God always knows how to make my day better.

thoughts

People think of the most creative things. I mean nothing says "cool" like a burnt darth vador on your toast.

Connecticut was wonderful, can't wait to go back up north for Christmas!

The man sitting next to me on the airplane spilled orange juice all over his lap, and I had to try my hardest to not bust out laughing.

My phone has decided to turn off all the time on it's own. so convenient.

I'm really not a fan of spanish. I have a hard enough time mastering english.

I was in Kohls today, and they had Christmas trees up and Christmas music playing. I have a personal rule that I have to refrain myself from listening to christmas music till at least the week of thanksgiving. I have no rule that OTHER people can't play it. I didn't want to leave the store. I love Christmas.

I have no clue what God has in store for me after I graduate....but I came across a nice little reminder today....
"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." - Corrie ten Boom.
It's all in his hands.

connecticut...suprise!

My seeester Sarah moved up to Connecticut the beginning of september to live with and work for my aunt and uncle in their coffee shop. And we have spent the time while she's been gone trying to conspire a way for me to come visit her. Well last week I finally convinced my wonderful father to buy me a plane ticket so I could see her, right after we bought it sarah made a comment on facebook about how she wanted me to come visit her, inwhich my dad commented on how I have no time nor money to come see her. This didn't make her to thrilled...haha. We decided to make it a surprise visit! So I flew up Wednesday afternoon. I hadn't flown since I was like 9, and never by my self. but no worries. other then a super long hike across the Washington Dulles airport, and then to realize I could of taken a shuttle it was all good. :p
We kept it a secret for a week, and even though one of the employees let the cat out of the bag 2 hours before I showed up Sarah was still in shock. And VERY happy. it was still a good surprise.
Yesterday before she had to work we went out and took some senior pictures of me since she's not around to do so at home. We had a lot of fun, and decided it is impossible for me to 'smize" (smile with your eyes).






2 more days and then it's back to NC. :(

State champs

Last weekend was the NCHE State volleyball tournament at Wake Forest University, in Winston Salem. Tournaments are one of my favorite parts of playing sports. It was an awesome weekend, and we left with 1st place varsity state championship trophey! such an amazing way for all us seniors to end our high school volleyball career.

SENIORSS

Sometimes...

the sunset on the way home, can make your day all better.

tuesday morning thoughts...

Who ever came up with Fried Banana Peppers were GENIUS.

Text Talk is one of my greatest pet peeves. uh, its almost like scraping you fingers nails against a chalk board. I hate it, and can hardly look at it.

I really don't like spanish.

The state fair is in two weeks, and I AM SO EXCITED.

I need a lap top.

It's way to cold outside.

I'm so ready to graduate.

Sometimes I just wish I could add an extra secret day to the weekend. A day that I don't have anywhere to be or anything to do. And I could just sleep, eat, and watch movies in my pjs. But STILL have my fun friend time on the other days of the weekend. But this extra day has to be secret or else silly people will try plan stuff on this go no where/do nothing day. And that would be ridiculous. so. lets work on this. secret weekend day. all those in favor?

I love friday afternoon because I have the whole weekend a head of me. but then all of a sudden my alarm is going off monday morning, and I have to go to class, and it's dark outside, and its cold, and my pillow I swear has my head strapped to it. See my problem? it's just depressing.

Well we had our first basketball practice on saturday, and it was wonderful, and I realized how out of shape I am and how much I missed my team mates over the summer. I love them a lot. And I am soooo excited about this season! We are ALL seniors. All 10 of us. INSANE.


Volleyball is coming to an end. SAD. tomorrow is our last home game. and then we have our last away game thursday. My last season games of high school volleyball. DEPRESSING.
Good news - we're like 12-2! as long as we win tomorrow, we go undefeated in the conference! Tournament is the weekend after next..My favorite part of sports are tournaments. Hotels, food, talking, playing, watching, all with my wonderful team.

