an hour so he could sign our stuff, and now my Rent CD is signed by him. That makes me very happy, and that is all I have to say. Goodnight! I'm going to bed.

Ahaha!

2006-03-29T00:14:00.000-05:00

My Rent soundtrack came in tonight! Ahh, so good. I am one happy camper. Just thought I'd share that with ya'll.
"There's only us, there's only this. Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other road, no other way. No day but today."

Quote o' the Last Night:

2006-03-28T15:27:00.000-05:00

(Whining) "I never see you....You always hang out with Katie." -Calyn trying to get me to stay at her house instead of going to hang out with my friend Katie who goes to Auburn and was in town for Spring Break. I hadn't seen her since graduation.

Favorite Quotes from the McMurrains' Visit:

2006-03-27T00:30:00.001-05:00

"Noah, get your face out of the ball return." -Mrs. Trish

"Feel the wrath of me!" -Chris while playing Mario Party

Mrs. Trish: "If you need something you need to ask me or Mrs. Lisa, or Leila, or Jenna, or Chris..."
Brenton: "Or the aliens!"

"Ummm...my eyes hurt...I don't think I'm gonna be able to make it to work today." -Leila

Happy Birthday to Me!

2006-03-26T02:32:00.000-05:00

I'm 19! I guess it's not technically my birthday anymore because it's now 2:30 on the 26th, but it was today. It started at midnight when Chris and I were playing Mario Party with Leila (we had friends in from out of town this weekend) and at midnight they brought me a chocolate chip cookie and chocolate milk and sang "happy birthday." Then this afternoon we took the kids of our friends to Chuck E. Cheese, which is always a good time. Ha. So then it was off to Julie's for dinner with the family and some friends. Then some of the aformentioned friends decided it would be a good idea to kidnap me and throw me into the fountain (a tradition at FSU) but they said it right in front of me, so I knew but whatever. It was a plan, so we all split up to go get stuff and then they kidnapped me and saran wrapped me and well, this is the result...

It was pretty hot inside all that saran wrap

They had to carry me to the car and stuff me in

They were trying to unwrap me so I would be able to move once I was in and Kenley started putting the really cold water on my head.

Throwing me in

It was freezing

And it didn't help that it was so cold outside

But I sure am glad that Sarah was able to be in town for my birthday!

No Work and All Play

2006-03-20T21:21:00.000-05:00

Friday we got our papers back in my English class. I don't know how many of you I explained this to, but I only had a weekend to do my whole paper that we had months of exercises and prep work for because my teacher decided that he didn't think that my topic was adult enough for our class and he didn't tell me until the Friday before the Monday the final draft was due. So basically, I had done months of work on this one story, and I had to completely scrap it and write a different story in three days and get no feedback on it, just turn it in and hope for the best. Needless to say, I was pretty stressed about it, and a bunch of other things happened to complicate it even more, but what it all comes down to is that I got a C on the first draft of my original story, so I was hoping for at least a B on my new story. Well, we got them back and I got an A. I was like freaking out because I really thought I would get a C but I was hoping for a B, but instead I got a 23 out of 25. So that basically made my Friday.
So, I've had a great weekend and past few days. Canopy Oaks is on Spring Break, so I didn't have to work on Friday or all this week. Saturday we went to the beach and had a great time. The St. Patrick's Day party at youth went well and I think everyone had a good time. Today Calyn and I went bowling with two of the girls from our Bible study. It was good to just hang out and get to know them more, and bowling's fun. I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow and some friends from Boynton are coming in on Wednesday and staying until Sat or Sun. Thursday we are going to Wakulla Springs. Whoever wants to come is welcome. We are all kind of going at different times, so if you want to come, just meet there whenever you can and leave when you need to. Five days until my 19th birthday. Yay, I guess. :-) Okay, well, this is probably boring you all, but just a little update on what's going on with me.
Here are some pictures from the beach:

We buried Kevin in the sand. It took a long time to dig the hole and we had just started filling it in and I was like, "The sand's too dry. We need some water." So Kenley pours freezing cold water from the cooler full of ice onto Kevin and Kevin jumps up in a split second and starts running around and screaming. Calyn and I were a little upset that all of our hard work went to waste...

So we put Kenley outside the circle of trust. Me: "This is the circle of trust." Calyn: "This is Kenley."

We had fun taking pictures of ourselves in Diane's sunglasses.

And James'.

What I Did in Auburn:

2006-03-13T02:46:00.000-05:00

Met pretty much all of Sarah's friends
Woke up late
Played frisbee in the mud
Took lots of showers
Stacked cups
Had a run-in with the police...twice
Played hide-and-go-seek in cars
Discovered the places at Auburn that Sarah didn't even know existed
Laughed really hard while playing Taboo
Hung out at Waffle House at 2 in the morning and discussed C++
Became obsessed with the RENT and its soundtrack
Stayed up until it was light outside (6 in the morning)
Unintentionally gave us and extra hour in our day
Watched the Vintage 21 Jesus videos
Slipped on a rock
Climbed a waterfall
Played frisbee with the biggest group of pansy guys ever
Bruised my eye with a frisbee
Took fun pictures
Met Greg the train (a couple times)
Saw Zach attempt to be a theater major
Climbed many flights of stairs only to find a locked door
Swung at a playground
Sucked at knockout...got hit in the face with a basketball
Jammed out in my car with my two best friends
Joined Team Octopus
Watched Sarah climb to the roof
Found some awesome spots to hide for sardines, but never got to use them
Had Michael try to distinguish between our voices
Made the best cheesecake ever

What an awesome weekend!

I Hate Macs

2006-03-08T15:25:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm finally on Spring Break. All I've pretty much done is slept in and me and Calyn watched some movies and stuff. I was very impressed Walk the Line, especially since Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix did all of the singing in the movie. They were really good. So, yeah, all I've done is sleep, which has been good since I don't do a whole lot of that when I have class. I've had to work this whole week too, but I'm taking off Friday and me and Calyn are going to visit Sarah at Auburn. We are leaving after I get off work on Thursday and I am really excited. Sarah has all these great fun plans for us and I'm pumped. Okay, I should go because I'm at work in the computer lab with my kids, but I just thought I'd update you a little on my life.

They Won!!!

2006-02-27T14:24:00.000-05:00

Drew said it best: "Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!"

Calling for the Stars

2006-02-23T22:27:00.000-05:00

Quote o' the day:
"Thank you for voting for Drew and Cheryl!!!! I voted for Drew and Cheryl!!! Oh...now it's busy. Ooooh! I did it again!!!" -Lisa Myrick

Oh my gosh, that was ah-may-zing! If you guys don't watch Dancing with the Stars, you are missing out for sure. Tonight was just amazing. I will be so extremely mad if Jerry Rice wins over Drew or Stacy. He so does not deserve it and I'm pretty mad that he's even still on the show. I really want Drew to win. My mom has been watching the show since day one and I recently joined her and we made it our Thursday night time for the last month or so. Before tonight, which was the final show you could vote on, Mom never really cared about voting because the people that we liked always stayed on anyway. But after last week's tragedy of Lisa getting kicked off instead of Jerry, we had to vote tonight. We are so scared that Jerry might win, and only because of his football fan base, because he just doesn't deserve to win. I'm sorry, but he's just not as good of a dancer as Stacy or Drew. So we tried for forever to get through to vote and I went online and used every e-mail address to our family's name and voted while my mom tried to call. All of a sudden she got through and she just started yelling "Thank you for voting for Drew and Cheryl!!!! I voted for Drew and Cheryl!!!" It was pretty much the funniest thing ever because I haven't seen her so excited in quite some time. Wow. So Sunday at 8 is the final results show where we find out who wins. If Jerry wins, I'm going to hurt someone. Go Drew!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

2006-02-17T02:29:00.000-05:00

Wow. Life. Busy. No time to blog lately. Really. And for once, I actually have stuff to talk about. But now I kind of forget it all, because it's been so long. Let's see. Calyn and I went with Wesley to the MSM retreat two weekend's ago. It was really good. We met a bunch of new people which is good. We played an awesome game of ultimate. And the worship was amazing. The speaker was really good. He talked about prayer, why we should do it more, and how we can enjoy it more. We had a lot of good prayer time and it was just a good weekend to spend some time with God. I guess Calyn posted pictures? I forget.
In other news, we got a puppy! He's a Kyi-Leo, he's three months old, and we named him Dusty. He's pretty much the cutest thing ever and he loves people.

Well, that's honestly all that I can say to summarize the last two weeks other than I've been really busy and haven't gotten as much sleep as I normally do, so I've been pretty tired. Well, it's now 2:47 am and here I still am, so I should go. Oh yeah, and the title: the weather was gorgeous today!

Day of the Hog of Ground

2006-02-03T02:17:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's late. I had been doing pretty well with getting to bed by midnight, too. Oh well. Just felt like saying hey, but I have nothing all that exciting to say, other than I'm leaving to go to Leesburg for the MSM retreat with Wesley tomorrow. So, ya, I'll be gone until Sunday afternoon. Ya know, my grandma lives in Leesburg and when I told Brandon that I was going there this weekend he was like "Oh, you could visit Mimi!" and I was like, "No, Brandon. It's not like I'm going by myself. We have planned activities, you know?" and so he goes, "Well, just tell her to meet you guys somewhere for lunch." and I said, "Yeah, great idea, Brandon. I've known these people for like 2 weeks and I'm just gonna be like, 'Oh my grandma's eating lunch with us. Everyone meet my grandma!'" Yeah, I don't think so. But it was funny, so I wanted to share that with ya'll. Okay, goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!

Oh, and Happy Groundhog Day? Cause I definitely forgot.

I'm Still Here

2006-01-28T18:14:00.000-05:00

Isn't it funny how God works? As you all probably know, I'm supposed to be at the conference in Melbourne right now. Well, I'm not, I'm still in Tally. I had to go to the bank on Friday to do paperwork for my car loan and then go to the dealership to pick up the car. I had to do all this after I got out of class and we weren't going to be able to leave on time to get to Melbourne in time to help set up so we could get in for free, so I just decided to stay here and let Calyn go without me. I mean, it really did work out better. In the back of my mind I kinda thought that I shouldn't go the whole time we were planning it because I've got a big research paper due on Monday and there was so much going on this weekend. So, I figured it would be better if I just stayed here. So I did, and everything has really worked out. I've had a great weekend so far.
Friday we picked up my car and everything and then Mom and I went to La Piteria for lunch. We didn't get done until 3:30, but I decided to go into work for the rest of the day even though I was only gonna get like 2 hrs and 15 minutes in. But I went and it was a really fun day and all my friends got to see my new car. That night Mom and I went to my friend Amber's (from work) dance show and I'm really glad I got to go. I was sad that I was gonna miss it when I was gonna be out of town but I told her at work that I could go and she was excited because everyone else was going to the Saturday night performance. So she really appreciated that I went and it was good, so that was fun. Today Mom and I got to spend another day together. We went to Mrs. Rhonnie Schaeffer's Pampered Chef party and it was the best one I've ever been to. Then we went shopping and I got cute new shirts and we went and ate at Olive Garden. And now we're at my mom's office so she can do some work and I can work on my paper, so I'd better go do that. It's great how God works everything out and how he plans things. Just when I think I've got everything under control, he shows me that he knows better. So everyone can see my new car tomorrow! Yay! I love my car. Thank you Jesus.

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28

I Can Hear the Hallelujah Chorus

2006-01-26T00:54:00.000-05:00

I got the car! I mean, not physically in my possession yet, but we went to the dealership tonight to sign the paperwork. After we go to the credit union on Friday and finalize the financing, I can drive it home. Wow, God is good. For those of you who don't know, like 4 or 5 banks turned my down for financing and the dealership pretty much said that it was over, so I had moved on. I was like "okay, God, since this wasn't it, lead us to where we need to go next." Then randomly today the guy at the dealership called and said that we got the deal and we needed to come down and sign paperwork. Man, God is good. Just thought I'd share that with ya'll but I need to sleep now.

Looking Back and Looking Forward

2006-01-23T23:16:00.000-05:00

I was uploading pictures of the Fall Retreat that Erica gave me onto Facebook when I ran across these videos and decided to share them with ya'll as a reminder of the retreat. It was great, wasn't it?

On a completely different note, the ipod I ordered 9 days ago (but who's counting?) gets delivered tomorrow. I'm so excited! And news on the car situation, basically, it's not looking too good, but they're still trying to find a bank that will finance it for us, so keep praying that God will provide, if not for this to work out, then for another car. Thanks guys!

What does this have to dew with James?

