Currently Listening Doobie Brothers - Greatest Hits By The Doobie Brothers no track in particular..just dad tapping into the christmas gifts early see related

Hey everyone~

Well my heart really does go out to all of you Minnesota Vikings fans who....well let's just say that Greenbay got a christmas present a little early this year! (thought of you the whole time scott...figured i couldn't write until i could say something about it )

In other news....I am so loving break! It has been so great to just lounge around home and wake up at 7...realize that I don't have to get up...not that i do during school either...and roll over and go back to bed for another 4-5 hours. Life is SWEET! Today we went to Freiburg to get a little shopping in. Correction: I had done minimal amounts of Christmas shopping and found myself amoung the mob, frantically searching for the "perfect gift". Other than the fact that things are just things...I have also discovered a sad truth about growing up: we are a whole heck-of-a-lot harder to shop for. Well, I am sure there are plenty of things out there that we want...they just have a bigger price tag on them. So for once my bro decided that pics would be ok...so we tried to capture some of the Freiburg beauty.Merry Christmas to you all....and enjoy being with your family! Love to all!

abs

This is from the cma party we had...I love my daddy! The chump here is my bro! And the family out in Freiburg...my dad couldn't put down the food! Here we are again! And this pic goes out to Trevor Hope...just in case no one is bugging him over break! :)

Toodles

Currently Listening How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2000 Film) By James Horner see related

 Ok...so I know this is REALLY late in coming. But just in case you were wondering where I have been....I can't tell you because I don't remember....but I will tell you what I do remember....

STRESS!!!!

Such is life here at BFA but it has all been good. The play was great and I had an absolute blast....but I am so glad it is over. I can not imagine trying to get everything done on top of that right now. The banquet was totally fun and so here are some pics from the evening.....more are following when I can get the nice ones scanned on...Kyle (AKA Gideon) and meIsn't she pretty?!!It's amazing how the pic makes our teeth yellowThis is for Andrea!Banquet prep...I wanted to go as the w.witch...Joshy!Love the 'muffs! Isn' he cute!!!

Uhhhuh!!

Me and my co-star, FRANK! The LOVELY Shannon!

Jesse is wearing a dress!!!!AHAHAHAH! The gorgeous Autumn B-Rad The other brandon jack....dang kid...when did you get so tall!!! and the stunning chelsea!

Well that about sums up my life...Alright....I know that it is lamely short but I have been doing so much paper writing that you should be thankful I am updating at all!!!SO there! Love to you all and Good luck in the upcoming weeks...may God be your strength!

love, abs (or rather lack there of)

Currently Listening Bad Day Pt.2 By Daniel Powter Bad Day...duh see related

   Alright....I know that this is totally late in coming and that I am a total...something....for not writing sooner. Life has been pretty much crazy for me lately, but what do you expect when you live with a bunch of middleschool crazy kids!?!? I totally love it though!  So in the eventful life of abby what has been going on....you are about to find out:

School (prepare yourself....) I am really liking most of my classes and I am confident that they will challenge me acedemically maybe a little more then i am used to. Spiritual Emphasis Week was wonderful and I was totally blessed inspiteof myself. I think that I tend to go into those thinking "I dare you to tell me something I don't already know" All along I have known that this is the wrong attitude and this year, inspite of homework bombbardment, I went in wanting to be blessed and changed. Where your heart is makes all the difference. We sang this song that said "Stir it up in my heart, a passion for you, Lord" and I began to realize that I was dead inside and I hated the way that I felt about God.

I have been really angry at him for so many reasons....the fact that my parents are here and that we don't get along like I thought we would, the fact that I don't live at palm anymore and that while all my friends go home together I go home to a place that wreaks of a past life I have tried to bury, the fact that I don't understand why Kenny is sick, and that I am afraid to let people in because I hate weakness. He has felt so absent from me and that when I needed Him...He wasn't there for me...He could answer my Mom and Dad' prayers but not mine. I was so angry that it was seeping into everything. But God used people in my life and circumstances to bring me to my knees before Him confessing that I was never going to be able to physically make it without Him. So I wrote this:

Absent from my life, were You?

Feeling lost and so confused.

People shouting all around me,

Hate, Anger and Confusion surrounded me.

Hate and Anger my constant torment

Confusion filling my every moment

Sleep escaping me

Bitterness welling up in me

Waiting for a voice to deny my suspicions

Of an absent god however omniscient

But the answer never came

And someone had to take the blame

Then someone said to me

Pick yourself up, wipe yourself off and try again (not to rhyme with blame but with him)

Words cannot express how much I look up to him

He was telling me to try to see

That it really only had one thing to do with me

Absolute and total surrender to the Cross

And that without Him, I was so completely lost

So I hope that he remembers when he wants to give up and go home

That God would never leave him or me alone.

