Happy Thanksgiving!

I would just like to say that i'm thankful that i'm surviving junior year! also, i'm thankful for the invention of radio and all it's advances. that way i actually have a career to look forward to. just a little update of...whatever: i finished up two songs i was working on. i finished them over the past week, and i have music to the one, and i'm still working on music for the other. but it's very exciting to have that sense of accomplishment. i hope you all have a restful, yet exciting long weekend.

Me? a Winner?

that's what i thought on wednesday afternoon when i got home from school. there was a package waiting for me on the dining room table. i don't normally get packages in the mail, so it was pretty odd. i looked at the return address, and it said the Weekend 22. The Weekend 22 is a weekly Christian countdown displaying the hottest songs in Christian music for the week. It's a syndicated program. The WORD FM plays the Weekend 22 on saturday afternoons. Since the WORD FM has temporarily gone away from this area, i haven't heard it in quite some time.

Anyways, so i realized that i must have won something from them. I've been entering nearly every contest they have. i do that with a lot of websites. i figure i should just enter into anything and everything i can, because i'm bound to win sometime. so i cut open the package, and find a book in there. it's called "My First Message". it's a children's devotional bible, with 50 bible stories written in the same text that's printed in the Message Bible by Eugene Peterson. This book also has really great illustrations. It seems like a great tool to get kids excited about God.

I'm not quite sure what to do with it right now. i guess the easiest thing to do is to put it away until i have kids of my own, and then read it to them. but that's a long time away. i was thinking i could give it away to someone at church, or just donate it to the church library. but i'm not really sure. so i'll just hang onto it until i figure out what to do with it.

in other news, WJTL just had their 500 countdown this past week. the fun started on Wednesday afternoon at 2:00. so for wednesday, thursday and friday i would rush out of school at 3, listen until i had to go to piano or work, and then make sure to listen in the car on the way home until i had to go to bed. on wednesday night, i washed dishes and cleaned the kitchen until 9 or 9:15 because i needed something to do while i listened to the radio.

they really had this well planned out this time around. in the past, on the third day of the countdown we would be at 10:30pm and still not be at #1. but in the past they would start the countdown at 2 in the afternoon the first day and go till 10pm, and go from 6am-10pm the next day. then on the final day they'd start at 6 and go till they finished. this time around they went to 11pm the first two nights. then they were done by 9 on the third. but i had to work from 5-9 last night. so i was a little bummed that i was probably going to miss the last ten songs. but even though it was really busy, for some reason they let me go home at 8:20.(i didn't even complain about missing the top 500 countdown. i knew they wouldn't understand) so i ran to the car and turned it on as fast as i could. it was a total God thing that i was able to get off early. when i turned on the radio in the car, they were on song 8. so i was able to go home and listen to the last 5 and a half songs with my family. that was really nice. Casting Crowns had three songs in the top ten, which was really good, and really surprising. the Number 1 song was Mercy Me with "I can Only Imagine". that was the number 1 song in 2004 too, which is the last time they did the 500 countdown.

it was great listening to the radio at every single moment that i could. i guess i do that on a normal day anyways, but it was way more exciting this week. and with listening to all the DJs, you could tell that they were excited about this too. i would be excited if i was a DJ on there. i really liked that they did the countdown this week. that way we were excited about the countdown this past week, and then next week is Thanksgiving. after that it's advent and getting ready for Christmas. well, i'm going to add some more to a song i'm writing, and work on my paper for physics. i hope everyone has a great weekend.

responding to comments...

since i've had such a great response to the whole advent discussion, i decided just to post about it. first, i guess i'll do what i should have done in the first place: explain it. basically advent is a season where we light candles on the advent wreath. the advent wreath consists of five candles. four of those candles make a square, and then the fifth candle is in the middle. at my church the four candles are purple, but last year my pastor said that in some churches the candle for the third week is pink. i forget why. but i'm sure he'll tell us again this year. the candle in the middle is lit during the Christmas Eve service. Except a few years ago, i think they lit the middle candle on Christmas Day when that happened on a sunday. at least, they did that at my church. but my family wasn't there that sunday. i've actually never seen that middle candle lit.

anyways, each of the four candles stand for something. there's the candle for hope, peace, love and joy. At my church we usually have sermons that go along with each of those sundays during the season of advent. it's nice to have that whole month focused on remembering what it took to actually get to the birth of Jesus.

