Haha...

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Photo Shoot

Then, we had a little photo shoot back at Amy's house.

And then, our little singing video:

Peterson Ultimatum

Amy and I went to finish off our Bourne series last night. It was quite fun. As you can see. We, well, I, was inspired to take Bourne-type pictures.

"I am ninja...he is ninja....she is ninja, too."

I think this picture pretty much speaks for itself. Amy says that no, I don't look like Jason Bourne because I look "limby." She says that when he jumps, he seems to have all his limbs in check. Anyways, I felt like him. Oh wait a minute, as you learn in the third movie, he is a cold-blooded killer, basically. Do I want to feel like him??

Amy decided to be a parachutist instead.Our Jason Bourne poses. Haha....we look nothing like him.

Actually, I wanted to have a picture in front of the poster for the movie...that didn't work so Amy suggested we use this other poster that said, "Resurrecting the Champ," which Amy felt was very appropriate. This picture is of me protesting that no, a boxing movie won't do as a substitute for the 4th Bourne movie that we suspect will be made. Spoiler warning(ha! I get to put a spoiler warning!): (The reason we suspect it will be is becaue that girl said, "It was difficult for me with you." But then never did anything with it. So, we think that he will feel obligated to rescue her since she's on the run too, and his last girlfriend got killed, etc.) But we took the picture anyways.

Now

A lot of my friends are starting school today. I'm not. I might go shopping for pens for school, though, when Glorie wakes up from her present napping state.

We watched Sense and Sensibility last night.

You know those dorky moments where you remember something you did and you feel...dorky? I think some of it actually has to do with pegging yourself/getting pegged by the enemy with shame; I think it's totally possible to be free of it. But I have to admit that I have those moments...I had some last night, I had it basically all year last year. Anyways, all it takes is giving the whole "dorky" situation to the Lord, whatever it might be, and believe that shame is not yours.

Let's see...today was a productive day. Did some cleaning, Amy made a quiche, we fed Glorie, we played with Glorie, we sang to Glorie.

My new favorite song goes like this: "Frustration...is not...a good emotion."

Note: Glorie looks nothing like this when she is frustrated. This picture just made me laugh. =P

Air Conditioning

"When people develop a fascination with air condition, as seems to have happened in Kansas City, it might be hot, but you're always cold."

- me, ever the great thinker

The Adventures of Today

Today was an adventure day.

It started with some mirror adventures. Apparently, Glorie had quite the time when she first had the opportunity to sit next to the mirror and touch it; she got to find out how it doesn't feel like a human even though it looks like a human. Since she had already had that first adventure, though, she was more interesting in the straightener and hairbrush on the counter.

All three of us were wearing a cute shirt and jeans combo, so we tried to take a group picture -- it didn't really work.

Then, we got out of the house!! We went on a walk (Amy calls it a walk around the block, but I have to protest and say that it was much more than that -- Kansas City does definitely have hills, ladies and gentlemen, and they are annoying, especially when it is extremely hot).

Me and Amy did some computer-ing and some dish-washing.

Then, after Glorie's third nap, we went to the store for some bread and some milk (which reminds me, we go through milk very fast -- part of it being that I got sugar cereal to eat--very exciting). I carried Glorie in the ergo baby. This was exciting

When we got back, Peter had the waterpark running for the Miss Bee. Considering that it was almost a one-hundred degree day, this was a great idea.

And then, Amy and I took some self-portraits as well.

Now I wonder what we'll do tonight...maybe some movie. Maybe some baking. Flourless chocolate cake, anyone??

What's New

Let's see... what's new with me?

It's one week and two days until school starts!!

I added the google sidebar to my desktop. It has this little photo thing (seen in picture) where you can tell it to just look in your photos you have saved on your computer, so I constantly have this little slideshow of all my pictures running on the side. I love it! It also has a very confusing music player that I wish would just work really well, but it might prove unuseful as it seems it would be easier to just open iTunes.

