Slightly famous

Well, my mouth is famous. And that's pretty much it. My mouth was on tv! Isn't that exciting?!?!?! Come on, tell me that's not exciting.

Home

I'm getting excited. I'm starting to ache inside, because Christmas is gonna be soo good. My family. I don't think words can describe my family. But the thought of us being together makes my heart go warm and fuzzy, and I can't wait to laugh and hug and listen to the sweetest voices in the world. My sisters' voices: I can't wait to hear them through the halls and the rooms and through the protesting to a fast slip of the hand in Dutch Blitz. I can't wait to hug Ariel as tight as I possibly can...it makes me cry just to think about it -- my Ariel is gonna be in my arms again! =)

I love that girl! :)

I laugh so hard when I'm with my family - they're pretty much the funniest bunch around. Ah, now I remember. What usually happens is the girls do somehting random or talk about something random while the guys break out the James Bond and *gasp* beer.

Plus, we look like each other! What could be better?

On second thought

Now I do have a joyful snow picture from tonight. =)

Winter Joy

Today when I walked out of the store, I purposely left my hood down and watched the whiteness fall around me. Then, I was rewarded. A pretty little snowflake (well, it felt pretty) landed right on the tip of my nose. I love snow!!!

The more Christmases I go through, the more I think I love Christmas. It's so exciting! The sparkling lights everywhere are so enchanting, and the snow is just so perfect when it first falls. Have you ever thought about people who have Christmas with no snow?? (or you might be one...my pity extends to you) That is such a sad idea to me! Snow nad christmas are an extraordinary pair.

I think it's wonderful that God put something pretty with all the cold, or else I don't know how we would handle it. As winter started, it made me moan inside, because I just get tired of feeling cold for no apparent reason. It's so hard in the morning to get in the car and just be cold. You're just COLD. And you don't really know "cold" until you live in Chicago during the winter. Once the snow comes, though, it's like the coldness has been validated, and it's all worth it.

As of December 4, 2007, I don't mind Chicago winters. In fact, I believe I may be able to say that I like a Chicago winter. A few days ago, that would have been sacrilage. Now, looking at the snow sitting in the branches of the tree outside my window, it's bliss.

I don't have a picture from tonight of me enjoying the falling snow, so this picture from last year involving happiness and snow will have to do.

Wahoo!

Big Break

I just saw a commercial where a girl looked infinitely happy, was wrapped up in a pretty blanket, and plopped down on the couch. I thought "That is the look of someone who has nothing to do."

Also, you know that guy who does the infomercials for Oxi-clean? Wow...it's sad that I know that. Well, I'm convinced that he should have lost his voice by now, because whenever he is selling something, he sounds like he's yelling...that's a long time to be yelling.

Alright...now for the break that isn't a break from homework or a break in the Oxi-clean man's voice...my big break! I will soon be the next biggest thing on the Chicago 10:00 news (my Dad's sure of it). The story:

This morning, I went to my orthodontist. And I waited. (While I waited, I thought about what I'm gonna do with my life...again) I waited a half an hour before she was ready to see me. Now, I went in unsuspectingly, but as I sat down, I noticed that across the way from the chair I was in, there was a guy with a massive camera, in the patient and the orthodontist's faces while their work was being done. I wondered what was going on, and then I saw that the new lady standing around had a tag that said "abc" in the black circle -- quite familiar...and quite exciting.

I lie there going, "I hope I'll be on tv!" When she sees me, and goes over to tell her camera guy, "That one! Let's do that one!" pointing to me. Wahoo! Exciting! She told my doctors, "don't do too much yet." Soon the guy was all up in my chair-space with the big camera, hurrying around to get the different angles.

Once the doctors were finished looking at my teeth, the news lady was asking me how long I've had braces and told me that the teeth looked great. Then she said, "Get a shot of her cute smile!" =] So...awkward! I didn't know what to do. I just started smiling straight at the camera...the guy told me I didn't have to smile yet. He said when he counted to three, I should smile. I have to say, though, once he counted to 3, I smiled for ten or fifteen seconds straight - maybe longer. Meanwhile, the doctor and the reporter would say "She's so cute!!" =]

THEN, once I sat up from the actual work getting done on me, she rushed over and asked, "Can we ask you a few questions about blah...blah...blah..." Questions? For being on tv? Sure!! So, I had to hide a microphone under my shirt, and she asked me questions about what I thought about having braces and whether or not I had thought about having the invisible ones... well, my answers were kinda slow, so, I don't know about those, but. we'll see!

