the tennesseean must like us

today as i was working the pumpkin patch at my church a guy stopped by who said he was from the tennesseean. he said he had been looking for a good halloween story and as he was driving by he saw our pumpkins and got a story idea. so we talked to him for about 15 or 20 minutes about how we use the money we raise and the kind of people that stop by. he took our picture in front of one of our little scenes and got all of our names to put in the paper. jonathon and abby lemons were quoted and he told us the story will run on halloween!


-em

i'm mad

so i was going to go to fields of faith tonight after i got out of disciple at 8:30. the invitation said it wouldn't be over until midnight. as it turns out, it ended at 8:30. so i didn't get to go and i'm sure a lot of people show up after 8:30 expecting it to still be going on but i guess they will soon find out that it is over. = (


-em

random, pointless thought

could you make cookie dough cookies? i mean like the same way you would make m&m or chocolate chip?


-em

it's pumpkin time!

the pumpkins are here and i am getting ready to go out there in a few hours and unload them! we went to wal-mart today and got stuff to decorate the area with. it is imposible to go to wal-mart and not play with all the stuff. we were first in the kid's area and we found a jesus doll that spoke bible verses! it was... interesting. then we went down the halloween isle and i saw a pirate hat. well in a few weeks our school has homecoming and one of our days is pirate day. so i bought the hat and an eye patch. i found it amusing.

-em

my mom and i went to the crafts fair today. we always go every year but we never buy anything. this year it seemed like everyone brought their dogs. they all had little dogs except for 4 or 5. i love dogs, especially little ones. so it was fun.
wilson county schools are now on fall break! this means two weeks of no school! im excited. we as a family aren't going anywhere so i decided to work the pumpkin patch. i think i'm working everyday over break except 4 days. we don't get the pumpkins until wednesday though. everyone come buy some!


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matt and sarah, september 29th, 2007

today the summer intern we had in '06 gets married! we couldn't take a group because the wedding was in west virginia, 11 hours away, but i bet the wedding is nice!




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an afternoon of fun

yeah. we jumped, it was fun. (all of this after we made posters for see you at the pole)


-em

so i went to the doctor yesterday....
and that's about as exciting as my week has been. i had to get 2 shots: one for the cervical cancer thing and a tetnous. then i went to get ice cream because i hate shots. actually i was pretty excited to find out that i am now 6 feet tall.
actually im just really procrastinating my homework which i really shouldn't be because i have a lot. i have to do a chem. lab report but first i have to finish my lab analysis. then i have to study for a test in that class that i have tomorrow. i have a project due next week that i have yet to start on for bible class. i also have to finish a worksheet for trig. that is due tomorrow. dang now i just realized how much work i really have. ok that's it.


-em

tennessee-florida

soooo, ut lost. its sad, i know. it was a very disapointing game. with a final score of ut-20 florida-59, i must say tennessee was not playing well at all today. maybe next year...


-em

woah.

yeah it's a lot but it's interesting i promise. = )


lots of stuff has been happening this past week. the exciting stuff started saturday at centerfest.
centerfest is a music festival that's outside in a big field. well i decided not to take my purse with me so i just held my car keys in my hand until i got to the blanket we were all sitting on. i had left them on the blanket until it was time to go. (the crowd wasnt all that bad. kinda small actually). well when i went to pick them up, i was making sure all the stuff was still on there because some of it falls off sometimes.... like it did then. my car key had fallen off. remember we are in a big field and its dark by now. so me and 3 other people start to look for it and we can't find it. so i call my dad to bring me the spare. he does and he brings my mom (and some flashlights) with him. so we all start looking for it. by now 2 complete strangers were helping us. i kept trying to tell my parents that we werent going to find it. and we never did. so we finally gave up and went home and i am now driving the car with the spare key so if i lose this one... well i will let you think up what will happen.

sunday i found out that my godparents are moving in to the house next to us! they used to live next door to us about 11 or 12 years ago but they moved and we moved. so now we will be next door neighbors again! its exciting.

also whats exciting is that my first block class sold the most magezines per person we get two parties, one from the school and one from our teacher. annnnddddd, i was the third highest seller in the entire school so i get $50!
today at school we had that dress down day for the spirit links. yep, basketball shorts and thsirt. i just wish we could go back to the times where we could where that to school everyday. tomorrow we don't have school becuase of parent teacher conferences.

i started my youth diciple class tonight. a few things i didnt know about the class is its a two hour class that doesnt get done til 8:30 and there is a cost for the book of $30. neither of these facts were mentioned to me about it. i probably still would have taken it but its just going to be a tough 34 weeks. my personal opinion is that the class could be cut down to a little over an hour. we watch a 10 minute video from the early 90's that just has this guy talking and i really don't think anyone pays attention to it. also we spend around 30 minutes saying prayer requests. that could be cut down, too. i think a faster way to do it would be to go around the circle but we just kinda popcorn it. i guess once we really start getting into discussions the 2 hours will be good but tonight just seemed really stretched out. oh, and the youth are combined with the adullts who are taking it. we have the youth book but the classes are together. i'm interested in hearing all the different ages' opinions on everything.

friday is a spirit day at school. everybody gets really in to our spirit days. we started doing a new thing at our pep rallies, the "mj shuffle". it's the cupid shuffle but we changed the name. also only juniors and seniors are allowed to come down to do it. so thats a plus. well since we dont have school tomorrow a bunch of people are going to our class president from last year's house to get stuff ready for the pep rally. we are making flags, shakers, and other loud stuff. we are kinda mad because we havent won the spirit stick yet and we deerve it. also our class president for this year resigned and our vp isnt willing to take his place. so we are in a bad situation..

