summer vacation! =)

Well, I'd say we're off to a good start! A good start to what, you might ask? To our summer trip!! I'm quite excited, to say the least. ;) I feel like I need to have pictures or something, but...there's really not much that I can take a picture of. :P I mean, I guess I could take pics of the RV we're renting...it's kind of difficult to take good pictures of the inside, though. Maybe in the next few days, m'kay?

Anyway, the RV is really great, despite the small inconveniences we've discovered, just like any home, temporary or otherwise. For example, the closet that we all share? When the slide in the back is slid in, the bed is shoved up against the closet doors, and you can't open it up. Thus, you cannot get into the closet unless the slide is out (which means we have to be parked somewhere). :P Ah, well. One thing, however, that's really, really nice is that we now have bunk beds in this rented RV (as opposed to our other RV, which we are selling) - that way Nathan and Noah share the bed over the cab, I get the bottom bunk, Nicholas gets the top bunk, and my parents (of course) get the "master" bedroom. ;) Also, we have lots of storage, which is quite nice. :)

And there are three TVs in this thing! My goodness, we only have one in our entire house! Who in the world needs three televisions in little more than 200 square feet??! My hope is that we'll be spending quite a bit of time outside - probably even more so when we get up north and into cooler weather.

Oh! That reminds me (don't ask why; I have a weird train of thought) - there is one thing that I have pictures of: my hair! Er, more specifically, the haircut I just got. ;) I got it cut two days ago, on Thursday, and while I'm still getting used to it, I like it. I'm going to donate my chopped-off hair to Locks of Love (3rd time!)...as soon as we take the time to mail it out, that is. :P Anyway, here are the before and after pics:

Sorry about that 2nd picture - how it's kinda blurry and I'm not really smiling well and all that...we are driving on the highway, you know, and I just took that pic in the bathroom because it was well-lighted in there and I wanted to do it in the mirror, so I had to brace myself against the sink and focus on not pitching into the shower while trying to quickly snap a half-decent picture (wow, was that a total run-on sentence!). :) Ha, I didn't even have my glasses on, either. :P And, as you may have guessed, the bags underneath my eyes are from packing all day and getting about, ah, 6 and a half hours of sleep...you should have heard Nicholas and I last night. Boy, were we punchy. :D

So, yeah...I like this haircut because it's so much easier to take care of, makes for quicker showers (for which my 3 brothers are quite thankful), and will keep me a bit cooler this summer. At the same time, however, there's not as much you can do with short hair (and today I just left it down because I was being lazy and it's easy that way). And I was hoping that this haircut would make me look a bit older, as it has in the past...well, this time I think it made me look about 2 years younger. :P Ah, well.

Anyways....hmm, reading over this post, it sounds kinda choppy and not all that well written. :P Well, whatever...you'll just have to deal with it, ok? :) Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

Love and blessings,

Nicole <3


P.S. I wrote this post earlier today, but am just posting it now - at, like, 10:55pm...which would be 11:55pm EST time - we're in central time now. Yeah... :P. But, I just wanted to add real quick that we're staying at this wonderful little campsite in the Panhandle, and had such a lovely time walking along the beach earlier, during sunset (we walked to the beach! it's only, like, a 5, 10 minutes walk - how awesome is that?! I'll post pics tomorrow or something). We'll stay here another night, and then head onto Louisiana. Oh, and my mom is updating her blog on our family website (where my old blog is, on Weebly)! Be a sweetie and go check it out, maybe even leave a comment! (Please?) ;) {I'm quite liking these handy little post scripts. I always seem to want to add something but don't know where to stick it!}

photo/editing challenge and loveliness

Welllll....I just found this lovely little blog, Designed to Inspire, created by the lovely little lady, Britt, "to help others use their talents and creativeness for fun and help them grow and learn different techniques" {quoted from her 'About My Blog' page}. It's positively lovely! ;) (I'm finding myself quite drawn to that word today. Along with the word 'quite'. Just a random fact.)

And, they just happened to be having a photo challenge there! "They" being Britt, Hannah, Hannah Frank, and Ruby (the other contributors) - the photo challenge, however, was posted by Ruby. This is a bit different from typical challenges, however. In this contest, Ruby has posted a picture that she took, and we all have to edit the picture. Cool idea, huh? I thought so, too. That's why I'm taking part in it. ;)

Sooo....here is the original picture in all of it's amazing original-ness:

And here is the edited picture in all of its amazing edited-ness!

