Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!!
I hope Everyone had a good christmas!!
I'll Post soon, about the past few weeks.
Jesus is the Reason for the Season!!

Christmas Lights Gone Wild!!

This is so awesome!! This person must of had alot of time!!! I told my brother he should make our house look like this next year! :-)
Make sure you have the volume on!

"What a Life" is Right!

Sorry I haven't written in awhile!! Life kinda took over. :-)

I'll start with Monday - o wait,, I actually can't really remember what I did on Monday! lol

I don't think I went any where but was trying to get school done from the week before because I had been sick and worked on some friends Christmas gifts.:-) O YA!!!!.....It was the first day that I actually felt well and we went to the Mestases for an our that night!!...now I remember..Boy, do I feel blonde!!

Tuesday - I had Biology in the morning :-( Then all afternoon and evening we were at basketball games @ East Wake in Zebulon. My team wasn't playing but the middle school girls played first (Which my dad coaches because no one else would!!) Then two other games (MS Boys & V Girls) Then the Varsity Boys played which Eric is on and Dad coaches. So together I watched 4 basketball games. We got home around 1opm ish.

Wednesday - Mom for some reason woke me up at 11am ( Which I was planning on getting up a little early to be able to get some school done, well you see how that worked out!!) I had Choir all afternoon. (Our Concert is Next Week!!) Then I came home and helped my mom cook because we were bringing dinner to the Mestases. Then we spent an hour or two at the Mestases. Then came home and straightened up a bit.

Thursday - This was a Fun Day!! JK!!

I woke up a little late again(lol,hehe), and then did laundry and all that fun stuff! Then mom brought me over to the Dinglasan's house. Because they were giving me a ride to our basketball game in Sanford ( about an hour and a half away) Jason had his last Dr. appointment for his wrist, so mom had to stay home with him. Dad came after my game because he had to give some of the guys on the Varsity team a ride (6 to be exact) and some of them couldn't be picked up until 3:30pm and my game started at 3:30pm and so by the time they got there my game was over.:-( we watched two more games and then the Varsity boys played. My team (JV girls) and the Varsity boys both won!! YEAH!! lol

Then we headed home stopping at Taco Bell for dinner. I wanted subway but was out ruled by 5 guys and my dad!! :-) It was pretty quick ride home but I must say that our car stunk of Cologne and Sweat! We ended up getting home around midnight and going to bed at 1am.

Friday - I had TOG co-op all morning, I hadn't gotten any TOG school/homework done during the week, so for most of the class I had no idea what they were talking about!!lol

After co-op we headed over to "Homelight Bookestore" for a "Kids Christmas Craft Fair" where kids can come and do crafts to give as Christmas presents. Ellie came with me and we had a table where kids could make cards for Soldiers over seas. It was kinda boring just because we just sat there while they mad them. But it was good. After that we went over to the Mestases to drop Ellie off and ended up staying there for two hours playing with the kids and talking. :-)

Came home and just hung out for the rest of the night.

Saturday - Woke up around 9am and went to basketball practice. Then just came home took a shower, got something to eat, and cleaned. Then around 4pm I went over to Erica's (she's on my basketball team) and hung out at her house with a couple other girls until around 9pm. It was ALOT of fun!! We had dinner (Mrs. Vidal is a REALLY good cook!! :-), watched some of our basketball games which her parents had video taped, TALKED :-), and made choc. chip cookies (In a really funny way.....one word.....Meat Tenderizer.......ya:-).

Arianna, Erica, Faith, Christina, and ME!!

TODAY - had church this morning. My Sunday School went to Wendy's for Breakfast and a little Christmas party where we played a gift exchange/White Elephant. I got an

"Easy Button":-) And during service I worked in the Nursery. Then we came home, I ate lunch, took a nap, went to a recreation center and played basketball with Dad and Jason. Then we went home picked up mom and went and got our Christmas tree!!! YEAH!

