I went to Gatlinburg!

...or is it spelled Gatlinberg? I never know. Anyways, I went with the youth girls in my church for a 3 day retreat way high up in the Smoky Mountains. Waaaay up there! I drove in first gear thw whole way up to the chalet, but it was totally worth it. It was a time of well deserved rest and renewal, especially since school has just let out. The weather was great, the view was awesome, and the chalet was so much more than I ever expected or dreamed. It had 8 bedrooms, every one with a different theme, (mine had a moose theme), a jacuzzi, a sauna, and 4 levels. I wasn't able to be there for the first night (Tuesday), but I joined them Wednesday night and one of the first things I spotted was the plate of orange peels on the floor one of the girls had left earlier, so I had to be artistic and get a shot of it.
The bond that I see between these girls is so strong, and I am so happy to be able to be there to see them grow, struggle, love, cry, fight, make up, and be the young women God wants them to be. I'm glad I was able to go, not just as a chaperone, but as a friend, and hopefully the girls will remember some of the things they learned and apply it to their lives so that other people can see Jesus through them.

On another note, how awesome was the season finale of Lost? I finally got some answers and woo, Sayid is just Mr. Hottie Hot Pants when he came back with Claire's baby. Hurley was so funny and waah, I have to wait until next fall to find out what's in the hatch! I guess somehow I'll survive *sniff*.

So here are some pictures of the retreat, enjoy and I'm going to sleep now!

this is what I saw while I was sitting at Sonic waiting to meet up with my group

unintentional abandonment of your orange peel makes for interesting photography

another view taken on Friday morning

the view from our porch on top of the mountain

the group in Gatlinburg

Iris in my front yard

Allergies are fabulous, aren't they?

Don't you just love this time of year? The pollen count is off the charts, your eyes are full of glorious tears because of it, and your nose, well, your nose just itches with anticipation for the big flower to open and spurt its sneeze inducing insides into the air so that you can breathe in that wonderful scent of Kleenex and Blistek. WOO! GO Spring! Fill the air with your wonders! (that was for you Mark Ware)
Now, what I really feel like is poo and the tissue I have stuffed in my nose is so very attractive to all who see it. But the good news is I got to leave work early today! It's like attack of the sneeze monster and I'm next in line for total annihilation. I don't think I spelled that right...oh well. Hey I did, alright! I underestimate myself a lot.
ok that's all I want to say today.

fun at the theater and other stuff

Yahooo! I'm so excited, I got my first comment from somebody other that my sister! I've been reading Jenn's blog and visiting her website here lately, and tonight, I get on here and see she's found my tiny little blog! Yay, I'm happy.

So, as you can see, we had fun at the theater tonight. I love my digital camera!
We started blocking the first song in our new play, "Quilters", and let me tell ya, people who are not used to being on the stage have problems with keeping rhythm with others. My feet hurt very bad, tomorrow I'm wearing sneakers. I'm going to miss the fair for the Strawberry Festival which we here in Rhea County are famous for, because of rehearsal, and that sucks, because we go every year. We never ride any of the rides, but it's tradition to walk around the fair grounds and make fun of the people you used to go to school with, see who's dating who, and look at all the Mexicans who have come in to pick strawberries and other garden-ey things. Oh, don't look at me like that, I'm not prejudice, it's just what we do at the fair okay? So lay off! :)

On the homefront, another baby bird decided he liked the inside of the house better than his nest, as you can see in the photo, so while I held the couch on it's back legs me mother tried to find the little critter while unbeknownst to us he had flopped his way into the closet. So after cornering him, I put him outside under a bush, hopefully away from the cats. For about 30 minutes afterwards my dog stood at the door and whined because she knew where it was and wanted it baaaad.

Tired, going to bed, one...more...day.

Don't ask.

Alison, Anessa(my sister), and me (Leia) goofing off at the theater tonight

umm..it was hot

me on the way to the lake (my sister in the background)

Keela on our way to the lake on Mother's Day

This is what the fireplace looked like after I took it aprt to get the bird out

I came home from work yesterday to find this in my fireplace, and tonight the mama bird shoved another out of the nest into my stove pipe, and so I proceeded to move the furniture all over the living room to try and catch it, all while the dog and cats are licking their lips and whining for a bite! SO now it's outside and not in the house.