2006-01-22T16:07:00.000-05:00

Well, I don't know what to say because I haven't posted in forever because I've been so busy. And no, it's not just because I've been watching massive amounts of LOST, although that is true. School and work have taken over my life. This semester is going to be very busy. I'm taking 16 hours of classes and working 22 hours a week, so I'm sorry if I don't post as regularly as I could last semester.
So, updates. Um...I found a car today. My car officially died on Thursday and so my search for a new car turned from important to necessary. So today my dad and I went to the Saturn dealership and found this really pretty blue 2000 Saturn SL with automatic everything, a CD and tape player, a rear spoiler, keyless entry, and like 70,000 miles. And it's only about $5,000. So I "applied" for it, I guess you would say. Basically, they have to see if I'll be able to make the payments and stuff, since I don't...oh, wait...TOUCHDOWN STEELERS! Yes!...okay, sorry...anyways, like I was saying, I don't have any credit so my mom cosigned with me and if the bank approves everything then I get the car. I should find out sometime tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest, so please join me in praying that everything works out, because this is a great car. If not, then I know that it wasn't what God wanted. I've just given this all to him because I've been so worried about it for so long and I just decided that God knows what he's doing and I've just been praying that he shows me what he wants....Ohhhhhh! Interception Steelers! This is amazing!...okay, what was I saying, oh yeah, God. I'm confident he'll show me what car to get and he'll work it all out. No need to worry.
So Calyn, James, and I just went to Lake Ella for a picnic and it was really hot. We were like tanning. Then we went to Goodwill to find 80's clothes for our skit. We found the best stuff ever! So now we're at Calyn's watching the Steeler's game (in case you haven't noticed). Oh!!!!!!! Touchdown again, I love it! Oh, wait, penalty. Nevermind, not touchdown. Sad day. But we're still winning 17 to 3.
Okay, Peace out, I'ma let James close me out here:
Now they REALLY did get the touchdown!!!!!! the Steeelers kick some royal, stuffness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, Im in love, Love, LOve, LOVe, LOVE with the half lbs burrito especial from Taco Bell.... but thats not all.........Jenna loves it too... uhhh yeah im gonna go now.. loves

First Day Back

2006-01-09T22:51:00.000-05:00

Well, what have we here, the first day of Spring 2006 semester. And what better way to start it? How about in Ruby Diamond Auditorium with 1400 people to learn about Biology at 9:00 in the morning? I couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing. But seriously, the first day back really wasn't all that bad. I think I'm really going to enjoy having three classes every day that get done before noon. It worked out really well for my schedule, so now I can go to work from 1:30 to 6 every day and get the most hours possible. I had my first Russian class today and we learned the alphabet (which I'm getting ready to go study for tomorrow). And I had my first Imaginitive Writing class. I think I'm going to like it much more than Writing About History or Non-Fiction Writing. I write best when I can be creative and make up a story. And the prof seems really fun, so that's always good. After class I gave up my nap to brave the crowds at Bill's Bookstore to get my books. Surprisingly, there was hardly anyone there and it only took me 1 hour instead of 2 or 3 to get out of there. Also surprisingly, my books were only $230-something, except I still have to get one more packet to get that I couldn't get from Bill's but that's only another $50. Anyways, I digress. Basically, I was nervous for some reason or another, but the day was good. So I've two more new classes tomorrow. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is waking up early, oh, that and finding a parking spot.

Fun Times in Gainseville (I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but hear me out.)

2006-01-07T01:06:00.000-05:00

Well, it's time for bed, but I just wanted to say how incredibly awesome our trip to Gainesville was yesterday and tell you that if you haven't looked at the pictures on Calyn's blog from the trip, then you should. I'm gonna go sleep now because I want to try to get my dad to go look at cars with me tomorrow. Poka!

Grrrr...

2006-01-03T02:04:00.000-05:00

My internet is working for the first time since last Thursday so I haven't been able to post. Well, that and I went out of town for 3 days. So let me catch everyone up. Chris got 2 more fish so that P. Sherman could have friends and he named them 42 Wallaby Way and Sydney. Except now P. Sherman is dead, so that's sad. Sarah and I went to Chick-Fil-A and took fun pictures:

On Friday my family and I left for my grandma's house to celebrate Christmas with our extended family in Leesburg:

My cousin, Bryce

Kate and Bryce

Brandon got his hair highlighted

Brandon and Aunt Lona both got their hair done

My Aunt Krista, the hairdresser, blowing Brandon's hair dry

Me and Brycey

We got home Sunday night and went to Taco Bell to hang out and get dinner. Then we were going to ummm...clean up some old Christmas trees, but the weather wasn't good, so we watched some Cheers at Calyn's and then went to our house and played this awesome "Shout About Music" game. Calyn, Brandon and James won against me and Chris, only because we bet it all in the last round. It was way fun though. Then we watched Moulin Rouge (I LOVE THAT MOVIE!) and then I spent the night with Calyn. My dad and I were supposed to go car shopping today, but the weather was bad and Dad was doing other stuff, so we're gonna go on Wednesday instead. So, we all helped my mom take down Christmas decorations instead. Oh, and Calyn and I took awesome pictures with hats so you should go to Calyn's blog to check them out because I don't feel like posting all of them because she already did. Well, I should go to bed now because although I don't start back to school tomorrow, Canopy Oaks does, and that means I have to go to work.

Quote o' the day:
"This is just so sentimental to me...let me just tell you about this piece of tissue paper." -Lisa Myrick
Poor Mom, although I am very proud of her for getting rid of all of the stuff that she did and allowing us to condense so much.

Markeister

2005-12-29T04:03:00.000-05:00

I am really excited because Sarah is spending the night! We went to Moe's for dinner and then we came home and scrapbooked for a really long time (obviously, since it's 4 in the morning). After we did a little scrapbooking, we stopped and had a break for a little bubbly (sparkling cider, that is) and Calyn stopped by for a little while to talk. Then we scrapbooked for a few more hours and now we are about to finally go to sleep. It's been great to be able to catch up with Sarah and, as always, I enjoyed getting to talk to her. It's great that we can just pick up where we left off. We always have so much fun together and we just really understand each other. I love Sarah. So here are some pictures from our adventures with the sparkling cider.

Sarah with her beloved picture of "Mrs. Rachel." Except no one believes it's really Mrs. Rachel but her.

Sarah pouring me some cider

I'm excited because I get the honor of pouring Sarah's cider

The happy couple

Gazing into each other's eyes

Cheers!

Got 30 Seconds?

2005-12-26T16:44:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you guys, but for me it seems that the Christmas season just keeps getting shorter and shorter. So, for those of you who haven't had the time to watch some of your favorite Christmas movie classics, I've got good news. Now, if you have just 30 seconds, you can enjoy It's A Wonderful Life or A Christmas Story.

Mewwy Cwistmas Evweyone! (Cute Laugh...)

2005-12-25T16:31:00.000-05:00

Yeah, okay that was referring to a Toby Mac song in case no one got that. Anyways, I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I, for one, did. I got cute scarves and hats, gift cards, a skirt, Rainbows, pajama pants, and $50 toward saving up for an ipod. We're about to have gift exchange with my cousins, so I gotta go. But before I do...

Quotes o' Christmas Eve (didn't have time to post yesterday):

"You only got one cup? Then that means I had 42 cups of coffee!!!" -Mom

"Yes, merry Christmas. Now get out of my way!" -Dad

"We wish you a merry Chrees-moss, we wish you a merry Chrees-moss, we wish you a merry Chrees-moss, and a happy nooo yee-ruh! One more time!" -Chris

"Hey P. Sherman! Want some Coke?" -Me (P. Sherman is Chris's goldfish.)

Bonfire and Scrabble

2005-12-23T01:27:00.000-05:00

Tonight we went to the Fenstermakers' house for hangout and a bonfire. It was pretty fun. We played ultimate but it was pretty hard because it was dark and you couldn't see anything except the frisbee. After we sat by the fire for a while we laid in the field and looked at the stars. It was really pretty and really cold. And I got to talk to Tamara for like and hour-and-a-half and catch up. It was really good. I love you, Tam.
So Janelle's over here now and we just played the funniest game of Scrabble ever with my brothers. It was pretty much only funny because we are all really hyper and we were laughing about every thing. Oh, and we came out with a quote...so here it is.

Quote o' the day:
"Man, I could make a bunch of words if only they have definitions. Like olsberm!" -Janelle Kuder

P.S. Chris is awesome. (He told me to say that.)

I Love Christmas Break

2005-12-21T18:46:00.000-05:00

Christmas break is amazing:

The Choir fire was great fun (except when I burned my fingers on a key. Don't ask.).
Lerah spent the night. Happy!
Got all my Christmas shopping done and had fun doing it.
Carli came!!! But now she's gone :-(
I dyed my hair. It's "dark soft brown," I like it.
I got some scrapbooking done last night and fully intend to do much more over the break.
I got all As! Well, 2 A-s, 2 As, and 1 S, but in general, all As. Yea! (Or Yay! but not Yeah!)
Tonight I'm baking Christmas goodies with my mommy!

"Hey Richard, I think one of your chickens just got out."

2005-12-17T01:02:00.000-05:00

Oh my gosh, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Wow. Lerah is spending the night and me, her, my brothers and my might-as-well-be-brother (AKA Christian) were making prank phone calls for like 2 hours. Wow. We started off by calling other people's friends and acting like we knew them, like Christian called one of Lerah's friends from his phone and acted like he knew her. So eventually, we just started calling random people in Wakulla and telling them, "Hey Richard, I think one of your chickens just got out," in a really thick southern accent. Some people would just run with it and once we called one of Christian's friends and did it to them and they had this 15 minute conversation with Christian and Brandon. So funny. But we did run into a few snags along the way. One time Chris was just listening to the other line and all of a sudden he hung up and was like, "Oh crap! It was a funeral home!" Christian got asked if he "knew" the guy he was talking to's daughter. That was pretty great. A couple times we got connected to the internet. And the time we were talking to Christian's friend and he was telling her, "someone's tipping your cows." And then we hear him say (again in a really thick accent) "like a mooooo cow." And lastly Brandon got someone who wasn't speaking English. And now we're sitting here and Brandon and Christian are still talking like rednecks and it's hilarious. They decided that Lerah's country name is Susie Lou and mine is Penny May. So, we're gonna try to go to bed sometime soon. Tomorrow we're going to the mall to gift wrap and do a little shopping. I sure hope no one tries to call my number back tomorrow...

And oh yeah, It's officially Christmas break...FREEDOM!!!

I Should Be Studying

2005-12-15T23:51:00.000-05:00

Drama went amazingly well. PCBS was great as usual. Now I must study for my exam at 7:30 tomorrow morning...bah!

Quote o' the day:
"Well, now my knee hurts. Me and my brother were playing 'see who can hit their knee with a brush for the longest' and I won." -Leah Jones

P.S. Ten days until Christmas and it's 60 degrees? Who thought that was a good idea?!?

Children (from Canopy Oaks to Africa)

2005-12-14T22:53:00.000-05:00

Only one more exam to go: Friday at 7:30 in the morning. I had one today at 12:30 and I turned in a take home exam after that, so I'm free tomorrow. I'm going to do some shopping and go to work. Today, tomorrow and Friday are early release days for Canopy Oaks so I'm getting to work at 11:30. We have a bounce house and a fun slide rented out, so it's fun but it's crazy. I got some pictures today that turned out pretty cute. Everyone made fun of my camera, but that's okay. It works, okay?

Taylor and Caitlyn

Amber doing a back handspring

Caitlyn, Max, Taylor, Karly, Megan, and Lindsey in the bounce house

Carl putting Cody in a choke hold (this is probably only an amusing picture if you know the people, sorry)

Amber, Folasade, Brooke, Dione, Bryanna, and Gabrielle

Bryanna and Erica

Me, Beth, Amber, and Lucy all decked out in our Canopy Oaks staff wear

Shericka, Brooke, and Folasade

Devin, Colin, and Paul

We have three children and a chaperone from the African Children's Choir staying with us tonight and tomorrow. They are just precious. We joined them for their prayer tonight and they sang a song to God and prayed and it was just about the sweetest thing I've ever heard. They're adorable.

Quotes o' the day:
"Where's the next place you're singing at?" -Me asking Jerusa, the chaperone
"I think it's Panama City." -Jerusa
"Banana City?!?" -Rebecca, one of the kids

"Jenna, you don't write music and then follow it. Brandon taught me all about it." -Chris

Party Time

2005-12-11T02:01:00.000-05:00

Today was Brandon's birthday party, so I'm gonna put up pictures from his actual birthday on Wednesday and of the party today.

Brandon with the absolutely awesome card I gave him

Chris and me with the birthday boy and his gift, two Spiderman comic collections

Chris trying to be as hot as the Hungry Howie's guy...haha

Brandon with his birthday gift to himself (like on "The Emporer's New Groove: "It's my birthday gift to me! I'm so happy!")

Dad's trying...

Now for the party

"Victory screech!"

Todd, Paul, Erica, Calyn, and Kate

Calyn and me

Dad reading his ever-important "Current"

Dad explaining to Todd how to use the chart on the back to track his spending on his electrical bill...check your meter, everyone

Chris on Brandon's new pogo stick

Erin and Paul

Impressive, Christian

Alicia and Erica

Brandon's pretty much amazing

In other news, Sarah surprised Rebekah (and all the rest of us) by showing up for her birthday party. She was only able to be in town from 7:00 Friday night until 5:00 Saturday morning, but she was here. It was great to see her, even if for such a short time. I can't wait until she and everyone else come home for Christmas break. Well, it's late, so I'm off to bed.

Happy Birthday, Brandon!!!

2005-12-07T23:38:00.000-05:00

The big one-five. I love you, "Twin!"

Great Comic, Great Quote, Great Brother

2005-12-06T00:04:00.000-05:00

So, Chris and I laughed for a long time over this comic when it was in the paper the other day. I'm not sure if it was because it was really late or what, but it was funny.

Oh man, it gets me every time. I'm pretty sure it's that part about it not being "scarfy" enough. Anyways, me and Chris thought it was funny. I love that kid! Oh, that reminds me...

Quote o' the day:
Chris: *gasps*
Me: What? What happened?
Chris: Oh, nothing. It's pretty much just as bad as Santa dying!

Deck the Halls

2005-12-03T00:31:00.000-05:00

Tonight we started decorating for Christmas. We got the tree up and started to decorate it, but it was late when we started so we didn't get too far. It made me happy though, because we had our little family tradition party and everything. I'm definitely getting into the Christmas spirit. I used my dad's huge digital camera so I could actually post some pictures.

Chris in mid-air (it only took like 20 times to catch him with this ancient camera)

Me and Chris get in the holiday spirit

Our feet

Brandon and me: need I say more?

This is the real Brandon right here.

Brandon, me, and Chris, trying to be photogenic...

Mom putting on the lights

Kissin' under the mistletoe

Us laughing at Dad's impression of Sammy seeing the tree for the first time. You've gotta see it, it's funny. That's why we're laughing. Yeah.

We're the...cool...hat...squad?

This one's pretty self-explanitory. We're awesome...that's all there is to it.

Penguin...yeeessss...

Me and Sammy

Me getting close and personal with the tree

Chris is a slacker. 'Nough said.

Quote o' the day:
Jenna: How will we know when these puppies are charged?
Brandon: They'll bark!
(I was talking about batteries...)