I used PicMonkey to edit the photo. Tell me what y'all think! (Yes, I'm a bit of a country girl *wink*) Oh, and my wonderful younger brother, Nicholas, helped me edit this. ;) We had fun doing it together....unfortunately, the prize is a blog button, so I can't give him half of that. {Aw, too bad...if I win, I get all the amazing blog button-ness to myself! Mwahahaha! ...ahem.}

Now then, go and take part in this lovely photo editing challenge! (Did I mention it was lovely?)

P.S. My youth group went to IKEA today! Last time I'll see them all before our trip. :( But we had so much fun...it was my first time there, along with at least one other person (so I didn't feel too left out). Oh! And I had ligonberry juice. Apparently that is a popular Swedish berry or something, because there was ligonberry juice, ligonberry sauce, etc. It tastes kind of like cranberries. But I digress...after lunch and looking around for couches, rugs, etc. for the youth room, we had a scavenger hunt, created by our very own youth leader - and it was amazing!! I'm not sure who won, though. :P Anyway, we had fun, took lots of interesting pictures - which may or may not come up later. We'll see. ;) Love and blessings to you all!! May you all rest in God's peace and joy...what a wonderful place to be, agreed?

award and such

I know, I know, I know. I am a very bad blogger. Let me 'splain...no, there is too much - let me sum up (hehe :) Princess Bride quote): it's been about...let me see...5 weeks - over a month - since my last post.


I will wait for your gasps of horror to subside.


Now. Where were we? Oh, yes - the terrors of my blogging habits. You see, the first week and a half or so of my impromptu hiatus, I almost completely forgot to blog. At all. Really, you ask? Really. Seriously. No sarcasm involved. I'm not sure how, but somehow I just about totally forgot that I had a blog, much less that I needed to post on it. I'm not even sure what I was doing that so led me astray!


Once it finally, actually dawned on me that my 13 followers - wait a minute, 13? I gained new followers while I wasn't even posting?! This is slightly concerning...it leads to the thought that I am more interesting when you don't have to listen to me. Hmph.


Let me continue. *switches to dramatic, theatrical voice* When at last I realized that my questionably loyal followers were waiting in questionable suspense for my next questionably amazing post...*switches back to normal voice*..I procrastinated. Mmm, procrastination - one of the most blissful yet most cursed habits of mankind (blissful, that is, until your friend is coming over in 10 minutes and you haven't even started on your science test; blissful, that is, until you have to leave in a half an hour and you still haven't taken a shower; blissful, that is, until an entire 5 weeks have gone by and you are forced to post because you have been awarded. how pathetic. thus, it is cursed, as aforementioned).


And then, for the last, oh, 3 weeks, I had a topic bouncing around in my head that I refused post because of my stubborn laziness. I hesitantly checked up on my ailing blog every now and then, while still eagerly following other blogs....until the day that my blogging world was changed. That day was the day when I was....awarded. ;)


So, here I am, humbly presenting myself to you and apologizing for my lackadaisical neglect, and hoping you could somehow forgive me for my horrible misdeeds. (And realizing that I did not sum up. I most definitely explained, in a quite superfluous fashion. *sigh* Another thing for which to ask your forgiveness...)


And now I am putting my dark past behind me and am moving forward - to thank Ireland from A Pearl of Great Price for awarding me!! :)

1. Thank the person who awarded you.
2. List 7 random things about yourself.
3. Award 15 others this award.


So, #1 - just in case I did not make this clear: thank you so much, Ireland!! That was so sweet of you! ;) As I was telling her, I'm a bit embarrassed that she viewed my blog in its sorry state, and I was explaining how un-award-worthy my blog is, when it dawned on me - my blog fits one of the (lesser known) definitions of the award!


ver·sa·tile (adj.) - 1. Able to adapt or be adapted to many different functions or activities. 2. Changeable; inconstant.