My contact is a little dry, so it feels like I'm winking at my computer.

I saw the Bourne Identity and the Bourne Supremacy for the first time over the last few days. I have to say that after Identity I was slightly confused as to why they are so popular, but after Supremacy I was quite a bit less confused. Identity didn't seem so great (I also felt distracted while I watched it, like I was missing something. That could have been the ice cream I subconciously knew I wanted, or it could have actually been because the movie wasn't that great). Tonight, though, I saw Supremacy, and I have to say that it seemed like a stand-out movie. One of those ones that is better than others that have been made in this world. I think I'm beginning to find out that I kind of like action movies...interesting thing to encounter, that.

Today, we went to a petting zoo! It was quite fun. Now, Glorie is only 8 months old, so Peter held her as she had her brief encounters with these fairly new things to her -- animals! It was basically a big photo shoot of Glorie, with some animals put in for effect. TONS of pictures resulted.
me and my cheesy picture with the horse.
Amy, I, and the turkey. petting zoos make for the most lovely backdrops!

cutest sheep I've ever seen in my life.

CUTE Glorie!

petting the sheep

cows!
Amy

So, I get a whole nother (how do you write that - "whole another" looks weird. You pronounce it "nother"...I have an eerie feeling that I've asked this on my blog before) week in KC! Yay!!

P.S. Have you ever played Diner Dash? We kind of got addicted for a few minutes!

Frozen Eggs

Have you ever heard of frozen eggs? I hadn't. I guess I wouldn't have thought them to be impossible in any way, just improbable. You don't expect find frozen eggs when you search the refrigerator. But, you know what my sister used in the Dutch Babies today? frozen eggs.

More flying

Yesterday I flew to Kansas City, and flying is always an adventure.

Around 3:15, I set off confidantly through the aiport with my backpack and my computer case. I needed my computer case, because I had precious stuff in my backpack -- vegetables from my mom's garden. I was sure that the security people would stop me and search my bag once they saw an object that looked like this on the x-ray:

I guess, as Amy so cleverly pointed out, they could see through the cucumber to the seeds inside to know it wasn't harmful. But, I mean, I still could have gotten fancy with it in a pose somewhat like this:how did they know the little red-head wasn't gonna be dangerous with the cucumber??

So then, I walked through the airport and encountered some interesting people. Let's see, there was the older, I mean, *ahem* mature lady with the red purse who was walking quite determinedly with a confused look on her face. I imagined where she could be headed, and it was a slight bit frightening. Then, there was the boy who gave me a smirk as we passed each other, even though he should have been diligently listening to his mom who was very passionate about some subject. He looked too young for me anyways. When I plugged in my computer at one of those stations, the girls on both sides of me were playing that cake-maker game on their computers.

When you first walk onto the gangplank (is that what you call that thing to get on the airplane??) the excitement begins. But then, once I get on the airplane, and begin nearing my seat, I start spying out who my row-mates might be. And then the prayer is, "Oh, Lord, please not the weird guy. Please not the weird guy..." And then it's not the weird guy. No, it was the nice guy.

But then, the nice guy can be scary too. I'm screaming inside (not really, but, you know, for dramatic effect) "I look older than I am!!!" Then, as we talked, he says the word girlfriend..."Thank the Lord he has a girlfriend." So what's that jittery shaking of the knee? No, he's not interested in hitting on me; he just can't relax on airplanes. So, the jittery knee-bouncing continues for the next hour and he does hardly anything but look out the window and drink his cranberry juice. Oh, well. I could have prayed through some fear with him right there, but, I didn't.

And eventually, I got to my destination, and as I waited for my bag, the mom of the lady standing behind me arrived. As part of their greeting conversation, the mom proceeded to tell the daughter about how her dad was going to come pick her up, but he broke his little toe in the middle of the night because he kicked the bars at the end of the bed because he maybe has this thing called restless leg syndrome. You see, he usually keeps pillows down at the end of the bed (since he always shakes his legs) but he must have kicked them off.