It's What Day?!?!

2005-12-02T01:40:00.000-05:00

Today was December 1st. Anyone else find that weird? It doesn't feel like December. I don't really know why. It might be because it hasn't stayed cold for more than 2 days at a time. Or it may be that we haven't decorated for Christmas yet. It may just be that every year the holidays come and go with me feeling like it shouldn't even by October yet. I don't know why, but that's what's seem to have happened every year lately. The holiday season is too short.
So, I got to see a lot of people during the Thanksgiving holiday, and that was great. And Lori is home, and that is super awesome! Hopefully my family and I are decorating our house tomorrow for Christmas. Maybe that'll get me in the spirit. I want it to really feel like Christmas this year. But Christmas is on a Sunday. That's kinda weird. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but oh well.
Well, I don't have much else to say. I kinda feel like I've lost my passion for blogging lately. So, sorry, cause I'm sure this is all really boring but I really don't have anything else to say, so goodnight!

Oh, P.S. I finally got my paycheck after working for 2 and 1/2 months. Woo-hoo! I wanna go Christmas shopping...

Happy Turkey Day!

2005-11-25T00:58:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know I did. I am thankful for family, friends, and the Thanksgiving meal! The fact that it was 70 degrees outside and it still doesn't seem like it's November didn't even bother me today (okay, maybe a little). I should go to bed now because I'm going shopping with my mom, my aunt, and my grandma tomorrow. You know, this will be the first time that I've gone shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Isn't it supposed to be the biggest shopping day of the year? Not for the Myricks I guess. Oh, before I go, I told Sarah I'd do this, so here goes:

Quotes o' the yesterday:
"Life is like a bag of Bridge Mix." -Sarah Wirgau
"Get off Mar-keister!" -Sarah Wirgau

Procrastination

2005-11-20T23:33:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm procrastinating on writing my paper. And I haven't posted in a while, so I figured I would. But I don't really have anything to say. Oh, Rachel's birthday party was Friday night to Saturday morning, and that was tons of fun. We tried to sleep on the trampoline. Well, Lerah and I made it until 6:45 am, but Lerah woke up and saw that we were the last two out there and it was really cold, so we went inside. It was pretty awesome while it lasted though. And carpet ball is awesome.
Okay, I'm gonna go get me some coffee or something so I can stay awake and write this paper. Blah. But there is only two days of school this week and then Thanksgiving holidays! So that's something to look forward to. :-)

Exciting News:

2005-11-16T23:42:00.000-05:00

1. We practiced a really funny Christmas skit at drama tonight and I am ochen excited about performing it.

2. I got a 98 on my speech about Ukraine in my speech (duh) class.

3. Food+Friends+Guthries=Squeaky toy=Good times

And that's about all I have to say. I am very tired, so I'm gonna go to bed "early." Fsyo.

Fall Retreat Pictures

2005-11-14T23:48:00.000-05:00

Calyn already put up a lot of these pictures, but I'm gonna put some up too, for my own sake if for no one else's. So bear with me through the repeats, if you will. They're such awesome pictures that I'm sure they're just as great the second time around.

I look really confused/sad and Calyn just looks mesmerized

We love lollipops!

Those glasses were freakin' awesome, I should have bought them. And that was the softest pillow, or anything for that matter, that I have ever touched...I should have bought it too. :-(

Me and Shannon with our massive subs

The whole group

Me and Brandon

Me and Callie

Me and Mom

Me and Calyn on the beach...beautiful

Me and the boys :-)

Me and Dad

Anna, Me, and Callie doing handstands

Our room/small group

Me and Lerah

Ian, Paul and Me

Getting pumped for rec!

And last but not least, I have what you've all been waiting for...
Quote o' the weekend: "Climb the palm tree and grab the fruit!" -Us (you know who you are :-))

Face to Face with My Habits

2005-11-13T23:16:00.000-05:00

The Fall Retreat was this weekend and it was a great time. We (Me, Diane, and Calyn) went down on Wednesday night after church and spent Thursday and half of Friday setting everything up and getting ready. We spent six hours laying duct tape in an intricate design of lines and spaces for the labyrinth among other things. And, the retreat was great, very refreshing and fun. The band was awesome and all of the guys in it are really awesome people. On the way home we stopped and ate gourmet Taco Bell with the band and then made a caravan of 4 (well, it turned into 3) cars home. Fun times. God taught me that time spent with him in the word can't be substituted with anything else. Rec was awesome because we made a giant slingshot and launched fish from it. We played other games too, but that one was definitely the best. Today is Lerah's birthday, happy birthday, Lerah! And we got her this awesome chair. And that was basically my latter part of the week/weekend.

Now, since I've been tagged by Melinda, here we go:

Ground Rules: The 1st player of this "game" starts with the topic "5 weird habits of yourself" and people who get tagged need to write a blog/xanga entry about their 5 weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "You are tagged" in their blog/xanga and tell them to read yours.

5 weird habits of yourself:

1. I like to clean the dirt out from under my toenails to make me feel really clean.

2. I can't take a shower in less than 10 minutes.

3. I like to match my underwear to what I'm wearing.

4. I love to dance around in my room or pretend like I know what I'm doing and dance to music while I'm getting ready or cleaning my room.

5. I have to fix people's clothes, like when someone's sleeve is turned up a little bit or someone's tag is sticking out or if people have hair or stuff stuck to them, I have to fix it. This is more of a pet peeve than a habit, but I couldn't think of anything else.

So, now that that's done...I tag...Sarah, James, Ian, Rebekah, and Leah

I'd Love to Blog, But I Can't

2005-11-09T02:21:00.000-05:00

I got in a car wreck on Friday. Everyone's fine...except my car. But my dad fixed enough where I can drive it.
Friday night hanging out at Kenley's was so much fun. We played Mario Kart and ordered wings and a pizza at midnight. Oh, and listened to Numa Numa over and over...and over.
Went to the game Saturday. The Seminoles lost. Sad day.
I'm sick. Stupid cold. I feel like crap.
Slept out on Calyn's porch on Saturday night because her house was 80 degrees and her fan blows...literally.
Sunday we cooked and went to Wal-Mart at the craziest time ever. What we do for slavic food.
Slavic food night was amazing. So much good food, so little time.
I can't believe I'm still awake. I still need to pack because we're leaving for Laguna tomorrow night. And the room is starting to spin...I'm serious. So I better go. Like I said, I'd love to actually write a post, because stuff has actually happened, and I've been meaning to. But I really need to go now.

Feta Cheese Techno Power

2005-11-05T03:37:00.000-05:00

J: So, what do we wanna talk about?
C: I say we just go where the road leads us, Jenna.
J: Well, then, speaking of Ninja Turtles, if they're "turtles in a half shell (turtle power!)" then, what's turtles in a whole shell? Are they like, rolly-polly turtles? that's a weird visual.
C: I don't know. My Mom didn't let me watch Ninja turltes when I was little.
J: Bull.
C: No, I'm serious. We weren't allowed to watch Ninja Turtles.
J: Actually, I don't think we were either. But we were allowed to watch Power Rangers, and my cousins weren't and I remember we were on the playgroundand and my cousin, Josh, was like, "Hey, let's play power rangers." And my aunt said, "Why don't you play Rescue Rangers instead?" So, we said, "okay" and then we walked away and said, "All right. Power Rangers. I'll be Kimberly." Because, who wants to be Chip and Dale? Kids wanna be...I don't even remember their names. Tommy, and who's that girl? You know the one with the face? The Chinese face? The yellow one. Not yellow face. Yellow suit. Cause you know, there's that song. "Red and yellow, black and white..." I used to ask my mom who the red and yellow children were in the song. I mean, I knew black and white. That was easy.
C: First off, Trini was the yellow ranger. She was Japanese, I think.
J: Who names their kid "Trini!?" Not Japanese people. I had a friend named Trinity. But she was Cuban.
C: Well, there was Trini, Zach, Billy, um, Tommy, Jason and Kimberly. I never liked Kimberly.
J: Yeah, me neither. I just liked her pink suit. Cause no one wants to be the yellow ranger. Everyone would want to be the pink one.
C: No, that's not true. I always wanted to be Trini. She knew karate and stuff. Kimberly just knew...gymnastics. I mean, come on. 50 years from now, what good is that gonna do? Old people can still do karate. Have you seen "Three Ninjas?"
J: No. Does that surprise you?
C: Not in the least. Well, that old guy does some serious karate and he's like, 80 years old. And Jackie Chan's like, 60 now.
J: Oh yeah, well, Dominique Mocha...capachino something is gettin' up there too. Except, I haven't really seen her do gynmastics lately...
C: I've made my point.
J: Moving on.
C: So, just how awesome is "Numa, Numa?"
J: Well, as Strong Bad would say, "On a scale from one to awesome, it's SUPER GREAT."
C&J: Miahii
Miahuu
Miahaa
Miahaha
Miahii
Miahu
Miahaa
Miahaha
Allo, salut, sint yel, un hydook
she teraw, youbeera mah, primesh der, vericheera
C: something about feta cheese...and mario spoons and Picasso. I wanna learn Romanian now.
J: Yeah, I bet that'll come in real handy.
C: Well, Kenley gave us a new quote today.
J: I think it just may qualify for the "quote o' the day."
C: Yes.
"That's not all my beef with him. I mean, you're talkin' meatball. I'm talkin' porterhouse."
-Kenley Stringer
J: There's something in your eye. For real. I'm not just being like that guy at Russian club. You know, the one with the face? Derek! His name's Derek. Anyways, it's like some gook.
C: Great. That's wonderful. (Gets up to get the gook out of her eye.) That was some serious gunk! Sssssick. There's all sorts of crap in my eye. My fingers still smell like onions. I think I need a new pillow case. What do you think?
J: Well, I was gonna say something earlier but I didn't want to sound tactless.
C: See, the thing is it's not dirty. It's been washed a bunch of times. It's just really old and it looks dirty. I just have pink sheets and so it's never compared to white. But now that I look at your white sheets...it's gotta go. See, smell my fingers,they still smell like onions. Don't they?
J: Yes.
C: I washed them like eight times.
J: It happens.
C: Бывает. You have to type because I took my contacts out.
J: You suck.
C: Thank you. I'm so glad that you're around to build my self-esteem, Jenshka.
J: Any time. That's what I'm here for. Is any time one word?
C: I don't think so. Who makes the call that anybody, anything, anyone, sometimes, everybody is one word but then any day, any time, any place...
J: Anywhere, oh wait that's one word. Anyways...hahahahaha. Didn't even mean to do that.
C: No, really though. Who get's to? Do you know? I would like to have that job.
J: *sniff, sniff* I'm sick.
C: Всё?
J: Umm...are we good? I guess so.
C: Uh-huh. Time for bed. Пора лужиться спать. I'm determined to teach you Russian, Jenna Myrick.
J: Did your leg just twitch.
C: Did it? I don't even remember that.
J: Yes, it did, it was weird.
C: It's tired, it wants to sleep.
J: I'm tired, I want to sleep.
C: Well, I'm gonna agree with my leg. Let's go to bed.
J: Sounds good to me. Goodnight. Or actually, good morning. Why is goodnight one word and good morning two? Here we go again.

When I Look at the Stars

2005-11-03T23:49:00.000-05:00

We didn't have bible study tonight so I was home and able to just chill. That was nice. As much as I love bible study, it was nice to have a night off from doing stuff. But after the guys bible study that goes on at my house was over, me, Ian and Paul went outside and laid in the road and looked at the stars. Well actually, first we played a little Donkey Kong and the guys wrestled on my bed, but that's another story. So anyways, we were just laying there looking at the stars in the cold. It was so beautiful! It reminded me of the leadership retreat when the three of us were laying in the road, only there weren't very many stars that night as far as I remember. But yeah, it was great. Ooooh, oh yeah, and we saw a shooting star. It was really cool. Haha, that reminds me of what Amberly said. Oh boy.
Well, I should be going now because I have to get up pretty early tomorrow. But I shall leave you with this:
Quote o' the day: "When I squint like this I can see them with my eyes open. And when I blink they change colors. Pink. Green. Pink. Green."
-My mom describing her visions of "seagulls" when she squints her eyes to say "P. F. Chang." You had to be there, but it was really funny.

If I Only Had a Camera

2005-11-01T23:46:00.000-05:00

Oh gosh I wish my camera was working. We had such an interesting array of "costumes" goin' on last night. If you've read Calyn's blog then you know that I had a little impromptu Halloween party last night that resulted in some trick-or-treating by some pretty old kids (also known as me, Calyn, Shannon, Lerah, Diane, and Daniel). It was sooooo funny. We pulled out these Mardi Gras masks that my mom got when she went to New Orleans a few years ago and some other random costume pieces and threw some costumes together so we could get candy. Daniel had on this white wig and a mask and some little kid asked "Mom, is that a giraffe or a cobra?" We were laughing pretty hard about that one. Then Diane had on this Elvis mask that Daniel bought and Chris' cape from his Batman costume and she would randomly stop and pose and sing that one song, you know, da-duh-da...da-duh-da, okay maybe you don't know, but ask me later. It was really funny though, she made a great Elvis. Then we ended up singing Happy Birthday to all the people at the houses we stopped at (for funny stories visit Calyn's blog) and we just had a bunch of fun. Then we went back to my house for some old-school Nintendo playing (Donkey Kong is the best game ever!) and a bonfire and s'mores. "But how can I have some more if I haven't had any yet?" "You're killin' me, Smalls!" Haha, great movie, great quote. Anyways, that was my Halloween. I was gonna write about it last night, but I was so tired and I just couldn't muster up the energy. Well, I hope everyone had a great Halloween with lots of treats and not many tricks!

