Speech & Debate: my 3 year summary.

This year has concluded my final year of speech & debate. While I wasn't able to go to nationals this year, my brother, as you've probably heard, took FIRST place at Nationals. :)

You'd think that as a speaker/debater, I'd be able to come up with the words for this post -- but this post has been in-draft for weeks while I tried to think of how I wanted to put things.

Out of all the things I've learned in debate, one of the biggest things I've taken away is that it's okay to be speechless.

Yes.

Good speakers are good listeners, just like good writers are good readers, and good artists are good observers.

But even more than that, becoming a good speaker is not knowing how you want to communicate, but what you want to communicate. And more often than not, it takes a couple speechless, red-in-the-face moments in front of a crowd of people for me to realize what my message really is, and why I'm doing this in the first place. We have to be vulnerable before we can be strong.

It's the grueling pain of experience that makes your message powerful and passionate.

You see...you really have almost no control over your own coherency during a speech & debate tournament. At least, I don't. I don't know about other people. But sometimes I have great rounds and sometimes I have terrible rounds and while it sometimes may or may not have a relation to the amount of caffeine I've ingested, there really is no way to have complete control over the outcome.

Sometimes, I draw a totally ridiculous topic in impromptu, sit there dumbly for my entire prep time, and then get up and give a brilliant speech. Sometimes I draw a great quote but stumble over every other word. Sometimes I've got an ingeniously crafted response to my opponent's argument, and I still lose. Other times I win even though I made clear contradictions in my cases.

I've come to realize that you can't decide what the outcome is going to be. You can't choose how things will turn out and no matter how good you are, it doesn't mean you'll always do well.

Sure, there's a lot of style, talent, and personal love for it that goes into public speaking, but those are not the things that make you a good communicator.

What makes you a good speaker is your passion for your message that you are sharing.

Communicating is not about getting other people to do things, or trying to make them understand you, and it's certainly not about winning a medal. It is not about proving to others you are more right than someone else,

Communicating is about sharing what you love with those around you. It's about taking that passion that you have and allowing it to run wildly into the lives of others so that they can experience the same delight that you have.

Communicating is about letting your message be your energy, when you have none. About letting what you have to say be the thing that drives you even when you think you can't keep going. And you don't need things to be just so in order to share it, either.

I had a persuasive round this year that was absolutely horrible. I forgot a line said something dumb like "oops I'm sorry, I lost my place...>AWKWARD PAUSE< and stumbled over my words. It was semi-finals.

But what I've learned is that God doesn't need me to be up to my standards of perfection in order to share His message.

In fact he even says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weaknesses.

I'm not really sure how God's perfect strength could be "made perfect" through the weakness of a fallen, despicable human being -- but what I think this verse means is that this great, beautiful, mighty God can somehow work wonders through our shameful, awful weaknesses.

It's that moment you have...in a speech round, as you are reciting the speech you've practiced over and over again when suddenly, nothing in that moment is more important than your judge understanding and taking to heart what you have to say.

Through speech & debate I have learned the importance of hard work, the value of a small amount of time, and the precious closeness of some of my dearest friends. I have laughed, cried, sweated, and yes, literally bled. I have over 15 trophies and medals, at least a foot's height of judge's ballots, and am skilled in the art of packing for a 3-day tournament in under 2 hours.

In 20 years though, my guess is those trophies will be in a box somewhere. They won't last, but what will are the messages and truths I have learned.

There are many chapters of my life which I am not ready to close. Many which I have clung to desperately as if my identity depended on them, things I could not let go for fear that without it I might not know who I was.

But this time I okay with the ending, because I know that the experiences I have gained will go with me from years to come. I have taken something powerful from this.

It may have been my last year of speech, but my life as a communicator does not end there -- the end of this chapter is just the beginning of a new one. I'm off, I'm running, arms open to the experiences and adventures ahead.

I give into the fandom.

Oh snap, is this my 4th Hunger Games post in a row? I told you you'd be sick of it at some point.

Actually, the real reason behind the excessive Hunger Games fandom (besides the fact that it's amazing) is that I have been evading deep thinking lately, and so as a result, have allowed my brain to default to the easiest, most brain-free topic there is, which right now, would be the Hunger Games.