So there you now all caught up:-)

Here are some pictures from Fall break and Thanksgiving - (we haven't been able to get the pictures off the camera so that's why theses are so late:-)


Sarah doing her part of the yard ~ looking at........um..........the sun set?? lol

Bekah and Sarah!

Bekah and I eating our yummy thanksgiving meal:-)


Samantha, ME, Savanah, Sarah, Megan. and Mike - "The Homeschool Gangstas" lol

These are pictures from when we went to the Mall after seeing the play "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"

Buddies - Owen & Jason


Jason visiting Santa :-)


Emily drinking her yummy Chick-Fil-A Milkshake. :-)

Hopefully I'll right more when I have time:-).......................

Peace and Quiet!

So this past week we had a FULL house. Sarah and Alex came home for the week, Bekah (Sarah's Friend who stays with us alot, we call her the adopted daughter:-) and Bekah's cousin, Allan, stayed with us as well. And Sarah's friend Jenna was over hear ALOT hanging out and sleeping over. So we had 9-10 people hear this week. Lot of people, Small House, 1 big dog, =NOISE
Dad brought home a projector from work, and we hooked it up to Alex's X-Box360, and Projected movies and Video games on the wall in the living room all week:-)
For Thanksgiving We went to the Doehrtys house. It was alot of fun. There were about 5 other family's there. We did Thanksgiving Buffet style then sat where ever you could find an empty spot:-) We played football in the yard, Guitar Hero, pool, ping-pong, Catch phrase and Uno.
Over all it was pretty good week.
Everyone went back to school yesterday so it's the back to us five.

The Mestases come home on Wednesday!!! Along with the three new additions to the family. Pray that they will have safe, uneventful, quick travel back. Can't wait to see them!

Well I'm gonna go eat lunch, do school, Then I have a basketball game later this afternoon.
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Friends in Ethiopia

Keep the Mestases in your prayers as they left yesterday morning(Sunday) for Ethiopia to pick up twin 10month old baby girls, and a 3year old boy. They will be there for 10 days, coming back on Wednesday. You can go to Ellie's blog or Mrs. and Mr. Mestases blog. They are going to to post with pictures and updates while they are there. Pray that everything will go smoothly while they are there, that they will stay healthy and get enough rest, that they will have safe travel back, and for the birth mother as she has to say goodbye to her children.

What a Week!!!!

So this has been a total crazy week.
It all started on Monday night, when mom took a bite of dinner and started to "cough it back up" with severe chest and back pains, and then started coughing up blood. So when when dad got home from basketball practice he took her to the Emergency room at Wake Med, Where they had to transport her to the other Wake Med further down in Raleigh which had a specialist she need to see. Soooo long story short she was at the hospital until last night and now is fine. You can read the more precise story at my moms blog. So Tuesday Eric, Jason, and I hung out at home. I had Biology in the morning:-( Dad came home from the hospital and we went to my first basketball game that night( I play for Lighthouse homeschool).We played CFC (Christian Faith Center) We only lost by like 10 points (which is better then I thought we would do:-) I played good so I was happy.
Wednesday, I was supposed to babysit the Freelands while Hannah was at the Doctor, Mrs. Freeland was going to bring them here for the morning, but do to time, she didn't have enough time to get them over here before they had to be at the doctor. I was up until 1:30am on Tuesday cleaning getting ready for them. O well. So it was just Jason and I home all day, Eric had classes at Wake Tech community collage, and dad was at the hospital all day, I had to miss choir :-( Eric came home and we (E, J, and I) went to church for youth group and kids bible study that night, then after that dad and MOM came home and dad took us to grab a bite to eat..
Today - I babysat two girls (age, 7 &9) for 13 HOURS!!! (from 7am-8:30pm)I went to bed at 12:30am on Wednesday and had to get up at 6am! YA, I don't recommend it! I'm REALLY TIRED!!!!

