It's that time of year again!

Narnia, tenth avenue north, purple, speech and debate....

Welcome to another post about something I love. (:

What should I do this year for my DI?

(vote on the poll)

For those of you not in speech (shame, you should be!) (just kidding) (well, sort of), a DI is a Dramatic Interpretation, and you basically act out a play with yourself, using material directly from a piece of literature you choose.

Last year I did it on Twenty and Ten. It was alright, but not nearly up to par with the rest of the stuff I was competing against.

Among this year's ideas are....

Pictures of Hollis Woods
I am in love with this book, but I'm really at loss as to how it would be interp'd. It's so....complicated. Not deep, like the next book. Just messy. =P

Till We Have Faces

I'm super excited about this one. It could be really good, but really, really hard because there's a lot of depth and quite possibly screaming and crying. Yeah. Dramatic.

The Tale of Despereaux
I'm not quite sure how I would do this, but I love the lesson/moral/simple depth/innocence of this book. It's sweet, and can be really dramatic if you make it.

Any other ideas? ::hopeful smile::

Pretty Ball for Louis!

Raise your hand if you ever got to see my Dramatic Interp last speech year.

No?

Didn't think so. It wasn't all that great, so don't ask me to do it for you. (sorry)

But I was thinking about this song...(yes, it's a Tenth Ave song, you'll have to put up with my random spazzes of obsessions if you're going to read this blog) called "all the pretty things". (and if you haven't seen the post about the concert, keep scrolling...)

Now in my opinion, I would have just called it "pretty things", but never mind that. =P

Back to this interp. This little kid wants this orange, and he calls it the "pretty ball", and that's really all that this song reminded me of. Something pretty that you want.

Here are the lyrics. Read them, they're not that long. Or better yet, listen to the actual thing.

We are, we are, we're caught in the in between
Of who we already are and who we are yet to be
And we're looking for love but finding we're still in need
It's only what we have lost will we be allowed to keep

And we're waiting but our eyes are wandering
To all this earth holds dear

Look at all the pretty things
That steal my heart away
I can feel I'm fading
‘Cause Lord I love so many things
That keep me from Your face
Come and save me

We run, we run to finally be set free
But we're fighting for what we already have received

So we're waiting but our eyes are wandering
To all this earth holds dear

Look at all the pretty things
That steal my heart away
I can feel I'm fading
‘Cause Lord I love so many things
That keep me from Your face
Come and save me

One of things that stood out to me at the concert (you're going to hear a lot about this concert for awhile, I have a feeling. Sorry. =P ) was what Mike said about idols. If we have something we idolize, that we put our time and self into, something that gets in the way of God...why do we expect Him to give us more of it?

This song reminds me a lot of the complacency of my own life. In between who I am and who I want to be. Not really going anywhere....stuck on wanting material things I can touch and feel and posses and have that's mine.

It's only what we have lost will we be allowed to keep.

Do you remember my Illustrated Oratory? That it was what I had lost, I had given to God, that I was actually allowed to keep - to actually take to Nationals?

It's only what we have lost will we be allowed to keep.

Jesus says that whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for His sake will find it. And not just "saving" his life, but even "desiring" to save his life. Just the simple act of desiring.

Desire isn't all bad - but it is when we refuse to let God's desires consume it.

When I was little, I loved gymnastics. I still really, really do. I remember having a conversation with God (not too terribly long ago) about how much I was doing in my life and if there was anything I should give up. And I kept thinking to myself/to God (rather defiantly) "Well. I'm not quitting gymnastics, God."

Immediately I realized the error of this statement...but even though I told God "sure, if you want me to quit gymnastics, I'm cool with that," I didn't really give that to God. I clung to it because I wanted it so badly. Desired. To keep it.

Guess who hasn't done gymnastics in over a year?

So I think to myself (oh, what a wretched heart I have) "Well. Maybe I can jinx it. If I give it up, maybe God will give it back."

Of course not. What God wants is total surrender. He wants my heart and He wants it completely. When my speech was disqualified, it was such a shock for me that I had absolutely nowhere to turn but to God - and He gave me the strength and the peace to accept what I could not keep on my own, made me to realize that it really was Him who had done this work in me - that it was none of my own doing. And then - He gave it back!