Inconstant - describes my preferred pattern of posting perfectly! :) I mean, I suppose could start a new trend on this blog of mine and start posting more regularly...maybe...think it'll work? It would take a miracle. Goodbye! (sorry...another Princess Bride quote :) ya think I've watched that movie too many times? my family quotes it all the time...)


Now for the 7 random things about me....


1. My eyes are blue-green, like my dad and my older brother.
2. I finished (home)school last week!! Next year, highschool...(still homeschooled)
3. I am taking Spanish on an online class over the summer, my choice. I'd like to one day be able to speak Spanish just about fluently.
4. My family is leaving on either the 15th or the 16th for our trip! So excited!!
5. My dad's birthday was yesterday!! We had such a great time, and I made this delicious dessert for him! Only instead of chocolate frosting, I made and spread ganache on top (my friend's idea), stuck it in the fridge, and then we ate it later. Yum...
6. I'm looking forward to, Lord willing, getting my permit this year, as I am turning 15 on November 16th!
7. I - er, my mom coupons. Well, I help. :) Any fellow couponers out there?


And I award....


1. Alisha at Mercy's Miracle
2. Anna at f a n a t i c a l
3. Chloe at Blooming in Christ
4. Emii at Girlz 4 God
5. Melody at Rejoice Always!
6. Melody at 100 Things to do Before College
7. Rachel at What Do You Expect?
8. Sarah Elizabeth at Learning to Trust God
9. Sophie at My Happy Place
10. Talia at Girlz of God
11. ...
12. ....
13. .....
14. ......
15. .......


Um, OK, so I didn't make it to 15. :P I tried really hard, but I only made it to 10. :( Ah, well. I already knew it would take a me a while to round up even just 10 people to award and then comment on their blogs letting them know I've awarded them...which is why I put this post off for a day or two. :P BUT, anyone else who wants to do this - I award you! ;)


Anyway, I hope this satisfies y'all for now, because I right about now, I feel satisfied just writing! I need to write more often (as my record of posts clearly shows)...


Love and blessings to you all! May God's peace guide us throughout the day as we serve Him...and be reminded by Him to serve Him - not others, not ourselves, but Christ, our Savior and Lover. <3


P.S. My friend and I sidewalk chalked yesterday....in the rain. ;) It was quite amusing, and I'm very sorry I was too lazy to take pic of it. :P We were very proud of our (slightly smudged) balloon and flower and tree and butterfly and teddy bear and - our best - the earth with purple, pink, orange, yellow, and white children circling it, holding hands. ;) When was the last time you sidewalk chalked? Or...have you - *gasp* - never sidewalk chalked?!

bullet lists are wonderful things

There's so much I want to say.


I was thinking, before I even started this post, about what I wanted to write...I started to count how many different topics I wanted to blog about. The number was somewhere around 7, I believe, and is rapidly increasing as I think of more things I want to just get out there.


Now, I think you all will agree with me that if I go ahead and pour out my heart about all those topics and events, you will never reach the end of this post (neither will I, for that matter) and I will have merely accomplished a way-too-long-I'm-so-tired-of-reading-this-my-eyelids-are-about-to-glue-shut post that will bore you all to death.


So. The normal solution would be to pick out one or two things for this post and either forget about the rest or save some for later. However, I am not normal, if you haven't noticed. Thus, I am going to condense several of these topics to just a couple of sentences, throw 'em all (including some other things I think of) on a couple of bullets, and hope it all works out. ;) Here we go...