Not that it's a brainless, pointless series, but it's the kind of thing you don't need a lot of brain in order to process. If that makes any sense. Nothing like Shakespeare or Lewis or the Apostle Paul or anything, is what I mean.

Anyhow, I typically pride myself in not being obsessed with what everyone else is. I don't like screaming fangirls. I am not one of them. But this series was...absolutely amazing. So here we go.

!!!WARNING: if you have not read the books, PLEASE, for the love of reading a good novel, don't read this post!!! Perhaps, some other time, I will write a Hunger Games post specifically for those of you who have not read it, so as to use my persuasive skills as to convince you to do so.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

...there now. For those of you who are left...

First of all, I absolutely loved every minute of the Hunger Games trilogy. I don't really understand how people can "like the third book but not the second book" or something like that, because they all tell one story. You can't simply "like" one and not like the other. It only took me a timespan of....3 days to read all 3 books. It's been a painstakingly long time since I allowed myself to be completely lost in an alternate reality, and it felt really good to just curl up in a corner for hours.

Secondly, as far as I know, I am basically the only human being on the planet who is "Team Gale."

Yes, I'm sorry all you Peeta-lovers out there...I was rooting for Gale. After a long discussion with a friend on the matter, I have finally come to like Peeta quite well.

However, I just...really really hate perfect characters. Peeta literally has no character flaws whatsoever, and if that wasn't enough, he has like this unconditional love for a girl who deliberately shoves him around and loves someone else for a time. Even when he goes crazy, he's the one who's strong, he's the one who fights through it -- and it's not like it was his fault anyway.

I guess I'm just too firmly devoted to platonic love, and despite the fact that Gale only loved Katniss for 6 months, I feel like it was one of those moments where you just suddenly realize how much you love someone even though you've known them for forever. You know -- real lovers start out as real friends -- that kind of thing.

During the whole first book, I didn't get excited when Peeta and Katniss were kissing, but more of this achey sort of knot in the pit of my stomach for Gale as I imagined how awful it must have been from his perspective.

Given the amount of time that Suzanne Collins spent describing Peeta and the amount of time she didn't spend on Gale, I probably should have guessed Katniss would end up with him. But I'm just not that perceptive when it comes to reading books....

Anyways -- so despite how much I do really love Peeta now, part of me still roots for Gale somehow. He had this bond with Katniss that Peeta just didn't have. That best-friend love is something I will always fight hard for.

Thirdly, the whole series left me rather uneasy. I wanted just a few more sentences to know how Gale was getting on, whether there really was peace throughout Panem, whether the districts still existed to feed the capitol, if the capitol was a tyrannical terror to everyone, who mines coal now that District 12 makes medicine, and what in the world does District 13 do now? What type of government did they run, and was District 11 still a miserable place to live? Was everything still rural and run down or was it all modernized to be more like the Capitol and District 13? But perhaps that's the way Suzanne Collins intended it to be.

I was angry that Katniss was one of the ones who voted to have a final Hunger Games with the capitol's children. Seriously, I know she was losing her mind at that point, but had she really entirely forgotten why she was fighting this battle in the first place?

However, I do admit that it was entirely within her character, especially given that Prim had died. But I was annoyed that Katniss' love for everyone else was hinged on her love for Prim.

It actually reminded me a lot of Orual from Till We Have Faces -- in that her only reason for living was because of this overpowering love for Psyche. I guess I was just disappointed that Katniss' love for Gale was so thin that it would fade entirely, leaving nothing behind, with the mere prospect that his bomb could have been responsible for Prim's death.

Also, I didn't feel like Gale was so shallow as to simply move onto another district and probably be "kissing some other woman" so quickly. I won't sink his character so low that he would simply "move on" and forget Katniss like that. It was like Suzanne Collins had to get rid of him real quick so Katniss could be with Peeta, and that was the easiest way to do it.

However, I was very pleased that it didn't end "happily ever after." Despite how uneasy it made me feel, I was so glad that it wasn't a typical book. So many books end with this happy, all-is-right-with-the-world....but in reality, that's not the way it is. So maybe that uneasiness was intentional -- because that's the way it is in the world.