"E" for Effort

2005-10-26T22:27:00.000-04:00

Ian tried to fix the antenna on my car tonight after church. What was supposed to be a five minute job turned to a half an hour. And to top it all off, now that it's on there, it doesn't work. In fact, I'm pretty sure that 88.1 came in better with no antenna than with one on there. Ian says it's because it needs to be sodered and that he'll do it some other time. Oh well, valiant try, Ian. "E" for effort!
So I come home from church and my mom's sitting in front of the fireplace and there's a fire going in there. I'm like, "A fire in October? Weird." Well, Calyn said we had record highs last week and record lows this week. I believe it. But whatever's going on with the weather, I like the weather now, and that's all that matters. I want it to be cold on Halloween. I remember that Halloween when me and Grace went trick-or-treating in my neighborhood and she was a 50s girl and she had this sweater and a long skirt on and I was a hula dancer and I had on a long-sleeved T-shirt with another shirt over it and jeans with a grass skirt over it. Anyways, it was sooooo hot and we were both dying because we thought it was gonna be cold and it definitely wasn't. So yeah, I hope it's cold on Halloween this year. Speaking of Halloween, anybody doing anything exciting on Halloween night?

A Whole Week Already?

2005-10-26T00:12:00.000-04:00

Okay, so it's been a while. Okay, so it's been a week. I really would update more if it weren't for a few things.

Not a lot of exciting things happen for me to write about.
I can't write things in funny ways like Calyn to keep people interested.
I just don't have time.

So, I'm sorry. I'll try to be better, but I can't promise anything. I will say that fall is finally here and the weather is amazing. Beside the fact that it went from like 100 degrees to like 60 in a day, it has been awesome. Sarah was here this past weekend, for those of you who still don't know, and we spent the night at Calyn's house on Friday and Saturday. We decided to sleep out on the back porch in the good weather. Well, Fri it didn't turn out to be that nice. It was a little muggy, kinda hot, but it was still fun. But on Sat, it was wonderful. It was all cold and I had to wear a sweatshirt and use blankets. It made me happy. But, it's good that it was warm before that because we went to Wakulla Springs on Saturday, lots of fun! But anyways, I'm loving this weather. I would be perfectly happy if it stayed like this for quite some time. I really wanted to go lay out under the stars in the cold tonight, but I was too scared to go by myself and by the time I got home from Todd's everyone in my house was asleep. So, maybe some other time.

On another note, we planned for the Fall Retreat tonight, and I am so excited. I think it's gonna be really good. If ya'll could just be praying about it though, that everything would come together and that people who are going could have the right attitude, motivation, and mindset coming into it. We've only got two weeks, but I think it's gonna be great. Everyone should go!

Music, Chili, and Mid-Terms

2005-10-18T22:58:00.000-04:00

Quotes o' the day: "Don't toy with me!" -Brandon Myrick
"Is he the doofy one?" -Lisa Myrick

So, we're getting closer. At least now we have fall weather in the mornings and evenings. We're getting there. I went to Leon Chorus's chili cookoff/concert tonight. It was great. I got to see a bunch of old classmates and my old chorus teachers. Brandon sang with the guys' ensemble "Tempo" and they were great. Mane Event rocked my socks off as usual, and of course the chili was good and everything. It was really weird to be in the halls of Leon and to see people singing and me not being in the program. But it was cool to be able to finally be an audience member. I don't really have too much to say, and I hate blogging when this happens, but I just felt like it.
My mid-term for Intro to Ed was yesterday. I didn't really study that much because I was gone over the weekend, but it really wasn't that hard. Hopefully I did alright on it. I also had a quiz in history on a book I didn't read, so that was interesting. Okay well, I should go now and study for my mid-term in speech this Friday.

Quotes o' the Weekend

2005-10-17T01:17:00.000-04:00

"In case you haven't noticed, cows aren't made out of beans." -Calyn

"It's like a sausage...on skates." -Calyn

"$1.25! I'd wear a carpet if it was $1.25!" -Chaz

I'm pretty sure there were more, I just can't remember. Oh, good times.

It's a Small World After All

2005-10-17T01:12:00.000-04:00

That title is true in more ways than one...
This weekend was amazing. So good. Calyn and I drove down to Orlando to visit Carli and ended up seeing so many awesome people. It was such a great trip. It started off with an ironic Friday. Calyn and I had planned to meet after our classes that both got out at 2:15 so that we could walk together and then each drive separately to her house and then leave from there to go to Orlando. Well, my class got cancelled and I didn't know, so I left work a half-hour early to run home and do the assignment I forgot about (see last post :-)) then I jumped in the car, got about three miles from my house and decided to check my messages on my phone. Amanda had left me a message that said "I'm not sure if you checked Blackboard and you already know this, but speech was cancelled today." Man, am I glad I didn't wait until I got to school to call my voicemail. So I turned around and went home. I tried to get a hold of Calyn to tell her, but she was going to class and I guess her phone was off, so I left a message. At about 2:17, Calyn calls me and says "Please tell me you're at school." Well, I broke the news to her and then she told me that her mom had dropped her off and she was just gonna ride home with me. So, I drove down to campus and met her sitting at the corner of Tennessee and Old Bainbridge ("I was gonna walk farther, but then I thought about how I'd be going through Frenchtown and decided not to." Good choice.) So we ran a "few" errands and finally left town at 4:45. We had a fun-filled 4 hour car ride to Orlando...

Yay! We're going to see Carli!

Tuna salad kit...in a vending machine...for $2.50...weird.

"YOU ARE HERE"

Uh-oh!

Sing it Sister Calyn!

So we finally got there at like 9:15 after missing the exit and a visit to the sketchy Taco Bell. We talked and caught up, took a tour of the UCF campus, and got Slurpees. Okay, most of ya'll probably don't know what a Slurpee is because we don't have 7-11s in Tallahassee, but they are like Icees but better. When I lived in Boynton we always got Slurpees on Tuesdays after my dad picked us up from school and I hadn't had a real Slurpee in over 5 years, so it made me happy. We also laid out on the sidewalk and looked at stars and took some fun pictures:

Me and Carli with our "fat kid" Slurpees

Calyn!

Us under the rec flag from camp

Calyn with the Ukrainian flag

The next day, Chaz met us at Carli's and we went to Carli's house (not the house she lives in during the year, her parent's house) in Eustis, about 30 minutes away. Carli's house is gorgeous! She lives on a lake and everything. We ate lunch and then Nicole and Trisha (because Nicole was visiting Trisha in Tampa) came to hang out with us for the afternoon. We went out on the boat and it was a beautiful day. We went tubing and Carli's little brother Corbin drove and tried to kill people on the tube (not really, but it was funny). My watch is now at the bottom of the lake because I forgot I had it on and didn't wanted to get it wet, so I was on the tube and Chaz told me to throw it to him on the boat and I tried but it didn't quite make it. It fell in the water and Chaz jumped in to try to save it while Corbin just pointed at it and screamed "It's goin' down!" over and over as it sunk. But, despite Chaz's noble efforts, the fish will now know what time it is. Oh well, it was only 7 bucks. So we had a great afternoon on the lake. I'll put up pictures of that whenever Carli puts them on her photobucket. :-)
Nicole and Trisha left and we went back to Orlando and took showers and had some down time. We were all getting really tired and we were waiting for Arielle and Dorothy to come to go out to eat, but it was getting late. Me, Calyn and Carli went over to Chaz's apartment for a bit and watched FSU get their butt kicked by Virginia for a while, and then we headed over to Chili's. Arielle and Dorothy met us there and we finally got our food around 10 or something. It was late. Then Dwayne showed up and dinner got crazy and we were all laughing sooooo hard. Oh, it was great.

Calyn and Carli: what hotties!

Carli and I making faces :-P

Calyn and Chaz

Me and Calyn

Chaz

After dinner we went back to Chaz's to hang out for a while. We were pretty much just entertained by Dwayne and his stories and we talked and hung out. Great quality time, you know.

Calyn and Dwayne

Calyn, Carli, and Me

Dorothy, Arielle, and Dwayne

Dwayne, Me, Arielle, and Carli

Dwayne leaping onto the couch (yes, he's in mid-air)

All of us: Chaz, Calyn, Dwayne, Carli, Me, Arielle, Dorothy

Today we had to leave, so us girls woke up at the crack of 11:15 and went to Subway where Chaz works to say goodbye. Dwayne had already left because he got sick or something. I don't know, it was kinda weird. It was sad to leave, because I love hanging out with such awesome people. I wish we all lived closer. Well, I really should get back to studying, so, I'll leave you with some pictures of the drive home:

Yay! I-10! No more tolls!

Calyn is so very tired.

Oh, I almost forgot. It's a small world. The connections between the people I hung out with this weekend were just crazy. Trisha, Chaz, Arielle, Dorothy, and Dwayne all go/went to the same church in Tampa, but Chaz moved to UCF where he met Carli in a campus ministry and they found out that they had both gone to Radoog on the same year, but different weeks. Calyn knows everyone from Ukraine, but from different years. Arielle and Dorothy are sisters and Arielle dated Chaz at one point. Trisha and Nicole have been talking on the phone because they knew each other through Calyn and they just met when Nicole went to visit Trisha this weekend. I just keep meeting everyone through Carli and Calyn. It's so weird. Oh, and the song was also in a skit me and Calyn did tonight, but we're not gonna dwell on that. Okay, now that I've written a freakin' novel, I'm gonna go.

Zero Days!

2005-10-14T13:01:00.000-04:00

Can I just say that the weather is beautiful today? The weather is beautiful today. Ahhh. Okay people, zero days until get to see Carli! Me and Calyn leave today after our classes get out at 2:15. I had to get up this morning when it was still dark. Do you know how long it's been since I've done that? A long time. I had to be to work at 7:00 this morning because it's teacher planning day and we have afterschool all day. I just left 15 minutes ago because I've got a class at 1:25, but the kids and the rest of the counselors are leaving to go to Fun Station in a little bit. Too bad I'm missing out, but you know, there's that thing called school. But luckily, since I went in this morning, I can leave after my class gets out and I don't have to go to work this afternoon. I'm so pumped.
In other news, me, Calyn, and Lerah dyed our hair last night. Mine came out a lot darker and redder than I wanted, but it will fade as time goes on. I'm pretty happy with it though. Here are some before, during, and after pictures.
Before...

During...

After...

Umm...I think this one's after, Calyn's color didn't change very much

Okay, I'm gonna be late for class, I gotta go!

Shto ti skazal?

2005-10-11T01:33:00.000-04:00

I realize that it's no longer Monday, but for the sake of this post, we are going to consider "today" as Monday, k? K. Today was crazy. I left the house at 9:30 this morning and didn't really come home until close to 11:00 tonight (I stopped by to grab my laptop between work and Russian club but I was only there for like 5 min). Tonight was Russian club and we after planning a little for Russian food night coming up (November 9th, mark your calendars, people) we watched The Lord of the Rings 3 in Russian. John bought it when he was in Moscow (it was pirated, of course, I mean, there were 6 movies on one DVD). So that was fun. And then me and Calyn stopped by Wal-Mart to get...well, actually we don't really know what we originally were supposed to get. I think it was a headset so Calyn can talk to Lori, but we also tried to get Calyn some shampoo, but they didn't have it (can you believe Wal-Mart was all out of shampoo?), so I went and picked out my hair color for our PCBS hair dying party on Thursday. I ended up getting a "medium auburn brown" color. I'm excited, we'll see how it turns out. So, yeah, that was basically it. Oooh, I almost forgot. Me and Calyn started planning games for rec for the fall retreat off the top of our heads and we actually got some good ideas, so I'm way pumped about that. Okay, now that was basically it.

I'm Still Here

2005-10-09T23:57:00.000-04:00

I've been having trouble finding things to blog about lately, so, in turn, I don't end up blogging very often, and for this I am sorry. But I'm still here, I'm still alive.
This weekend was fun. After I went to the Leon vs. Lincoln football game on Friday (Leon got slaughtered, surprise, surprise) I got to spend the night with Janelle, which was good because I wanted to spend time with her. Then on Saturday was Grace's 16th birthday party which was fun. We played frisbee and then we were hot, so me, Rachel, and Janelle jumped in the pool even though the pool was really cold and then we realized that everyone was inside and they were about to sing happy birthday. None of us had towels so we had Anna open the window so we could still sing while we stood outside dripping wet. After the party me, Calyn, and Lerah made a stop at Wal-Mart and I bought an awesome PowerPuff Girls watch
like that except I took the charm off and we also saw Svitlana. Then went to Calyn's and watched "Lost" disc four. It was awesome because they found Claire! Finally! We were up till like 3 and then we had to get up at 8:15 because we had a meeting during the first service, so I was pretty tired. Then today after youth we went to Stevi B's pizza for dinner. It was good and there were a ton of people that went and I had fun. I won me and Rachel some really awesome rings.
So tomorrow's Monday and I'm not very excited about that. I want this week to go by really fast because I can't wait until Friday. "Why?" you ask. Because me and Calyn are going to Orlando to see our good friend Carli this weekend. It's gonna be so awesome. I'm soverign excited! Well, I'm really tired, so I'm gonna go to bed now, or sometime in the very near future. Good night, all!

I Want Fall

2005-10-05T23:35:00.000-04:00

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am SO ready for fall. I want cooler weather. I want more football. I want Halloween and Thanksgiving. I want to wear sweatshirts and jeans. I want fall! Whenever anyone asks me what my favorite season is, I have a hard time deciding. I mean, I love fall, but then I think about it, and realize I love all seasons. I love fall because of the change from summer, but I love when summer comes. I love when it gets cold, but after a while, I get tired of it and can't wait for spring. So I've decided that my favorite season is every time the seasons change. Yeah.
PCBS tomorrow night. I'm so pumped. I love bible study. It was great last week and then after we had our discussion, we laughed so hard. I accidentally fell off the bed and onto Calyn's stomach, landing myself on top of a bowl really hard (yeah, that left a mark...) and all the while Lerah was taking embarrassing pictures. But I'm cool wit dat, so here they are:

This one's not embarrassing, it's actually really good. It pretty much reminds me of that picture of the cast of "One Tree Hill"

So yeah, I'm looking forward to the enlightenment of the bible study and the excitement and fun of the fellowship tomorrow. I think I'm beginning to understand why we take way longer than the boys to do our bible study...