-em

way too busy

i have had so much stuff going on since school started back. have two honors classes gives me a lot of homework. it seems like everyday i have something going on. today is the first day in a while and for a while that i dont have any plans. im still planning for other things when i have free time.

random: sunday night my neighbors has a "pie-pong" tournament. they go to donelson christian acadamy so almost everyone there went there too. actually there were a few people from mt. juliet and i thought it was kind of suprising. anyways, the point of pie-pong is the exact same as ping-pong just... you ate pie before, during, or when you were done. it was really random and the actual game had nothing to do with pie. it was an entertaining night thought. a lot of people there had a nice sense of humor so i stayed amused.

oh yeah! i now have unlimeted texting to anyone in any network. it pretty much rocks!
oh and today is sallie's birthday.


-em

mj/central

well first i have to say that we have a wicked amazing step team this year. they are soooo good! but... we lost our first football game to wilson central, our rivals. its pretty sad. every year when we play them they challenge us to a "spirit link" contest. the school who raises the most money wins. well at the game last night they announced who won and they said central raised like $700 and mj only raised around $400 but then about 30 seconds later they were like oh hold on the actual final count was central $700 mj $1100! so yeah, we won. that means we get a full dress down day. to anyone not in wilson (or davidson) county a full dress down day means absolutly nothing but if you're having to wear polo shirts everyday, a full dress down day is like the most amazing thing ever. so yeahhh.
peace everyone



-em

chemistry

ok so i had a crazy hard chem two test today that i didn't study for. im pretty sure i failed. and this test was just a review test of chem one stuff! its bad. if i did this bad on the first test, i cant imagine how the rest of them are going to be. it took me the entire hour and a half to do it and i still didnt finish it. she said we could finish some of the problems tomorrow. i guess this means i will have to study hard for the tests. i've just been kinda stressed out about some stuff lately. im a member of 8 clubs. i really need extra curriculars concidering the only one i have is playing volleyball freshman year. speaking of volleyball, the hendersonville-mt. juliet game is thursday at mj. everyone should come watch! i know im going seeing that i know people from both sides. we also have our first football game friday against wilson central! not only is it our first game but its against our rivals. all the football games this friday seem to be against rivals. i guess that's enough rambling for now.
= )


-em

church council meeting: funnnnn.... not!!!



-em

ok im back

i just had to take a break from blogging for a while. also i was in a bad mood for like a week so i didnt want to blog while i was in a bad mood.

so i finally got a car! i have been waiting for this car for 2 months. i had been driving either the pickup or my dad's car. im so excited! i cant wait to drive it.

i dont remember if i've already said this but if anyone has comcast cable then watch channel 9 between 11:11am and 1:20pm and you will probably see me on there. (i currently do sports) my school's news station is the only high school news station broadcasted all across the state. so its pretty cool.

oh yeah, summer sizzler was a few weeks ago. it was fun but i had to eat some pretty nasty stuff (jello with vienna sausages, prok rines, kidney beans, and olives all in it. there may have been some other stuff too but i dont really wanna remember..) we got in a little trouble for doing some pranks. the pranks were funny but there was a little incident where something went wrong and we got in a lot of trouble. it was bad.


tonight i went to "5 quarter at the corner" it was good. i saw some people i hadnt seen in a few weeks and got a chance to hang out withmy friends i hadnt hung out with in a while. it was bad though because i went to get on the interstate to get there but got on the wrong one so we got really turned around. so then we decided we didnt have time to go to a real restraunt so we went to wendy's. well then we were going to go over to hhs to the football game buttttttt the football game was at station camp. so we just decided we would go hang out at the church for a while. so that was what we did. it was fun. oh and janie got paid to put on the bear costume. yeahhhh, it was hilarious!


-em

i dont wanna blog anymore. maybe later on. oh yea cara's bday is today.


-em

new school year

so today was our first official day of school. it was only 2 hours but we still had to go. i'm so excited about my classes. in each one i have a lot of cool people. in my electronics media (bnn9) class, i have some of the same people from last years bnn class. so it feels the same. third block i have chem. 2 with cara! i havent had a class with cara since 7th grade! let alone any lunch blocks. and now we have both. its exciting. then in fourth we have 35 students! i think the limit per class is like 32... yeah.

first block: bible history
second: electronic media
third: chem. 2
fourth: advandced alg. and trig.

so my work load might be a little high this semester but im not playing volleyball agian this year so that will free up some time.
random story: this guy in my second class sent in a cartoon idea to nickalodeon because they had a contest. he also sent in one of the cartoons he had already made. well he won the grand prize! so he and his family get to be flown to california and stay in a five star hotel on the beach! nickalodeon is coming to our school to have an assembly in october or so. its so cool!
this semester is gonna be so much fun! i know it


-em

past few days

last night my parents and sister went up to indiana to help my cousin move back here. that means i had the house all to myself. my cousin's house up in indiana was one of the houses on the underground railroad. she says that sometmes her radio would just come on and rap music would be playing and she never listens to rap. she has a closet in her bedroom with another little door in it that when you open it, there's a tunnel that goes all the way down to the basement that the slaves would go in. i think its kinda cool. i also went to the simpsons movie last night and i must say it was the funniest movie i've seen all summer! it was so good. i highly recommend going to see it!
random event of the week: this past wednesday night at youth, linda locke led because jonathon was out of town. we watched a movie about umcor and then all went to sonic and let the church pay for each of us a drink. that's usually what a night with linda leading is like. a video and something free. another time she lead we all got treated by the church to baskin robins!
school starts for wilson county this wednesday!! im half excited as it's my first year as an upperclassman. but the other half is disappointed becuase this means practically no more free time. we finally get our yearbooks that day too!
summer sizzler is next weekend! im excited. it's my favorite conference event.