So yes -- I really liked the accurate picture it gave of the human condition and the whole political system in general -- that is: corrupt. That really, sometimes the only thing you can do in this life is not to let these things control or define you. It's never going to all work out in the world.

All in all, I think it definitely goes on my list of favorite fictional books. Even though it gave me this sense of despair at the prospect of the futility of the world in general...at the same time there's a renewed sense that fighting, even if nothing ever ends happily ever after...is worth it because of the people that you love.

So...fellow nerds? What have you to say? I long to hear your thoughts.

The Hunger Games.

First off, this post is long overdue. Very long.

If it wasn't for the fact that school, speech, debate, and piano kept me from writing more frequent posts of this nature, you probably would have been as sick of me ranting about this as you were with Narnia. (what, you liked hearing about Narnia every other post? that's sweet of you to mention it.) (I hope you caught the sarcasm there...)

Secondly, I'm really not quite sure I have words to adequately describe the hunger games. I'm about halfway through the second book, and yes, I just started it 2 hours ago. (hurray for spring break!)

I love letting myself become completely absorbed in books. It's like...for a moment in time, you can escape your own reality and allow yourself to be completely sucked into another's. And right now, my mind is off somewhere in District 12...

Suffice it to say...I don't often find myself on the edge of my seat or audibly gasping while reading a book.

And the movie...definitely does it justice. I'll geek out later, if I feel up to putting it into words. Granted, it's a book that's way more conducive to screenplay adaptation than say...Narnia or Jane Eyre. But it's so good.

That's all I really have to say right now. Don't you love it when a book/movie is so good you don't know what to say? I think that's why people create art - to draw others into an alternate reality and leave them speechless...yet somehow hopeful in the prospect of their own.

Adventures in babysitting.

Here are some of the [somewhat paraphrased, due to memory shortages...which are a result of aforementioned babysitting adventures] cute things that happened last night wilst babysitting.

Ruby [age 3]: My daddy turns 17 tomorrow.
Me: Oh really now?
Ruby: Yeah.
Me: I don't think so...
Ruby: Oh maybe it's 13.

Ruby: I'm a mouse!
Me: What's your name, mouse?
Ruby: Cheese puff.

[Note: due to the fact that bacon is not a frequently consumed item in our house, I have never cooked it. The following is my attempt to do so.]
Me: Aaron, does this bacon look like the bacon you normally have?
Aaron: Um...no.
>tastes bacon<
Aaron: But it tastes good!
Me: Okay...
Aaron: I like it. Hannah-style bacon.
(I now smell like bacon...from the funny cross between microwaving and pan-frying the bacon...several times in succession to make sure it was done.)

Me: Okay who wants maple syrup on their french toast?
Jonah: No no no!! We have to put butter on and cut it first!
Me: oh. Alright. >obliges<
Ruby: Can you pour me a puddle to dip in?

>minutes later, I've forgotten and have poured syrup on my own toast without cutting it<
Ruby: You didn't cut it!
Me: uhh...oops! haha. Um...well I'll just cut it now.
>later, after seconds have been passed around<
Me: Okay Ruby, let me cut yours for you.
Ruby: No! maple syrup first.

Jonah: I'm a TROLL!
Me: Well I'm a t-rex and I'm going to eat you!
Jonah: No! a t-rex doesn't eat trolls.
Me: Well how about a dragon?
Jonah: No, they don't eat trolls either.
Me: What eats trolls?
Jonah: Nothing.

Ruby: Canaan doesn't like me.
Me: Who's Canaan?
Ruby: this friend he doesn't like to play with me.
Me: Ooh. Well, even if he doesn't like you, Jesus likes you. And he likes Canaan, too.
Ruby: Did Jesus die for Canaan too?
Me: He sure did. Because he loves Canaan, he loves Jonah, and Aaron, and mommy and daddy, and he loves Ruby!
Ruby: And he loves you, too, Hannah Dokupil.

Music of the week {Revive}

Many thanks to my friend Paul, I am now a fan of the band Revive. Actually I have been a fan for quite awhile, but have only recently forked over the currency required for legal ownership of their music.

I'd say they're definitely in the running with Trading Yesterday.They also get bonus points because if you watch some of their videos where they're talking instead of singing, they have cool Australian accents!! Because they're from Australia. (go figure.)

