woo!

we have volleyball tryouts going on right now and they are three days long. well today i made first cut. we still have tomorrow and then they'll have second cut. the thing about today's cut is that only 5 people were cut. so that means everyone will really have to step it up tomorrow. we have about 30 people coming to tryouts tomorrow and will have anywhere from 16- 20 players. i'm staying pretty optimistic though. if i don't make tomorrow's cut then i have like a "fun list" of things i can do that i wouldn't be able to do if i played. either outcome, i'll be sure to be happy. :)

oh, and we got a new cat. he likes to attack our dogs though so we're still trying to decide if we're going to keep him.

-em

woo caving!

today i spent about four hours inside one of the south's best spelunking areas - raccoon mountain caverns. it wasn't easy i'll say that. but it was really fun and a time i wont forget. we shimmied and we slid, we crawled and we climbed. our guides were like super fast and it was a little challenging keeping up with them. i have been caving before and this was definitely harder. it was a little assuring though that one of our guides was a pretty buff guy and i figured if he could get through these small places then i wouldn't have a problem. certainly a fun trip and i know i'll be sore tomorrow. not sure if it's really something i'd do again. well at least not one that's four hours long!

-em

mission trip

right now i'm in mississippi on our senior high mission trip. we are doing hurricane relief, well i thought that's what we were doing. i havent really seen very much hurricane damage. even the house we are working on is just painting the exterior and replacing some old wood. i think in some way it was damaged by katrina whether it was on the inside or just a little somewhere else. it's still cool though. the lady whose house our group is working on is extremely grateful of what we're doing. we just have to finish about an hours worth of work there and we'll be done. we head home on sunday so until then we'll probably just do some fun stuff down here.



-em

finally

hermitage united methodist church, after nine months, finally has a new youth pastor. think about that, 9 months! i'm so angry that it took that long. anyway. his name is matt sands. he's been going to our church for, well i dont really know how long. he's been teaching our 9th and 10th grade sunday school since january. and our senior high mission trip is when he starts. which means he started 4 days ago. its really exciting that we finally have one but i still cant get over the fact that it took nine months!!!! way too long. and it isnt like we were doing things that postponed the search or anything. we had everything in place in time to have one back in march. oh well. i'm just glad we finally have someone.

-em

my sister's a blogger

well not technically. but my mom and i set up a blog for her to keep family and friends updated on her situation. she's at basic training right now and will be for the next 18 weeks. she can't really post anything right now so for the time being my mom posts updates including conversions we have with her through letters and phone calls. you can check it out if you want at http://www.pfcmastin.blogspot.com

-em

a few pictures

home from a great trip

today i got home from a mission trip in eleuthera, bahamas. we were down there with the bahamas methodist habitat. we were originally supposed to be home last night but of course our flight got all messed up. when we were on the island the plane that was taking us from there to ft. lauderdale was two hours behind. so we had to get our two other flights rescheduled. we had to spend the night in florida and catch our other two planes this morning and in order to do that we had to be up at 4:15am this morning. i'm surprised i'm still even awake.


so here are the highlights of each day we were down there
sunday: fly down to the island and unpack.

monday: first work day--jackhammer a tree stump out of the cement ground in a community center, get to know some of the local kids, go to the beach

tuesday: start putting up dura-rock (i have no idea how you're supposed to spell that. it's a more weather durable version of drywall), jackhammer a funny shaped outline on the floor for pluming, go to the beach, go to the local church for a bible study (it wasn't that exciting)

wednesday: lady with annoying voice from colorado, the other group that was down there with us, talking in amazement about the thunderstorm that was currently going on during quiet hours (she made me very frustrated), finish putting up some dura-rock in the community center and put in a ceiling, go to the beach, go back to the same church for youth group that night.

thursday: work half a day in the cottage the camp is building, go to governor's harbour and shop a little, buy some goombay punch, go to the beach.