I got to go to Morgans for the night on saturday. We hadn't seen each other for way to long. She is such an encouragement to me, and I just love hanging out with her! Basically God made us friends cause He knew our parents couldn't handle us as sisters. But we are twins. Yes. Twins. it's true. We have to much fun together. :)

Another Miracle

One of my bestest friends Morgan and her family applied and have been waiting 5 years for a referral for their Chinese baby girl. After 5 years of prayer and faith in God, THEY GOT THERE REFERRAL YESTERDAY! :) :) :)! Praise God! Abigail Kay Ya-Shan Craig you are already so loved, and we all can't wait for you to be home with your family!

http://job42-5.blogspot.com/

Some Thursdays Big Ten - #5

1) Me and Emily have these funny little stories that we come up with when learning our Spanish 2 vocab to help us remember the words. And most of the time our story has nothing to do with the actual meaning of the word, and then we get funny looks in class when telling our selves these completely random out there stories during our spanish tests. :)

2) My volleyball team is basically awesome, and I love them all so much! wouldn't ask for a more wonderful group of ladies to play with in my senior year....we're 8-2 whoop whoop.

3) First graduation meeting on friday....31 graduates. oh baby. Let The Good Times Ro11. :)

4) Ewan McGregor has the most amazing voice ever and if I was him I would sing all day long.

5) I very much want the Moulin Rouge soundtrack

6)Basketball starts a in 9 days. this excitess mee greatly! team made up of 10 seniors...all girls I love so so sooo much! This is going to be the best season ever.

7) I'm really gonna miss a certain best friend, named Ellie, when she moved to TN, in January. :(

8) Prom planning has begun! I'm so excited about the 2nd annual Carolina Capital Homeschool Prom "Masquerade"

9) I feel like no matter how much homework I do, my still to do pile doesn't get any smaller.

10) today is my 1 year anniversery for having my lisence.....acident free, making my dad extremely happy because the insurance just went down $700. whoo whoo!

Come on Amanda, just get it done.

I have a paper due in 12 hours and need to get a full nights sleep in there somewhere. and I really really don't want to write this yucky paper. this. is. a. problem.

any time now.

I LOVE Fall. It is my all time favorite time of the year. I love everything about it. The leaves all change, jeans, jackets, boots, Thanksgiving, pumpkin carving, scarecrows, Apples in all their glory...pie, crisp, muffins, and cider! jumping in leaf piles, powder puff football, volleyball tournaments, basketball starts (eeek!) the crisp cool air, the smell of cinnamon, the sound of leaves shuffling under and crunching under your feat, camping, oh I just love love love allll of it! And I'm starting to get a little tired of waiting for it to come. Oh Fall, why do you make me wait....

sometimes...

Sometimes.... my sister and I kidnap our friends at midnight, go to wal mart and have a hair dying/cutting, sleep over party.



Sometimes...my and my friends have Chinese picnics in old barns at really cool parks.



Sometimes....me and my friends pull shenanigans on our friends...and then they get bitter and try to turn it on us..


Sometimes... I give my little brother a bedroom makeover for his birthday.
Sometimes...me and my siblings plan a big surprise 50th birthday/28th anniversary party for my parents..

Sometimes we go on spontaneous beach trips and it makes me happy.
Sometimes...I feel sad for other people...because they're life doesn't seem as exciting as mine.

Senior shoot.

Before Sarah left for Connecticut (where she's working for the next 4 months at my aunt and uncle cafe) we went on a mini senior photo shoot. I love my seester, and the house is quite quiet with out her.

Hold up. wait a second. Who took Summer?

Good Gravy, I'm confused. It was just here, and now it's gone. I don't know where it went, but it's no longer here. Summer has disappeared. And I am now officially a Senior! What what? Volleyball, TOG, prom planning, classes...it's all started up for the last time............