So it's been a crazy, unusual, tiring week. , and am completely exhausted from lack of sleep and I didn't get like any school done this week. At least next week is Thanksgiving break. Sarah, Alex and Bekah (Sarah's friend) are all coming home for Thanksgiving. Sarah actually comes home tomorrow so I've gotta pick up my room..
For now...............................sleep

Disciple Now Weekend

This past weekend my church had "Disciple Now". It's like a youth retreat where they have a speaker and a band come. Families from the church volunteer to be host homes for youth to stay in. My host home was Mrs.&Mr. Nemitz (Emily's house) It was me and 8 other 9th grade girls. We had alot of Fun!!!!

Friday night we arrived at the church, had dinner then, a "session" with the

The Common Ground Band and Wes Hammilton (speaker). They both were AWESOME!!!! The CG Band has come to D-Now the last couple of years and have been Amazing:-) This was the first time that Wes Hammilton had come to speak, He was really good! after the first session, everyone went to their "Host Home" where we had our small group session, Sarah was our small group leader. After that we had a camp fire roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Then we watched a movie on the wall (thanks to a projector). We watched "The Other Side of Heaven" It was about this Missionary on some Island (that I can't remember the name of at this moment). There was alot of funny lines in the movie that we were all repeating through out the weekend

:-) lol. We ended up going to bed around 1:30am, the Schedule really said we were supposed to go to bad at 11:45pm, but ya, that didn't happen! :-)

The next morning we had "small group session 2"and then another session at the church

(w/ CG band&Wes Hammilton) Then after we had lunch we all loaded on to, 2 huge charter buses, our church bus (The lime green bus), and 3 passenger vans, we then headed over to the Raleigh Rescue Mission. It was about a 45min. ride with a whole bunch of teenagers in a bus! Ya. At the Raleigh Rescue Mission different groups did different things, anything from yard work, cleaning nurseries, painting, holiday preparation, basically a little bit of everything.
My group did "holiday preparation" where we really didn't do anything holidyish. We wrote on these cards that people can take and then provide what ever is on the card. So I had to write "Stuffing Mix","Raleigh Rescue Mission" and "Instant Mashed Potatoes","Raleigh Rescue Mission" over and over and over again. There were hundreds and hundreds AND hundreds of the cards that we had to fill out. We did that for two hours then loaded beck on the buses and vans and headed back to the church. Once we got back to the church we headed to our host homes. We did "Small Group Session 3&4" had dinner, played Twister, and hung out. Then we headed back to the church for Session 3. Then went back to the our host homes again. Where we had a snack played "Catch Phrase" which was really really fun, Then we watched "Sky High" and went to bed at 1:30am again! The next morning Mr. Ryan woke us all up telling us we were all going to be late to getting to church and if we wouldn't get up he was gonna pour cold water on us. I got up and went up stairs, Mr. Ryan was still yelling for everyone one to get up when all of a sudden he goes "Whoops, Never Mind!" "It's really only 7:15am not 8:15am, I forgot to set back the clocks!" :-) lol, So we were all ready to go an hour before we were supposed to leave so we played catch phrase again! Then headed to church for Sunday School and Service (w/ CG band&Wes Hammilton) then head home with our families. Over all it was a really awesome fun weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Charter Bus :-)

At the rescue mission - back - Hannah(not looking), Cassie, ME, Alisha, Emily

Front- Jimmy, Alisha and Stephanie :-)

Emily and I and working at the Mission

Emily playinf TWISTER. hahahaha. Stephanie is behind her:-) lol

The whole gang playing Twister:-) That was alot of fun!!

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"FALL DAY"

Even though we're a month into fall we finally got are fall decorations out:-) We also carved pumpkins. It doesn't look like fall outside, but it is getting cold enough to be fall. I do hope that we get the really pretty reds, yellows, oranges in the trees soon!

Outside -


There is barely any fall colors in the neighborhood :-(


The walk way in front of our house is mostly covered in pine straw!


