Hey everyone! Well I don't have much to say, just felt like posting. Ummm, Megan M, Arianna (I'm going to start calling her Ari), Ali, and I saw Lady in the Water yesterday and it was ok. Kinda weird though. Yeah. Can you tell I'm bored? Oh, guess what? I got hired at Kohl's! Well that's about it except for I'm excited about fine arts.

I can't believe it's been 2 1/2 months since I last posted! Guess I've really been busy. Well today and yesterday were customs for MTSU. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Everyone was like, preparing me for the worst 2 days of my life, but they weren't too bad. I got to kinda learn my way around campus, meet some new people, schedule my classes, get t-shirts, and join groups. Of course there were a few boring boring meetings and videos, but oh well. And thanks again, Jess, for all the help you gave me! I'm not sure I could have done it without you!

Hannah, Meghan, Ali, and I went and saw The Lakehouse 2 nights ago. It was so good! That one's definately a keeper! Hannah and I were like, balling at the end. It's a beautiful movie.

Last weekend we went camping with my family on my dad's side. We were just inside North Carolina, and the best part was whitewater rafting. It was quite an adventure, especially our 2nd time down. We thought at least one of us was going to die! Ok maybe not die, but get hurt a lot worse then any of us actually did. But I'll do it again! I think we're going back in September with a family on my mom's side. If you've never been whitewater rafting, you should, but here's some advice: make sure your raft has holes so it doesn't keep filling up with 50 degree water, don't put too many people in one raft (2-4 is good), and don't go down any waterfalls backwards. Adam and my cousin Timmy tried it, and you should see the pictures! 

That's about it for now. I'll make sure I'll post sooner than 2 1/2 months away this time.

We had soooooooooo much fun this weekend! Everyone was AMAZING! I think we had 3 first places and 10 advances. That's AWESOME! Youth choir got first place and advanced, and we got to perform in front of everyone after we all got our medals! It was so exciting. THANK YOU, VERA for helping us get to the level we were at, and especially GLORY TO GOD for being with us and annointing us through it all! Now I can't wait 'til ORLANDO!!!!! Yeah! And my brother Adam got first place in his instumental division but they didn't advance. That's ok, he was still shocked they got 1st and so was I!

We're having a bake sale for fine arts tomorrow night and we're also performing 11 of the fine arts entries. As I baked my brownies and cupcakes, I realized I'm just not a baker. Or a cook. It's definately not my gift, and I'm not going to tell any of my cooking or baking stories because I don't want to be made fun of, lol. I really hope that I can find a guy who the way to his heart is not through his stomach!

Last weekend Jessica had the whole afternoon planned out with surprises to celebrate my birthday. It was so sweet of her. First, I met her at her work and she drove me (while i had my eyes closed!) to my surprise dinner. It was Marina's in the square! that's one of my favorite restaurants. There was a 45 minute wait so we decided to walk around the square. then both of us had a little surprise...the new Christian band, Julian Drive, was having a free concert right there in the square! They were really good. Dinner was delicious, and while we were eating she gave me a perfect card. I also got a free dessert...chocolate cheesecake...cause jess said it was my birthday. we split it and it was really good. Then we went to Starbucks which i have been craving for like, 3 weeks. We took our coffee to the Blackman parking lot and danced to the A Walk To Remember soundtrack. That was fun. We had a lot of energy from all that sugar! Then i spent the night at her house and we went to church in the morning. I took lots of pictures of our fun night and I'll have them on here soon. I'm so thankful for her and all of the friends God has blessed me with! I love all of you!  

Tomorrow is fine arts night at church. 11 of our entries are going to perform for the church and we're also having a bake sale to raise money. I'm in a large human video, a large drama, and youth choir. Districts is this weekend so keep my youth group in prayer please!!!

Here are some quotes from my very special friend:

“To laugh often and love much…to appreciate beauty, to find the best in other’s, to give one’s self…this is to have succeeded.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” ~When Harry Met Sally

“Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.” ~Unknown

“Friendships are the vessels on which to sail life’s stormiest seas.” ~Unknown

“I wonder what God was thinking when He created you.” ~Natalie Grant

“It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.” ~Donald Miller

“All the best things in life are not things at all.” ~Unknown

“Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” ~Unknown

“All people smile in the same language.” ~Unknown

“Laughter is God’s sunshine.” ~Unknown

“God never said doing this would be easy, He only said it would be worth it.” ~Joanne Shelter

“Love is not what we become but what we already are.” ~Unknown

“A hug is a great gift…one size fits all. It can be given on any occasion and it’s easy to exchange.” ~Unknown

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” ~Unknown

“Love is like smiling. It never fades, and it’s contagious.” ~Paula Dean

“Let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in touch.” John 3:18

Today was another good day. Our award ceremony was today and I got one of the medical awards I’ve been hoping to get. Whoo hoo! It was also our senior breakfast at IHOP, and tonight my family went to O’Charley’s for dinner. That’s about it. Church was canceled tonight to take a break after the trilogy.  