Anyhoo, now I am at Elizabeth and Peter's house, hanging out with the Glorie-baby and the Amy.

This morning, Amy carried Glorie into my room to wake me up, Glorie kicked her legs and made her excited noises. Cuteness! A week and a half of cuteness!

Birthday

I think I was slap happy for about ten hours straight a little while ago.

Last night, I went to yummy Shabbat dinner with Rachel and Nikki. We went to a Middle Eastern restaurant in Oak Park. Yummy. Then, me and Rachel drove Amy to the Prayer Furnace for the Fire in the Night time. We ended up staying too, and got some good prayer time together (yay, Jesus!). We were there until like 2:30...by the time we got home we weren't tired anymore it was so late. But we went to bed and got up early to make cake for Mr. Pan! We decide to give him birthday party today, but we got home so late last night that we couldn't do anything for it. We got up and figured out what we were doing and went to the store and made a fortress cake! Then, we wrote a war story to go with the fortress cake. It was very exciting, especially since we all woke up slap happy today, still tired. So, our story was very funny. And random. But very funny. And when I read it out loud to everyone as part of the celebration, I could not keep from laughing really, really hard; so, everyone was laughing. Very nice. Happy birthday, Mr. Pan!

this is the cake with a round piece cut just for Amy

Tea

Maybe I'll go to bed and drink some tea and do some reading and listen to some music...the sad thing is, if I brush my teeth before I go to bed, then I shouldn't drink the yummy black tea with sugar in it...unless, I brush my teeth afterwards...that won't break up the relaxation too much, will it???

it's a dream of mine to one day have a toothbrush as cool as this

Random Tandem (does that make sense?? wait a minute...does it need to??)

Why are the pillows and blankets on the airplane always gone before you ask for one? They should just store one of each for each seat.


And, I missed my 100th post, so Happy 103rd post of Annie's blog.


Once, my sister had to get off of a plane really quick, and she was sitting in the farthest back row of the plane. She told a flight attendant about how she might miss this ceremony Sam was in, and the flight attendant told her to just push her way to the front of the plane, past the people, as soon as something happened, I can't remember what. I like that story.


I went to the doctor today. It took like 6 hours. literally. a lot of waiting.


I'm ready to go to Kansas City. I got used to not being in Chicago over the last 5 weeks, and I'm ready for a break. This city is intense! Especially after a 6-hour day at the doctor's office.

Airport

Obviously, to get from Tacoma to Chicago, I had to fly. Which means I had to go to the airport. Well, I like flying. I think the airport is fun. Since I'm usually at the airport alone, it's quite the opportunity to feel somewhat grown up; sometimes I feel a bit vulnerable, too, but anyways...

Usually, getting dropped off at the airport to leave Tacoma is difficult. This one was the best one yet! I didn't cry! And even though some kinda out-of-my-control things happened, there was still this peace and security there; I was surrounded by the Lord.

For one, it was 4:30 in the morning. I got my suitcases inside, got in line, got up to the self check-in, and there isn't a way to check-in with just your name. You have to have your record locator or credit card or passport or something. They havet his handy-dandy little phone where you just call customer service and tell them your name and they give you your record locator, so that got figured out.

Then, I waited for the lady to come check my bags. I give her the one bag, as the sign that says "bags over 50 lbs - $50" runs through my head as I pray, "Jesus, please just make this miraculously register less...please...I can't handle that...please..." It was 54 lbs. I was like, "oh, please just let it go." the lady stopped an checked, and said, "Oh." And then kindly helped me just switch some stuff into my smaller suitcase. She was really nice and calm; my heart was probably racing and I said, "I'm nervous." And she said, "don't be nervous...I just try to help people sot hat they don't have to pay $50." she was really nice and calm, and I shakingly threw open my suitcase and switched my shampoo and stuff. It registered right at 50. [thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus]. The lady got my ticket and stuff, smiled, and said, "have a good flight. don't be nervous." She was sweet. Thank you, Jesus for that lady.