It took me A VERY LONG time to find an orange, yellow, and red leaf!

Some Decorations -





My mom made both of these wreaths :-) Arn't they Gorgious?! :-)


I made this silk flower arrangement a couple of years ago in "Keepers of Home"
When Mrs. Mestas taught us about Fall decorations! Boy, That was awhile ago!



"Operation Pumpkin"-

Jason kept saying that the inside was COLD :-)


Pumpkin guts aren't the loveliest things in the world:-(


Jason decided to put "Simba"(from Lion king) on his pumpkin/ I did a musical theme, it was an easer patter, I didn't want to spend along time on mine:-)


He liked the cutting part:-)


The bowl of "Gross yucky stuff" after we were done:-)

The finished pumpkins -

It took us all afternoon to do them....well it took Jason all afternoon to do his..:-)


Silly Picture!!! lol


Awwww.... wow we actually look alike! SCARY!!!


They came out really good! They will look even better out on our steps!

Hangin

Nothing much going on here. I had basketball practice this morning at 8am!! Not Fun!!!! Then I went to Jason's soccer game, and went shopping!!! "Yeah" for shopping! Especially for clothes!!!!................for me of course.:-)

We have had rain the last two days and we needed it in the middle of this awful drought!!!!!!! When you drive by the lake, and there is grass growing in the middle of it, you know it's bad:-)
It stopped raining today, which made Jason happy because of his soccer game.

I'm playing in a "Powder Puff Football Game" tomorrow with our homeschool group. It's gonna be alot of fun!! I'll post all about it with pictures tomorrow (hopefully):-)

That's about it for today. REMEMBER - I LIKE COMMENTS!!!!

How Can It Be Over?

Ya know the saying "It's not over till the fat lady sings"? Well she sung tonight, my volleyball season is officially over :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( I don't think I could be sadder!
We had the Awards Night tonight at Coach TJ's church. It was a lot of fun. Everyone brought a dessert to share, so of course all us girls were happy :-)All of us players received certificates. It was bitter sweet, it's fun and all!, but it's the last time I get to see most of the people until next year!!...if they come back.....which they better! I really hope we'll all be able to stay in touch through out the year! I had such an AWESOME group of girls on me team and I was so truly blessed to have them on my team and get to know them!!

Here some pictures of some of the girls -


"the signing table" We all just HAVE to sign each others shirts and certificate holders! lol


Leigh Ann, Emily and Wilson - Skipping are way to victory at the Tournament:-)


GROUP HUG! - Leigh Ann, Wilson, Katie, Sierra, and Cheri!


Erica and Michelle :-) (Varsity)


Leigh Ann and Megan (Varsity) being them selves:-)


YEAH!!! Katie(Auntie), ME (Granny), and Wilson (Cousin or Reverend:-) lol


Katie, Me, Leigh Ann, Melonie, and Wilson!


I miss you girls already!!!!

Music YEAH!!!

How do you like the music? I've wanted music for along time!!! Isn't this what big brothers are for? Thank You Eric!!!!!!! :-)
I'm Happy!

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!!

My Volleyball team had a Tournament @ Wake Forest University in Winston Salem yesterday. And We won!!! Whoo Hoo!!!

This is the third year in a row we have taken home the 1st place trophy!!! We had to get up at 5:30am in order to leave by 6:30 so we could get there by 9am for a 10am game, so it took a while just to get there! and we of course had the first game!:-)

We were ranked 3rd going in the tournament, played the Fayettville Crusaders (who was ranked 2nd) for the first game and we creamed them!!:-) We then headed over to the other gym (other side of the hall way:-) to watch our Varsity play, they played awesome in the game but ended up loosing in the very close game. They got 4th in the Tournament over all. After that game we went to grab a bite to eat and headed back to the gym. We watched the game before ours which was the looser bracket. After that game we had the Championship game vs. Orange County Storm (ranked 1st.), we played AWESOME!! AND WON!!! (again:-) it was really sweet because we had lost to them in both games during the season, so it was really nice to beat them :-) WE headed over to the other gym again to catch the end of the Varsity game. Then we all just hung out and while the championship for the varsity tourney.