Look at the things of this world that tie our hearts down from being completely surrendered to God! Computers, clothes, jewelry, shoes...having nice school supplies, nice things in your house. A nice car, a nice this, a nice that. We crave the acceptance of others, yet we so often fail to crave what really matters - God.

We run, we run to finally be set free
But we're fighting for what we already have received

We try so hard be accepted - but we already are. God doesn't need us to prove ourselves to Him. He doesn't need us to build up a life that is perfect and good so that He can accept us. (unlike a lot of humans of the world) He accepts us as we are. Insignificant, worldly little scumbags (as Mike put it) who let such flighty, perishable things take captive of our hearts instead of the one who can really satisfy us.

Lord, I love so many things
That keep me from your face
Come and save me!

Fight Another Day

Last Friday evening I had the opportunity to go see Tenth Avenue North in concert for their "Light Meets Dark" tour.

This was sort of a...I really don't know. Little sparkle in life. And a very bright one at that. I don't get to do these things too often - in fact, I've never been to a non-classical/piano/symphony concert before in my life. (there's a homeschooler for ya) It was a totally new experience but a totally amazing one. I can't seem to get it out of my mind.

Part of it is the total amazingness of being in the same room with Addison Road and Tenth Avenue North...the hubbub of people everywhere...the massive amounts of lights and fog machines...the total excitement/awe/noise of first-time-at-a-concert.

That was all I was expecting to come away with - but there was more, and it was....amazing.

Mike Donehey is the lead singer for Tenth Ave - and he is a phenomenal speaker. I've said to quite a few people if he was a pastor, I would totally go to his church. He gave a short little message before they all came on...wow. Maybe it was just that I haven't heard anything like that for what feels like forever, and it was so powerful.

He talked about our how God accepts us in our brokenness, shame, and pain...and how great, awesome, and infinite His grace is that covers us despite our failures. How can we not live our lives for Christ in light of the sacrifice He made for us? His grace makes us new, it lifts us up and changes us from the inside out.

Agh. Right now, I really don't have words to say anything else about it. It was just...really, really good and I haven't had that in a long time. We'll cut to the pictures. =P

Super excited for our first concert!!!


Chris August opened up the concert - he was so funny. And he sang "Starry Night". I love that song. (go look it up.)


This is Addison Road. You can't really tell. =P But it is, I promise. That's Jenny Simmons, the lead singer, in the blue shirt under the green light. ;) I was super excited when I heard they were touring with Tenth Ave, and it was awesome to get to see them. Favorites among their songs: Hope Now, Sticking With You, Collide, Fight Another Day....


:D :D :D :D

Tenth Ave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The worship was SO amazing. Especially on "Satisfy". If you haven't heard that song, you need to. Actually, if you haven't listened to Tenth Ave. at all, you need to. Their music is so powerful and so open. One thing I loved about it when Mike was speaking was how he saw himself as no different than any other person out there.



Okay.

Favorite Tenth Ave. songs that you MUST listen to.

You Are More (this music video is powerful. If you listen to none of the others, listen to this one.)
Strong Enough to Save
All the Pretty Things
Any Other Way
Empty My Hands
Satisfy
Break Me Down

Well. That took just about everything in me not to post the entirety of both of their AMAZING albums. So. Go listen to it. I don't think it's often that I so highly recommend music.

And so this post ends. Without grace or inspiration or anything super nice sounding because I'm completely out of it right now. I'll let the music do that. :)

In which I again direct readers to a website

::rubs hands together::

Yes, it's Aslan's Country.

Well, sort of.

See, we'd like to know how we can improve. So go to this little linky: http://www.clueapp.com/19687 and let us know what stands out on the site. What do you remember the most?

ps - new poll!! =D

You wait, little girl...

I've grown up watching the Sound of Music ever since I was old enough to understand the story. I always had fun identifying with a different Von Trapp child each time I watched it...first I was Gretel's age (5)...then Marta (7), Brigitta, Louisa, Kurt, Fredric (13 was pretty exciting.) and Liesel (16/17)

Liesel was always way too far up there. 16 is like. OLD.