I was a little bit behind schedule, so I got to the security line, and it was massively titanic. So i went down the hall a little and got into the next line. I watched a really cute couple cry and kiss and hug and kiss and cry. It was cute.

I like to listen to music as I go along, but it wasn't working out the best, and I was trying to figure out how to get all my stuff in the security bins and everything. Anyways...I got through it all. I got on the airplane and flew away. And I had a great flight with no awkward plane tears. I had joy and peace. Jesus was so good.

goodybe, Seattle-Tacoma airport

KC

Oh, and, can I say that my sister surprised me with plane tickets to Kansas City this morning??? I'm going in a week!!!!! Yay!!!

I'm excited

I have to say being in Tacoma made me excited about graduating again. Through the year, it had kind of gotten to a place where I felt like, "Okay...I guess I'll graduate." and even being slightly sad about it. But being in Tacoma reminded me of why I wanted to graduate early. It all started because I long to be in Tacoma; I was in such a hurry to get there, that I decided to graduate early. And now, I want to be there again. Yet, I don't know if it will work out that way. I have to take a year off before college, and I have no idea what will happen in that year.

But what goes with this is obedience to Jesus. And last night, I learned something about obedience. I have totally been living in a "one day" sort of attitude about obedience. Like, "I can't wait to live my life in crazy obedience to Jesus and watch the fruit. That is exactly how I want my life to be." Well, that is how I want my life to be, but last night the Lord just told me how "crazy obedience" isn't just the huge things like selling your house to do ministry, or changing your job, or dating the right person or something. In "crazy obedience" is simplicity. When I walk into my school and spen my time walking in joy, I am doing "crazy obedience." When I pray for my classmates, friends, and parents, I am walking in "crazy obedience." And the same kind of fulfillment is for me through this simple obedience. In fact, it probably is training for how all obedience is simple obedience. Even the big things...yep, still simple.

Part of why I desire to be at NewSong so much is how I so clearly see when I'm there everyone moving forward, because of simple obedience. That's part of what I love. I love being surrounded by tons and tons of people whose heart's cry is to be obedient. And who act on it. And their lives are different.

For God's church to be sold out to obedience...can you imagine? For God's people to be able to lay down unbelief that Jesus will be good no matter what and truly walk free of fear of being let down by Him. Unbelief is definitely dying in my life right now.

So, I want to be obedient. I want to be obedient next year in deciding with my parents what to do, the year after that when I go to college, Lord-willing. But I want to be obedient today, and not be passive about believing Jesus, not be distracted from fighting the fear that wants to keep me from my joy. I am with Jesus. Ultimately, He is my home. So I'm great.

the girls at Snoqualmie Falls

my Saturday

Yesterday I had one of the most funnest, awesomest, let's-make-up-some-new-words kind of day.

It started very early in the morning, probably about six o'clock. I was half asleep but barely aware that Ariel was rummaging around in the dresser. I wanted to say, "No, Ariel. those are Judah's clothes." [since she was rummaging on his side fo the dresser] but I didn't. A few minutes later, I woke up to realize that Ariel and Judah were playing around the apartment, but everyone of older ages seemed to be asleep. So I got up for a few minutes -- then Suz came and I went back to sleep.

