As You Might Have Guessed...

...our computer has not yet been fixed.

Thus, I'll be taking somewhat of a sabbatical. The computer won't be fixed this weekend I don't think, and next week I'm in Guatemala on a missions trip.

So, what's on my mind as of right now?

The winter Olympics! I sat on the edge of the couch last night and watched as Shaun White soared down the halfpipe and win gold for the United States of America. It was an historic moment!

I announced to my Mom this morning while I was doing homework that I planned on throwing away my textbooks and spending the rest of my highschool career doing missions work and snowboarding.

She didn't go for it.

Honestly, I'm glad for any excuse to miss school lately. I have a serious case of spring fever, and it's only February! I can't wait to take next week off and go on an adventure. It's going to be tough, I know that - it's never easy to see people in extreme need - but I'm excited to help them and bring them the best news ever! Plus, I'm psyched to get to experience some of the culture and practice my spanish skills. I have a feeling I'll be saying "¡Más lento, por favor!" a whole lot.

The Missing Pictures

Our computer lives!

My sister fiddled around with the laptop and decided that our charger is just shot. Gotta get that fixed.

At any rate, here are some make-up pictures.

Blindside

So, my all-time favorite movie is currently The Blindside. It's the story of Michael Oher, the left tackle for the Ravens. Great movie; if you haven't seen it already, you should definitely look it up.

Well I had a total "take him to the bus" moment tonight in my basketball game. It was fabulous. A girl wouldn't get out of my way on the inbounds play, so I turned and boxed her out all the way to the sideline, then fell on top of her.

She was so ticked, she wouldn't even do the "high five line" after the game. Not to me, anyway.

Before the game, the teams usually join hands at halfcourt and someone prays. I couldn't help but think as I flattened this obnoxious girl that only moments earlier I'd said,

"Dear Heavenly Father, let us just play for your glory. Amen."

Not sure that taking out an opponent was glorifying God.

Which makes me wonder... how do you glorify God in sports? I'm going to be thinking about that.

MmHmm

I've avoided posting for the past few days because my laptop won't let me upload any photos or get online. It completely crashed yesterday, and I've been mourning what could be the loss of 10,000 plus photos. I am sad.

Today has been just beautiful. The best winter weather we've seen so far. 36 degrees, bright, clear, and sunny. Too bad I'm stuck inside doing homework. Yuck!

At any rate, I may be adding on to this post later on. Just know that I may not have photos up for a while... I will try to backtrack and put them in later on.

Sister

"We represent, the Stuff-Mart"

Here is yesterday's post... which I apparently saved as a draft rather than publishing...

I have Veggie Tales stuck in my head.

Thus the title.

Spending two days with a four-year-old will do that to you.

But I must say, if I have to have songs from a kids' show running through my head, I would pick Veggie Tales. Every time.

I think they're funnier now than they were when I was a kid. Plus, it amazes me how applicable the lessons in those shows are. I am sixteen years old, but a little asparagus singing,"a thankful heart is a happy heart" is a wake-up call! I mean, c'mon, if we were completely honest with ourselves, we would admit that we all struggle with that.

Veggie Tales are cool.

Layers of Gray

The weather today has been cold and misty. I like it. Not for long periods of time, but today it was kind of calming. As soon as I got home from school I threw on a coat and gloves and walked out to the end of our street. Our neighborhood sits on one of many hills in the area, and we have a great view of an enormous nearby ranch. I shuffled to my favorite spot and peered out at the horizon. My breath was taken away. All I could see for miles and miles were soft sheets of gray, each time growing a little whiter and a little denser than the one before.

I took a hundred photos. I shot from every angle; from the ground, on my tiptoes, leaning to the side. I trudged back to the house, wiped the drizzle off of my camera, and plugged in the memory card, fully expecting to post my favorite.

And in the end, none of them did the actual view justice.

There were so many intricate layers that I never found one that displayed them all at once. I sat for almost an hour, though, going through each picture and changing the saturation, the tints, and the contrast; increasing and decreasing, increasing and decreasing. Every time I changed a setting, a new layer appeared. It was great.

It was like an onion.

Or like nail polish.

Or like personalities.

Or like God.