Good Friday

Today is Good Friday. This is the day Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
- 1 Corinthians 5:21


And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
- Mark 15:33-39

By God's grace and mercy we are forgiven if our sins. It's incredible! Thank you, Lord!

Delightful Weekend!

We had a wonderful weekend while Abbey was home. :) We relaxed and hung out with Abbey on Thursday.

On Friday, Abbey, Mom and I got our hair cut!  We drove down to Augusta and had Bethany cut our hair. She did a great job. :)

Before and after of my haircut.

On Saturday, Abbey and I cleaned the church while Billy and Dad did some errands. When we got home, I tried Billy's tire dragging exercise. I couldn't pull it very far which made for a funny video.

That is my attempt at pulling the 165 pound tire.

Here is Billy's successful attempt at pulling the same tire.

Since my attempt didn't really do much of a workout, I decided to go for a run to make up for it. :)

Saturday evening, Tucker, Tim, Angie, Gabe, Addie, Aunt Debbie, and Dave came over for supper to visit with Abbey. It was a very delightful evening! I played with Gabe most of the time. :) Gabe and I had lots of tickle attacks. Billy made chicken breast stuffed with seasoned cream cheese, breaded, and wrapped in bacon, along with some brown rice and stir-fried veggies. It was delicious!

On Sunday, I curled my hair for church. I really like out it turned out.

After church, Shannon brought Mom home because she wasn't feeling well.  Billy went with the Crawfords to hang out at the Taylor's house.  Shannon, Abbey, and Dad came back to the church to pick me up. We drove down to Massachusetts to visit the Vandykes. A few minutes after we arrived Dad had to bring Abbey to Boston so she could catch a bus back to NYC.

We had a great visit with the Vandyke family! After catching up, we played a game of Hearts with two decks. I won, Zeb came in second, and Ben came in third. :)

After Hearts, we talked for a bit with Mr. Moore about theater and such. Levi, Dad, Zeb, Mr. and Mrs. Vandyke, Mr. and Mrs. Moore and I played Trivial Pursuit. The team Dad, Zeb, Mr. and Mrs. Moore were on won.

After Trivial Pursuit we talked a bit more. Joanna had Jenny, her friend Jillian, and Benjamin H. come in to say hi. That was really nice! After talking with them for a bit, we hugged everyone goodbye and left. It was a very delightful visit!

Welcome Home Babba!

Late last night --or should I say, early this morning, Mom and Dad picked Abbey up from Boston! She's home until Sunday evening. Woohoo! This morning I was lying in bed, too lazy to get up just yet, and I heard Abbey (on the top bunk) say in her sleep, "Haters gonna hate.". It was rather hilarious!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of going to Amanda's house to play around with her hair. I had a wonderful time! We some great conversation as well. :) I'm so blessed to have a friend like her.

Presentation Practice and Tough Mountain Challenge

Last night, I practiced presenting my business in front of my YEA! class. Needless to say, I need to finish my PowerPoint and script and practice it over and over again. Our guest speaker, Kurk Lalemand, was kind enough to sit in on a few of our presentations and gave us some tips afterwards. He's one of the investors so his tips were very helpful!

The other day I registered for the Tough Mountain Challenge. I'm really excited to do it this summer. It's a bit pricy but I'm sure it'll be worth it. The Tough Mountain Challenge is a 5K on a mountain with lots of muddy or crazy obstacles. I've always wanted to do something like that so I'm looking forward to training for it and then doing it with Billy and some friends.

Birthdays!

Today is Tucker and Lily's birthday! Tucker is turning 18 and Lily is turning 7! :) Happy birthday, guys!

This afternoon, I'm making Shannon a carrot cake for her birthday party today. :) It's going to be a small, fun, girls only birthday party.

I may be working tonight. I'll find out at 2pm.

I'm rather bummed out because I'm missing The HOME Convention this year because I'm unsure if I'm working or not. :/ A bunch of my good friends are going and I can't see them. :( Also, Eric and Leslie Ludy are speaking at the convention as well.

Tomorrow, if I'm not working, I'll be going to the Estes party that Nick and Joel are having before they head back to college.

Busy, On-the-go Day

Yesterday morning, Shannon drove me to the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce building before she went to class. When I arrived the the building I said hello to my teacher, Mrs. Carroll, then went into the Chamber of Commerce conference room to listen to Kurk Lalemand from Next Level Business Coaching. Kurk spoke on "Hiring -- The Long and Winding Road". He talked about how we should hire slowly - fire quickly, train people well, keep people accountable, and the DISC personality trait system.

After the seminar was over, I walked down the road to Free Grace church. Mom, Billy, the Kidds, Pastor Per and a few elders from Presbytery, I think, were there. I ate a small lunch and talked with Millie, Grace, and Darby for awhile. Grace, Kevin, and I walked to the Lewiston Public Library while Mom and Mrs. Crawford took a walk. Soon after we got to the library, we had to head back to the church because the Kidd family was ready to leave. It was Darby's birthday so they were going to have a fun day in Portland for him. :) I talked to Pastor Per until Mom got back from her walk with Mrs. Crawford.

Mom and I drove to the dollar store and bought basically all the supplies we needed for the cast party. The Wardwells were at Walmart and so I asked them to pick up white rectangular table cloths because the dollar store didn't have any.

Shannon got home, we got home and the Wardwells arrived at our house at basically the same time. It was rather hilarious!

Mom drove me and the Wardwells to the Richards's house. Mrs. Richards told us what to do with the Christmas decorations and we quickly got to work. Rebecca and Tucker arrived about an hour after we got there. We eventually got all the Christmas decorations and tree out of the Great Room and then got to work on decorating. I won't say too much about the decorations until after the cast party. I can tell you that they're really amazing though!

After a few hours of work, Mom picked us up. Rebecca and Tucker drove in a separate car. We went to the Winthrop Hannaford to return a Redbox movie and buy some spinach. Then, we stopped at the Chick's house so I could pick up the goddess costume for Mrs. Taylor.

When we (Emily, John, Stephen, Tucker, Rebecca, Mom, and I) got home, Billy had a delicious supper ready for us. After supper Tucker and I discussed details of the cast party while everyone else talked about random things. It turned out to be a very fun evening!

As You Like It = Success!

We successfully performed six performances! It was such a huge blast! I am so thankful to God for such a wonderful opportunity and for my wonderful friends that were in the show and for those that came to watch the show. Some cast members did get sick during the shows but we were still able to continue with the show with no major difficulties. :) 

This was my last SMASH play. I'm going to miss it SO much!