Great Quote

2005-10-04T23:23:00.000-04:00

Well, not much going on. School was good, work was good. I'm only doing this because I never blog anymore and I feel the need to. Brandon and I watched another episode of Lost and although I had already seen it, it was still just as good. I think I'm gonna actually go do some homework, so I'll leave you with this...

Quote o' the day: "I have this dream. I'm drivin' a bus...and...my teeth start fallin' out. My mum is in the back...eatin' biscuits. Everything smells of bacon. It's weird." -Charlie from Lost

Lost Without "Lost"

2005-10-03T19:54:00.000-04:00

The McMurrains came to visit this weekend. We all went to the FSU vs. Syracuse football game. Even the kids. My camera is still without a charged battery so I don't have pictures from this weekend, but I've got some from when the McMurrains came to visit this summer. They are such cute kids.

Brenton and Noah

Brenton

Noah and his ice cream

Yes, well, the weekend was good. FSU beat Syracuse 38 to 14 and Tamara was in town for the weekend. She and Janelle had a double birthday party on Saturday and that was fun. Yesterday at youth we did the Jill, Phil, Bill, Will, Gil skit. Haha, good times. We went to Sonic after youth and then Calyn and I went to Wal-Mart and then watched another disc of "Lost." We were only gonna watch two of the four episodes on that disc, but the cliffhanger was too big and we couldn't wait. I don't know how people wait a whole week between episodes. I can hardly wait a week to get another disc with four episodes on it. I want more! It'll be a sad day when we finish season one. We can't watch season two on TV because we won't have seen the beginning of the season, so we'll have to wait until it comes out on DVD too. I don't even want to think about that. Okay, me and Brandon are going to go watch disc three (he hasn't seen it), so I'm gonna go.

Ukraine Share Night

2005-09-28T23:57:00.000-04:00

We shared about Radooga tonight at church and it made me think about how much I miss it again. But I'm glad we got to talk about it. I really wanna do the camp dance now, and me and Calyn were going to, but we forgot. Maybe tomorrow. So Chris told me tonight that Sappy said "When I get old enough I want to go to Ukraine." and Chris was like "Me too." I told him that that was awesome and everyone should go because it's amazing. Chris would go next summer if he could, and Lori is pretty much in charge...so...no, just kidding, he'll only be 13. But I really hope that he still wants to go when he's 16. Anyways, the more I talk about Radooga, the more I miss it. I want to go listen to Sergey and look at pictures now...maybe I will. Or maybe I'll sleep because I was supposed to clean, but I think I'm just gonna sleep and do it in the morning instead. Good plan.

All Work, No Russian

2005-09-26T23:42:00.000-04:00

I started my job at Canopy Oaks Extended Day Program today. I'm a counselor for the fourth and fifth graders. I love it! Well, so far I love it, but I'm pretty sure that I will pretty much always love it because it's just the right type of job for me. I'm so excited about it. I'm sure it'll get sorta monotonous after a while, but right now it's great! My mom made me a "happy first day of work" dinner that Brandon invented. I know, I had no idea Brandon could cook either, but apparently he made up this recipe and helped Mom make it. It was really good.
I didn't get to go to Russian Club tonight though, which was sad. I really haven't felt good all day but I had a test in history and it was my first day of work, so I figured I should probably get out of bed. So I didn't really ever feel much better, and I still feel pretty crappy, which is bad. I hope I'm not getting sick. That would not be good. So yeah, no Russian Club, but I guess it worked out for the better because I have something to do every night this week and that's just crazy so tonight I was able to just chill and do some reading for school. Well, I want to go to bed, maybe that will make me feel better. Good night.

"I'm Listening, I Just Can't Hear You."

2005-09-23T23:06:00.000-04:00

Today was a great day! The fact that it was Friday made it great to begin with, and then I got to hang out with some awesome cool people tonight. I went to watch Rachel and Anna play volleyball for Maranatha, and even though they lost they still played a great game. Ya'll rock! So after the game we went to the mall to get food and then me and Calyn and Lerah went to go get Lost on DVD but we had a little trouble. So we did end up getting the second disc in season one and we are about to go watch it. I'm so excited. Here are some pictures. I love random pictures!

This is me in the car doing what Calyn always does. I like the way it turned out though. My eyes look really green.

This is me and Calyn in the car

A girl and her Coke Zero...it's a beautiful thing.

Me, Bekah, and Special K at the volleyball game

Me and Rachel sharin' smoothies

Isn't Leah beautiful?

Me and Lerah with our sour candy, yum!

Me and Calyn

Calyn and Lerah (and Diane on the phone)

Lerah and Me (with Calyn on the phone with Diane hiding behind us)

My awesome picture of the reflection of the Blockbuster sign in the puddle

I'm trying to master the art of Lerah

I told Lerah we bought her some snacks and pointed to the bag of doggie breath mint biscuits so she took me up on the offer.

PCBSers are the Coolest Kids Around

2005-09-22T23:54:00.000-04:00

Tonight was Pink Carpet Bible Study. Bekah and Rachel couldn't come, :-( so it was Me, Calyn, Ruth, Lerah, and Leah. I love all the PCBS members! We have such a great group of girls and it's been great to be able to open up and share about our lives, struggles, and accomplishments with each other. We are reading through the book of Hebrews, and it's been great so far. Tonight we were just talking about the awesomeness of God and how we water him down and belittle him and make him fit the situation. I mean, God is God. Period. He is so awesome and so big, yet so near, all at the same time, and we rarely view him this way. I thought of that song by Nicole Nordeman, and I'm normally not into the whole posting song lyrics thing, but it really fits.

Have I come too casually?
Because it seems to me,
There's something I've neglected.
How does one approach a Deity
With informality
And still protect the Sacred?

'Cause you came and chose to wear the skin of all of us.
And it's easy to forget You left a throne.
And the line gets blurry all the time
Between daily and Divine.
And it's hard to know the difference.

Oh, let me not forget to tremble.
Oh, let me not forget to tremble.
Face down on the ground do I dare to
Take the liberty to stare at You?
Oh, let me not...
Oh, let me not forget to tremble.

What a shame to think that I'd appear
even slightly cavalier
In the matter of of salvation.
Do I claim this gift You freely gave
As if it were mine to take
With such little hesitation?

'Cause You came and stood among the very least of us,
And it's easy to forget You left a throne.

Oh, let me not forget to tremble.
Oh, let me not forget to tremble.
Face down on the ground do I dare to
Take the liberty to stare at You?
Oh, let me not...
Oh, let me not forget to tremble.

The cradle and the grave could not contain Your Divinity.
Neither can I oversimplify this love.

Oh, let me not forget to tremble.
Face down on the ground do I dare to
Take the liberty to stare at You?
Oh, let me not...
Oh, let me not forget to tremble.

So yeah, I really like that song because that's how I want to feel. I want to know that God is my friend and I can talk to him as such, but to not forget to revere him and tremble in his presence. I had forgotten about the part "neither can I oversimplify this love" and that is so true. We don't need to scale God down so that he's easy to manage. He's not! We don't need to try to simplify him for non-believers and make him into this cute little package that caters to the needs of that individual. God will speak for himself. If unsaved people are going to "get it" and want to accept Christ, they're going to do that because the Holy Spirit is speaking to them, not because of how we present the gospel. Sure, God uses us as tools, but sometimes I think I do more to hinder the message than help it. So that's my insight for the night.
On a lighter note, I got to use Calyn's camera to take random pictures because I felt that my blog was seriously lacking them since not being able to use my camera. So I took some and will now post them for your enjoyment...

Me and Leah

I don't know what this is all about. I'm weird, okay?

Calyn with her doesn't-make-any-sense-at-all homework

Just in case you were wondering what the top of my head looks like

Me and Leah looking up to the camera (although you can't really tell)

Whose feet are these? Okay, I'll tell you, they're Leah's and mine.

Woo-hoo, Leah! What a hottie!

Calyn is NOT happy about that homework

Ruth, Leah, Calyn, and Me

"What's an Oleg?"

2005-09-20T01:11:00.000-04:00

The Olegs were here today. That made me super happy. They hung out with Calyn all day and then tonight we all got together at Calyn's house so we could see them. I picked up Lauren (who went to Radooga camp 3, lives on campus, and doesn't have a car) and headed to Calyn's. We had so much fun talking, hanging out, laughing...a lot, eating, and sharing stories. Lauren said that she was so excited that she was going around telling everyone today "The Olegs are here." and someone said back "What's an Oleg?" We all found this very amusing. For those of you who don't know, Oleg Vasilesky is Radooga's camp president and the other Oleg, affectionately known as Oleg Jr. is an important member of Radooga staff. I would put up pictures, but I still haven't gotten a charger for my camera :-(. Well, I'm off to bed now, so goodnight. Oh, and if you happen to be near a radio tomorrow at 9:00 am, Oleg V. is going to be on Faith radio, so tune in.

Bordem

2005-09-18T21:26:00.000-04:00

Okay, I really shouldn't be blogging because I have to finish my paper, but I just wanted you all to know that I'm still alive. Bordem hasn't killed me yet, although I've heard that its wrath is sudden, I'd better watch out. Ugh. Who really cares about "Sport in Industrial America: 1850-1920" anyway? "Not I," said the Jenna.

P.S. Publix was sold out of Coke Zero tonight. No 2-liter bottles. No 12-pack cans. No nothing. I guess everyone else likes it as much as I do.

Math

2005-09-18T00:27:00.000-04:00

I just got paid $55 for babysitting for 5 hours.
If my fundamental math skills serve me correctly, then I do believe that that comes out to $11/hour.
I'm thinking it was worth it to miss the scavenger hunt.
Ugh. Nursery duty tomorrow.

It's the Little Things

2005-09-17T01:54:00.000-04:00

Overall, today was a good day. Here's why:

It was FRIDAY!
I didn't have to be to class until 12:20 which means I got to sleep in
I got figerprinted which means I can start my job next week
I bought a new cd-tape convertor for my car

Okay, pause for a moment to explain that last one. I don't have a CD player in my car and also my antenna is broken so most radio stations don't come in well. However, I do have a cd-tape convertor that is like a cassette tape that plugs into my portable cd player to make it play through my car's sound system. The sad thing is, it has been broken for quite some time now. There's a short somewhere in the wire and unless the wire is in the exact position, the music only plays through the speakers on the right side of the car or there's static (or both). I've done many things to try to hold the wire in the exact position: wrap it around the cd player, prop it against something, have Brandon hold it like that (which never ends up working because he stops wanting to do it after like half a song), but no matter what I did, it would only sound good for a few minutes, and then it would mess up again. It was really frustrating. So, today a bought a new cd-tape converter and now the songs play clearly and through all of the speakers in my car. It made me happy. Like I said, it's the little things in life that make my day. Okay, where was I?

I got to hang out with my Mom for a while
I got to have chicken caesar salad for dinner (the best stuff ever)
Me and Chris went and got ice cream at TCBY after everyone else abandoned us
It was FRIDAY! (that one was so good I had to say it twice)

So yeah, a great day. Well, I was going to try to be productive and work on my paper that's due on Monday tonight, but seeing as how it's 2:05 in the morning and I've yet to do that, I don't think it's gonna happen. Oh yeah, and I still have to do the dishes. I'd better go...

Thank You Paul

2005-09-15T00:52:00.000-04:00

You guys, Paul Fenstermaker is by far one of the coolest people ever. I just wanted to thank him for being so awesome. I love how he can tell me when I'm flipping out about stuff that doesn't really matter and I know he's right. I love how we can tell each other (almost) anything and talk about (almost) everything all in one conversation. I love how I can trust him to do whatever it is he says he'll do, and he won't just do it, he'll do it to the best of his ability. I love how all I have to do is mention something in passing and he tries to fix it. I love how he can get right in my face and tell me to calm down and I don't get mad. I love how he tries to help me understand things about cars and congratulates me when I get something right. I love how I look up to him even though he's younger than me. I just love Paul.

Paul, thanks for being such an awesome friend and for putting up with me (and my issues :-)). Thanks for the hours and hours of talks, the advice, and the encouragement. You're the best!

My Wish

2005-09-12T21:32:00.000-04:00

Why can't all the awesome people in the world live in one place. I've got friends all over the United States and in another country and I have recently been reminded (through facebook, actually) that I have lost touch with some awesome people. Take for instance my best friend growing up, Tiffany. I found her on facebook and I wasn't sure how she was gonna respond to hearing from me again (I hadn't talked to her in almost six years and things ended kind of awkwardly), but we've been messaging back and forth on facebook and she said "i hope you're doing wonderful. i miss you. you were my first friend. i learned what a friend was by your example. thank you for meaning so much to me." As I read this I thought about our friendship growing up. She was definitely my first friend too and I can't believe that I let myself not keep in touch with her. I mean, obviously it's really hard to keep a close friendship going when you don't see each other, but I hadn't even said a word to her in six years. It's just sad that it's so hard to keep up with people. I also messaged Brandon Hasty (from Mission Merge in Birmingham) yesterday. When I got on today he had sent me one back and it's cool to be able to talk to him too. I hate that I have friends all over the place that I don't get to see. I wish I could just build a city where all my friends and family could live and we would all be able to hang out as much as we wanted. I realize this won't work (duh!) because if everyone had this type of city, then everyone's city would have to overlap and we'd end up just like we are now. But hey, it's just a wish.

Nothing to Write About

2005-09-10T02:27:00.000-04:00

I have really been lacking in stuff to write about in my blog lately, so I just haven't written at all. But, certain people *cough*Calyn especially*cough* tend to get mad when I don't post for a while, so I'm just gonna tell ya'll about some random funny and/or interesting stuff that happened lately.

Yesterday morning I ran out of deodorant after putting it on one armpit, but luckily I had bought more already. Unfortunately, it wasn't the same scent, so my left armpit smelled like "ultra fresh" and my right one smelled like "cool shower." I know, I know, you all really wanted to know that, right? Well that's why I told you.

