SMASHness

I apologize for the lack of blog posts. I haven't had much exciting things to say for awhile.

With SMASH starting up, I've been really excited to rehearse scenes, get a costume, apply stage make up, figure out hairdos for the characters, and get into character! :D I'm also planning the cast party so that should be fun!

With SMASH on my mind I put together a collage of "before and after" pictures of Petra and I. We both had the most dramatic change in our characters last year.

In the good picture of Petra, I cropped Olivia out. She was sort of bummed so I made her her own collage. :)

Work, Church, and Games

Last Saturday night I ended up working so I couldn't make it to Gabe's funeral. :/ Work went well though. I hadn't worked since New Years Eve so I thought it would be hard to get back into the swing of things but it wasn't so bad. :) I nearly forgot to get the veggie plates out but I remembered just in time. I got out of work around 9pm, I think. After work, Dad, Mom, Billy and I watched an episode of Alias. Such an intense show!

Sunday morning, Pastor Per preached Isaiah 41:1-20. His sermon was titled Reality Check. It was very good.

After church, we ate some lunch and then had our home group discussion with Casondria, Belinda, David, Connor, Meti, Erin, Shannon, Dad, and Billy. After that, we had Meti, Erin, and Connor over at our house. We watched Princess Bride and I made chocolate chip cookies, and Gluten-Free Brownies from a box. After hanging out for a bit, all but Dad left to go to the Turner Home Group game night. Game night was SUPER fun! We ate lots of yummy food, played Settlers of Catan, Dutch Blitz and some of the younger kids and parents played other games.

Rest In Peace, Gabe S.

Tomorrow afternoon is Gabe's, Caleb's friend's, funeral. :/ I'm not sure if I'll be able to go but I'll be praying for the Soucy and Castonguay family.

I've always loved the song Rock of Ages. Not until recently have I really noticed the beauty of the lyrics. The last verse brought me to tears the Sunday after I found out about Gabe's death.

While I draw this fleeting breath, 
when mine eyes shall close in death, 
when I soar to worlds unknown, 
see thee on thy judgment throne, 
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
let me hide myself in thee.

-Augustus M. Toplady 

I believe Gabe is in heaven now. :) 

(to avoid any confusion, this is not my nephew Gabe)

SMASH: As You Like It

This year in SMASH, we are performing As You Like It. Performances will be February 21, 22, 28 and March 1 at 6:30pm and February 23 and March 2 at 2pm. We will be performing at Cumston Hall in Monmouth. To make reservations call (207)370-0441or email smashmaine@gmail.com.

Yesterday, I did school in the morning and I then I went to SMASH. I got to watch Billy (he's playing Le Beau) rehearse one of his scenes with Orlando (played by John), Rosalind (played by Meredith/Keisha), Celia (play by Millie/Rebecca), Charles (played by Darby and Ethan), Duke Frederick (played by David), and Touchstone (played by Ben). It was quite hilarious! I can't wait for the whole play to come together. It's going to be a very funny and entertaining play. 

After SMASH rehearsal I did a few chores, then listened to last weeks sermon again, ate supper, and drove (with Mom, Dad, and Billy) to Taking It Deeper. It was a good discussion. :) I drove my family and I home, made hot chocolate mix, and then watched an exciting episode of Alias with Mom and Dad.

Presbytery, Orchestra Concert, and Church = A Lovely Weekend

Last Saturday morning, Mom and I drove to the church for Presbytery. I had to do slides for the church service that we had before Presbytery actually happened. It was very good. A young man named Brian Phillips preached on Called to Walk in Truth and Love. He read from Second John 4-6.

After the church service, we all had quick break and snacked for a bit. When the break was over, the elders and pastors began presbytery. It was rather interesting. I must be honest, I didn't listen to it the whole time because it was a tad uninteresting to me at times. At one point, all of us guests had to go into the offices at church so the men could talk about certain things we weren't supposed to listen to. It was pretty fun sitting in Ken's office with Mom, Mrs. Kidd, Lilly, Darby, Millie, Mrs. Crawford, Mr. Crawford, and Kevin. As Mrs. Crawford had said, "It's like we're on a long car ride going no where.".

After Presbytery was over, we cleaned up the church and put everything back to how it was supposed to be. We talked to some of the visitors from different churches for awhile and then left.