When we were without a pastor over a year ago, we had one guest speaker who tied in his Christmas music listening with the season of advent. at the church where he preached, he wouldn't listen to any Christmas songs until the season of Advent started. and actually, i really like that "guideline." i guess it keeps the season all in that time frame so we don't get burnt out on it.

I wasn't able to tell my friend who asked about what i found. But the girl who helped me answer the question, "What is Advent?" got to hear a little of my findings. she, like me, see advent as something that she's been doing for her whole life.

so i really enjoyed hearing all your input on the subject. and yes, Aunt Tracey, i was surprised of what came out of a little something mentioned on the car ride home from Grandma's house. i'm not trying to put out there that advent is right or wrong. i guess i'm just looking for purpose and history. and it looks like i've found it. other than that, i totally forget where i was even going with this post. i guess that's what i get when i'm trying to talk to two people on IM, and blog something at the same time. but it's alright, i'm having a blast. i guess all i have to say is today is World Kindness Day. so be nice to someone this evening.

The Season of Advent

I know it seems a little early to talk about Advent, but Thanksgiving is only 10 days away, so Christmas will come sooner than it seems. it's roughly 42 days away. that means advent will start in a little less than three weeks.

anyways, all that's to say that i need all the bible buffs to show their face around here. it's your time to shine! i have a question about the season of Advent. is Advent talked about in the bible at all? i know i could probably look it up, but i thought maybe some of you might want to get that natural high from knowing something someone else didn't. if i do get the answer, i'll be sure to post it on here.

the reason i'm asking is because one of the guys at my lunch table wants to know. I asked him today if he knew why his denomination doesn't "do" advent. He seemed to know everything else about his church, so why shouldn't he know that? well, he had no clue what advent was. thankfully, someone was there who could name what the four candles stand for. And between the two of us we tried to explain it to him. then of course he had to go and ask if it was biblical. we couldn't answer that question. but i told him i'd get back to him on that.

so now i guess i'm wonder why some churches do advent and others don't. it's something that's been apart of my holiday season every year for the past 17 years. i honestly think i would feel strange if i didn't do advent. i've never really thought about this before. i guess i'll get to think it through while i'm at work tonight. it's off to the pizza buffet for me!

what a relief!

we actually didn't talk about Arby's today! i actually just realized that a second ago. what an amazing relief.

Just thought i should mention...

there's something you all should be aware of. but first, as always, we need background info. so for those of you who went to my mom's blog, you may have seen the pictures of when i got my hair cut. i had really, really long hair, and got 10-12 inches cut off to give to Locks of Love. for those of you who haven't figured out, i have very thick hair. and i have a lot of hair. actually, currently i stretch out many of my ponytail holders from putting my hair into a pony tail. it's a very thick ponytail.

anyways, i'm the only one in my family who has hair this thick. my mom and sister have thin hair, so they use volumizing shampoo and conditioner. i usually stay far away from that conditioner, or else i would look like i was trying to bring back the styles of the 80's. so i get the moisturizing stuff. well, my shampoo had been running low over the past few days, and someone tried to dilute it but it's basically like putting water on your hair and expecting that to make it clean. and tonight there wasn't enough water to do the job right. so i decided to take a drastic measure. i used the volumizing shampoo. i still used the moisturizing conditioner. but i figure for the next day or so i'm going to have to wear my hair in a ponytail to try to keep the frizz or whatever down. i dont' even know what's going to happen. i guess i'm expecting some time bomb to go off and then "poof" goes my hair. so i just wanted to warn you, especially those of you who see me every day. i'm not really trying to bring back the styles of the 80's. i just decided that cleanliness outweighed image.

one other part to this story: there's two bottles of my mom's shampoo. i don't know why there are two bottles of this stuff, but there are. so i first reached for the closest one. when i tried to open it, it decided i shouldn't open it. i don't know why it was so hard to pry open.

on a totally random note, two weeks from tonight we will be living through Thanksgiving Eve. that makes me excited. that means we just have the two days of this week, five days of next, and then two after that. and then we get a week off! we're just chugging our way through the year.