Instead of talking about sad things lets talk about the rest of my wonderful summer. yes, lets.

my family (minus alex and eric) took our annual Massachusetts trip and spent a week up there visiting relatives...hanging at my grandparents house, going to the Victorian Station Cafe ( My aunt and Uncles coffee shop), swimming at the neighbors pool, big family dinners....but I spent most of my time, Sewing, sewing, and sewing some more. For my thirteenth birthday my grandma came down for a visit and for my birthday present we went shopping for a pattern and fabric to make a quilt (she's a big quilter). Well we only got as far as cutting most of the fabric before she had to go home to MA, and the quilt was slowly forgotten about. Well earlier on this summer I decided that the quilt was something I wanted to finish before I graduated (knowing if it would probably never get completed after) so while we were up there (4 years later) I took it all out and spent the week cutting, stitching, ripping the stitches, stitching again, ironing, folding, and assembling. I almost finished it but ran out of time. But my awesome grammy is finishing up the boarder, taking it to a long arm quilter, and finishing it up with the binding! She's gonna mail it to me in a couple weeks, and I can nottttt wait to see it. I love it. :)
On the way home from MA, my family dropped me off at Liberty University for World View Academy Leadership Camp. Basically, one of the best weeks of my life. Best camp anyone could ever go to. legit. Going into the week I wasn't really sure what to expect, not really knowing anything about worldview academy. Well let meee tell youuu, God showed me so much in that one week then he ever has at any other camp I've been too. I learned so much about everything! literally. How to better defend my faith, what it means to be a true leader, how to approach other religions with your own, how many different worldviews there are out there, what it means to be a true christian, how to detect fallacies, and so so much more. My small group (which conveniently enough were my sweet mates, were all hilarious, kind, and we all just learned so much from each other) Our small group leader, Michelle, was basically the best small group leader ever in the world of small group leaders. it's the truth. She was so awesome and outwardly passionate about God, full of wisdom and hilarious comments. I loved her so much! My favorite part of camp though for me, was when we all loaded up into charter buses and went down town Lynchburg, and got to witness to the people on the street. My "group" of three got talkng to this one young man for almost an hour, and got to share Jesus with him, it was amazing. He lived at the Lynchburg Rescue Mission, and was just very confused about what it meant to be a christian and follow after Jesus, he even took out a bible out of his bag and tried to show us different scripture he was twisting into his own words. He took what I think is the most awesomest track I have ever seen, and I pray that we were able to be a light to him, and help him understand what it means to be a believer of Jesus Christ.



The following week, my family loaded up in the van, trailer hooked up and went to Kentucky for a week. Yes, I know...one might think. What's in kentucky? Well. Humidity, butterflies, 300 miles of cave, a creation museum, and an Old Navy/Gap/Banana Republic clearance warehouse...that's what. We spent 2 days at Mammoth Cave National Park, exploring caves (well it's actually one big cave...the largest cave in the world known to man....they have about 300 miles mapped out....but think that their could be up to 800) It was amazing...and I loved it...and not just because it was 50 degrees cooler in the cave then in the air above ground. We went on three different tours...each being about 2-3 hours long...and a couple miles long. The first tour we went almost 300 feet underground...and let me tell you, it's a good thing I'm not afraid of heights, otherwise I would of peed my pants descending down into the cave. The second tour we got to eat lunch at a small "cafeteria" 250 feet under ground, and then third tour was a lantern tour, 40 people, the only lighting were10 old gas lanterns we carried with us. It was supposed to help you feel like the men who first explored the caves, and see it from their perspective. It. was. awesome.


Then we went and spent three days up near Cincinnati and went to the Creation Museum. The creation museum was really good! anddd they had really pretty gardens. The rest of the week we just hung around the camp site, reading, napping, made a trip to the clearance wear house - $9 jeans - heck to the yes! Thanks Mrs. Campbell for the great tip!

Now over this three week crazy time period, I was ill. yes. ill. I got the worst ear infection I've ever had while in MA, and over three weeks I went to three different Urgent Cares in three different states, went through three different antibiotics, 3 different ear drops, and a decongestant. It would tease me and feel like it was getting better and then all of a sudden, POW, knife in the ear once again. I'm so happy it's all gone, and I never want it to come back, or I will have to punch something.

Then we came home...jumping right into volleyball, classes starting a few weeks later.
I liked my summer. It was a good summer. But honestly I feel like as you get older summer gets shorter...I remember being little and summer lasted forever! and I'd be asking when we could start school again. It snuck away on me this year...stinky.

COMMENCE SENIOR YEAR......