When Mom and I got home it was about 5:30pm. We quickly ate some supper, and then I drove (with Mom in the passenger's seat and Billy in the back) to Meti's house. Mom drove Meti, Billy, and I to The Franco American Heritage Center to see Mrs. Almquist and Kyle play in the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra. It was really cool that Kyle was playing in the orchestra! He was the youngest musician in the orchestra and got a special guest announcement along with two two other guests in the orchestra. :D Kyle and Mrs. Almquist had 20 people show up to listen to them. Needless to say, we were all proud of Kyle. Mrs. Almquist was especially proud.

Sunday morning we had church. :) A joy, as usual. Pastor Per's sermon was called "Your Thoughts of God Are Too Human". That title is a quote from Martin Luther.

After church, Shannon and Meti hung out in Augusta for the afternoon. Billy, Mom, Dad, and I watched a debate through Intelligence Squared. The debate was on whether or not Science refuted God. It was really interesting but I'm not sure where Dad found the actual video of the debate.

Breakfast Burrito

Yesterday morning, I sort of made up my own recipe for a breakfast burrito. There nothing super special about it but it's a change.

Servings: 2

Ingredients
2 slices of bacon
1/3 cup of sausage
1 medium sized potato
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Olive oil (enough to generously cover the bottom of the pan you use)
2-4 eggs (depends on how full of a burrito you want)
A splash of Milk
A dash of Pepper
Italian Salad Dressing
1-3 tablespoons of cheese (amount varies on how much cheese you prefer)
2 tortillas

Recipe/directions
Cook the bacon and sausage, remove from pan and onto a paper towel (for the grease). Pour olive oil in the same pan you were using for the meat. Chop the potato into bite sized pieces and throw into pan. Add Italian seasoning and stir occasionally. Once the potatoes turn golden and soft, remove from pan. In a medium sized bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, and pepper together and then pour egg mixture into the hot pan. Be sure to stir/scramble the eggs immediately so they don't stick to the pan. Add chopped up sausage and bacon to the eggs and then add the hash browns/potatoes and Italian salad dressing. Continue to scramble eggs until well cooked. Microwave tortillas for 15 seconds and then spread the cheese onto the center of the warm tortilla. Scoop desired amount of eggs onto tortilla, fold, then enjoy!



Today, I discovered a young lady's blog. I believe she is friends with some other Christian friends of mine. Anyway, she has alot of great posts for Christian homeschooled girls and for anyone else. She's very smart. As far as I have read, I agree with what she says. :) Her blog is called Cause For Joy. I suggest it to anyone but more specifically to young ladies. It's fantastic!

First Mentor Visit

Last Monday, I had YEA! class again. It was pretty exciting because we had one of our investors come and meet us. After introducing ourselves and our business ideas, he left. A lawyer came in as a guest speaker and talked to us about taxes, liabilities, sole proprietorship vs corporations or limited partnerships/partnerships, and hiring/firing/paying employees, business names and trademarks and things like that. It was pretty interesting.

After the lawyer left, we got a 10 minute break. We got to snack on some desserts from Grants Bakery.

When our break was over, Mr. Morrison introduced us to our mentors. I was partnered up with a gentleman named Donny who works at Mechanic Savings. I believe he does something commercials so he sees alot of business plans. He basically went over my business plan with me and asked me quite a few good questions. He's smart and was recently married so weddings are pretty fresh in his mind. In case you didn't know, my business is going to Wonderful Wedding Planning.

God's Comfort

Last Friday night, Billy, Mom, Dad, and I went to a fundraiser benefit event for Sensei Pelletier. It was was awesome! There were so many people there! They had a DJ play music, there was a really cool Karate demo. My pastor and his sons (Kyle, Jason, and Scotty) all take karate. I hope to never get into a fight with them because I'm very sure that I'd lose. Gracie and I got to hold a snake that night! There was some sort of pet store that was at the fundraiser event. They had tame rats, snakes, lizards, and parrots there. It was really cool. The parrot danced! There was one HUGE snake (ball python) that only the guy who worked at the pet store could hold. We got to pet it though. :)

At one point, the snake wrapped around both my wrists like hand cuffs. It was really cool!

Saturday morning, we went sledding with Dan, Nick, Kenan, Linnea, Catherine, Diana, Martin, Tucker, Corrie, and Brenna! Joel was there but he had a pretty bad cold so he stayed in the van. After sledding and racing for awhile, we played Capture the Flag. In order to "tag" some one, we had to either hit them with a snow ball or tackle them. It was a lot of fun! I was on Tucker's team with Kenan, Mr. Stuart, Linnea, Brenna, Catherine, and Diana, I believe. Our team won both rounds. After two rounds of Capture the Flag, Tucker left to go to Hands Around the Capitol and the rest of us went to my house. We all had hot chocolate and ate lunch. We all played some card games or chess and  just hung out for awhile. Everyone was sort of exhausted from sledding. Most everyone left in between 3:30pm and 5pm. It was a fun day!