-em

OMG!!!!!

i just found out that relient k and switchfoot (my two favorite bands ever!!!!!!!!!) are going to be on tour together this fall!!!!!! how awesome is that?!!!
latas






-em

youth 2007

heyyyy! this past sunday i got back from youth 2007 in greensboro, nc. we stayed at the sheraton hotel and it was right next to a 3 story mall! i went to that mall everyday... partially becuase that was practically the only place to get food. well it was fun other than just the mall. our worship feast area turned out great! there were so many people coming through everyday. we had a tight schedule to go by each day so there wasnt really that much free time unless you skipped the "splatshops" aka the workshops. we would get up each morning and go to morning devo. then get out to the convention center for the morning session. right after that would be mid-day prayers then lunch. we either would go to the splatshops or just have free time untill dinner and after dinner we'd go to night session. the night sessions lasted til about 1030 and we would go back for compline (the night-time devo). after that we could stay up as late as we wanted and that was usually about 1. each night we had a different band preform in addition to our house band-fusebox.



-em


there's more pictures on my flickr

heyyyy

this past saturday night i went to our youth group lockin at laser quest all night! yesterday we went to the morning service. we were so tired. we slept in a room during sunday school and the 11 oclock service. we left for nashville shores around 1230 for the conference night. it was so fun. the whole time i got a total of 2 hours of sleep but it was really fun. im leaving in the morning to head up to greensboro, nc for youth 2007! im really excited and i dont really know what to expect. i think its gonna be so much fun though!



-em

good month

my june has been extra busy starting with my birthday then right into fresh. (the evnet formally known as t.y.a.c.) along with annual conference. then our church had our vacation bible school. as soon as vbs was over a good size group left for our mission trip to john's island, sc. that is where i am now. this internet connection sucks so it might be the only post during the week. oh yeah and this is also my first post on my new..... macbook!!!! i got it for my bday. it's incredible! anyway, the houses we are working on here are in need of some major work. we are trying to get them up to code so the government cant take them away. the first house is a habitat home and we are drywalling and building a front and back porch. the other house has had some water and termite damage. the group working on that house has to pull out the ceiling and floor and replace it. im working on the habitat home so i dont really know a lot about the other home's condition. i'll post pictures on flickr and on here when i get a better connection. hope all is well with everyone else. more to come later.



-em

preparing for a packed summer

since i go to a wilson county school, we get exactly 2 months of summer break. well my two months are going to be action packed! first its my sister's 18th birthday then shortly after is my sweet sixteen! my madre is a delegate at the tennessee annual conference and im an alternate for the youth. chances are i'll be going to that at least one of the days. vacation bible school at our church the week after that. i'm volunteering for that and on the last day, we leave to go on our sr. high pilgrimage to john's island, sc. we get back on june 30th so i have a slight break for the first week of july. then its off to youth 2007! i really think that will be a fun trip and im looking forward to that. before you know it, school starts back august 1st. this will be my first school year ever without my sister being in school, too. = ( then summer sizzler is that weekend. (and thats the brief version of my summer...)


even though my summer is busy, i think i'll find myself with a lot of down time. probably not much blogging time though so it might be a while before i post. i'll try to squeeze in some picture here and there but its likely this is it for now. ttyl


-em

end of school

so i finished up with my finals today. i am now a junior! sarah, my sister, finally graduated last night. that was pretty cool. there were a bunch of people graduating that i knew but i must have gotten really distracted because i seemed to have missed seeing them walk across the stage. jonathon got his nose peirced!! we had always joked around about it but he actually did it. who knows what to expect next. im in a pretty mellow mood so i guess i'll talk more later.


-em

coffeehouse numero uno

hey. so a lot has been goin on the past few weeks. a bunch of people have graduated and our youth group had our first coffeehouse. that was a blast! and if you didnt come, you missed out on some great music!

first off, my sister had her ROTC banquet and she got stuff for being on the drill team. this is her with my parents.


wilson central high school graduated last night. my sister's boyfriend and michael clapper where two of the 250 people to graduate.



this past wednesday our youth group had a coffeehouse benefiting darfur. we had a great band-the psalters-and a lot of fun.


we raised about $250. something we had people do was put there red hand prints on a sheet and we will send it to president bush. some people wrote a message to him after they did the hand prints.

over all my last few weeks have been great. i still have to take finals next week though. i cant bfeleive how late we're doing them. mt. juliet's graduation is tuesday of next week and sarah, my sister, is graduating!!! im so excited!

-em

whats up

so recently (last week) my sister had to go to daytona to compete in the national JROTC drill competition. of course, my parents and i went with her. we were down there for 5 days and the last day we went to orlando to go to islands of adventure. it was so much fun! her team placed 4th once and 5th once and in the singles, someone placed 5th. considering there were 50+ schools there, 5th twice and 4th is pretty good. i think there were 3 schools there from tennessee and they were all from middle tn. the day before we left, it started to get crazy windy. it was so windy we literally had to hold on to something so the wind wouldnt blow us back. when we were in orlando, the weather was really nice. it was about 80 with a breeze so it felt great.


also, some of you may have heard about that consignment dress shop that burned down. if not, then a consignment dress shop burned down thursday night in hermitage almost to mt. juliet. the night it burned down, my sister had just gone there and gotten her prom dress. she had 2 there that she was selling and a bunch of girls had their dresses there getting them altered. all of it is gone now and the lady that owned it didnt have insurance. i dont know what she's planning to do about the dresses she lost or if she plans on trying to open another one but its so weird that my mom and sister were just there hours before it happened. we think it started because she had a tanning bed in there and that sparked something. it was so cramped in there because it was so small and was overstocked with dresses so once the fire was started, it wasnt likely it was going to be isolated.




on another note, in about a week our youth group is sponsoring a coffee house benefiting darfur, a region in sudan. we'll have a band-the psalters- and some snacks. come if you can-wednesday, may 23rd




-em

this is how the sr. high spent their youth night...

last night, the junior high youth, along with jonathon, went out and did their own "destination unknown" trip leaving the sr. high behind. we walked over to sonic and when we came back we watched a short video on something (i dont even remember what it was). after that, tyler had found some caution tape and someone else got some saran wrap and we started to wrap jonathon's car. then later someone else went in to get some trash bags and we put them over his tires and exhaust pipe. the pictures are before we finally finished but they're a pretty good visual. when jonathon got back, he was saying he wishes there was a way to keep it on there and still drive it. it was a very fun night and the saran wrap brought back some memories.

destination: unknown

tonight for youth, jonathon didnt tell us where we were going or what we were doing until we got there (i think i've gone on a mission trip like this before...). well we ended up going to opryland hotel and we had to find one of our youth helpers and he gave us something we had to have to get back on the bus. it was just a poker chip and we didnt really use it to get back on the bus but i guess the idea of it was good. then we ate at micky d's.