Happy Easter everyone! I have to say GREAT JOB to my phusebox friends who had any part in the trilogy…Ali, Amanda, Megan, Chris J, Chris M, Zay, Paul, Steven, Will, and Tyler (I'm sorry if I forgot to list your name.)

Ali, good job on that smile and the whole human video!

Amanda, I have to say, after watching what my dad taped I think you were the best in He Is. Sorry everyone else but it's ok for me to say that cause I'm part of the everyone else! Good job in This Blood, too.

Megan, I hope your ankle is feeling better. I'm glad you toughed it out through our human video. I'm gonna miss your, ali's, and my little dance during the resurrection song. That was fun.

Chris Jensen, I can't imagine even attempting to work the sound. Must be hard but you did it! And sorry, but yours had to be pink to go with my pattern.

Chris Morgan, you were the best Simon I've ever seen! And yes, my dad did get you on the tape.

Zay and Paul, I don't know many people who would have done your part, but someone had to do it and you too were great! Haha, Paul's little, "I'll kill you!" was great too.

Steven and Will, as part of the crowd you may not think you had much of a part in it but I got to look at it from an audience member's point of view cuz my dad taped part of it, and I'm telling you guys, all of those crowd scenes looked really good. Everyone was together, frozen, used facials, it was just fantastic! Again, sorry 'bout the pink.

And Tyler, our crucified Jesus, you really took one for the team! And other than the times Paul really did hit you (owww!) I never heard you complain, even when you had to spend 16 hours with that makeup on and had to sit in the makeup room for so long. In my opinion though, that's an amazing way to spend Easter. There aren't many people who can say they spent their Easter the way you did!

Again, the whole thing really was awesome. There were lots of people who talked to me afterwards and said they got goose bumps every time we did He Is or couldn't stop crying during the crucifixion. The resurrection was incredible, it even gave ME goose bumps and I was peeking out from behind the curtain holding my props and dancing with Megan and Ali during the choruses. Well, everything's back to normal now. Oh yeah I forgot…at FWC there's no such thing as normal! Our next mission is FINE ARTS! I have no doubt we'll all do our best in that, too. Cya Wednesday my buddies!

My mom and I planned an Easter egg hunt for the kids I baby-sit about 2 weeks ago. The egg hunt was this morning and I dressed up to be the Easter bunny. 12 kids came and they all had a good time. Almost all of them figured out who the bunny was though. I knew I should have gotten a mask. Anyway so that was this morning, and then for lunch we met Melody and the boys at the lake for a little while. When we got home I finished making Hannah the collage we started when she spent the night, and I gave it to her at trilogy practice. She loved it! Now Mehgan and Ali want one too. I love making those. Trilogy practice went very well. We’re really working hard on that so please pray that the real thing will be amazing and that souls would be saved. After practice some of us went bowling until midnight. Right now I’m really hungry because I was going to eat dinner when we got home from practice but we went straight to bowling instead. Oh well. It was fun. Here are some pictures:

Richard and Steven

me and Tyler

Tyler after he got a strike

me bowling

My sister Ali, Tyler, and Megan

Today's my 18^th birthday! I have all kinds of mixed emotions. Graduation is just around the corner. Right after that is college. I'm so excited because I'm going to have a whole new life with lots of new people in it. God has so much planned for me, and I can't wait to see what that is. I'm sad because I know that when the last day of school is gone, I can never go back to high school. Never ever. I can't have these days back again. I'll never be a kid again. Well, I will be at heart but I will never be considered a kid. I'm a…grownup. Wow. I'm happy because I'm moving on in life and I'm going to college. I'm scared because I don't know what to expect. What if I get bad teachers? Or mean ones? What if everything's really really hard and I get a bad GPA….then I can't get into medical school! *sighs* I just have to trust God.