That night we found out that our friend Caleb (he used to do SMASH) was in a car accident with his good friend Gabe. Gabe died and Caleb was hospitalized. :'( Caleb was in the ICU for awhile but he's doing better now. Please pray for healing and comfort for Caleb and his close friends and family.

Sunday morning was a little rough. On the way to church Dad had us sing It Is Well With My Soul. I started to cry basically as soon as we started singing. My heart goes out to Gabe's family and Caleb's family. I was able to stop crying for awhile until we got to church and Pastor Per closed sermon (which was on Isaiah 40:1-11, by the way) and was naming examples of why we need God's comfort and he mentioned the car accident. He then prayed about it and the other struggles going on around us like Sensei Pelletier and his cancer. After Pastor Per finished praying we sang Rock of Ages, Cleft For Me ("
could my tears forever flow"). That brought me to tears as well. By the end of church, Billy, Shannon, and I were all in tears. I thank God for such a comforting God and comforting church family though. :) I had some good friends send me texts saying they were praying for Caleb and Gabe as well. I'm so blessed. <3

After church, once we stopped crying I talked with some friends for a bit and then once almost everyone left, we had a home group study on Instruments In The Redeemers Hands. When we finished with that, we went home. Casey stopped by before she left back for college. :( I took a long nap, and then Dad and I made Whoopie Pies. Once the Whoopie Pies were done, we drove over to Home Group in Turner. We had good fellowship, ate yummy snacks, updated people on prayer requests, Shannon shared how her week was in NYC, and then we discussed chapter two of Instruments In The Redeemers Hands and then prayed. It was a wonderful evening.

This morning, I woke up early because I had a dentist appointment at 7am. My teeth are "perfect" except one tooth sticks out slightly farther than the other. The Dentist said I could go to the Orthodontist to see how much it would cost to straighten it. I'm not sure if would want braces if I don't need them though.

Just a picture of my hair because I felt like taking a picture of it. :P

A Blessed Christmas Vacation

I'll try and sum up my Christmas vacation pretty quickly. :)

The Saturday before Christmas, I believe I finished my gift shopping and wrapped the gifts, made Buck Eye Balls, and then I worked that night.

The Sunday before Christmas, we went to church and had a lovely church service. :) After church, we went home and got the ham dinner ready and I finished making the Buck Eye Balls. Aunt Debbie arrived around 2:30pm. We ate the ham dinner around 3:30pm. It was SUPER yummy. After the ham dinner, Tim, Angie, Gabe, and Addie arrived. :) They ate some of the ham dinner and once they had finished eating, we sorted the gifts out. We went in age order and opened our gifts. I got a necklace, chocolate and body scrub, from Shannon, fuzzy socks and sparkly nail polish from the Leach family, nail stickers and bath set from Aunt Debbie, a fedora from Billy, an iPad mini from my parents, a journal also from my parents, a target gift card and a cozy blue scarf from the my Aunt Sue and Uncle Jim, a TJ Maxx gift card from Abbey, and another Target gift card from the Reagan family. It was a very good Christmas. I really enjoyed hanging out with my family. <3 They are so wonderful. But gifts are the most exciting part of Christmas, it's the birth of Jesus Christ. I am so incredibly thankful and amazed that God sent his only son to take the form of a human to die on the cross for our sins. I can't imagine the struggles and temptations He went through.

On Christmas Eve night, we went to our church's Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols service. I had to do slides for the service. Billy and I both had to read some scripture for the service as well. It was a beautiful night! :)

Billy, Abbey, Catherine, Diana, Mom, and Dad. Shannon took this picture as we sang Silent Night.

After the service we had some snacks and talked with the Estes and our Free Grace family for awhile. It was lovely!

On Christmas day, we wrote a few Thank You cards and just relaxed for the day. The reason we opened out gifts on the Sunday before Christmas was because my Mom was working Christmas Eve and Shannon was working on Christmas day.