As many of you know, I get really bad allergy eyes. So, when I went to the optometrist, he gave me a prescription for some eye drops that will take care of all that. Well, my dad got them for me yesterday and he comes into my room and says, "These were $30, you better use them." And I'm thinking, $30 isn't that much for a prescription, but then I open the box and see how teeny tiny the bottle of eye drops are and I was like "oh." So later I was talking to my dad and I was like "my eyes itch," and he goes "go use your eye drops!!!" (So, I guess you kinda had to be there, but it was really funny.)

I got to see Carli yesterday! She stopped in Tallahassee to pick up Calyn so that they can go to Memphis to see Jake, Taylor, and the Olegs. So, we got to hang out on Thursday night. We keep telling her that she needs to move to Tallahassee, but it's still awesome that she lives as close as she does and has been able to visit semi-often. Calyn and I are planning a trip down to see her in Orlando next month (?) or sometime soon. Carli is so awesome!

Okay, another funny story. My cat has been really hyper today and he's got these toys that are like little fluff balls. He has a lot of them, but they all get knocked under the couches and stuff within like 5 minutes of him playing with them. But my mom moved a couch today, so he found one and has been playing with it. Well, I had this plastic container out on the floor in the living room and I hadn't heard Sammy batting around his ball in a while so I went out there and he had put the ball in the container and I guess he thought he couldn't get it out because he was just sitting there staring at it. So I picked it up out of the container and threw it across the room and her ran after it like he always does, but after that he did something a bit weird. He picked up the ball, brought it over to the container, and put it back inside. I thought, "hmm, that's odd," but I picked it up and threw it again. He did the same thing. So I start laughing and Brandon comes out and I'm just like "You've gotta see this. Sammy can fetch." So every time I threw the ball, Sammy would run after it, pick it up, and nonchalantly bring it back and put it in the container. I don't know why it was so funny, but it was. He did it for so long too. I still haven't figured out why.

Well, I think I've rambled long enough. I should go to bed now. If you actually read all of that, then I'm impressed. Thanks for listening to the random ramblings of me. :-)

FAA (Facebook Addicts Anonymous)

2005-09-07T01:03:00.000-04:00

"Hi, I'm Jenna..."

"Hello, Jenna."

"...and I've been addicted to Facebook since I became a member on August 23. I don't know why it's so addicting, it just is. I normally end up at the site while checking my email because I get emails that someone has added me as their friend or posted on my wall. I usually end up spending hours on the site and forget about checking my email. I also get on when I'm putting off something important, like homework. I've tried to quit, but it just keeps getting worse. Now all my friends are addicted too. I need help."

Whew, I'm glad I got that off my chest. I really am addicted though. It's bad. I'm pretty addicted to blogs too, but you can only read blogs for so long at a time. With Facebook, it's pretty endless, which is why I end up wasting so much time there. But, I should probably go because I'm supposed to be doing homework right now. I have to read for every class, but I don't really feel behind because I haven't been to any class more than twice (I didn't go to school last Wednesday because of Mrs. Becki's service and I accidentally slept through my class today. Oops. I did fully intend to go though. I wasn't gonna skip like all the other people who stayed up "late" because of the game. Oh well.) So, I'm gonna go read now.

Quote o' the Day

2005-09-05T23:50:00.000-04:00

So, we (FSU) won! We actually beat Miami! I can't believe it still. It was such a crappy game as far as offense goes. I mean, our defense was good. I'd say nine sacks are pretty good, but we still really need help. Coach Bowden on what his team needs to do better: "Well, our quarterbacks need to be more...they need to play better." Duh! That's the quote o' the day for sure. Thanks for that, coach, I'm pretty sure we realize that. Anyways, we did win, and that's what matters. For once the kicking game went our way, for the first time in the past six games. All I have to say is: it's about time!

In other news, I'm thinking we really should not have school tomorrow instead of not having school today. Whoever made that decision was not thinking straight. But, me and Calyn did get to ride our bikes to campus and hang out, get free Chick-Fil-A (twice, actually because Paul also brought some to when we hung out to watch the game), visit the BCM and, meet cool people. I feel accomplished, because we rode 15 miles today. That's the most I've ridden since the bike trip and so I feel like I got a work-out (it's freakin' hilly between here and campus). So now I'm here at Calyn's to watch the game and we were just saying that we don't feel very victorious. But anyways, it's midnight and I have class tomorrow, so I should go home.

Two Things I Got

2005-09-01T23:57:00.000-04:00

(I know the correct grammatical form of that title should be "two things I have," but I don't mean it like that. I mean it like "two things that I received," or "two things I obtained." Okay, just wanted to clear that up.)

#1- I got glasses today. I had an eye appointment last Friday and I found out that I need glasses for seeing things far away. It was weird because, yeah, I knew things were a little blurry, but when I got my glasses today and I walked out of Sears and put them on I looked ahead and there were a bunch of trees in the distance and before I put my glasses on they were just trees, but with my glasses I could see individual leaves. I was just like "whoa," I didn't even realize how much better I could have been seeing this whole time. Anyways, I don't have to wear them all the time, just when I need to see something far away, or as the guy at the optical center said, "whenever I want to see better." Ha.

#2- I got the job at Canopy Oaks. I actually found this out at my interview, but I haven't told too many people about it yet. I just have to get all my paperwork taken care of and get finger-printed and stuff and then I can start (will won't actually happen until next week sometime probably.) I am so excited, this is exactly the kind of job I wanted, and I thank Jesus that it all worked out. So, yeah, that's basically it. Just thought I'd catch you up in the life of me!

Just in Case You Were Starting to Miss the Camp Dance...

2005-08-31T23:38:00.000-04:00

I know them

2005-08-30T21:19:00.000-04:00

Okay, weird: I was at the website for Bill's Bookstore yesterday and on the homepage there's this picture of these four kids from Leon. Weird.

So yeah, that's Jim, Emily, Craig, and Brandon. I definitely know them. I don't know how they got to do that, especially since Brandon goes to the US Air Force Acadamy and Emily goes to UF. What the heck? At least the other two go to FSU. It just for real made me laugh. I mean, a lot of times I go to websites and see the obviously posed pictures and I wonder "Who are those people?" So, when I went to order books, I was not expecting to be able to answer that question. It makes me wonder, how many of people in the billions of other staged pictures I've seen in publications from FSU and stuff like that don't actually go there? Funny stuff, I tell ya what.

Alberto and the First Day

2005-08-29T22:48:00.000-04:00

I got my car back!!! You have no idea how happy I am about that. After not driving since November, (we were trying to save money, so we went from 3 cars to 2) it needed some work, but my dad fixed it up today and I can use it tomorrow! I am so excited. I love my Alberto (although now I feel like his name needs to be Artyom or something...wonder why). I drove it to the auto parts store tonight to get some new wiper blades and I was scared that I had forgotten how to drive stick or something, but I got in and started driving and it was like I never left. Yep, I love my little '89 Honda Accord.

Okay so I realize that's not my car, but give me a break, I can't use my camera. My car looks exactly like that though, except it's got a lei hanging from the rearview mirror instead of a paper that says "SALE."
So, today was my first day of classes at FSU. It really didn't seem much different than high school, because all but one of my classes are really small. But, I like all my professors so far. It was pretty funny because it turns out that me and one of my best friends from high school, Amanda, are in the same FIG, so we had all of our classes together today. It was actually pretty nice to know someone already. I have one class tomorrow, but first I have an interview at Canopy Oaks. I'm interviewing to work in the extended day program (after-school). Please pray that I will get the job, cause I really need a job and this is like my dream job at the moment, so please pray for me.

Surprise

2005-08-26T18:09:00.000-04:00

I don't know if I've talked much about this, but that picture that I took of Janelle and Nicole dancing in the sunset, you know, this one:

Well, my mom really liked it and she told me I should enter it in some photo contests, so I did. I like the picture and all, but my mom was the one who was really gung-ho about the whole thing, so when I heard back from two of the places, she like flipped out. Apparently my photo was published in two different books of amateur photography. One of the companies made you buy the book for like $65 in order to advance to the next level of the competition, but the other company sent me a letter that said I was a semi-finalist. So, you know, I was pretty excited, but my mom was extatic. So I've had to sign a couple of things saying it's my original work and all and the picture has been copyrighted in my name and I had it licsensed so if the company sold a product off their website with my photo on, I would get royalty payments. I had just been getting paperwork from this place, but then today, they sent me this manilla envelope and I could feel something inside. I opened it and there was this silver coin that said "Winner" and had the contest name and stuff on it. So I opened the letter with it and found out that I won first prize. Now, this is not grand prize, it's first prize. So like, there is one grand prize winner that wins money, then there are 40 first prize winners like me who get the coin and 80 second prize winners and I don't know what they get. So I was soooo surprised. I really didn't expect to make it to the semi-finals, let alone have my photo be one of 40 chosen out of thousands to win first prize. Kinda weird. I called my mom and she freaked out. It was pretty funny. So yeah, I was pretty happy. I kinda wish I would have gotten in on some of that money, but it's still just cool that I won. In a couple of weeks my photo will be on their website, but right now they just have last year's winners.
Well, I'm off to Ruth's for a Mary Kay party!

2005-08-24T23:18:00.000-04:00

Happy Ukrainian Independence Day!

I know that it hasn't been August 24 in Ukraine since 4:59 this afternoon, but it's still August 24 here for another 45 minutes, so it's still Ukrainian Independence Day here. (That reminds me of that shirt that says "It's happy hour somewhere*.") So, I'm sitting here sipping my tea and thinking about Ukraine. My dad said that I am obsessed with Ukraine and Radooga. While that pretty much hits the nail on the head, there is nothing wrong with celebrating holidays from other countries. I mean, no one has a problem celebrating Cinco de Mayo, ya know? I guess Radooga has just impacted me in such a way, that I can't help but loving it and the country of Ukraine and all its people. If you've never been on a foreign mission trip before, you probably haven't experienced this. I know that Janelle had a really hard time leaving China and Ian said that he wanted to go back to Guatemala for like months after he came back. I'm just glad that I have friends that will share with me in obsession over Ukraine and that whenever I miss people or just Radooga in general, I know that they are feeling the same way. I pray that I will be able to go back next summer as an All Summer Staff and I can't wait.
I got an email from Joe from South Carolina that went with us to Radooga. It made me happy to hear from him. I for real need to download ICQ so that I can talk to people from Ukraine. Okay, well, I should get to bed soon. I'm helping decorate for the Godby football team meal tomorrow. I feel like I am betraying my alma mater of Leon, but I am secure enough in my loyalty to be a part of this. Oh, I almost forgot, my new cell phone came in today. I am so excited. My old one has been so messed up for so long, that I have really been needing this. Once it decided to stop making or receiving calls, my dad agreed that it was time for a new phone. Anyway, it's here, so that's happy.

*Jenna Myrick and her affiliates in no way endorse drinking alcoholic beverages or observing happy hour. Okay, just wanted to put that out there.

So Much for a Quiet Night at Home

2005-08-23T23:33:00.000-04:00

Well, I was going to relax and just take it easy tonight, maybe even go to bed early. I even told Daniel I didn't want to go see a movie tonight because I've been doing a lot and I just wanted to stay home. This was, until Calyn asked me to go to Campus Crusades with her. I thought "Sure, why not? I want to get involved. This is a good reason to go out tonight." So, off we went to the Student Services Building, first floor, room 203 at 8:00 pm. Or so we thought. When we got to the SSB, we found that all the entrances were locked. We were at the SSB, and it was just a few minutes before 8, but no one was there. So we started thinking, maybe it doesn't start till next week. I suggested that we head to the Student Union to check out what was going on there. So after taking the long route (I'm sure) to the union, we found that there wasn't too much happening. Calyn said we should call Daniel to see what he was doing so our driving across town to campus could at least be worth something. I told her how I had told him I was staying home tonight and then decided to call him anyway.
Daniel: "Hey, Calyn."
Me: "Actually, this is Jenna. Guess where I am."
Daniel: "The movies."
Me: "No. Close."
Daniel: "At Calyn's house."
Me: "No, I'm on campus."
Daniel: laughing
Me (to Calyn): He's laughing at me.
So, I told him the story and he invited us to his dorm. So, we went and hung out in Daniel's dorm room until 10:45. We had lots of fun. Daniel's room is really nice and his roommate, Henry, is fun. And now, here I am, just getting home at 11:30 (me and Calyn talked for a bit at her house). So, as I said: so much for a quiet night at home. Oh well.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I got to talk to Roma tonight on ICQ! Only for like 2 minutes at Calyn's, but it made my night. I love that kid!

Pumped!

2005-08-23T16:09:00.000-04:00

So, I finished orientation at 12:15 today. Yes! It's over and now I feel more confident about being a student at FSU. I got my schedule and I'm excited about the classes that I got. Not necissarily the classes themselves, like the work, but I got good times and a good schedule. I don't ever have a class before 10:10 in the morning. My classes start at 10:10 and go to 3:20 on Monday (with an hour and 20 minutes break for lunch), go from 2:00 to 3:15 on Tuesday and Thursday, go from 10:10 to 2:15 on Wednesday (again with a lunch break), and go from 12:20 to 2:15 on Friday. I think that's a pretty good schedule, if I do say so myself. I'm in this thing called a Freshman Interest Group that groups me with other freshmen in my major and picks some of my classes for me to give me a great schedule with like 15 min between each class. I added one more class to that FIG (the Tues/Thurs one) and there we go. After orientation today, I met up with Daniel and we went and picked up my football ticket coupons and then went to CiCi's for lunch. So, it's been a good day so far. Now I have the rest of the evening (besides running Brandon over to his piano lessons at 5) to do whatever. I'm going to try to organize some things in my room and then get to bed at a decent hour so I can start getting back on a more regular schedule. So, paka for now!