And side note: hearing the word "final" from the professor is a good thing; hearing the words "this is a disaster" from my doctor isn't so much a good thing. But it's not really a disaster...I could get them off soon!!

Off to bed - here I go.

Turned around

Um, this morning, the cat jumped on my face. While I was in bed. I bear a battle scar on my lip. Not cool. That is just not cool. It should be against the rules. Oh wait, it is. Oh wait, the cat doesn't know English, so she doesn't know it's against the rules...right. Does that mean this situation is hopeless? All things considered, she should have learned last week when she jumped on Amy's face and was flung off only to immediately land sideways *smack* onto my face (we were laying side by side). She should have learned. There you go...it's her own fault. But I'm the one with the scratch on my lip.

I need some sort of really interesting (or even slightly interesting) story to happen to me so that I can blog about it...

Amy left on Wednesday...tiempos tristes.

OH! but OJ, Suzy & Co. are officially coming for Christmas! (and on that note, can I say that I just typed "Thanksgiving" instead of Christmas for the umpteenth time only to have to go back and fix it. Why can I not get over Thanksgiving??"

You know what, I am abandoning blogging for the night and am going to try calling Callie and/or Chloe.

Perhaps info on driver's ed tomorrow. Let's just say that sitting at the desk wondering what I'm going to do with my life is a common occurrence. And my test is tomorrow. Let's also say that.

the Ayes have it

These guys are funny. And I have Vista. Dang.

the Unexpected Day

You wouldn't normally think that the day your nose, throat, and lungs decide that breathing is a sin against humanity would be a day where you wake up at 6:30 and go non-stop. You also wouldn't think that the day where your nose becomes not a way to breathe but the new hottest place in town for snotty singles to meet would be a day where you do choir rehearsal late into the night.

And yet, this is my day.

***
So, my Chemistry teacher is a doctor, right? It's kinda funny how he puts in little (albeit simple) advice in the middle of class. Once, two girls were late and one of them came in explaining why and asking if she could go help the other girl because she had a nosebleed. Dr. Albert's reply was, "Ok...tell her to put cold water on the bridge of her nose and the back of her neck." Well, that was easy. Then today, in my stuffed up state, I put my head down in class and he switched from Chemistry to medical-ry (or whatever). "Anna, drink lots of fluids. That will help." Good thing I had my waterbottle with me.

***
And, in even other news, I have something to add to yesterday's post. Another side effect of not being able to breathe through one's nose, and consequently keeping one's mouth open all the time is a bit tongue, I find. Yes, I suspect that during the night my teeth got tired of staying open and decided to attack my tongue...sad times.

Anybody got any news that doesn't have anything to do with Anna's cold??

Cracked

One of the worst things about a cold is that since I can't breathe through my nose, I have to have my mouth open all the time, which results in terribly chapped lips...all the time. When I wake up in the morning, it's like my lips are frozen in place. I find that even in the middle of the day, I end up feeling like my face will soon be lip-less because of the dire state of things. Oh, I need some super-powered chapstick or something.

Enough

How much is too much? How much is enough?

Is insignificance just plain insignificance or is it prideful? I think there is a chord of insignificance that is pride -- thinking that you are the ONE that is mistreated or you are the ONE that matters. But that makes sense, doesn't it? That self-pity, insignificance, condemnation -- they each have a string of pride.

Sometimes my friends and I, we have these table talks about all our problems, as in, sin problems. We talk about how selfish we are and how much we hate it or how prideful we are and how much we hate it. But, when you think about it, we kinda should have realized it before. And, you know, these talks, they usually kinda discourage us, but, actually, Jesus saved us. And, He knows our weakness. We, in our nature are super, super, super sinful. But, Jesus saved us from it. He redeemed us. And , we have these little "talks" where we realize how much we needed to be saved, but sometimes we forget the encouragment of the facts:

We already are.

We are saved. Jesus redeemed us. And we mess up. But there is hope. And it's called forgiveness. It's called amazing grace. It's called the heart of Christ. Walking in forgiveness and hope is a struggle in itself, but Jesus will help us with that, too. And we won't just walk, we'll soar.