The saddest part? THEY'RE NOT A BAND ANYMORE EITHER.

Why do all the awesome bands stop making music? I think I might die if tenth avenue north does that.

Alright. Enough about that.

My current most favorite song is:

Hold On Love


There's fear in your eyes
As you face the unknown
You keep asking why
For a reason to hold on
But hold on love

The life that you plan
The dreams are all gone
You don't understand why you should hold on
But hold on love

I'll be here
Whatever comes your way
I'll be here
It's a promise I have made
When you close your eyes
And say your last goodbye
I'll be here

I'm strong enough
I'll be your hope
I made a way
I just need you to hold on
Hold on love

I'll be here
Whatever comes your way
I'll be here
It's a promise I have made
When you close your eyes
And say your last goodbye
I'll be here

No matter what you're facing now
As you're drowning in a sea of doubt
You should know I won't let you go
No matter what you're going through
Just remember I have been there too
You should know I won't let you go

I'll be here
Whatever comes your way
I'll be here
It's a promise I have made
When you close your eyes
And say your last goodbye
I'll be here

Hold on
Hold on love

Also, when you have time to kill and feel like listening to more awesome music, check out:

Don't give up the fight:

We Were Meant to Be:


And last but not least,

Blink:

I just have to say....

Okay, so everyone everywhere who lives within like a 50 mile radius of me has probably posted about the weather in some way.

BUT THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S GLORIOUS!!!!!

I don't care how many adults or grown-up children there are who hate the snow, I will shamelessly continue my love for it. I refuse to let my sheer delight for tiny white flakes die.

I will dance in the snow, even if it means my boots get soaked through....

I will make snow angels and sled and have snowball fights till I'm freezing...

I'm going to build a snowman, I'm going to run up and down hills and delight in it like a child.



Also add to that that there's NO SCHOOL TODAY?! Yes I am happy.

This is why I love tenth avenue north.

ALSO THEY ARE RECORDING A NEW ALBUM...CAN YOU SAY 'EXCITED?! '

I love...

practicing guitar till my fingers turn a blueish purple.

organic marshmallows.

jamming to worship songs in my bedroom.

laughing with my bible quiz team till our sides hurt.

reading good books till 1am.

eating blueberries.

having a 6-hour laptop battery life instead of a 2-hour battery life.

singing veggie tales songs off key.

running in the wind.

feeling classy sitting with my laptop while eating porridge, drinking coffee, and studying for quiz.

cinnamon chip bread.

black, pilot brand gel-ink pens.

watching shirley temple.

conversations about God.

long hugs with best friends.

a brand new year.

My favorite part of Christmas.

Is still coming to the front of the balcony during Christmas Eve service and watching the flickering candlelight slowly fill the room.

In the past, I've always mourned the un-importance of my single candle flame. I'm just one light in a room full of thousands of lights, how could I possibly be important? I'm just one person in a world with billions of people, how could I ever be significant? Nobody would know if my flame just ceased to exist.

But today as I knelt there at the edge of the balcony, holding my single candle flame, I realized how beautiful it is that I am part of this world, and how precious my one life is.

I may be one single light, but that light is precious. Today I realized that who I am doesn't have to be someone who's wildly unique, original, decisive, and sure. I don't have to spend all my effort trying to make myself -- or even discover myself -- into someone who's "unique" or "set apart."

I am a part of this world. I am one light in a sea of little lights, and it's okay.

A lot of my Christian upbringing has included a large dose of the "you are unique and special" message. And while I don't deny that, I think it has a tendency to make us (or at least me) feel as if I must be better and more special than everyone else in the world.

But -- and I'm going to link you up to this post again because that's how good it is --

There is power in being common.

"If I am...a wise person-- I will seek to understand the things that all men share inside of themselves, instead of the things that set them apart from each other. Why was my self-value wrapped up in the ways that I perceive myself differing from other men?" (Gray)

This little light of mine is wild and precious. It can start fires. It's just the same as everyone else's -- but it's mine. It was lit by my Creator. And I'm going to live it, love it, and let it shine.

Mhm, that's right Seattle.

Guess what?

Tenth Avenue North is coming to Seattle again!

March 3rd, everyone, guess where I'll be?