I'm thinking Arby's

Yeah, i've been thinking that statement a lot lately. especially whenever i go from lunch to my forth period class.

i would like to give you all some stats on my lunch table. there are ten people at the lunch table. 8 are seniors, and 2 are juniors. 8 are girls and 2 are guys. that makes things a little...interesting.

the two guys that sit at my lunch table both work at the same place, which happens to be Arby's. there was already an Arby's in the area. in fact, my family goes there after church whenever we have coupons. otherwise, for a family of five(with a 14-year-old cross country runner) to go to Arby's is pretty pricey. anyways, the Arby's we had is sort of out of the way for some people in the area, but not for the people who live in town. so anyways this other Arby's just opened up, which means more jobs are available for us poor teenagers so we can start saving for college. :-) so the one guy at my lunch table got a job there, and then a few weeks after that the other guy got a job there. so for the past two weeks all we've heard about is Arby's, Arby's, and...oh yeah: Arby's.

most times i end up sitting near, or between these two, so i hear everything. some of it's interesting. i've learned that they will be very mad at me if i go through the drive-thru and use coupons, and that those new cheesecake poppers taste much better than they appear in the picture posted on the ad we received in the mail. i also learned that i shouldn't try to eat a cheesecake popper right after it comes out of the fryer because it will be piping hot.(thanks for trying it out for me:-])

but i have a feeling the rest of the girls at the table are a bit fed up with the fact that they talk about Arby's all the time. today at the end of lunch they were trying to get their point across, except the guys were in the middle of another conversation about Arby's. now, if this had been my siblings, i probably would've put my hands on their heads and made them face Steph. but i couldn't do that because sibling authority doesn't come into account when there are no siblings to authoritize. so maybe Steph will try to talk to them tomorrow. or maybe i can come up with an effective way to get them to stop. or maybe i just need to brainstorm a list of ways to change the subject. or maybe the girls at the table need to have a mini-conference sometime outside of the lunch table to figure out a way to communicate.

well, now that i'm thinking Arby's, i'm thinking maybe i need to grab a snack before i go to work.

Parallel parking

Somehow i managed to get the words Parallel Parking into a song yesterday. i though it was pretty cool. i guess it's just been on my mind lately. see, usually whenever i work, i come home really late. so late, in fact, that i have to either parallel park on the street, or park out back in front of the garage. and i have to parallel park to do that. i've become quite skilled at parking back there. okay, so there's one scratch on the car from one incident. but i'm a lot more careful now.

so last night i came home, and at first parked two houses down the street. but then i decided i'd just park it in back. so i went halfway around the block, parked in the middle of the alley with my fourways on so i could move something in the way, and then got down to parallel parking. whenever i park in front of the garage, we don't measure how far away i am from the "curb", or rather, the garage door. we measure how much gravel is between the driver's side and alley. apparently i'm able to get the car in closer to the garage than my mom can. this is according to my dad. last night i got really close. almost too close. but somehow my brother was still able to get in the passenger side door when i drove my siblings to church this morning. He said it's no problem for him. i guess he's used to it because when he was in middle school my dad used to park that close, and then my brother would have to get in for the ride to school.

and then i got to park the car again this afternoon when we got home from church. see, tomorrow and tuesday we can't park out front because they're trimming the trees for the electrical lines. and since we weren't planning on going anywhere this afternon, my parents parked the van on the side street, and i parked the car near the garage. This time was a little different though. my brother and sister decided to all ride home with me, because we listened to Dizmas on the way to and from church. so they got out of the car, just in case i parked them in. and then they moved out of the way while i backed up.

being the wonderful younger siblings, they decided to tell me exactly how much room i had. they stood there in the middle of the alley towards the back of the car holding out their arms the same length of space that i had to back up. then when i put the car in first gear(oh yeah, did i mention this was stick shift?) they moved to the front and did the same thing. now i would like to know why i don't have them whenever i come home from work at night? well, for one thing they'd be very tired, and i probably wouldn't be able to see them in the dark. but hey, today they helped me not back into anything.