We ended up leaving around 7:30pm, got a bite to eat at Red Robin, and got home around 10pm. It was a very FULL day.

LET'S FLY!!!!

LET'S SOAR!!!!

LET'S GET DOWN LOW!!!

AND TOUCH THE FLOOR!!!

GO EAGLES!!!!

WHOOP WHOOP!!!

GO EAGLES!!!!

WHOOP WHOOP!!!

Emily, Kara, Sierra, Katie, ME, Sheri, McKenzie, and Wilson!


JV&Varsity (I'm not going to list everyone's name, I don't have that much time!!)

WITH OUR TROPHY!!! Victory tastes SWEET!!

WAY TO EAGLES!!!! I LOVE Y'ALL!!!!

NC State Fair

We went to the fair yesterday and had a blast! It was kinda hot though, but that didn't stop us. :-) We got there around 12pm hit the gardens and the Village of Yesteryear (a big craft fair). Then daddy came and we went and ate:-) I had a chicken gyro, I've had this the last like 3 years. It's very yummy. And no I didn't eat any of the yucky fried stuff that's not supposed to be fried (Twinkies, candy bars, PB&J!....I'm to grossed out to continue) After we were all full we just walked around for a while, Jason played two games (spent $8 for a 7 inch stuff animal that you can get at the dollar store, yep that sounds like the fair!) Walked through all the buildings (art gallery, 4H building,another big building right next to the 4H building that I can't remember it's name:-) one of the barns) We had NC State ice cream, one of the best parts of the Fair! $4 for a humongous amount of ice cream that no one in our family could finish theirs!And it's REALLY GOOD ice cream. We also shot bebe guns at the Wildlife safety tent. I shot better than everyone in my family!!



Daddy always has to get a grilled corn on the cob.

Jason milking a cow (stinkin black bar!)

Eric pitching at the speed pitch.

In line for our ice cream ;-)

Me and Eric having fun:-)

Manda Panda liked Bamboo!! :-) lol

In front of a garden (I like the pot arch way in the back round) (I hate my face in this pic.!)

Getting ready to shoot the bebe guns, For some reason I didn't take off the safety glasses before the picture so I look really funny! lol

Mommy and Daddy :-)

Eric, Jason, Daddy, and Me!! mom was taking the picture!

Over all it was a really fun day!

My Puppy Dog

I have a 2 year old Lab/German Shepherd. We got him when he was ten weeks old from a shelter in Lexington (about 2 1/2 hours away). Our dog before him, "Angel", was hit by a car on New Years Day a couple of years ago. About a year and a half later my parents Finally told me I could get a dog for my birthday (July 16) but I had to wait until we got home from vacation in the middle of August. I had been looking on Petfinder for Golden Retriever or Lab puppies up for adoption in the area. Finally we got home and about a week later I went got on to see if any more puppies were available. And I found a web page for H.E.A.R.T adoption in Lexington and they said that they had lab/Shepherd puppies available and that they were having a adoption day the next day(Sat. morning and it was late Friday night) So I went to my mom and I was like "Hey mom...want to take a road trip tomorrow???":-) And we did!!

And now we have my Doggy named "Ranger". He is a VERY HUGE dog! REALLY strong. My friends make jokes saying "Amanda's dog isn't a dog, it's a polar bear!" " I could ride him!" lol

But he's my puppy dog and I love him:-)

Ranger when we got him. He was such a cute puppy!! - Don't you agree?!?!

Look at those eyes!


His football was as big as his head!! lol

He thought he was the king of the house. (Our cat did not like that!)

Sarah and Ranger, I wish he could have stayed like that!!

Now-

He's still very cute!!

laying around


chewing on something that he's not supposed to have, a daily routine.

watching the cat :-)

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