-em

happy friday the 13th!

funny starburst commercial

sorry if nobody else finds this funny.

happy easter!

haha.





but seriously.

happy easter!

-em

good friday

a year ago today... that was a good friday. = )


a hearty shalom to ya all.

its about 45 minutes away

so the other day(wednesday); heres the story and it may be long but it's entertaining:


jonathon decided we were going to go to picket state park. well we left after we waited a while for MATT BELL to get there and we headed toward cookville. we got off at that exit and started heading down a road that was a little windy. we kept going and going for about 45 minutes and finally we came to a fork in the road. the directions from google didnt tell us which way to go but there was a small convenient store right there so jonathon went in to ask which way the state park was. when he came back out he said they said its about 45 minutes down the left side. so we went that way and about 25 minutes down that road matt started getting kinda car-sick. this road was soooooo windy. we never hit a straight part except for maybe once. we passed about 10 out-houses on this road too. well after 30 more minutes away, we had to stop to let matt out because we were afraid he was going to get sick. his face started turning a greenish shade. i didnt think that really happened to people when they're about to get sick but it really does. thats when we decided to stop for about 5 minutes and matt started to drive from there. no more sickness. right as we were about to start going again, we decided to stop and ask someone who had pulled over for directions. well she said it was about 45 minutes down that road. thats when we figured we should just head back home. we never found picket state park and i think we came to the conclusion that it doesnt exist. we think google just decided no body really goes on those back roads. well some people do. its kinda funny, on the way along that road we passed a lady walking along the road with an ax in her hand... not sure what she was doing. but all together i guess it was kinda fun. i mean, who doesnt want to spend 5 and half hours on the road with no destination?

that may be the highlight of my spring break... kinda sad, i know.


-em

my god-mother's dad died last night. he had been living with her and her husband, michael, for a few years. please keep their family in your prayers.


-em

boredom

this is what an hour of boredom does to the best of us. we make random compilation videos.

sunrise on ski trip

ski trip 07

first off-this year's ski trip was amazing! the slopes were definitely better that where we went last year but nothing can beat staying at lake j. this year i designed the shirts so im glad everyone liked them.
friday night we picked up matt bell, our summer intern, on the way up to higher grounds retreat center. it snowed all day saturday and it was so pretty. sunday was the better of the two days just because the sun was out. coming home monday, i slept pretty much the whole way.
yesterday i went to school late so i could sleep in and i know of some people who just stayed home the whole day. i know that i'm still not fully recovered from the lack of sleep.
i love how it feels outside right now. its supposed to be like this the rest of the week so i'm pretty excited.


-em

lets go skiing!

i'm leaving for perfect north slopes in indiana tomorrow and from what i've heard, they have been having some major snow up there. yesterday they had a level 3 snow storm and the slopes were closed until noon. i just hope all goes well this weekend and we all stay safe, especially on the bus ride up when we have to go across about a 2ft. wide bridge!

s-s-stressed

lately i've been feeling really stressed. warmth in winter had me worried. the chili cook-off had me worried. and now school has me worried.
warmth in winter wasnt as great as i thought it would be this year. maybe i've just been so many times that it's getting old. my committee for design team didnt really have everything we needed so sunday morning, we kinda went with the flow. thats how it seemed to me anyway.
[[random story: so at warmth, after dinner, i was walking out to go find somebody and i ran into my cousins! the thing is i havent seen them in like 5 or 6 years. i knew they what they looked like because im friends with them on myspace, their mom was there too. i've seen her at funerals and once recently my mom and i saw her and her husband at barnes and noble. so when i saw them as i was walking out i was like "hey, yall are my cousins or something, right?" ( i dont really know for sure how i'm related to them. they are so far extended). but yeah, it was random.]]
the chili cook-off was today and why we had it the wednesday right after warmth? i do not know. but we did and i guess it went well. i know we made a lot of money! i have to say i liked it more last year than this year. i wasnt sure if we had everything pulled together for it to run smoothly but it did and it was ok.
this week at school is coming-home week. the coming home rep. for the sophomore class decided he isnt going to go so now we have an even worse rep., in my opinion, going. my grades and school work have kinda been falling behind and we have progress reports going out next week. i just hope my grades arent too far down. (pray for no school tomorrow due to snow!!)
act's are coming up in a week and a half and my mom is making me study for them. i have no idea when im going to do that considering all the other things i have going on.
i know i probably shouldnt be worrying about all these things but i feel like if i dont do something, it wont get done. i really want everything to go the way it needs to and i know there are people there to take care of it, but i just want to make sure that's how it is. maybe after ski trip and easter and a few other things, i'll be a lot more stress-free. if i seem like im really not being myself, and im being really sarcastic (like more than usual), then i apologize in advance. it might be a while before i post again with all i have going on, so ttyl.

warmth in winter

warmth in winter is finally here. our committee still has some work to do. at least we're only sunday worship so we have all day tomorrow to pull everything together. an update on how it all went will be up sunday or monday. hope to see some of you there!

fire!!!!!

yesterday there was this fire in mt. juliet. it was this building behind the nashville star train-station. it was a fiber-glass warehouse. the firemen had a hard time putting out the fire because the mt juliet firedepartment didnt have any ladders. they had to call some of the fire fighters from lebanon to come and help out. those are the facts.