...Because I know you wanted to know that bit of information. ;)

of green beans and pioneers.

This year I've been teaching piano, working in awana, and babysitting on a regular basis, which means I've gotten a lot of awesome kid quotes. Here are some of my favorites from this week...

Me: If you have three notes altogether, it's a 3rd. What do you think it is when you have 2 notes together?

K: Um...a twoth?

......

Me: Who knows what a hymnal is?

B: It's a book they sang out of in like, the pioneer days.

......

Ruby: I'm a baby goose. You're the momma goose.

Me: Ruby, can you stand up?

Ruby: No say baby goose.

Me: Stand up, baby goose!

>obligingly stands up<

......

Me: Hey guys, if you eat your green beans, it will make me really, really happy.

>Ruby immediately eats like 5 beans<

Ruby: Did I make you happy?

Normal is wonderful.

People ask me what my favorite season is, and usually I tell them summer.

This is partially false because a Seattlite's definition of summer is similar to that of late spring in Washington DC.

Everyone I meet seems to favour the season in which they were born, and I've always felt slightly odd for not liking fall...seeing as that is when my birthday falls.

But fall in Seattle, you see, is typically nothing but freezing cold temperatures with endless rain and cloudy skies.

You can't crunch through leaves because they're soggy, the air is not as crisp because of the overcast cloudy-ness, and it's just generally not as pleasant. Being one who dislikes the cumbersome nature of umbrellas, I typically get rather wet during this season, as well as end up with my glasses all spotted with water. >.<

But this year, I am discovering how much I really do love the fall. You see, we've been having a decent fall. A normal fall. The sun has been out, the leaves are crunchy, the air is crisp.

I don't have to wear a 20-pound coat and line my feet with socks. I can dance through the leaves with my sweater. I can take deep, full breaths of beautiful fall air.

I can run through the park with my dog, and sit in the sunshine to soak it all in.

I love fall.

And so it begins.

Last weekend marked the first official tournament of the speech and debate season.

Not only that, it was the first official tournament that anybody in our league has had.

Like, nobody else in the country had a tournament yet.

Isn't that special?

There were no speech events - just debate. So that was 2 very long days of debate -- with my psychotic, half-insane debate club. :D

We spent 5 hours in the car (yes, our entire club.) (Granted, there's only 4 in our club) driving down to Eugene, Oregon - listening to Veggie Tales, Revive, Irish Pub music, and creating debate examples based off of things we saw outside the window.

Because we all had school-ish such things going on that day, we didn't leave till 4:30pm. This means that with a 5 hour car ride, we didn't get there till like 10 pm.

And, at 5am the next morning, tournament insanity began!

Because it was just debate, there were extra rounds. My friend Paul and I were also crazy (or perhaps ignorant...you never know) enough to try a new form of debate which we've never done before called "parliamentary debate." Styled after, of course, the British Parliament.

So combined with that and the usual amount of debate, I debated a total of 11 rounds, which is roundabouts of 11 hours of debate.

11 hours.

That's 11 hours of having your ideas beat to a pulp, and then having to muster up the brainpower to attempt to beat their ideas to a similar pulp.

With no speech to balance it out.

So at this present moment, I am thoroughly out of my mind, and fear I shall remain so for quite awhile.

Books I've been reading lately.

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains

by Nicholas Carr

The Reason for God

by Timothy Keller

Just Do Something

by Kevin DeYoung

Uncompromising

by Hannah Farver

My Utmost for His Highest

by Oswald Chambers

Mere Christianity

by C.S. Lewis

Thriving at College

by Alex Chediak

Humility: True Greatness

by C.J. Mahaney

Music [discovery] of the week.

So, I began this post in hopes that I would (ideally) post somewhat frequently about the music I love and listen to because sharing good music is something that I just kind of love doing. (which is why I love teaching) Buuut I haven't been so good about that lately.

Today, however, I am pleased to present you with the band Trading Yesterday, introduced to me courtesy of Ophelia's gmail status. :D

I found a playlist on youtube for their band, hit play, and went back to the debate homework I had been doing before I got distracted.

After about 20 minutes, I realized I was still listening to the playlist, and I hadn't turned it off!

Okay, so maybe that's not so weird.