• Last week we had some very, very good family friends come down from North Carolina and stay with us for a couple of days. We had such a great time with them!! I wish I could tell you every detail...but I can't. :)
• Also, last Friday evening and all day Saturday (excluding Fri. night), I was with my friend's youth group (which I've been attending for over a year now) at Acquire the Fire!! We had such a great time. The worship band, the speakers, the drama, the concerts - they were all amazing. Christ was certainly present, and many people gave their life to Him!
• I am currently loving this song - heard it on the radio, looked it up - never heard of the guy, but, wow, his voice is amazing! Yeah, he's unique, but I think he's really great. ;) Here's a link to the lyrics, btw (you might need 'em).
• Oh, and this song. :) {click here for lyrics}
• My friend, her family, most of her youth group, and several college kids that her older brother knows (and I know most of them, too, incidentally - they are homeschoolers, you know) are all taking part in the Justice Revolution. The JR is a book that her dad and another guy (I believe) wrote, a kind of daily devo containing a 21-day challenge to raise awareness about several injustices in this world - poverty, abortion, human sex trafficking, child soldiers, etc. {Yes, slavery is definitely still present in this world, and more so than ever...it's heartbreaking.} You can check out some of the teens' videos on YouTube here and here.
• Mom and I spent some time together yesterday afternoon, one-on-one, and had so much fun!! :) We got ice cream at Coldstone and painted our nails at the park!
• We, my family and I, are most definitely planning to take a road trip this summer, for about two and a half months or so...and I'm so excited!!! :D Unless God tells us that this His not His Plan for us, right now we believe it is, and we spent some time last night as a family planning it out - we've already got almost the first week down! (Google Maps is an amazing thing.) My mom and dad already planned out the whole
  (tentative) route, but last night we just started from the beginning in more detail.

Sooo...that wasn't too long, right? :) Just bits and pieces of my life lately...


Hey, and thanks to the girls who said they were praying for Nicholas!! Trinka, Tess, and Emma - I showed my post and your comments to him yesterday, and he loved it. ;) He was allowed to play in the last basketball game for a couple of minutes, and he did great - speaking of basketball, both our JV and varsity teams get to play in the first round of the tournament this Monday (woot-woot!), so please pray that everything goes well and no one gets hurt!! We had one of our best varsity players fracture his wrist two games ago. :( Prayers for him would be great, too!


Love and blessings,
Nicole <3 John 5:24

quick post & prayer request

Hello, all! (speaking of 'hello', i have that song by Shonlock stuck in my head...who, by the way, i got to see in concert on Saturday! more on that later)

So sorry I haven't posted! I have been SO busy, but having so much fun! :) I'm kinda tired - haven't gotten enough sleep for the last, ah, several days - and I'm not sure that a decent blog post right now would be the greatest idea ever (i'm not completely functioning, i don't think..just enough to stay awake). :P Plus, I burned my tongue hours ago with hot (HOT) chocolate, and it still hurts. Still.

But I just wanted to check in and ask you guys girls people (tho my few readers are prob mostly girls) if you could be praying for my brother, Nicholas. He got hit in the head with a baseball bat earlier this afternoon, so my mom went to an after hours clinic or something with him. They're still gone, but she called to let me know that he's doing OK and that he got three stitches on the small yet deep cut on the outer edge of his eyebrow (a first among us kids! the stitches, i mean). Anyway, here's a pic of my little bro (at Busch Gardens):

isn't he cute?
{he's going to kill me for saying that}

So, yes, your prayers would be greatly appreciated! And, hey, if - when you read this, if you could just drop a quick note saying, "Praying for you, Nicholas!" or "You're the most adorable ahem, handsome thing ever," or something, I'm sure he'd love that. ;) (JK about the latter. He would also kill me for that. :) Anyone else have younger siblings they love to tease?? Gotta love 'em...they bring so much joy, do they not?)

Anyway...the water for the spaghetti is about to boil over (I can hear it...it's coming...). Noah's electronic chess thing is beeping constantly, and quite annoyingly (beep, beep...beep...beep, beep, beep). I'm tired. I'm hungry (*rumble, rumble, growl*...right on cue). I'm getting a headache from the beeping. And did I mention I'm tired?

....Don't you just love life? :D I sure do. How's your life?


**Update from 4/24 -- Nicholas is doing great and loving the attention from the stitches (thanks for the comment, Trinka!!). ;) I just took some pics of him (below).


And, hey, I know that y'all have time to say you'll pray for him! I mean, don't say it if you don't mean it, obviously, but I thought it'd be really great to surprise him with a whole list of people who are praying for him in a couple of days or so. :) A little help, please? Thanks, and love and blessings to you all!

sorry about the poor picture quality :P i just have to say, tho 

- i don't know, however, if you can tell too well in this picture - 

but our family all pretty much agrees that he got all the good genes -
my mom's beautiful, tanned skin tone as well as the gorgeous brown eyes,
long eyelashes, slim, athletic build, etc. :)
the hair here could use a little work...
;) not that he cares

...and the puppy face
(he's about to burst into laughter)
;D

childlike

via Google Images

Sometimes I just want to be a kid again.