my story is... yesterday i was getting ready for school and my mom was watching the news. i was too busy to sit down and watch but the words "fire, mt. juliet, and wilson county" kept coming up. i finally went to ask what happened. then like 30 minutes later when i got to school, i could smell this stench like something was burning. i had forgot about the building but then i soon remembered. thats all anyone was talking about yesterday. i dont think anyone was killed but i do know that the building is definitely unusable so no one who worked there has their jobs.



keep my mom in your prayers. she's having some problems again but it isnt as bad this time. we havent had to go into the emergency room... yet.

what's been going on

so last week school started and i didnt have any friends in any of my classes. well i got changed out of physical science to go straight to chemistry. now sallie is in that class and cara is still in my first class so i guess having my two best friends in my classes makes up for no one else in the other two.

youth started back up sunday night and we're going back to the whole splitting up jr. high and sr. high. i must say thats the way to do it. we did it like that a while back when we had two youth ministers but then we had none so we were all together and now we have one with adult helpers. so i think it all works out.

we finally got around to taking down our christmas decorations. nobody wanted to do it so it was kind of something we just kept putting off longer and longer.
i cant believe it snowed today! i didnt even know it was supposed to so it was pretty exciting!

well i guess that pretty much sums up my week. hope everyone has a good rest of the week!!

peace

first day

cara = first block
nobody = second block
freshman = third block
all girls = fourth block



this semester = bad

nuf said.

happy new year!

happy double oh seven everyone!!

hope last year was great for ya.

all in a week

hey all! last week our computer's motherbord got all screwed up because i had so many pictures and music files and was running them and the internet and blah blah blah... so bottom line, i screwed up the computer and we had to go get it fixed the day after christmas. we got it back yesterday and today i spent hours getting everything loaded back on and re-arranging files and what not. but now its better and working faster so all is good... and then i found five dollars.

warmth in winter is coming up so thats pretty exciting. our design team committee is having a hard time finding a time to meet concidering the time we had was the same time and day as the big meeting.

hope everyone had a good christmas. stay safe celebrating that last day of 2006 tomorrow.

peace

xmas eve

merry christmas eve!!

-em

we are methodists

kinda long, but funny and true!

Garrison Keillor on Methodists

(Adapted from an essay by Garrison Keillor)

We make fun of Methodists for their blandness, their excessive calm,their fear of giving offense, their lack of speed and also for theirsecret fondness for macaroni and cheese. But nobody sings like them.

If you were to ask an audience in New York City , a relativelyMethodistless place, to sing along on the chorus of "Michael Row theBoat Ashore," they will look daggers at you as if you had asked them tostrip to their underwear. But if you do this among Methodists, they'd smile and row that boat ashore and up on the beach! And down the road!

Many Methodists are bred from childhood to sing in four-part harmony,a talent that comes from sitting on the lap of someone singing alto ortenor or bass and hearing the harmonic intervals by putting your littlehead against that person's rib cage. It's natural for Methodists tosing in harmony. We are too modest to be soloists, too worldly to singin unison. When you're singing in the key of C and you slide into theA7th and D7th chords, all two hundred of you, it's an emotionally fulfilling moment. By our joining in harmony, we somehow promise that we will not forsake each other.

I do believe this: People, these Methodists, who love to sing infour-part harmony are the sort of people you could call up when you'rein deep distress. If you are dying, they will comfort you. If you are lonely,they'll talk to you. And if you are hungry, they'll give you tuna salad!

Methodists believe in prayer, but would practically die if asked to pray out loud.

Methodists like to sing, except when confronted with a new hymn or a hymn with more than four stanzas.

Methodists believe their pastors will visit them in the hospital,even if they don't notify them that they are there.

Methodists usually follow the official liturgy and will feel it is their way of suffering for their sins.

Methodists believe in miracles and even expect miracles, especially during their stewardship visitation programs or when passing the plate.

Methodists think that the Bible forbids them from crossing the aisle while passing the peace.

Methodists drink coffee as if it were the Third Sacrament.

Methodists feel guilty for not staying to clean up after their own wedding reception in the Fellowship Hall.

Methodists are willing to pay up to one dollar for a meal at church.

Methodists still serve Jell-O in the proper liturgical color of the season and think that peas in a tuna noodle casserole adds too much color.

Methodists believe that it is OK to poke fun at themselves and never take themselves too seriously.

And finally, you know you are a Methodist when: It's 100 degrees,with 90% humidity, and you still have coffee after the service. You hear something really funny during the sermon and smile as loudly as you can. Donuts are a line item in the church budget, just like coffee.
When you watch a Star Wars movie and they say, "May the Force be with you," and you respond, "and also with you."
And lastly, it takes ten minutes to say good-bye!

random quote

"life moves pretty fast. if you dont stop to look around for a while, you could miss it"

-ferris bueller's day off

coffee house

last night, hendersonville first umc had a coffee house to benefit the homeless. to get in you brought either a clothing or cash donation. the music was great and even quinton parker preformed! he did a great job. jonas, jonathon's 5 yr. old, was crushing on johnathan jones' little sister, that was as entertaining as the music! i thought the whole thing was pulled together great.
now hermitage is doing one and i think we might make ours a benefit for darfur. we'll probably do it in march. if you dont know about darfur and the genocide, then i go to darfur.com to get more information about it.
i've heard rumors about this "outdoor laser-tag" and i think i might be going to one next week. jonathon was tellin me that in like a week and a half, we might be going to one. guess we'll find out..