But for me (sadly) style of music is kind of important to me in music. I have a lot of friends who don't care what kind of music is, so long as it has good lyrics. Which I agree is a pretty good way to measure it - but sometimes, no matter how good the words are, screaming and yelling just isn't music. (Classical musician for ya)

So I was surprised to find that this band had decent music with a consistent style that I didn't hate. =P

Yes! a band I am willing to spend $10 of my money to purchase their entire album and the lyrics have depth!

Heh. Turns out they are nonexistent anymore. (depression!) So I have to resort back to my youtube playlist.

But man, their music is good.

Current favorite: "Shattered"



Yesterday I died; tomorrow's bleeding
Fall into your sunlight
The future's open wide beyond believing
To know why hope dies
And losing what was found, a world so hollow
Suspended in a compromise
But the silence of this sound is soon to follow
Somehow sundown
And finding answers
Is forgetting all of the questions we call home
Passing the graves of the unknown

As reason clouds my eyes with splendor fading
Illusions of the sunlight
A reflection of a lie will keep me waiting
With love gone for so long
And this day's ending
Is the proof of time killing all the faith I know
Knowing that faith is all I hold

And I've lost who I am, (i'm waiting)
and I can't understand (and fading)
Why my heart is so broken, (and holding)
rejecting your love, (love) without, (onto these tears)
love gone wrong; lifeless words carry on (i am crying)
But I know, all I know's that the end's beginning (i'm dying tonight)
who I am from the start, (i'm waiting)
take me home to my heart (and fading)
Let me go and I will run, (and holding)
I will not be silent, (silent) all this time (onto these tears)
spent in vain; wasted years wasted gain (i am crying)
All is lost but hope remains and this war's not over (i'm dying tonight)
There's a light, there's a sun (i'm waiting...)
taking all these shattered ones
To the place we belong (i am waiting...)
and his love will conquer all

Yesterday I died; tomorrow's bleeding
Fall into your sunlight

Another amazing one is called "For You Only." It's just....beautiful.



Blinding darkness surrounds me
And I am reaching for you only
This hopelessness that drowns all that I believe
Will be the one thing that I need
For you only

Keep on running farther, faster
Keep on searching for this haunting has an answer
And I know you will find me, in orbit
For I am breathing only for this.
For you only. For you only. For you only.

This is not to mention "Change My Name," "What I'm Dreaming Of," and "World on Fire." (oh my goodness "World of Fire" is AMAZING.)

Yeah, you should check out their music. It's almost as awesome, if not as awesome - as Tenth Avenue North. Now that's good music. :)

My life as a [non] gymnast.

I'm a gymnast.

Sort of.

I was a gymnast from like age 3 until the end of my freshman year.

And I wasn't a real gymnast - since I never seriously competed - only little meets and stuff.

But man, I loved it. I tell you, there's nothing like the satisfying *smack* when you hit the floor in a solid finish after flying through the air in a backflip. I love that noise.

*Smack.*

But now I'm getting all nostalgic.

One thing I really miss, though, was the workout. Nothin' like a good 2 1/2 hour workout and conditioning afterwards.

It is OoooOOoooohhhhh so painful sometimes. No, a lot of the times. Especially if you're doing like splits.

On a 3 inch wide beam.

Yeah. Ow.

So in the last 2-3 years that I've been out of gymnastics, I've tried to work out on my own to stay in shape.

::cough::

Um, yeah, about that....

The thing is, I can't do it myself. I don't have the equipment, the resources, or the right locations.

But, in order to get flexible and to get stronger - you have to work out. Consistently.

Working out makes you stronger.

And it made me think of the verse - you know, that says "work out your own salvation."

I've always been a little confused by that, because you don't need to work to earn grace.

But it doesn't mean "work" in that way. I think it means that once we are saved, we need to work consistently if we want to get stronger.

Cause, see, you don't have to work out to sign up for the gym. But once you're in - and paid the price for it - it'd be pointless to just sit there and do nothing, wouldn't it?

Can you imagine if someone else paid your gym membership - for life? Of course you'd go work out, wouldn't you?

Working out without the right equipment and without the right coaching can be dangerous - and you can easily hurt yourself.

I can't get stronger by myself - I need a coach to push me. I don't know the right exercises to do myself - I need a coach to teach me.