friday: work a bit more at the cottage, go to the beach, visit the glass bridge, have a two hour flight delay, finally get to florida, sleep over in a hotel

saturday: wake up at 4:15am to catch our plane home.
:)
and now here i am. actually today was a little bit more eventful. my family got a new washer and dryer today. a new pair was much needed. the one we have now is the same one my parents got when the got married. it's been a while. oh and wednesday was also a little bit more eventful. my sister shipped out to basic training camp in missouri for the army. she will be there for 19 weeks and it's going to be weird with her not around the house.

goodnight my friends,
-em

el 13th de friday

happy friday the thirteenth! my friends and i have a tradition for every friday the 13th--watch scary movies. i'm sure we're not the only one's with this tradition though. we usually do it during the night and sleepover at someone's house but this time we have to do it during the day. we all have the act's tomorrow. they're going to be a little hard this time i believe because we haven't been in school for a couple of weeks. ah well, we can only do our best.

happy friday the 13th!
-em

birthday!

today is my birthday! yay! i am currently at fresh, the tn youth annual conf. i ran for office but no win. oh well. the thing i can't say is that "oh there's always next year" because this is my last year. :( wow what a downer. but i'm fine with it. this is the second time i've been on a church trip on my birthday. last time i was at camp lookout and i was turning 14. today i'm seventeen! yeahhhh!
alrighty then.
:)
-em

happy b-day...

to my sister! she's 19 today. and she is now in the military. yeah yeah i know i kind of already said that a while back but now it's for sure. she leaves for basic training in 2 weeks and will be there for 19 weeks! she'll be at a base in missouri, i forget the name. everyone is so happy for her. it'll be weird without her around for a while.

-em

summuhhh

today is the first real day of summer vacation. we went and got report cards on saturday and yesterday was sunday and we never go to school on sundays. but today is a monday-a usual school day. but not this monday! yay for summer vacation!
[and my birthday is in 6 days. :)]

-em

:(

my cat died today. :*( my mom is really upset. he was her favorite. he sat in her lap every day. we didn't really have him that long, probably 5 years or so. i haven't seen her this upset in a while. i feel sad too but i didn't like him as much as she did. i can't go downstairs to comfort my mom because they (my parents) always have this thing they do when someone or a pet dies. they tell stories about them, my dad tries to be cheerful, my mom sits there and wipes her tears, then they pray. always. it's so sad. my mom took him to the vet yesterday and they did surgery on him today. then tonight the vet went in to check on him and found that he was dead. i think that's why my mom is extra sad, because she never got to hold him knowing that it would be the last time. :(



-em

no more school! [until next year]

i am a senior now! woot! this is the year everyone looks forward to from kindergarten until 11th grade. and yay for straight a's!

-em

i'm such a slacker

i remember back at the beginning of the year when i was leaving for school 30-35 minutes before 8:05-when the bell rings (my school is 15 min. away without traffic) -and doing all my homework before the day it was actually due and going to all my club meetings at school actually trying to get good grades. now i'm leaving like 20 minutes before 8:05, barely getting in there on time and missing a bunch of meetings and procrastinating most, okay all, of my homework. most of the time i finish in the class it's due in. i hate doing this. and being late at our school is a big deal like if you are walking in as the bell rings there are a bunch of our principals are in the halls and they write us up and if we are late more than 3 times we get i.s.s. ha, i was such a goody-good. now i'm a normal high schooler... what is normal? haha, just kidding! i'm really excited about being at a new school next year but at the same time sad. the school we're at now is soooo old! seriously. it has been through so much, tornadoes, fires, flooding. and it's still standing. our new school's gonna be freakin awesome though. i haven't actually been inside it but i've driven by and it's huge! next year school is going to start at 7:50! that's 15 minutes sooner than it currently does for those of you who can't figure out that i already told you what the current time we start at is. ha, just kidding. it's further from where i live than the one we're in now. it's going to be so hectic. the road it's on is like an inch wide so traffic is going to suck. i mean, it already does.
i do enjoy sweet tea.