(dedicated to my beloved brother kenny)

Well I think that about covers all the bases for now....Love to you all!!

me and the fam in moscow

me and my brudder

me amd my new extended family

me and my swisster in switzerland (sp intentional)

hey everyone~

Ahram says that I needed to update so I am updating. Life has been relitively between stark raving mad and boring as all i'll get out....it could never just be normal could it? *sigh* Oh well, like they say, "When it rains, it pours.". The weather here was so nice, and then it just started to get hot. It has been close to 40 (celsius) almost everyday for the past week. SO, my family decided to take a trip down to the sea. You think Kandern pool is cold?!?! After you sit out in the hot sun and then go into deep sea water....wow! I think I swallowed enough salt to cover my salt intake levels for the next year! It was wonderful though. My brother and I swam all the way out to the bouey and stuck our legs out into the open sea. Once a rebel, always a rebel. Ben had to talk me through a bit of it though...I thought I saw a jelly fish and if you know me at all you know I would rather chew glass then swim in water near jelly fish...ok maybe not that bad but pretty darn near close. It was worth it though.

We have been packing like crazy too! Leave it to my mom to go crazy over these things. I think we are all running on next years supply of energy so I appoligize to my teachers beforehand for falling asleep in class...there you were warned. Ben has been educating my sister in the book relm and reading to us in the car and when it is too hot to even watch tv...I know seems impossible but really, it is almost as interesting in a rudimentry, arcaic sort of way...hmmm. We are having a garage sale this Saturday and if there is one thing I have learned: Missionaries are the cheapest people on the planet! I mean at least you feel guilty for charging people a reasonable price because either they are your really good friends or you just feel...guilty. Well, Ahram, I hope this is a sufficiant update because I don't ever write this much...and good luck Junior with the driving....and Jesse be practicing for the play because managing for v-ball is overrated! Love to you all!

abs

Pics are long over due so here are just some random ones!

me and olly!

me and jorie!

zubberson and I at Europa Park

Jake, Zubberson and I....what a ham!

and jessica in black light!

enjoy!

Currently Watching Alias - The Complete Fourth Season see related

Hey Everybody~

Life is finally starting to slow down a bit. Last week was so crazy with all the tests...yuck! But at least I get a break before it all picks up again. So I was thinking today, when I was supposed to be learning something about the Civil War but must have dozed off, what it would be like to have lived a "normal life". So here are some things that I thought of and then I thought that I would share some of my insights. (If you can relate to more then 5 of these you have been exposed to the MK life)

You Know You're an MK When...

1. You can't answer the question, "Where are you from?"
2. You think that barrels make good end tables, and think that barrels make good night stands.
3. 011 is a familiar area code.
4. The vast majority of your clothes are hand-me-downs.
5. People send you used tea bags in the mail.
6. You speak two languages, but can't spell either.
7. You flew before you could walk.
8. The U.S. is a foreign country.
9. You embarrass yourself by asking what swear words mean.
10. You have a passport, but no driver's license.
11. You watch National Geographic specials and recognize someone.
12. You have a time zone map next to your telephone.
13. You don't know how to play Pac-Man.
14. You consider a city 500 miles away to be "very close."
15. Your life story uses the phrase "Then we went to..." five times.
16. You prefer a Land Rover to a Lexus.
17. You watch nature documentaries, and you think about how good that would be if it were fried.
18. You can cut grass with a machete, but can't start a lawnmower.
19. You think in grams, meters, and liters.
20. You speak with authority on the quality of airline travel.
21. You go to the U.S., and get sick from a mosquito bite.
22. You send your family peanut butter and Kool-Aid for Christmas.
23. You worry about fitting in, and wear a native wrap around the dorm
24. National Geographic makes you homesick.
25. You have strong opinions about how to cook bugs.
26. You read the international section before the comics.
27. You live at school, work in the tropics, and go home for vacation.
28. You don't know where home is.
29. Strangers say they can remember you when you were "this tall."
30. You grew up with a maid.
31. You do your devotions in another language.
32. You sort your friends by continent.
33. You keep dreaming of a green Christmas.
34. "Where are you from?" has more than one reasonable answer.
35. The nationals say, "Oh, I knew an American once..." and then ask if you know him or her.
36. You aren't terribly surprised when you do.
37. You are grateful for the speed and efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service.
38. You realize that furlough is not a vacation.
39. You'd rather never say hello than have to say goodbye.
40. You wince when people mispronounce foreign words.
41. You've spoken in dozens of churches, but aren't a pastor.
42. Furlough means that you are stuffed every night... and have to eat it all to seem polite.
43. You realize that in Australia, statement 42 would be very rude.
44. You commit verbal faux pas, as demonstrated in statement 43.
45. Your parents decline your cousin's offer to let them use his BMW, and shoehorn all six of you into an old VW Beetle instead.
46. You stockpile mangoes.
47. You know what real coffee tastes like.
48. The majority of your friends never spoke English.
49. Someone bring up the name of a team, and you get the sport wrong.
50. You bundle up warmly, even in the middle of summer.

 Just some random things....well enjoy life  and the time you have left at BFA!

~abs