Heh.

I remember when I was little, I used to look up to my 16-year old cousins with raptured awe...they were so old, they knew everything, and they were so smart, and oh! how I wanted to be like them.

Growing is such a strange thing. You're never ready for it, but that's all a part of what growing is. And you slowly adapt...life continues, and you...well, "grow" used to it.

At the end of this summer I was dreading being a junior. Now that it's actually started, I'm rather enjoying it - perhaps due to the fact that it's so many billions of millions of times better than my sophomore year.

15, like my friend Gray said, has lots of growing room. 16 is sort of a giant leap, but then you find you get used to it and rather like it. But 17...heh. I don't really want to leave 16 behind.

But, like anything else, even when I'm not ready to embrace change, I'll look back and realize that I wouldn't have done it any different. After all, one doesn't have a birthday every day, and I only have 4 days left to sing the famous 16 going on 17 song. (:



And like my friend Gray said in her 16-going-on-17-post, (which you should all go read because it describes my sentiments exactly, except that I'm not near as gracefully poetic/thoughtful/etc as she is - I got to the end of this post and realized how similar it is to hers. It's even posted at the same time, 4 days before turning 17.) it's not really a role model song, but every girl should sing it and make it last while they're 16 because...well, you can't ever legitimately sing it after that. (:

Three cheers for being old! (which, as L.M. Montgomery says, is a sign that you really are still very young.)

-Hannah

It was a sunny smile,
And little it cost in the giving.
But like morning light,
it scattered the night,
And made the day worth living.
-anonymous

Surprise for the Day

They've come out with a NEW Dawn Treader trailer!!

Okay, okay. I know you're probably dead sick of the endless posts about Aslan's Country, Narnia, Dawn Treader...bear with me. Only 63 days longer...then I'll calm down. (after I post a nice little review)

[WARNING: major spoilers!]



I love that we get to see more of Eustace - both as himself and as a dragon. There's a lot more of Dark Island, which worries me some because Edmund seems as if he's just about to give into whatever it is the White Witch is tempting him to do. In Prince Caspian, Edmund was the strongest against the White Witch's power - I'd hate to see him be so weak in this one.

The whole "searching-for-the-swords-to-save-Narnia" is pretty cheesy. Not ever Narnia book is about "the fate of Narnia rests on YOU!" sort of theme, but it seems like they've incorporated that into this movie. But if that's the only major change and they don't do any character changes, I think I'll be okay with it.

I'm loving Lilliandil. And Ramandu's Island - so far it's looking amazing.And the Magician's Island. We haven't seen very much of Narrowhaven except for fighting scenes.

Excitement grows!!

Life, by Me.

So, I thought I'd give you an actual update as to what I've been doing lately. Not that it's that fascinating or anything.

A couple weeks ago, I declared September 18th International John-Luke Day and took my brother out for the afternoon.

First, we went to Krispy Kremes (love!) for doughnuts.


Next we went to Gilman Village. Gilman Village is probably my favorite little shopping center ever, and if anyone wants to go shopping with me there, I would love you.

Took him into White Horse Toys, one of the many places I loved as a kid.


After several hours of discovery (John-Luke), reminiscing (me), and entertainment (both of us), we left to find things to eat. (PCC natural Markets)

Then we went to the Lego store (John-Luke's favorite) and spent an hour in there picking and choosing and admiring.

All in all, it was a rather tiring, but extremely fabulous day. (:

We also finally finished all filming for our movie, Deliver-E (which you can read more about Here)

This is the cast/crew of the last scene we shot: (minus John-Luke who is taking the picture)

Aside from insane amounts of schoolwork, life is good.

There are also two extremely exciting things that are quite possibly happening in the near future. If they happen, you will hear about it. If they don't....well. Then you won't. ;)

Oh! There's also a new poll on the sidebar. Mark Johnson, the producer of Dawn Treader, says he's willing to let fans decide what movie should be made next in the series.

Dawn Treader comes out in 65 days!!!