Here's what I did on my birthday…

This morning Jessica called when I was getting ready for school and she was like, "Go look in the back seat of your car." So I ran out there and found a giant card with 18 cakes on the front and on the inside she wrote a really nice note with a bunch of quotes around it. Thanks Jess! I got to eat breakfast on the "celebrate" plate and drink out of my birthday cup. When you pick it up to drink it plays happy birthday! Then of course there was school and the hospital, then a little while after I got home, my mom, Ali, Adam, and I went to Steak and Shake for dinner. Then we went to church. Our fine arts human video group got to perform the human video which was fun. Then we got in our fusion groups and played some nasty games. When the service was over Pastor Gus said, "There's a young lady here who turned 18 today." He called me to come up on stage with him along with anyone else who had an April birthday so the youth group could "sing" to us. Jessica brought me a cake with 18 candles (the 1 and 8, not 18 little candles). Then her and I brought the little cake to Marble Slab. Even though we're going to go to either Dollywood or Six Flags with Hannah and Mehgan when it gets a little warmer (I can't wait!!!) we wanted to spend my actual birthday together too. The ride home was fun. We drove beside each other with our windows down, and we were talking, no, yelling at each other, ha ha.  There's the lights from her car. Well I had a great day and I hope all of you did too. I LOVE YOU GUYS!

If he says you're hot…

          …he's looking at your body.

If he says you're pretty…
          …he's looking at your face.

If he says you're  beautiful…
          …he's looking at your heart.

Here she is! She's 7 weeks old, and she's a purebred Golden Retriever. We don't have an official name for her yet, but we're thinking about Jolee (i have to look up the spelling). It's French for beautiful.

Isn't she cute? Today was trilogy 2 and it went very well. It was fun, too. And guess what? a lot more people got saved! I'd say about 12. Here's a picture of me and three of my friends in our costumes.

I know we look funny.

Guess what? We found a puppy! We were looking for a baby purebred female, and we found one. She was the last female in the litter and the price was just reduced by over $100. I'm so excited. I'm still sad about Buddy dying though. He was the best. I'm sure this new puppy will be lots of fun. My mom and I are going to pick her up tomorrow. Can't wait!

1. First name: Alicia

2. Do you wish on stars? sometimes, but I dont really believe that wishing on stars will make my wish come true. I just like to pretend

 3. When did you last cry?: when my dog died a couple weeks ago: (
4. Do you like your handwriting? Its usually good but every once in a while Im like, wow, I just cant write today
5. What is your favorite lunch meat?: turkey
6. What is your birthdate?April 12, 1988

7. What is your most embarassing CD? the shrek 2 songs on karaoke!

8. If you were someone else, would you be friends with you? Yeah, I like me

9. Do you have a Diary/journal? Well I used to but I dont write in it anymore
10. Do you use sarcasm alot? Im really bad about that
11. What are your nicknames? Bugsy (had that one since I was like 1 or 2 days old) and Al
12. Would you bungee jump? If I was on the Amazing Race or something
13. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No. maybe thats what ruined my shoes
14. Do you think you are strong? I think Im pretty strong for a girl
15. What is your fave ice cream flavor? dont even get me started on ice cream

16. What is your shoe size? 9
17.Red or pink? Pink!

18. What is your least fave thing about you? My arms and I wish I were like, 10 pounds thinner
19. Who do you miss most? Right now? Wow I just surprised myself 
21. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? Blue pajama bottoms and no shoes

22. What are you listening to right now?: a song for the trilogy called Do You Know the Man? (Ive listened to it like 50 times so far cuz I have to learn it and its starting to bug me)
23. Last thing you ate? My moms deep dish apple pie

24. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Aqua or pink

 25. What is the weather like right now? Well, its 12:15 in the morning. And rainy

 26. Last person you talked to on the phone? Lauren Beasley

27. First thing you notice about the opposite sex: his hair and eyes
29. Favorite drink? Strawberry lemonade from Front Porch

30. Favorite sport drink? the light blue or pink Gatorade
31. Hair color? Brown with caramel highlights
32. Eye color? brown
33. Do you wear contacts? well, Im supposed to
34. Favorite food? Italian, Subway, fried chicken salad, ice cream, I like food
35. Last movie you watched?: The Fog I watched it tonight. It was ok. I wish it was scary like it was supposed to be.
36. Favorite day of the year? Thats a hard one. Probably any day that I dont have school, dont have to do my chores, is cool and sunny, and I get to have fun with friends
37. Scary movies or happy endings? BOTH!
38. Summer or winter? summer
39. Hugs or kisses? hugs are great!  Im proud to say Im about to be 18 and Ive never kissed a guy.
40. What is your favorite dessert? Probably ice cream. Or milkshakes. Pie is good too. And cake. Oh yeah, chocolate. Anyway Moving on...
43. Living arrangements? I dont understand... I live in a 2 story brick house with my mom, dad, brother and sister if thats what you mean