It was the day that Suzy and I were gonna go do fun girl stuff, and it was very exciting. We went to go get a pedicure, and the whole thing was the most blog-worthy story. We got to the place and tried to pick up some magazines so that we could find a good hairstyle for me to cut my hair. Their magazine selection wasn't the most relevant to our situation. Suzy got stuck with the celebrity gossip paper while I looked through the bridal magazine. Our mission was to find hairstyles, but Suz was soon disgusted with the magazine and unable to continue and I sat there thinking about brown bridesmaid dresses and ivory gowns (like my post 2 posts ago). Suzy was having a sweet conversation with her girl, while the lady who was doing my feet had quite the time. Can I just say that I was extremely excited to get a pedicure so that I could have clean feet. This might not be the most exciting topic, but my feet were so callused that they never looked clean. I watched as she moved onto the portion of the pedicure where they do some work on the callused areas of your foot. I watched her look to the bottom of my feet and she was taken aback. She uttered a sound something like "tssk" and spent the next five to ten minutes scrubbing the bottom of my feet with all her strength. And they were clean. With pretty toenail polish.

Then we went to the mall and I got a haircut!! It's shorter, and layered, and much cuter. It had gotten long and what I called "elegant", but it had actually gotten slightly boring, at least in its state of cut-ness. We had a great time talking to my hair-cutter, Kim. Suzy read me a verse while we were sitting there, and mentioned something about anxiety, and the lady mentioned how that was her issue, and then we got to talk about how anxiety was a spirit, not just a physical battle in the mind, and about her experiences with religion and how her mom followed the Lord. It was really sweet.

After that we went to Nordstrom cafe and our sweet server who was about 75 brought us an extra bowl of soup so that we could each have one instead of sharing. It was such a lovely time.

Church was later and it was like a party service. We jumped around and sang with all our hearts and Brian preached a message about condemnation and fighting it and how condemnation tries to make everything complex when Christianity is in truth simple. He brought up body image in the message and then in the time when we all prayed through condemnation corporately (at NewSong we do repeat-after-me type things and break off stuff all together) all the women rebuked body image with everything they had-- we were like yelling as loud as we could. And then all the guys were clapping and I was just thinking how there are all these worthy, godly guys who would just love to yell, "that is not a standard for you! i don't hold you to that standard!" but how the enemy totally wants to keep every girl trapped in this idea that so much significance and worth is wrapped up in how skinny they are. It was an awesome service. We danced and sang some more and Brian told everybody to go have fun and party a little.

So we did! My friends took me out to Red Robin because I'm leaving on Monday. It was yummy and then my friend Hannah was so thoughtful and sweet and set up a movie-viewing at her house of my favorite - Jane Austen! We tried to watch Sense and Sensibility, but we were so tired that we didn't finish. =) It was a great day.

I love her

I love Ariel. I love singing to her when she goes to sleep. I love making her yummy food to eat. I love playing the "hey guys!" game with her and making up the silliest words. Her imagination is so amazing. =) I love holding her tight and telling her that Jesus loves her most of all.

Finally

I'm sitting in a Tully's, finally able to get confident internet service. I'm looking out the window, through the evening sunlight to see my cutest nephew crawl around the nearby playground while my sister helps Ariel defeat the monkey bars. There has been so much in this summer (at least so, so, so many pictures) that I can't blog about all that now.

But the other day I got inspired. Sometimes I randomly get these ideas: color-scheme ideas. The idea of planning a wedding or designing a house and making everything coordinate together and be beautiful sounds so delightful to me. So, the other day I was at my friend's apartment, and in her bathroom there was a super cute cherry blossom twig in a pink vase. And I've been thinking about the colors ever since. Maybe this is kind of sappy and girly; but that's okay. Here's what I've come up with so far:

this would be the outside envelope (like, the outside envelope of the invitation that is inside the mailing envelope. Black box is a picture of the couplesorry the pictures aren't bigger...the wording is kind of silly -- it obviously wouldn't say "BRIDE" but a name...

And then I would think chocolate brown dupioni silk bridesmaids dresses -- knee length of tea length -- with pink sashes. Cherry blossoms would work perfectly for centerpieces, and I think some sort of beautiful white flower that matches cherry blossoms would be great. An ivory dress with brown suits (which I was told by Suzy is totally fine -- brown suits)...but I have to say that the tie color is stumping me. Any ideas?

This might be humorously interesting to one person reading it and incredibly "what in the world" to another. haha