The day after Christmas, my family, Casey, and I went to go see Les Miserables. It was really good! The music was pretty incredible! After the movie, we cleaned the church and then Mom, Casey, Abbey, and I drove to Tim and Angie's house. Mom and Abbey into the house to drop off some soup. They were recovering from a flu bug so Casey and I didn't want to go inside. After that, we drove to my friend Allison's house so I could spend the night.

Allison and I couldn't do too much because she had hurt her back and it was basically a blizzard outside. We still had fun though! We hung out in her hot tub, watched movies, and talked a lot! :) It was fantastic! I had to spend an extra night at their house because the roads were bad. Thursday night, I ended up getting sick. I must have caught the flu from some one. We aren't sure it was from Tim and Angie because I hadn't seen them since Sunday. I threw up about 4 times that night. The next morning, Dad came and picked me up. I was feeling mostly better. On the way home Dad bought me some gatorade. I relaxed for the rest of the day. My Uncle Steve and cousin Katie came to visit. Uncle Steve, Shannon, and Katie made a delicious supper. I barely ate mine because my stomach wasn't quite ready for a regular meal. After supper, Uncle Steve taught us two new card games.

The next day, Uncle Steve and Katie made Eggs Benedict for breakfast. It was very yummy! After breakfast, we hung out and talked for awhile. Just before lunch, Sean showed up. For lunch we had a delicious chicken type meal. It was basically a chicken breast with cream cheese and spices stuffed inside, breaded, then wrapped in bacon. It was DIVINE! After lunch Katie left to visit some friends in Waterville. Uncle Steve, Billy, Abbey, and I taught Sean how to play the game Uncle Steve taught us. After awhile, Uncle Steve packed up, said good bye, and left. We had a good time!

After Uncle Steve left, Sean, Billy, Abbey, Mom, Dad, and I went to the Richards' Christmas party. That was loads of fun! It was so nice to see some many of my wonderful friends. I'm super blessed. I basically caught up with whole bunch of my friends.

On Sunday, we had yet another lovely church service. Pastor Per preached on Christmas as Great Joy. After church, the Vandykes came over for lunch. :) After lunch, Sean, Billy, Abbey, and I met Dan at Panera Bread. We taught Dan how to play Dutch Blitz. After we finished our game of Dutch Blitz, Dan, Sean, Billy, and I played Hearts. Strangely enough, Billy lost! Dan came in first, Sean came in third, and I came in second! I'm used to Billy winning hearts. After we finished the game, we left because Panera Bread was closing early.

On New Years Eve, I cleaned our living room floor. I had to go into work at Sedgley Place at 3:45pm. Corrie and I worked until 12:30am. We started the new year working :) When we got back to my house, we took some pain medicine, ate some cheerios, and relaxed on the couch each with a glass of sparkling grape juice. We listened to a few One Direction and Celtic Thunder songs until Billy, Sean, Abbey, and Shannon got home from the Estes around 2:30am.

The next day, Corrie, Billy, and I went to Sarah's house for a little party with some friends. I met Sarah's cousins Aaron and Adam, and got to know her friends Mac and David better. We all laughed so much! We played some hilarious games called Telestrations, Egyptions Rats Stew/Screw, CatchPhrase, and Mafia.

I started school again the next day (last Wednesday).

Thursday evening, Mom dropped Abbey, Billy, and I off at Central Maine Christian Academy. Garrett drove us to his basketball game in New Gloucester. We watched Dan and Garrett's basketball team beat Grace Christian with a score of 57-18, I think. Afterwards, we watched the girls beat Grace Christian with a score of 40 or 30 something with like 15 points. It was fun! After the games, we invited Dan and Garrett over for supper. Garrett drove us to Little Caesars while Dan followed us in his car. After we got the pizza at Little Caesars, we drove home. Shannon and Abbey were a little overtired so we had a rather hilarious and interesting supper! After supper, Dan, Billy, Garrett, and I played Hearts. Dan won again, and I believe Garrett came in second, Billy in third, and me in last. It was rather disappointing game for me. :P Dan and Garrett left soon after the game was finished.

Last Saturday morning, Billy and I went sledding with a bunch of teens and youth from Free Grace. Tim and Gabie baby went sledding with us as well! After we were finished with sledding, we went to the Almquist's house for hot chocolate and soup. SO good!

That night, as research for my Wedding Planning business, Dad, Joanna, Mrs. Vandyke, and I went to a .Bridal Show in Portland. It was a lot of fun! Although, it was a tad awkward because most of the Vendors thought I or Joanna was a bride. After the Bridal show, we went to Five Guys Burgers. Good food!