some snow

yes! it finally snowed. i consider it snow anyways. i think that if you live in middle tennessee, then whatever went on friday morning was snow. im just surprised that it actually did anything with how warm it had been.
so today is jonathon norman's one year anniversary with being at hermitage. (<--random)
and also, one of my friends went to the preds game yesterday and when they got back to their car, it had been broken into! her mom's laptop and xm radio had been stolen. they had to call the police and file a report so just keep them in your prayers.
also finals are coming up so i dont know how much blogging time i'll have. so this might be all for a while! ttyl

em

birds are amazing

this has nothing to do with anything, but i think its really funny

today, i was in my kitchen. and i there is a window above our sink. well, as i turned around to wash my hands, a blue bird came flying at the window and hit it! it was loud, too! then it just flew away. when it hit i screamed (and i never scream at anything) my mom was behind me and asked me if screamed because i saw my reflection. if you dont think this is funny, i guess you just had to be there. but it was really funny to me. so yeah


-peace

happy thanksgiving!

happy thanksgiving everyone! i love getting ready for this day... makin soo much food! i love to cook and this year we have a lot more people coming over than usuall so that means more food. almost everyone we have comin over is bringing someone and that person bringin someone else. this year my grandpa is also coming. lets just say my family doesnt really get along with him. i dont have a problem with him but my aunts and some of my cousins do. but we'll get through it. this "black friday" i'm planning on going shopping. yay for everything on sale!

happy thanksgiving!!

bonfire!

ahhhhh! the bonfire was sooooooo much fun! we had a bunch of people show up and even with the little bit of sprinkling it was amazing! we were talkin this morning after sunday school and we were like, hey we should invite gavin and hendersonville to come. then we were all like ohh yeah! then jonathon was like, thats too short of a notice but that could be fun some other time...... and then i found 5 dollars. so anyways, tonight we got through all the hoopla and actually sang some songs (which was great because we never sing at youth), everybody had a great time and i cant wait to do it again!!

-peace

2 days of school left!

bleh..

i was sick all last week and still pushed going to school. that was a bad idea... today i just chillaxed and didnt really do anything. tomorrow we will be having youth at my house! can you say bonfire? i've been looking forward to this for so long so its pretty exciting. its supposed to rain so im praying that it doesn't. we've already pushed it a few weekends. any longer and we'll be watching for snow.
i decided i have a new favorite band - the fray. they are amazing! all their songs are good.
for our ski trip we're having a t-shirt design contest. this could be interesting. i figure if you want a shirt you'll like, design it yourself. so thats what i did.
only two days of school this week! yessss. happy thanksgiving!


-peace

fall retreat!!

the jr.'sr. high retreat was amazing! we didnt have as many people this year but i think it almost worked out for the best. we all split up into workshops and each workshop planned something for the evening or morning worship. mine was the video workshop. we made a video. go figure. the only bad thing was i was sick all day yesterday and today. i also had a charliehorse the whole weekend. over all, this weekend was fun. i got some good pictures from worship, too.

up next - warmth in winter!! = )

-peace.

nothing to do

this past week has been so laid back for me. 3 things i had going on all got cancelled and now im packing for the jr./sr. high retreat at paris landing state park. thats the most exciting thing thats happened in a while. im on design team so thats pretty good.

since the bears made it to the play-offs, we get a full spirit day tomorrow!! if you dont have a strict dress code at your school then you dont know how exciting it is to have a full dress down day. those rock the school. ttyl

peace. = )

they made it!

our football team made it to the play-offs for the first time in 6 yeas! go bears!

on another note, i just finished a spanish project on los días de los muertos. it was pretty fun. i got to make bread. i guess its not that great if you dont like cooking. i got an extra point on my final grade for makin the bread and i also get another point for goin to this festval at cheekwood saturday.

fall retreat in one week!!!! if you've never been, go this year, it is sooo much fun!

peace = )

the chin...

while we were waiting for our pumpkins to arrive, we made a movie. it's really stupid and has no point but is so funny!

no pumpkins = (

sooooooo today we were supposed to get a half load of pumpkins in addition to the full load we got 2 weeks ago. well, the place we get them from is having some financial problems and couldnt send a truck and didnt bother calling to tell us that. we really need some more pumpkins because we only have like 1/3 of what we started with left! when jonathon called them this afternoon to ask where they were they said they werent coming but could send a truck towards the begining of next week. yeah well. whatever. well since we thought we were getting pumpkins, jonathon told everyone to jus come after school and start unloading. we did absolutly nothing but hang out. some of us went and got pizza n ice cream sundae stuff and brought it back so we could just have like a party at the pumpkin patch. it was fun anyways. we can try agian next week! = )

PUMPKINS!!!

they have arrived! we got an entire semi-truck full of pumpkins and we unloaded them all. actually they've been here for about a week but we still have so many and we get another half a truck load in about a week! come buy some!!

also we went to a refugee camp for youth over at centennial park sunday. that was really fun and i learned a lot about the refugee camps. the day before that was the celebration of cultures at centennial park and also went to that with my mom. she knew the person that organized it and she knew a bunch of other people there. the parthenon was free that day so we went to check it out. let me be the first to tell you that its not worth paying for. im glad it was free because it wasnt all that great. thats what i thought anyways.

my great aunt died sunday morning and today was her funeral. just keep her and our family in your prayers.

have a great rest of the week! i know i will with no school. i am working pumpkin patch though so come pay a visit!

break? yeah right

this first week of break has already been busy and will continue being that way. i have 3 design team meetings, several volleyball games, and the pumpkins come tomorrow! the first load of pumpkins are coming in tomorrow around 4. i'll have all of next week to work the patch so come buy some! this is a fundraiser for the youth who work it and the hours you work give you credits towards trips. pumpkin patch is so much fun. = )

lawsuit for praying in public schools

my elementary school is now under a lawsuit. it made the front page of the tennessean yesterday and i think its just not worth the trouble. here's the article-

