How do eskimos do their hair?

>is arranging hair in emo fashion<
Me: Mom, does this look emo?
Mom: It looks...um... (*no comment*)
Me: >laughs and goes back to mirror<
John-Luke: >following behind< What's emo?
Me: Uh...it's like a style, sort of.
John-Luke: I thought those were the guys who were like fluff around their hoods with sunglasses and live in the snow.
Me: What? OH! No, that's an eskimo.

I'm like....so completely in love with my little baby brother..... (:

PS - I am also not emo in any way shape or form. I just recently discovered that by pushing all my bangs to the opposite side, I achieve an emo-like hairstyle, which greatly amused me.

No fear. No retreat.

I can't even begin to describe how amazing this song is, and how much it has impacted me in the last....20 hours that I've known it's existence?



To give unselfishly
to serve the least of these
Jesus I'm learning how to live with open hands
All these treasures that I own
will never satisfy my soul
Jesus I lay them at your throne with open hands

I hold onto so much in this life - but it will never, ever fully satisfy me. Earth has nothing I desire but Christ. [Ps. 73:25]

I lift my hands open wide
let the whole world see
how you love, how you died, how you set me free
free at last, I surrender all I am with open hands, with open hands

God is slowly teaching me that I have absolutely no value outside of who I am in Him. I have no reason for existing besides to glorify Him. Nothing - and I mean absolutely nothing is worth doing if it's not to show what Christ has done for me.

I was reading in my devotional the other day, and it was talking about how, when we're in love with someone - we go pretty out of our way to show it. We buy them things, spend time with them, do things for them. And we talk about them to like, everyone. But do we show that same love to God? Are we so in love with Him that we can't stop talking, thinking, and ordering every aspect of our life to Him?

To finally let go of my plans
these earthly kingdoms built of sand
Jesus at your cross I stand with open hands

Let go of my plans. GAH. Why is that so hard?

You took the nails, You bore the crown
You hung your head, Your love poured out
You took my place, You paid the price
so Jesus now I will give my life

Jesus, I give you my life. Do you know that means my life?! Like, all of it? Like, every single aspect, nitpicky detail of it? From what I eat to where I live to how I live to the thoughts I think?

Francis Chan, the author of the book Crazy Love, recently preached this sermon - his last at this church - and it is so, so powerful.

"There are no cowards in heaven"



Forsaking all. Abandoning all. Giving up everything, surrendering it all for the one who can fill me completely: Christ.

He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. ~Jim Elliot

Earth has nothing I desire besides You.

Jesus, You are strength in my weakness. The refuge I seek. Everything in my time of need. All I need.

[Psalm 73:25]

Happiness. A lot of it.

Because tournaments are just that amazing.

And most unfortunately I don't have time to post very much right now except that...

I QUALIFIED FOR REGIONALS IN DEBATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And therefore have met the first of my large-ish goals for this year. Score.

I also made it to finals in impromptu, which I'll talk about more later, but it was very amazing. And I have lots of other amazing tournament things to tell you, but I have to scoot off to be productive, since I got behind on a lot of productivity during the tournament (most specifically productivity as it relates to educational...things)

Yup. Alrighty. That's all for now!

-Hnanah
because I typed my name wrong and then decided to leave it that way. who types their name wrong anyway? I'm guessing I'm not the only one, just most people backspace before making such an embarrassing mistake.

Alright now.

Poor blog. It's feeling neglected. As it is, there hasn't been much to write about lately. The Idaho tournament came and went, with much success, laughs, and fun all around. 'Twas a grand tournament. I came *this* close to qualifying for Regionals in debate, and qualified in both my Dramatic Interp and Impromptu. Raymond placed 2nd with his Original Oratory, and I'm sooooo proud of him.

The week directly following was supposed to be a super busy week filled with lots of speech writing and case-revamping, but I was ill all week and couldn't do much, which was rather irritating. So now I'm cramming for the tournament that starts tomorrow. Isn't that grand?

And it's supposed to SNOW tonight. Of all the worst ideas, it's supposed to SNOWLkjdfsa;f skdf seriously. It was supposed to snow in January. not right before a tournament. Eej. What's with you, Seattle?

In other news, thank you very much for voting on my video! Unfortunately, I didn't make the top 10, but I do get to play background music for the little event they're hosting, which should be fun.

Hm. Well, I think that's all the update I have for right now. sigh.

AAHHH!!!

Hey everyone! Last week I entered in my local radio station's music competition - and guess what????

I made it to SEMI FINALS!!!!

The winner gets to play a solo in Benaroya Hall, and the top 10 get to play intermission music or something grand at Benaroya as well. Ahhhh how I would love to do that. :)

Please click HERE to vote for my video!

Currently I am #3 on the first page - this doesn't mean anything placing/vote-wise, because they rotate people through the first page each week. It says you can vote only once a week, but they sent out an email to clarify and you can actually vote once a day. :) And you can tell your friends!!

It's not really my best time through it, but ah well. One of these days I'll get a nice version up with no cuts and on a NIIICE piano.

In other news, I leave for Idaho tomorrow! Prayers would be appreciated. :D

Ahh! super excited right now. Heehee. :)

~Hannah

We have a new doormat.

We say "dare to be different."
We say "Be yourself"
"Don't run from who you are."
"Go against the flow."

But you know...we'll only go so far.

We'll only be as different and radical as we can be while still looking nice on the outside. We think, "there's nothing wrong with being a Christian and still dressing nicely."

We've got to be perfect Christian models. We have to shine for Christ. Show the world that Christians can be normal too.

....

With an attitude like that, sometimes I wonder how I can call myself a follower of Christ. I forget it's not about shining for Jesus...it's shining because of Jesus. Being a Christian isn't a way of life - it is my life.

When Jesus says to forsake all, He really means ALL. For me, that means giving up this desire I cling to to be loved by people. To be cared about. I want people to tell me that they love me, that they care about me, and to show it. But Jesus calls us to give up the things of this world.

It's easier to not do what everyone else is doing than to do what everyone else is not doing.

It's easy to fall to the back of the line in quiet rebellion of the mainstream of the world. But it's a completely different story to be so radically different that you could be trampled on for what you are believing.

It's one thing to follow God's way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a "doormat" under other people's feet....Are you ready to be sacrificed like that? Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket -- to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think about those you served? [Oswald Chambers]

It's not so hard to go against the world. Because it's all black and white, in a lot of cases. But why, oh why am I so afraid of what other Christians think?

Maybe because I think the same way.
I judge people. I put them in boxes. I say "I must be a better Christian since I do/don't do that."
"Wow, they do that?! How could they be Christian??"

Oh, my wretched heart.
Dare to go against the mainstream.
To be so different that to the world you may not even exist.
But to God --

To God you are a precious gem in the palm of His hand.

Cease to be.

I was reading in my devotional the other day, and he was talking about death - physical death. He says when you die physically, you stop being or cease to be. You are no longer. You're dead. Completely gone from this earth.

Then he went on to say - Jesus calls us to die to our sin natures, to our old self. This means that it has to cease to be. How powerful that is. Because of my Savior's boundless, amazing grace, I can be dead indeed to sin - but alive to Christ my Savior.

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life. (Romans 6:1-4)

This music video by Tenth Avenue North is really powerful, and I'm not exactly sure why this post reminded me of the video, but it did. So I'll just let the music do the talking.