A little girl, who doesn't feel the need to tell her brother not to put a dripping wet cutting board into the cabinet as "clean", who hasn't yet learned to default to directing her brothers around carelessly. A little lady who is not yet desensitized to the ways of this world, who is utterly repulsed at the irreverent misuse of God's holy Name. A young child who enjoys running around outside in the sun with her little friends, who isn't worried about that guy who just tagged her to be 'it' - isn't worried about what he thinks of her, her clothes or her hair.

Who loves life. Who worships God in surrender, with abandon.

Does anyone else here long for that? Long to be childlike, as Jesus commanded? Wouldn't that be amazing? Don't you love it when you just laugh with your siblings, family, friends - just being enthralled with the joy of pure life?

I love life, this forgiven, free live He has given me. I hope I can learn again to enjoy it as much as Jesus does.

^"And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

--Mathew 18:3-4

p.s. A big, huge thanks to Emma Margaret, who designed the current theme for the blog! :) You can visit her blog here or order a blog design from her here. Thanks, Emma!

rice krispie treats and such

Does this not look absolutely yummy? And it was, btw, just thought you should know. ;) My friend and I had the best time ever making them yesterday!! The first batch...well, you wouldn't want to see a pic of that. It turned out to be a hardened mess. But this is the second batch, and I hope you agree with me that they look particularly scrumptious, if I do say so myself. My brother had the idea of putting M&Ns (sp?) on top, and my other brother arranged them very beautifully!

We brought them today to the science class that we go to at a nearby church - it was our last day (thank You, Jesus!), so a bunch of people brought snacks and our teacher let us hang out and stuff our faces for about a half an hour. There are now 8 treats left - er, never mind, there are 7.  My dad just scarfed one down. ;)

And I just wanted to say, I edited that picture ^^ with PicMonkey! Very easy, completely free, you don't even have to register, and the only limitation (that I've found so far) is that with some special effects, they stamp their monkey logo in the corner of the picture. And let me say, I never did use Picnik, so I don't know how it is compared to that, but I just know that this is very useful and extremely simple & user friendly!

So...here are two other pics that I've edited with PicMonkey so far:

Before...

After! ;)

I've been wanting to do something like that with a pic of my desk since about a month ago, but I didn't really think about it again until I saw this feature that PicMonkey had - and, tada! It really isn't a good picture, but I really just wanted to the black-&-white-but-leave-the-flowers-colored thing. ;) But here's the pic I really like... (wow, I'm all over the "really"s today :P)

Before...

After!! {insert sparkling music...
...no, wait, music can't sparkle...
...you know what I mean}

Hehe. About this picture: we used to juice carrots ALL the time a couple of years ago, but we don't do it as much anymore. A month or two back, though, we were juicing quite a bit more often, so one day we took all the carrot peelings we had saved and put back in the plastic bags that the carrots came in, and we brought them to a nearby field where the cows roam, and the envelopes play...hehe, sorry. {When my brother was younger, he was quite convinced that it was pronounced 'envelope', not 'antelope'. ;) Ah, little brothers...}.

Anyway, we dumped out all of the peelings for them, fed a few by hand, snapped a couple of pics, and then left them to enjoy their juicy snack. We used to do the same at our old house, only it was horses we fed, because we had neighbors behind our house who were, like, the most amazing neighbors ever and let us feed their horses and play in their pool and pick their tomatoes...see, I told you they were awesome. ;)

This week has been and will certainly continue to be positively busy. And I positively enjoy it. To name a few, we have had and have yet to have basketball practices, games, youth group (for me), science class, going to the library, dance lessons (Mom), coupoun-ing with friends (Mom and I), dance competition (Mom, she can't wait!! a mini-match, her first), etc. And....well, I'll have to surprise you later with a bit of information that I'm just bursting with excitement about.

Now we're off to watch the boys' basketball games! JV and varsity. They're playing at a school where my friend used to go! ;) (Unfortunately, I heard that the other team has a pretty good height advantage over us, with two guys on the varsity team that are as tall as our tallest player, who's, like, 6' 3'' or something. :P) 

Love and blessings,

Nicole <3 John 5:24