-em

switchfoot in nashville!

yeah yeah! they make a return to nashville. they will be at the wildhorse saloon on april 21st with third day and robert randolph. sounds pretty awesome right? yeah. i probably won't go. :( i'm too lazy. haha.

i took an act practice test and scored a fairly reasonable score. exciting.

i have been kind of wrapped up in thinking about and hearing other people talk about the issues with "phasing out" the tn conf. programming positions. i kept hoping it was like an april fools joke or something. although that's a bit outrageous. that would be a good joke though. speaking of april fool's jokes, these two guys i know (they used to help with my youth group before my church kicked them out) are movie producers and they started posting bulletins and blogs on myspace about how their company was getting sued for using "die hard" in a movie title and they didn't have permission to. well long story short, they didn't really get sued or even get threatened to get sued. it was an april fool's joke! it was really funny though. but some people got really mad and had contacted like their lawyer friends to help bail these two guys out. i still thought it was really funny.

i guess i should do something more useful with my time... like sleep.

night,
-em

i must be lame

it seems like whenever i try to make new friends, they don't want to be friends with me. :( like, i'll try to talk to them and stuff after i've met them and they don't want to respond. or if i see them again, they just ignore me. it's so sad. i feel pathetic. nobody knows how to be nice anymore. or if it seems like i became friends with them, the next time i see them they seem careless. then i'm all like, i thought we were friends! and it's not like it's just them. i'll see them talking to and hanging out with some of my friends that they just met. am i not "cool" enough for you? they're the one's that are lame. i'd say i'm a pretty good friend.

-em

game over

i have to go back to school tomorrow. :( oh and i got the schedule for next year... listen to this, we go back august first to get our schedules and get a feel of our classes-2 hours. pretty normal. then we go back ten days later on the 11th for the first official day of school. crazy. i think we start so late this year because we are going to be at the new school. i'm pretty excited but it's a lot of memories that i'm leaving behind at the old building. i have to leave my mark. i've already written in two or three of the lockers. i'll be sad if they get new ones. they are turning the old high school into a middle school. i want all the middle-schoolers to look in the locker and be like, hey, that emily girl is pretty cool for writing in a locker with a lime green marker. haha. back to the schedule. we get out officially june 6th-report card day. we're out the fifth and have finals the two days before. i'm not sure when graduation will be next year because of the wacky schedules but i'm pretty sure it's kind of an important thing to figure out considering i'll be graduating next year! i can't believe it's so close. well i guess i better get going on getting things ready for tomorrow.

oh and happy easter!!!!

-em

good friday

today and yesterday were two of the most important days for christians. i had intended to go to our church's maundy thursday service... but i forgot. i don't know how i forgot because i had been thinking about it all day and i just forgot. :( i was really sad when i remembered. then today i didn't go to a service. our church didn't have a good friday service this year. i don't know why. it seems like today is kind of a big deal. i mean, this is the day that we remember as the day Jesus died for all of our sins. it upsets me that our church didn't have a service. it's not like we completely didn't do anything though. our church sanctuary was open all day for people to come and pray. although i don't understand why our sanctuary has locked doors in the first place.
something to think about: it always rains on easter.

-em

almost gone

spring break 08 is almost over. and i did mostly nothing. i didn't go anywhere that exciting and i pretty much just stayed at home. i mean it's not like i was a complete couch potato the whole two weeks but i definitely didn't do anything a few of the days. it makes me sad that i didn't even think about going anywhere but it seems like when i thought of going somewhere i just imagined it being super crowded because it was everyone's spring break.

-em

spring break=college tours

everyone knows spring break junior year means time to start looking at colleges. last week i visited the university of tennessee-knoxville and vanderbilt. i like different things about both schools. ut has so many advantages of being a student. like the really nice gym free to any student. i also like the laid back feeling and that freshmen can have cars on campus. vanderbilt was so much different from ut. they had nicer dorms first of all. freshmen aren't allowed to have cars there though. and the overall vibe was... more spick-and-span than that of ut. i really like that it's in nashville though. i like nashville better than knoxville and it's close to home. and there's more national diversity at vandy so lot's of different kinds of people to meet. both campuses were pretty. i think i'll keep looking and i hope i can find somewhere that is in between those two.

-em