"School-based religious activities, heralded by some who welcome a return of God to public classrooms, came under fire in a new lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee this week.
The lawsuit claims that a series of Christian meetings and prayer events at Lakeview Elementary School in Mt. Juliet violated the constitution al separation of church and state and illegally subjected young children to "religious proselytizing."
But many involved in public school education say that religion is exactly what's been missing.
"I know there is going to be some conflict and controversy about this … but I believe we need basic religion in our schools to teach children the way God would have them go," said Will Duncan, a member of the Sumner County Board of Education. "If we don't, somewhere down the line we are going to lose a whole generation of children."
But others say that exposing children to God and religion is clearly not the role of public schools.
"Parents should be the ones to decide which religion, if any, they should expose their children to," said Rob Boston, assistant director of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "When school officials step into that role and start promoting particular faiths, they are usurping parental rights."
It is a perennial debate. In 1999, parents of some fifth-graders in Warren County public schools took issue with educators who allowed representatives of the Gideons ministry to distribute New Testaments in school.
That same year, members of the Putnam County Board of Education vowed to continue to begin their monthly meetings with prayer, despite a federal appellate court's ruling that such prayer is unconstitutional.
A few years earlier, in Lebanon, the Mighty Men, who perform feats of strength in between testifying about their Christian faith, canceled an appearance after school officials became concerned, in part, about the performance taking place during the school day.
The ACLU's lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Old Hickory parents, who said their son — a kindergartner last year — was exposed to religious events and messages that were "coercive" and "highly offensive."
The activities included a "Praying Parents" group that regularly met in the school cafeteria during school hours and dropped off fliers in classrooms to let children know they'd been prayed for, according to the suit.
And it says that the school observed "National Day of Prayer" by holding a competition for students to draw posters promoting the day, handing out stickers that said "I prayed" to students who'd participated and encouraging students to link up for the day with "prayer buddies."
Those students without a prayer buddy or a sticker stood out, "disfavored and isolated," the suit said.
ACLU attorney Eddie Schmidt said he did not object to religious events that took place on school grounds before or after the school day, as long as they did not involve the endorsement and promotion by school officials. Some of these events, however, did take place during school hours and established a pattern and practice of endorsing not only religion, but a particular version of Christianity, ACLU attorneys said.
But that claim, in the view of an attorney with the Christian legal group Alliance Defense Fund, is "absurd on its face."
"Essentially what (the ACLU) fails to distinguish is the critical difference between government-sponsored speech and private speech, which is constitutionally protected," said Memphis based attorney Nate Kellum, with the Alliance Defense Fund, who read the ACLU's suit but is not involved in the case.
School officials would not comment Thursday on the lawsuit, but several parents who were told of the legal action as they picked up their children from school said they stood behind the school in offering the religious activities.
"I think it's absurd that anybody would sue over that," said Donna Crowson, as she sat in line to pick up her two grandchildren at Lakeview. "They have a right to do that, I believe. The child doesn't have to participate. Parents don't have to participate."
Other parents said they were drawn to the school because of its Christian activities.
Mike and Cindy Davison, who have a kindergartner at the school, moved to Mt. Juliet from Davidson County eight years ago. The environment at Lakeview was a big factor in the decision, they said.
"As far as the curriculum and the environment and the staff, it's as close to a private school as you can get. I believe that goes along with the Christian theme they have," said Cindy Davison, who said her family reads the Bible every day.
The suit names the Wilson County School System, the system's director, Jim Duncan; Lakeview Elementary School Principal Wendell Marlowe; Assistant Principal Yvonne Smith and school teacher Janet Adamson.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the suit seeks a preliminary injunction, asking that defendants be stopped from engaging in any future, similar religious activities. It also seeks attorneys' fees and compensatory or nominal damages for "emotional distress."
The suit says the parents repeatedly tried to discuss their concerns with school officials but were rebuffed and ultimately pulled their son out of school to home-school him.
The suit does not name the parents or child. It asks the court to allow the parents to pursue the action anonymously, saying "they fear community reprisals and attacks, and ostracism, and because their minor child, James Doe, remains of tender years and sensibilities."

homecoming week

homecoming week is over and the seniors actually didnt win, the juniors did. the sophomores did horrible and didnt win any thing. even the freshmen won two of the dress up days.

NO MORE SCHOOL!!= ) well for 2 weeks anyways. i'm not going anywhere so i get to just stay home and relax. i really needed this break
too.
this is ashlyn on tacky day

homecoming week!!!

and its also our last week of school until our two-week break!! this week we dont have to wear dress code so instead we get to wear... our pj's, the tackiest clothes we can find, dress up like a super-hero, and have just another school spirit day. homecoming week also means class competitions like the penny wars (which is just which ever class has the most pennies at the end of the week wins but other coins and bills count against you.), class floats, and a parade on friday. this friday is just going to be like one big party. we dont have to do much of any work because thursday is the end of the grading period and we have a pep-rally and a parade, and all the teachers will just be busy getting ready for intersession (summer school in the fall). this will be mj's best week ever!!= )

Gavin and Erin-September 23rd, 2006

today's the big day for gavin richardson and erin foster. they're getting married!!!! it's so exciting to finally see the two getting married. = D

mi madre is much better

my mom is back at home after spending two days at the hospital. she came home wednesday during the day. she stayed home yesterday and is doing much better.
we also didnt have shcool yesterday so we rented movies and just took a day off.
there's a football game tonight against lebanon so we had a pep-rally and spirit day today. the seniors won, of course. next week is homecoming week so we get 4 dress down/up days!! so pretty much my week has just been uneventful. maybe next week will be better. peace.

mom's sick again.

saturday my mom had another attack and she was feeling bad all night and into sunday morning. my dad and i went to church and i guess it was like 10:20 when my sister had to take her to the ER. my dad and i met them there after sunday school. he stayed and me n sarah left. we just hung out all day then i went to youth. my dad picked me up from uth and my mom was in the car. they had decided to let her out but i really think she didnt feel well enough to be out because this morning she went back to the doctor and he's holding her there over-night. my dad is there with her now and he'll be there for a while tonight. i dont know how long she'll be staying there.
this hasnt happened in over a year. like 2 years. it used to be this bad before her surgery but it hasnt since then. 2 weeks in a row is pretty unusual. just keep our family and especially my mom in your prayers.