44. What books are you reading?Im supposed to be reading Pride and Prejudice for my outside reading project but dont worry. I saw the Movie. Im reading Deaths acre for my medical classes

45. What is on your mouse pad? Lets see...oh, its blue.

46. What did you watch on TV last night? Game shows while I ate dinner
47. Favorite smells? Hmmm, certain colognes, the carnival, whatever food Im craving
48. Favorite sounds? Laughter, my favorite songs, people worshiping 
49. Rolling Stones or The Beatles? Beatles I guess
50. What's the farthest you've been from home? Denver, Colorado last summer for fine arts
51. Do you have a special talent? Im a pretty good actress and a kinda good artist. Thats about it

52. Do you like cookies? Yeah but cookie dough is way better

In Genesis, He's the breath of life
In Exodus, the Passover Lamb
In Leviticus, He's our High Priest
Numbers, The fire by night
Deuteronomy, He's Moses' voice

 

In Joshua, He is salvation's choice
Judges, law giver
In Ruth, the kinsmen-redeemer
First and second Samuel, our trusted prophet
In Kings and Chronicles, He's sovereign

Ezra, true and faithful scribe
Nehemiah, He's the rebuilder of broken walls and lives
In Esther, He's Mordecai's courage
In Job, the timeless redeemer
In Psalms, He is our morning song

In Proverbs, wisdom's cry
Ecclesiastes, the time and season
In the Song of Solomon, He is the lover's dream

He is, He is, HE IS!

In Isaiah, He's Prince of Peace
Jeremiah, the weeping prophet
In Lamentations, the cry for Israel
Ezekiel, He's the call from sin
In Daniel, the stranger in the fire

In Hosea, He is forever faithful
In Joel, He's the Spirits power
In Amos, the arms that carry us
In Obadiah, He's the Lord our Savior
In Jonah, He's the great missionary

In Micah, the promise of peace
In Nahum, He is our strength and our shield
In Habakkuk and Zephaniah, He's pleading for revival
In Haggai, He restores a lost heritage
In Zechariah, our fountain

In Malachi, He is the son of righteousness rising with healing in His wings

He is, He is, HE IS!

In Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, He is God, Man, Messiah
In the book of Acts, He is fire from heaven
In Romans, He's the grace of God
In Corinthians, the power of love
In Galatians, He is freedom from the curse of sin

Ephesians, our glorious treasure
Philippians, the servants heart
In Colossians, He's the Godhead Trinity
Thessalonians, our coming King
In Timothy, Titus, Philemon He's our mediator and our faithful Pastor

In Hebrews, the everlasting covenant
In James, the one who heals the sick.
In First and Second Peter, he is our Shepherd
In John and in Jude, He is the lover coming for His bride
In the Revelation, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords

He is, He is, HE IS!

The prince of peace
The Son of man
The Lamb of God
The great I AM

He's the alpha and omega
Our God and our Savior
He is Jesus Christ the Lord
and when time is no more
He is, HE IS!

 

"The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished."

Hey everyone! I just started this today. I guess xanga got old. Well we're on spring break! Yay! I'm not doing much. I wish we were going to the beach because i can't wait to soak up the sun after all this cold weather. I'm just babysitting and doing lots of drama practices at church and stuff. We have a play coming up called The Trilogy. It's the first three sundays in april, and each one is a continuation of the other. It's gonna be really good, even better than the other years we've done it. You guys should come. It's at Family Worship Center and every week the shows are 8:30am, 11:00am, and 6:30pm. I'm really excited about it. Friday was the prom fashion show at school. That's what the picture's of. It was so much fun! It made me look forward to prom even more. I'm kinda torn between these two decisions. My best friend isn't sure if she wants to go to prom, but she might ask this one guy. if she does ask him, i told her i'll ask this other guy. But the decision is what if she never decides to go to the prom? I was going to go with a bunch of girls, but i heard this song on the radio and it was talking about how your life is like a book and you get to pick what comes next based on your decisions. The rest is still unwritten. So I decided even if she doesn't go, I'll ask him. Well, it's getting really late so i'm gonna go to bed. I hope you guys have a fun and memorable spring break!!!