But what if you had the coach who created the sport in the first place? Boy, would that be a workout.

And that's the thing about life, I can't do the right things without my Coach. I can't become stronger and better unless I'm working out consistently.

But how awful it is the number of times I just sit on the sidelines instead of getting in there and doing my splits.

Yeah, I'll admit it. I put off doing splits because, let's face it, it is painful. Especially when you haven't worked out in awhile.

OH! and that's another thing! The longer you don't work out, the more painful it is to get back to where you were. Think splits are as easy for me now as they were when I was doing gymnastics? Think again - they hurt way more now because I haven't been working out consistently.

Okay, so that was a long post - and I might have stretched the analogy a bit.

But what do you think? Am I totally off my rocker here? Is the concept of working out applicable to the verse "work out your own salvation?" Or what do you think that verse really means?

Scenes from a Summer

This was almost like a preschool reunion or something.
I have known this amazing girl since I we were 3 years old!

My lovely new friend Emily and I at the Rebelution Conference in Portland
[post on that coming soon....ideally]

Some of the sweetest girls I know.

Me 'an my Narnia Nerd buddy at the Narnia Exhibit in Portland.

One of CS Lewis' wardrobes. :D

Cousinsauce

This is my awesome friend Heather. We've known each other since we were 4.

Last weekend we adventured out to Fort Casey and Deception Pass on Whidbey Island with some friends.

I love them.

Middle of August, wearing jeans, hiking trails. It's what we do.

We are true Washingtonians. We wade in the pacific.

Kite flying at Fort Casey

We are pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

I feel as if this picture accurately describes our relationship.

Explaining to visiting East-Coast friends what real pine trees look like. ;)

Ever seen the movie "The Wilderness Family?"

Cheesy/fake/cropped/free Space Needle souvenier :D

Definitely going on my list for best summers of the year. Oh wait, that doesn't sound right, there's only one summer per year. Oh well. ::happy sigh::

Summer in Seattle

Swimming in the pool even though it's not hot...

...eating popsicles wearing shorts in 60 degree weather.

Basking in the sunshine because you know it'll only be there for a day...

...grad parties...so...many...grad parties...

coffee ice cream. ♥

sleeping with the window open...

...spending the morning writing mail to my friends at camp...

long car rides...long airplane rides...

...spontaneous late-night movies with brothers

wearing tshirts and jeans without being cold...

jumping on picnic tables

playing piano 2 hours a day...

college orientation

teaching music to 5 year olds.

...sleepovers.

VBS all day....

taking crazy pictures with your best friend

...laughing till it hurts

then doing it again.

...staying up all night

sour patch kids. eating them. like a lot.

hugs.

sunshine.

This is Happiness.

Or nerdiness, however you like it.

AUGUST 16th.

Jane Eyre comes out on DVD!!!

I'm soooo ridiculously stoked, except that they absolutely 100% FAILED the DVD cover. I mean, I've seen bad dvd covers, but this probably tops them all for the worst. Just look at it. It doesn't take much.

I'm pretty sure they're missing the credits at the top, and that'll help. But still. It fails.

Disappointment. Also, the plain dvd has like, just the movie on it. No bonus features. Any nerd knows that half the joy of the dvd is the bonus features. Blu-ray has all the stuff.

WHY, blu-ray, why??

Oh well. I'm still excited.

Oh life....

So. Pictures....of life! From the last...3-4 months or so! Minus the pics from Nationals, which ideally shall come later.

Portland, Oregon for the Region II tournament. My favorite thing about this picture is Raymond in the background... =]

Adventuring out to see Jane Eyre with Gray and Ophelia...

My awesome Silversmith speech club. LOVE.

Co-op semi formal...sooo much fun! Except that swing dancing on a boat is *not* that smart...

John-Luke's 10th birthday - I made him a lego cake. =]

Co-op graduation. (not my high school graduation, just co-op graduation)

So...I have pretty much grown up with these girls all my life. <3

One-day production of Fiddler on the Roof. Good times, that.

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match....

Summer weather with my crazy dog....

...and my crazy friends....

...and crazy siblings...

But somehow, it's the middle of July and I'm still wearing jeans...something is wrong with this picture....oh, Seattle....