long time, bad week

so these past few days have been pretty busy for me. well the entire past week really. saturday was a busy day starting with the end of a lock-in then going to a design team meeting. after the meeting we went out to lunch and thats when i found something out that i really was hoping wasnt true. one of my good friends has a problem thats kind of obvious and bad but we're working on the situation.

for those of you that have known me for a while know that my mom has this disease with her intestine that cause her A LOT of pain. well she had surgery to fix it about 4 years ago. it had been about a year and a half since she's had an "episode" as we like to call them and saturday night she had one. she had to go to the ER and spent about 6 hours there. she came home from the hospital that night and just rested all day sunday.

monday i found out that one of my other good friends' step-mom stabbed herself 3 times in the stomach on sunday around 3. she went to the ER and she's still alive. she's been in a mental home for the past few days and now she's going to her home for a week to see how things go.

yesterday my mom was at a meeting somewhere and she tripped over a curb and fell all the way to the ground and bruised her hand and knee. she and her doctors were surprised that her hand wasnt broken or even sprained.

on a better note, tomorrow night is our first home football game and from what i hear, we really arent that good this year. so i guess it really isnt such a good note. we did however beat hendersonville in volleyball tuesday and i think it's safe to say that we didnt just beat them, we killed them! well our JV killed them, anyway. i think the final score was like 10-25 the first game and 16-25the second game. varsity beat them in the first 3 games so i guess they did kill! all i remember is that it was not a close game.

peace.

AFJ!!

mission trip 06
Originally uploaded by hermumcyouth.

i hear so much about how cool buddy Christ is. well you know what, Action Figure Jesus(AFJ for short), Francis Asbury, and John Wesley go on our mission trips and they actually do some drillin. they did so much more than just drill, they put on sunscreen, ate sandwiches, hung out with a jack sparrow cut-out, hitch-hiked, uh i mean.. gave a thumbs up to the people driving by, rode bikes, and had a wonderful adventure in a tree. and to make all that more fun, AFJ has wheels instead of feet and bendy arms that ocationally fall off. but then we can still give him emergency surgery if needed. i have to say that this fine trio beats buddy Christ alone. well, they are all equally cool. they're kinda like the Y-guys. they're all different but all equally cool.

Pluto, WHAT!

so i found out this morning that pluto is no longer considered a planet! all my life, learning the acronyms and think that it was a planet and now one day all the scientists just decide that it isnt! so now does that mean that we have 8 planets in our solar system? and whats with naming a planet oprah? i personally think it's just all messed up. i guess its just another thing we have to live with

tomorrow is our big game against wilson central. i have heard that they are really bad this year so i'm sure we'll beat them. we get a dress down day, too. just because we are playing central and it isnt even a home game, but i'm not complaining. whatever mel brown feels he has to do. he's the coolest principal ever and he's like 75 years old. or at least he looks it. peace

-em

a lot to do

tomorrow morning i get to get up at 530 and go do a service project for school. we will be handing water to the people in the wilson county bike race. if we do three service projects we get to go on the class trip at the end of the year. i think it also goes for our service hours for tennessee scholars.

the second week of school is over and i have had a bunch of homework. i'm taking world history this semester and the teacher is new this year. he gives a lot of work and requires us to take so many notes. i have a feeling that i will learn a lot though. i like the people in most of my classes and volleyball season has been kickin up so i've been going to the games. well, the home games anyway. i should probably go work on my homework now. peace

-em

what a beautiful wedding

tonight i went to my godbrother's wedding. it was amazing! his brother played guitar and sang for part of it and he was so good. weddings always make me so happy and i cant stop smiling the whole time. everything about it was great. they aren't going on a honeymoon right away. i think they are waiting until september but tonight when they go back to their apartment, they will walk into a room with champaign and rose pedals on the floor. my family had to sneek in after they left and set it all up. we also had music playing. it was so beautiful.

so many people!!

tonight at youth, we had like 50 people show up and i think more than half of the people there were 6th and 7th graders. i could not believe the amount of kids runnin around. im not complaining because it was amazing!! we played underground church.. sort of. that's what jonathon called it anyway. after that we had a mini contemplative service. it was so great tonight.

on wednesday my godbrother is getting married!! its pretty exiting considering the women he's marrying and him have been together for like 3 years. i heard its not true that throwing rice kills birds. if you have no idea what i'm talking about, people said that the birds eat the rice, the rice swells up in their throats and they die. well its not true.
--peace
em

summer sizzler

this past weekend i went to summer sizzler!!! it was a blast and since it was a confrence event, hendersonville was there. we all got to see gavin and a few of the h'ville youth. jonathon n. was hanging out with his old youth from blakemore and west nashville. one thing i thought was really neat was that our speaker, jacob armstrong, graduated from mt. juliet in '98. i know a lot of people that graduated around that time and he did too. it was so random but i thought it was really cool. i had so much fun just hangin out with everyone and this year i was a small group leader with adam burgett. it was my first time being a small group leader and it was fun. the only bad thing is that it was sooo hot and humid. i strongly suggest to everyone to go next year. next up-jr., sr. high retreat! then the oh so famous warmth in winter. see every one there.

today is cara's birthday!!!! i didnt see her today to tell her but if you get the chance, tell her happy b-day!

dang, son!

ok, so yesterday was our first day of school! today was our first full day and yesterday was just a 2 hour day. no school tomorrow though. but we go back friday until we get out for fall break.

my classes are all good. i have a media concepts class and if you have comcast digital cable on your tv then watch channel 9 and see what we're putting up. channel 9 is MJHS's educational channel and we put up slides of stores in mj and school announcements and things like that. if you watch between like 11:15 and 1:20 you will see our news. that class is my only fun class though.


my next classes are just spanish dos, world history, which i'm taking because it talks about world religions, and honors geometry. maybe i'll have better classes next semester.