11 Hours of Orientation

2005-08-22T21:38:00.000-04:00

So...freakin...tired.
On a good note, some of the program was cancelled, so we got let out at 7:30 instead of 9. Well, to bed for me. I have more orientation starting bright and early at 7 am tomorrow. Groan...

Bittersweet

2005-08-21T22:38:00.000-04:00

Carli and Trisha, I love you guys soooo much!
Listen (you have to say it like Jake), Carli and Trisha got to come to Tallahassee yesterday and today and we had so much fun! Carli got in around 4 on Saturday, so Calyn and I took her to Wakulla Springs and she jumped off the high dive. I'm so proud, Carli! Around 7 we left and picked up Trisha and went to Applebee's for dinner. We shared pictures and stories and laughed like crazy. As if we weren't already loud enough by ourselves, we called Jake and Skeef and put them on speaker phone and talked to them for a while. The whole restaurant probably thought we were crazy. Carli said "We're being the loud Americans again, but we're in America, so it's okay."
Then we went to Calyn's house and looked at a TON of pictures that were amazing (especially the ones from Jake and Josh). We reminisced about camp and, again, laughed a lot. We called Jake again and did an interview with him for Calyn's blog and it was hilarious. We even got to call Lori and talk to her. I miss you Lori! We finally went to sleep about 3ish and we had to get up at 7:15 so we could go talk to Sunday school classes about raising money for Lori at 8:15. Carli had to leave in the morning, :-( but Trisha came with us to church and got to meet everyone and go around to classes with us. We left after we were done talking to the 11:00 classes and went to Calyn's for lunch. We got to talk to Tanya and Zhenya (the twins) on ICQ for a little while and then after lunch we took a 3 hour nap because we were all so tired. Trisha came with us to youth, but she had to leave halfway through, so we went up on the hill and did the camp dance before she left. It's so weird, because I feel like I've known Trisha for as long as anyone else from Radooga, I forget I just met her. But as we said, we know each other now and that's all that matters.
"Why are Trisha and Carli so kick butt? Is it because they are such awesome people? Yeah, you know it." Oh my gosh, I love you guys!
So, the only problem is now they are both gone and I am sad because talking about everybody and everything from Radooga just makes me miss it that much more. At the time we were talking and laughing, it was great and it made me feel better, but now, not so much. So yeah, I'm listening to the camp dance song right now (Cbobodniy Palyot!) and I'm about to cry. Not really, but I am really sad.
Well, I should go to bed, because I have FSU orientation tomorrow (12 hours at FSU) and Tuesday (another 5 or 6 hours) and I have to get up pretty early.
I miss Ukraine, I miss Radooga, and I miss Carlitchka and Trishka!

That's Heavy!

2005-08-19T23:52:00.000-04:00

Okay, I don't have time to post because Me and Calyn are about to watch Back to the Future. However, you can, and should, read about my feelings for the day on Calyn's blog. I am so excited that Trisha and Carli are coming. Yay!!!

Since I Still Haven't Written About it: Camp!

2005-08-18T23:51:00.000-04:00

Okay, I know what you're going to say. "It's about time!" But I really want to write about Student Life Camp and I really have been meaning to, but I haven't yet. But now I am...
Just a little background information: I had been feeling pretty discouraged about our youth group. I mean, it seemed as if most people didn't care about the relationship part of being a Christian and that our group, in general, was going downhill. I came to camp not expecting for much to change, because I thought that everyone was so far gone that they wouldn't care. Our youth group lacked leadership and we weren't growing. I think you can see why I was discouraged.
Camp started and I was worried that our family group wasn't going to get along. We had an interesting mix of people, but Calyn and I were determined to make it work. As the week went on, our family group started to mesh. Recreation really helped us to bond. We became the Funky Chickens and had an awesome cheer. We even won family group of the day. Around me, I saw people began to change, and God was working in me too. Us leaders felt so burdened for the people around us that we began to meet when we had a chance to pray for them. During the last two church group times, I couldn't help but to cry when different people shared what God was doing in their lives. I had doubted God's power to work in the lives of the people in our youth group. We had been learning about how big (haha, hugeous) God is and how He's made these amazing things that are like 31 billion lightyears away and yet I was doubting that he could speak to the hearts of the people around me. What was I thinking? So many people made decisions and shared about changes they needed to make in their lives. God showed me that I need to worship him with all that I am, because he's worthy of it (and we all know he sooooo is).
So now, I'm pretty pumped about how God is working in our youth group. I'm looking forward to the year ahead and I'm excited about what's going to take place. Todd took the youth leaders for next year (that's me and that's weird) and some youth that have shown leadership potential to Laguna last week and we spent time planning out the year. We decided to make some changes in the way we were running things, and we planned some awesome outreach opportunities. I am so excited to see what God's gonna do in our youth group this year. It was awesome to see students and leaders so on fire for God. Please pray for our youth group that these changes could be a step, well more like a leap, in the right direction and not just a "camp experience." Also pray for the coming year and for everyone who made a change in their lifestyle, that they would have the strength to keep it.
I'm so glad that I got to and get to be a part of the amazing things happening in the Northwoods Youth Ministry. This was the best Student Life Camp that I have ever been to. I must say that for not coming to camp with very high expectations, I sure left being blown away by all that was happening. This summer has been full of amazing experiences and I hope that there are more to come.

"Jenna is..."

2005-08-16T01:04:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I was going to do a serious post about camp and people leaving and senior night and stuff (yes, yes, I know, I still haven't done that) but it's late and I'm tired. So instead, I got this idea off of Lauren's blog. You type your name and the word "is" in quotations (ex: "Jenna is") into a Google search and you see what comes up. I found out some very interesting things about myself...

"Jenna is 'a great player'" (Why, thank you!)
"Jenna is some perfect interpersonal guru" (I wouldn't say perfect, but...)
"Jenna is a girl that is so beautiful every other girl envies her" (Hey, I didn't make this up.)
"Jenna is even dumber than her father" (That's not very nice, they shouldn't talk about my dad that way.)
"Jenna is in the elevator" (Not at the moment.)
"Jenna is unwanted" (Sad for me!)
"Jenna is married to Greg" (See! And all you people thought I was going to marry Daniel.)

Well, that was fun. There were a ton more but some of them weren't very funny and some were just, well, bad. But yeah, that was fun, so you should try it. I bet you'll learn some very interesting things about yourself too.

Caramel Apple Pops

2005-08-14T23:59:00.000-04:00

Oh, the joys of being a college student. Yes! I can say that now. It's so awesome that I don't have to go to school tomorrow. Calyn is spending the night and tomorrow we are going to Wakulla Springs with Nicole and her sister. Woo-hoo! Since Calyn's interview was so much fun last night, we're going to do another one.

*Cool music playing. Da da duh... This is: Lifestyles of the Rich and Emotional. I'm your host, Jenna Myrick, and we are joined tonight by our guest, Lil' Moo-Moo, the semi-famous rapper (after Lil' Bray-Bray and Lil' Tay-Tay, of course). Let's begin.*

Jenna: So, Calyn, what did you end up doing with all that leftover food from yesterday?
Calyn: Well, my neighbors and I have a food war going on, cause we do, and they keep bringing us food and we keep giving them food. They own a Jenny Craig franchise and they just bought a new Corvette, so apparently people are getting skinny. So, I took them over some borsch. Oh, and while I was walking back I almost ran into this giant banana spider web. With two giant banana spiders on it, like somthing off of "Arachniphobia." I almost died. Seriously. Are banana spiders poisonous?
Jenna: I don't know.
Calyn: They look like they'd be poisonous. They should really teach you that kinda stuff in school. Cause like, who needs to know about the Prussian wars? I'd rather know if I'm gonna die if I got bit by a banana spider.
Jenna: Yeah, that seems a little more practical to me. You know they do teach you some of that stuff in school. Like that rhyme for coral snakes.
Calyn: And king snakes. Yeah, but I never remember it.
Jenna: That's a problem. I think it's "Red touches black, friend of Jack. Red touches yellow, deadly fellow." Yeah, that sounds about right.
Calyn: Wait, but if red touches black, doesn't it touch yellow too? There's only three colors! Cause if red touches black, then black must touch yellow, and yellow must touch red. It's like hyperbola theorum, or something. You know, if A=B, and B=C, then A=C.
Jenna: Yea, I know what you're talking about, but I don't think that's what it's called.
Calyn: Well, I haven't had a math class in like, 2 years, and I don't plan on taking one ever again, so I've forgotten it.
Jenna: See, that's what I'm talking about, right there. That's why college rocks.
Calyn: Okay, let me get this strait. Red touches Jack, get back, get back! Red touches yellow, friendly fellow. Wait, no. See, this is why I wouldn't bet my life on this stupid rhyme. They really need to teach us stuff in school like this. Like, how to start a fire (more importantly, how to put out a fire), how to tell which way's north like, cause of the stars and stuff. You know, like when you'd read about the Underground railroad and the slaves would tell which way was north cause of where the ivy grew on the trees and stuff.
Jenna: I think it's moss, Calyn.
Calyn: Whatever. See, that's why I need to learn it.
Jenna: Well, why don't you just join Girl Scouts or something?
Calyn: Cause all they do is sell cookies.
Jenna: Okay, then join Boy Scouts.
Calyn: Oh, sure, I can just cut my hair. But what do I do about these?
Jenna: You can just put duct tape around your chest.
Calyn: Like in Mulan?
Jenna: Actually, I was thinking like in "Now and Then."
Calyn: You mean, "Now and Later?"
Jenna: No, that movie, "Now and Then." You know, it's got that girl in it. The one with the funky face from that movie.
Calyn: Oh, yeah. That clears it up. The one wth the "funky face".
Jenna: Casper! She's the girl from Casper!
Calyn: Christina Ricci?
Jenna: Yeah, that's it.
Calyn: Didn't it have Ellen DeGeneres in it?
Jenna: No, it had Rosie O'Donnell in it.
Calyn: I knew it was a talk-show host.
Jenna: Yeah, the other lesbian talk-show host.
Calyn: Oh yes.
Jenna: I don't think they'll let her on Sesame Street anymore.
Calyn: No, I think they'll really invite her on now. Sesame Street's messed up. They have all sorts of bad people on. Little kids don't know. They don't watch the news. They watch Sesame Street. I watched Sesame Street all the time. "'C' is for 'cookie', is good enough for me..." I love that one.
Jenna: "'L' is for 'Lesbian', it's good enough for me..."
Calyn: It's definitely good enough for Rosie.
Jenna: And Ellen.
Calyn: But not together.
Jenna: You know, Rosie O'Donnell has a blog. I found it.
Calyn: That's great, Goose. When I watched Sesame Street, I was really afraid of the Nip Nips.
Jenna: The what?
Calyn: The nip nips. The aliens that came in the spaceship. They said nip, nip, nip, nip, nip...
Jenna: Is that where your hatred of E.T. came from?
Calyn: Yeah, it's on my profile.
Jenna: Do you wanna talk about it?
Calyn: Yes, Oleg Jr.
Jenna: Tell me about your childhood.
Calyn: Well, the nip nips aren't the only thing I was scared of. I was really scared of "Land Before Time" when Little Foot's mom gets half eaten by the T-Rex. I used to always hide in my mom's closet during that part.
Jenna: Tell me how that makes you feel.
Calyn: uh, pretty scared. Keagan is scared of "Land Before Time" too ("too", not "to" or "two". Just wanted to get that strait, Taco Bell...) but only because my mom would put on Jurassic Park and tell him it was Land Before Time. He's scared of the German Coffee commercial too. But his mom is the one that sent that to us. So she approved.
Jenna: Very interesting. Hey, want a carmel apple pop? I have chocolate covered coffee beans too. The dark chocolate ones are the best.
Calyn: Heck yes. Oh my gosh. These are to die for. We did a musical of that. But it was "2 die 4."
Jenna: Cause it was like, on a license plate. Like a play on words or something. Or numbers. Whatever. Okay, we're too engrossed in our snacking to type anymore. I'll have to hear about your childhood later.
Calyn: Oleg would have listened about my childhood.
Jenna: You can still tell me, it just won't be on record.
Calyn: What could I possibly have to say to you that I don't want to say in front of 5 milion people on the internet?
Jenna: How we're gonna get you into the Boy Scouts.
Calyn: The end.

This has been "Lifestyles of the Rich and Genderly Confused. For a transcript, please visit our website at www.jenshka.blogspot.com. Goodnight everyone. Copyright XXMCCLQRS12&*

My Eyes...

2005-08-14T01:35:00.000-04:00

So, as you can see, I've been pretty busy lately and haven't made time for blogging. I want to tell you about camp and the leadership retreat and our Ukrainian food night, but I just went with Calyn to a house with 27 cats and 6 dogs and my allergies are acting up and I can feel my eyes swelling more and more each minute. So, I should probably go to sleep or something. I don't know, but this allergy medicine better kick in soon or I'm not going to be able to see at all. I will post tomorrow. Really. I promise. Or you can punch me.

Hey, by the way, did you know if you take the first "e" off of the word "eyes" it makes the word "yes"? It does, you should try it. Try it! Okay.

Pictures From Radooga

2005-08-05T16:11:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from Radooga. I don't know how much these will mean to the people who weren't there, but I hope they will give you a little look at what it was like.

Ahhh...Paris, the city of love

The Notre Dame cathedral

The Eiffel Tower

Calyn, Diane, Tamara, Nicole, and Lori at our favorite hangout place, the steps of building one.

A very interesting meal with our staple substitute, peanut butter. Nekita made me try one of those nasty fish things and, unlike Diane, I did not find them appetizing.

The girls in my English class: Dasha, Tanya, Anya, and Yulya

Nicole and I's English class on the day we took a trip to "America" and played frisbee.
Sasha, Me, Dasha, Anya (student), Kostya, Nicole, Yulya, Tanya, Anya (translator), Artyom, and Yura

Elusha and Calyn

Kelly, Tamara, Tiffany, and Diane

JenniGray, Shelby, and Lauren

Veronica and Calyn

Roma and Joe feelin' the love

Tamara, Hillary, (Katya's teddy bear held by Nekita,) Nicole, and Me

Diane and Tamara dancing to the "reggae" song. If you knew the word "reggae," you knew half of the song.