Angel Arms

[Originally, this post read "today is Thanksgiving!" but now, it is not Thanksgiving, it is the day after...please excuse the timing]. [Yesterday was] Thanksgiving! There is tons to be thankful for. First, let us talk about snow. I woke up this morning to two things: a sore throat and snow. Snow! The first snow of the season is on Thanksgiving. Maybe we need to be more thankful for snow.

If you had been at my house today (as I was) and had been asked to take out the trash (as I was) you would know (as I do) that snow creates a triviality of no trivial nature known as icy steps. This is where my angel arms come in...well, not my angel arms, but those that must have been wrapped around me considering the fact that I do not at this moment have a broken neck, broken back, or some other tragic-ness (besides my sore throat and stuffy nose). I had two bags of trash in each hand, and when I got to the icy steps, I decided to brave them (as I normally would). On the first step, my foot went a-sliding. Falling down my stairs would be very bad, in case you haven't seen my back steps. I let the two bags in my right hand go and they crashed to the ground as I grabbed the railing. I had a very firm balance right away, though, which leads me to believe that there must have been some angel arms surrounding me in some way. Yay for angel arms.

At the beginning of the day, it looked like we would have a very small Thanksgiving, since the people we invited either had somewhere else to go already or were just so happy to have a day off work that they just wanted to rest. We hoped to convince the girl who lives in our basement apartment to have dinner with us, so we set a place for her just in case and figured if she didn't come, we would just have a place set for Jesus (like how at Passover a place is set for Elijah). A teacher from the school ended up calling and accepting the invitation.

I made mashed potatoes, which requires all of one's strength...

We talked of Pakistan and education and various things. I had my jellied cranberry sauce. Every year, my mom makes real cranberry sauce with whole berries, but I always have to have the jellied kind. It's super yummy.

The kitty has a name! My mom decided (as in, decided, and said no one could change it) that it would be called Jemimah. No argument, contestation, or wavering. My very inner nature wants to protest, but I cannot... Jemimah took part in the Thanksgiving feast, too. Well, she tried to. She is quite mischievous. Maybe it's okay to call her Jemimah...funny names are good for animals at some times.

Speaking of animals, we watched the national dog show in the morning (random, yes) and the cute australian sheepdog won -- we were rooting for her. I might want one of those someday.

Our craziness:

we could be models

Amy's kung-fu-ness my favorite dance move
Happy Thanksgiving!!

No Way

I'm really tired. And I still have two sections of Worldviews to read. I would be officially crazy if I wrote the blog I was planning on writing right now, before my homework is done. That would be especially true because it is now 10:31. I left music school about 9:32. Somewhere around there.
In fact, this was today's schedule (just so you know, I feel like pronouncing it sh-e-jule like the English...so be sure to read it with that pronunciation):

6:00 - wake-up


6:07 - decide that's it's not after six, I'm sure of it


6:22 - turn around and actually look at the clock.


7:12 - leave the house


7:42 - pass Lincoln while driving on Devon (I was looking at the clock, I just thought I'd put that in there)


7:56 - we have no first period teacher because she's out of town for Thanksgiving and...I think everybody else forgot that she's out of town for Thanksgiving


8:38 - first class with the new teacher: Miss Richert!


11:12 - lunch...that's always importnat


fast forward:


3:25 - driving towards bank to get money orders for first Driver's Ed class


4:05 - I walk into Driver's Ed class after asking 3 Taft students how to find the room...awkward


5:30 - First Driver's Ed class done! [more on that later]...hurry home and grab food for my hungriness and try to check some e-mail and then run out the door to rehearsal


7:05-9:00: sing some high G's (and trust me, they're high)


9:28 - leaving Merit


in between then and now I have looked at blogs and read some e-mail...and written this blog of course (which doesn't count as the one I was planning on writing...it doesn't...)


10:38 - read Worldviews and (hopefully!) go to sleep sometime in the next five hours...

notice the heavenly light pouring down on her head? Oh yes, sleep is good.

Did I mention that I'm really tired and have been probably since, oh, I'd say, about 2:00? Yeah...random headaches....

Did you know that caffeine dries out your vocal chords? And yet, I have a fascination with Starbucks.