How much do we love her?

We love our mama so much that we took her to Wendy's drive through for Mother's Day, and then we went to Target and bought her (and me) a new purse, and then my sister and I went to Starbucks for some much needed refreshment. I told my sister that I think they put some kind of drug in their drinks because it's like every time we go to Knoxville now we have to go there even though we know how high their prices are and we never have any extra money to be spending. OR they have subliminal messages in their order screen that says "you must come back for more, you neeeeeed Starbucks coffee, oooooo" heh. Oh, but the Friday before I had a tiny snafu with a coworker who decided that seh hates the color purple and the screen on my computer was ugly and she was gonna tell our boss that I need to change it back, because she uses it soooo much more than I do (one day a week). How petty can you be. I was so upset because it's like she thinks everything is there for her convenience and if it's not, then it better be changed to suit her or waah she's gonna leave you a note and then woo look out your in trouble. Now though, it's laughable at best because even though she changed the computer to all the default settings over the weekend, I just changed 'em right back to the way I had it, and it's just giving her ulcers to worry about it. Monday was the day we discovered we have a dead animal in the house, more specifically around or in the fireplace, but we can't find it, so our neighbor tells Mama to get some lime and pour it in the chimney and that will dry out whatever it is. Do you know the smallest bag they sell is 50 pounds? So we now own 50 pounds of lime and have no use for it other than to pour it down the chimney, woo.

Book Fair!

We had a book fair today at work and I got some really nice handmade notecards and a paper craft book with all sorts of neat-o keen-o things to make! Not that I'm going to actually make any of them, but it's a nice thing to have, you know, just in case. :)

Today was also the release of Phantom of the Opera on DVD, so I had to haul myself over to Wally World and get me a copy, since I got a lovely DVD player for Christmas from my seester. Woo hoo! She had to get her own copy, even though her husband tried to get her to share with me, but we all know that you gotta have your own copy of a great movie, right? I think it is one of the best movies I have seen on the big screen in a long time, but then again, I don't go to the movies very often. I also got a new pair of pajama pants. They're light green with white daisies on them and yellow rick-rack around the legs, very cute! So, this was a good day all around, I got lots of cool shtuff, the weather was nice, and Jesus loves me!

the paper craft book, hee hee heeee

2 of the notecards, not very good, I didn't use a flash because when I did, it was all washed out, but these are a tad dark.

next 2 cards

last card

Title? what title?

yeah, cause I couldn't think of a good title for this entry, ok? Anyway, yesterday I had the surprising priviledge of being part of the Rhea Arts Council music awards ceremony...thing...I'm not sure what it's really called, but I was there. They have it every year leading up to the Strawberry Festival, and I always intend on entering the photography part of the contest, but I always seem to miss the deadline, hrmm. So,I went with the theater to read some scenes from the next play "Quilters", and in between the kiddies playing their music selections, we "entertained" the parents that showed up, becuase that's really the only audience there was. I was a tad nervous because I've only read the script once, not out loud, and so when I got up to read the parts I was told to read, I could barely move I was shaking so bad! There's one scene where this girl talksabout making a Sunbonnet Sue quilt, only it's the demise of Sunbonnet Sue and it's like all the ways she could think of to kill her, and she puts it on her sister's bed, and when her sister sees it she screams, so guess who got to scream? Yep, li'l ol'me. It was the most nerve-wracking thing I've done in a while. It upset me so much my stomach hurt for the rest of the day! I guess because I had to put so much emotion behind it to make it come out real, it was very strange. It was like it came from the bottom of my stomach and out my throat like I was throwing up or something. It was a strange afternoon.

I also went to a Mothers and Others dinner at church with my mommy and sister, and had some great food and listened to a wonderful speaker who strangely enough, we knew, but that's not the strange part. Her sister and my sister were friends in school, but we always percieved them to be snotty rich kids who got everything they wanted. You know the kind I mean, like when you say their name it's always with a sneer and a fake posh accent. But now, she's a missionary and has such a heart for God it makes me ashamed of the way we used to talk about, well her, at least. Her message was so simple, all the things you need to know to follow God. Wow, I never thought of it the way she explained it, but now I have a better understanding of how to go about doing things for God. so thank you Chrissy, for putting back on the right track.