Tamara and I in our super-awesome glowstick glasses. Mine started leaking and so there was orange glowy stuff all over my cheek.

Sergey with his awesome spikey hair

There are a ton more pictures where these came from. Check out my link to my Radooga album in the sidebar. That album doesn't even have all of my pictures because I can't get the ones off of my camera's internal memory, but they are mostly all there. Also check out Diane, Todd, and Calyn's blogs (in my "check these blogs out" section) for more pictures and stories about Radooga.

I'm Back!

2005-08-05T00:52:00.000-04:00

Wow, guys, I am really sorry. It's been almost a month since I blogged last and that's pitiful. I was planning on blogging before I left for Radooga to do the whole "I'm going out of the country so don't expect me to blog" thing, but our flight got changed and my hour of time got cut to like 15 minutes and I didn't have time to blog. So then I felt really bad and I knew everyone was going to get mad at me, but I thought "oh well, I'll blog when I get back." Well, I got back from Radooga and had 3 days before Student Life Camp. But those 3 days ended up being really busy and I again failed to blog. We got back from camp yesterday and I am finally able to catch you up on everything.
Let's start with Radooga. I have one word: Awesome! I mean, I had heard Calyn and Lori talk about things that happened and how great Radooga was, but I didn't really know until I went for myself. As you now know, our flights got messed up before we left and we had to change some flights. We met the team from South Carolina that we were working with that week at the Cincinnati airport. I wasn't sure how well we were going to mesh with them, because it seemed like they all had their friends and were fine. But anyways, when we got to Paris the next morning we missed our flight and found out we were going to have to stay the night in Paris. I figured "hey, if we're gonna get stuck somewhere, Paris is probably the best place to do it." They airline paid for our hotel and meals, so that was awesome. We went and saw the Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame cathedral and ate at this sorta cute but sorta sketchy French cafe. Oh yeah, and we met this guy who was going to Ukraine to meet some chick he met over the internet and he missed his flight too so he walked around with us. He was definitely sketchy. Hey Duane, if you're out there, I hope you found your wife, man.
We finally made it to Ukraine and we got to the Kiev airport. We walked out of customs and I was soooo happy to see Calyn and Lori waiting for us. We rode to the camp they caught us up on what was going on at Radooga. Since we were a day late, we didn't get to start our week with a day in the city like normal. But we did have orientation the first 2 days we were there. We learned about the history of Ukraine (sort of), shared testimonies, learned some Russian (Privyet chuvaki!), and visited English classes. We started to get to know the team from SC better. Nicole and I played ultimate frisbee with them and they were impressed at how good we were and I think that started to break down barriers and open up conversations. I found out that they were really cool and I got to know most of them quite well over the 2 weeks in Ukraine. The housing and stuff isn't bad. Except for the occasional cold shower and not being able to flush your toilet paper, I would actually consider it good. The food on the other hand, not so much. Every meal you had a meat and a starch and either a slice of cucumber or a wedge of tomato. The food was sometimes okay, but when it was, it would be like chicken and rice...for breakfast, kind of weird, don't ya think? But hey, it's camp food. Real Ukrainian food is actually good. Anyways, when the kids finally got there, we welcomed them as their busses pulled in and then they went to English testing to be placed into a class. Normally, there are around 100 pre-beginners, but this time, there were only 13. In a way, that was good because it meant that most people knew at least some English, but I was supposed to be teaching a pre-beginner class with Nicole and we ended up teaching a beginner class. This meant that they knew quite a bit more than we thought that they were going to. But, English class went well the whole week. We taught them new words, played games, and sang the "Baby Shark" song, which they loved. At the end of the week they made up words to it and sang it to us.
Throughout the week there was celebration in the morning (after breakfast), then English class, lunch, then the kids went to their church group time and we got ready for recreation, then we had rec, dinner, then evening program and, last but not least, Party Zone. Party Zone was like Late Nite at Student Life, except it was way better. We did the camp dance during Party Zone, and it was one of my favorite parts of the day. Before celebration, evening program, and Party Zone, we made "Two lines!" and gave the kids high fives and danced around while they came in. At first they were kind of freaked out by it, but by the end of camp we were giving them hugs and they just loved it.
On repentance night, Paul, the speaker, gave an altar call for kids to accept Christ and about 100 Ukrainian students gave their lives to Christ. It was so awesome to see God work in such a big way. That was probably the best part of the whole week.
During camp, I lived with 3 other Americans, a translator, and 4 Ukrainians. I got to know the girls in my room pretty well. They were all so sweet. I know for a fact that at least one accepted Christ. I'm pretty sure 2 others did too. The other girl was really scared about going to anything. She would just stay in the room the whole day except for English class and meals. But, by the end of the week she was going to everything and, I'm not sure whether she became a Christian or not, but she at least was starting to open up.
Everyone was so awesome that I don't have room or time to tell you about it all. This is already so long, so I'll try to give you the short version. All of the translators were awesome. Katya was in my room and she was so cool. She fell in love with my vanilla body spray, so I left the rest of it with her when I left. Nekita was so much fun. He always kept us laughing with his craziness. Anya was so incredibly sweet. She was the translator for our English class and I don't know what I would have done without her. The all-summer staff was really cool too. Carli did rec and she was so awesome. I love Carli. I got to spend some time with her on the last night we were there and we had some good times talking and falling asleep to Zoolander. Amberly and Cliff did worship. Amberly lead the singing and Cliff played drums. Amberly is so sweet and I loved watching her when she lead worship because she was so energetic. Cliff was fun. He made fun of people a lot, and I was no exception, but I did manage to have a serious conversation with him and I figured out that he's a pretty cool guy. Justin lead drama. We decided that he shouldn't be in charge of teaching us Ukrainian history, but he was also a cool guy and he was good at drama. The all-summer staff on team B were cool too, but I wasn't able to get to know them that well. I did, however, get to know the tech/camera people who were from Ukraine, Roma, Andrey, Sergey. On the last night we were there we stayed up all night long so we could hang out and talk. We told jokes and figured out that they don't translate very well, but they were still hilarious because of Roma's facial expressions. The time flew by and we had to leave for the airport before we knew it. Getting home was not nearly as difficult and I slept on and off pretty much the whole way, so it went by pretty fast. When we got back it was like 6 something so we went to Village Inn to get some real breakfast food for dinner.
I have so much more to tell, but if you spend any amount of time with me, I'm sure you'll hear (or already have heard) stories. I'll have to tell ya'll about camp later because I'm tired and this is really long. I'll also put some pictures of Radooga up later. But for now, paka!

And Again with the Slacking...

2005-07-06T23:27:00.000-04:00

I really don't know why I'm still up, since I have to get up at 7 tomorrow for a doctor's appointment, but some certain people have been wanting me to post, so here I am.
I haven't posted recently because I haven't really done very much. I've gotten a lot of scrapbooking done which is awesome because during the school year I don't have a lot of time to scrapbook, but I love doing it and so I've been able to catch up, but I'm still like a year behind.
I've also gotten to hang out with Callie and Rhian a lot. We recently began production of our top-secret movie. And we did some other things...

Rhian and Callie "Hi-ya!!!"

Mr. Wiggles: Undercover

Man, I look like I just saw a ghost.

And the fun continues. To check out the other hairstyles I had that night, click on the link to my pictures. I'll add more albums soon.

In other news, I leave for the Ukraine exactly one week from now and I am super excited. That also means that I get to see Calyn in a week, another reason to be super excited. I'm also kind of thinking that it is coming too fast, considering Nicole and I haven't started planning English lessons yet. Oops...
I'm also getting really excited about camp. I just looked at the pictures of camp last year on the Northwoods youth web site and it got me even more ready for camp to be here. Oh it's so much fun, I can hardly wait!

How Chuck E. Cheese Makes Their Money

2005-06-25T23:49:00.000-04:00

We went to Chuck E. Cheese today. Our company that's in from Boynton includes a six-year-old and a three-year-old, and after we found out that all of the lanes at the bowling alley were taken and Fun Station was way packed, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. So I had fun and my mom gave us some tokens and I put $5 of my own money in for tokens, and we got some free ones for buying food and stuff. Anyway, all together I used about 8 bucks worth of tokens. Well, I go up to the prize counter and I had 215 tickets, so I get one of those spiral lollipops, you know, like this: except mine is a little longer, for 200 tickets and a flimsy, plastic, blue star bracelet for 15 tickets. Well as I'm waiting for Noah (the three-year-old) to decide whether he wants a toy car or a puzzle, I see that you could also purchase the lollipop that I got for $1.99, instead of using tickets. So basically, I spent $8 (well actually only 5 of it actually came from my pocket, but you get the idea) to get a lollipop that I could have had for 2. Oh well, I had fun, right?
I just came back from seeing Bewitched with Daniel and his roommate, Camp. It was a good movie and it was cool getting to meet Camp. He seems like a really nice guy. He didn't talk a whole lot, but that probably has to do with the fact that Daniel and I tend to dominate conversation and he was really tired. But he did talk enough for me to know that he's a cool guy.
So, I'm still house-sitting, but today wasn't as easy as yesterday. Christina spent the night last night, and it was a rough night, with Pepper pouncing on me at some crazy hour of the morning and then at 6:30 Christina going "Jenna, the cat peed in the bed." I was just like "You have got to be kidding me." So we stripped the sheets and everything and I threw them in the washer and went back to bed, in a different bed, of course. Well, when I woke up several hours later, I found the sheets still sitting soaking in the washer. Turns out their washer doesn't work so well and I had to have my dad come over to help me get it working. I'm still trying to figure out how to clean the comforter, so it's been pretty frustrating. Besides, the only reason the cat peed on the bed is because he's scared of me or something and everytime he's by the door to go outside and I come to open it for him, he runs and hides under a bed somewhere. So, it's been an interesting day, full of annoying cats, a big mouse character, and meeting someone new. But now, I'm off to clean that comforter...oh joy!

Thoughts on House-Sitting

2005-06-23T23:18:00.000-04:00

Hey look, I'm blogging two days in a row. This hasn't happened in quite some time.
I started house-sitting today. Christina and I went and got dinner at Los Compadres and then we stopped by Blockbuster to rent some movies. We came back to the Schaeffer's house and after walking Sassy, we watched Meet the Fockers. Funny movie. Now she's gone and I'm just hanging out with the animals. For those of you who don't know, they have two cats, Kitty (original, I know) and Pepper, and a dog, Sassy. I kind of like having a house to myself. Christina's coming over again tomorrow so we can watch the other movie we rented, Hitch. I'm excited, because I've been wanting to see it for a while now.
So I hope all you people had fun at Wakulla Springs today. Since Nicole never called me, I didn't know about it until I read my comments 2 minutes ago. Oh well, I couldn't have gone anyway. We were cleaning because our friends from Boynton are coming to visit tomorrow. Okay, well I'm gonna go. For a closing comment, can I just say that I LOVE pistachios.

Quote o' the sometime: "Man I'm awesome. I should give myself a cookie. A really big one. With sprinkles." -Brandon Myrick

I'm a Slacker

2005-06-23T01:28:00.000-04:00

You know, for having nothing to do, I sure have done a lot lately. I'm sorry that I've been a slacker on my blogging lately. I've been doing a lot and every time I think about blogging it's like really late (like right now, but I finally gave in) or I still have stuff to do. So, Ian and Paul, this is for you.
Not much to tell as of late. I've just been keeping myself busy. I finished off VBS nicely last week. Went swimming at Paul's house, got attacked by Paul, Jake, and Daniel (3 on 1 = not fair!) and unintentionally made Jill my "buddy." Friday we played on the water slide things that were really cool and then I was exhausted but I babysat that night. I watched the bike trip DVDs and they were awesome, of course. Saturday I went to Aaron's party and went swimming. Sunday was Father's Day and we got my dad really good presents, so that was exciting. Then I spent the night with Callie until Monday. Monday night was her birthday party, so we planned and cooked and got stuff ready. Her party was really fun, we did a video scavenger hunt and I locked us out of the van, so we were stranded at a gas station for 45 minutes (ahhh...good times!). Tuesday I picked Callie and Rhian up and they came over for a while. I took them to gymnastics and after that Callie spent the night. And today Callie and I tried to make outfits for our pigs stuffed animals (we got bored) but half-way through the sewing machine messed up and we couldn't figure out how to fix it. Then tonight I went to church and Ian and Paul said I should blog, so here I am. Wow! That was a lot.
So, as you can see, I've had a lot to do. I think that serves as an excuse for why I haven't blogged in a while. Tomorrow I start house-sitting for the Schaeffers while they're on vacation, so that means I get a huge house with lots of food and a trampoline all to myself. Party anyone?

One Down, Four to Go

2005-06-13T18:29:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of Club VBS Beach Blast. Just four more to go. Actually, like three and a water day. It went surprisingly well, for my group at least. I am a line leader for third grade and they are the best group I've ever had at a VBS. They actually listen and they're not too hyped up (except at recreation, but it's okay there). Mr Jim, I think that it's a little more organized than last year. They made some changes and I'm pretty sure that they were all for the better.
I was pretty tired today because me and Brandon stayed up until 2 am talking last night. At like 11:15 he started explaining some stuff about Star Wars to me because we went to see Episode III last night and I haven't seen all of Episode II and what I have seen wasn't in English (we watched it in Spanish class, so it was in Spanish). After he was done explaining that, we just kept talking. At first I was like "Brandon, it's midnight. We really need to go to bed." which turned into "Brandon, it's 1:00. We really need to go to bed." until finally I said "Brandon, it's 2 in the morning. Get out of my room before we start talking again." I'm really glad we got to hang out and all, but I was pretty tired because I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep these past few days. But, I took a nap today and I'm feeling better. Okay, dinner's here, so I gotta go.