The Somewhat Spicy Life of a Ginger Kid

Old Friends, New Friends, Good Friends.

2008-12-01T20:47:00.000-08:00

Isn't great to catch up with old friends? I know I haven't experienced much in life yet, being the youngster that I am, but I have experienced the pain and excitement of moving away from a place, and leaving close friends behind. When I moved to Virginia from Ohio four years ago, I was best friends with two awesome girls. We used to hang out all the time and do all the crazy things 6th grade girls do together, it was the life!

I have so many memories of hanging out with these friends. So much of my life revolved around them, we spent a ton of time together. We used to have what we called "triple sleepovers" where all three of us would spend the night at one of the other's house. We used to make cookies, stay up late, try to swallow each other on the pull-out couch, and just be crazy. When one of the girl's sister had a baby, we were the honorary aunts. When I found out my parents were getting divorced, they made me laugh right away. We had so many inside jokes, and I have an entire box of notes that we wrote back in forth to each other in 6th grade.

Things change, people grow up, and new friendships are made. When I first moved we used to talk all the time, and I saw them a few times a year when I would visit my dad. Gradually we stopped talking as much, and my dad moved to Virginia so I haven't been to Ohio in a couple of years. They stopped being friends, but still hang out in groups sometimes. None of us have forgotten the friendship we had 4th through 6th grade though, I'm sure. It is really cool, because after I moved I actually became even better friends with one of my other friends that I wasn't as close with when I moved there.

A lot of things have changed, and if you were to look at the three of us now you might be surprised that we were such close friends, but we were. Thanks to things like Facebook, I am still able to maintain a relationship with these girls. We aren't best friends, but we share a past and I love getting to talk to them occasionally and catch up on everything. These friends also make me appreciate the friends I have now. Because, they are the bestest friends a girl could ask for. :)

I look forward to the next time I go to Ohio. I don't know when that will be, but I hope it is soon. I miss the snow. :) And maybe the next time I go we will have to break out the cookie dough and have another triple sleepover.

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas

2008-11-28T10:10:00.000-08:00

This movie marks the start of the Christmas season for me. Ever since Elf came out over Thanksgiving in 2004, in has been a tradition to watch it. After all the food is eaten up, the dishes are washed and we're settled in, we put Elf on and just have a good time hanging out together and laughing. Out of all our Thanksgiving traditions with my family, I think watching Elf is probably my favorite. There is just something about just getting to relax and laugh together that makes you really thankful for what you have. Having something consistent, even when it's just a silly movie like Elf, is really awesome, especially when there isn't a lot of consistency is this crazy life. But yeah, watching this movie definitely gets me into the Christmas spirit. It's just like, Thanksgiving cannot be complete and Christmas can't start without watching Elf.

Thanksgiving was great this year. We packed up our bags, locked up the house, and jumped in the car for the extremely long, excruciating, and tiring 5 minute drive to my grandma and grandpa's house on Wednesday night. I'm kidding, of course. The drive wasn't that excruciating. ;) We usually go somewhere on Thanksgiving, most of the time to my Aunt Shana and Uncle Eric's house, which is always a long drive, but we weren't able to do that this year. So, we decided to pretend like we were going on a trip and slept over at my grandparent's house the night before Thanksgiving. Now, there is something you need to understand, and that is that my grandma is probably the most awesome cook/baker in the entire world. Seriously, I think I would die without her food sometimes. I cry inside for the people that do not get to experience real southern cooking like she makes it. Mm-mm- good! You need to understand one other thing. I cannot cook. At all. I'm pretty sure that gene got lost somewhere along the way, hitting Sarah, skipping me, then hitting Sydni. These things happen sometimes. I want to start getting cooking lessons from my grandma, I need them.

All this mess about cooking is leading up to something, I promise. Basically, the Sweet Potato Souffle Disaster. Well, not complete disaster, or really a disaster, but you will see what I mean. I wanted to make this really tasty dish this year that my Aunt Shana had made two Thanksgiving ago. Sweet Potato Souffle consists of yams and a bunch of other stuff, then a topping of walnuts (or maybe pecans. I can't remember), corn flakes, and brown sugar. It is really good, really sweet, and relatively easy to make. Easy for people that are competent at cooking, that is. So we get everything ready, mix stuff up and start putting things into the mixer. Now the recipe doesn't say drain the yams, so even though they look like they might need a little draining I decided to just dump them in the mixer along with the butter and everything else. Yeah... draining might have been a good idea. A great idea, actually, because this is what it ended up looking like:

This isn't the best picture, but... I think you get the picture. Yes, those chunks are butter. Yes, it looked pretty disgusting and pretty inedible. We figured out we were supposed to drain the yams after mixing it all and ending up with what looked like vomit. Thank God for Grandmas! I would have just chucked it and added Sweet Potato Souffle the the long, long list of things that I cannot cook, but Gram came up with a plan! We got the strainer out and strained some of the excess water out the best that we could, and mixed it up again. Eventually it got pretty smooth and we stuck it in the toaster oven to bake. Yes, I said toaster oven. They actually work really well, especially when you have a 18 pound turkey in the real oven! When it was all over we had a pretty good Sweet Potato Souffle, and you would have never been able to tell it looked like orange throw-up an hour before!! Thank you Jesus for Thanksgiving memories!

The past two months

2008-11-04T17:44:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, it has been a while. Ok, it's been a little more than a while... but I'm writing a post now and that is all that matters. I miss you guys. :( It's just been so crazy! I've been extremely busy, like usual, so I haven't had time to write. I must admit I'm also a bit lazy, and these things take a while! My last post was on September 29th, and a lot of stuff has gone on since then. Here are some pictures to catch y'all up!

Hayley and I went on our first adventure together! We drove all the way to the state fair to see Rooney, a great band that Hayley really likes. We had a ton of fun, and I gotta tell ya, it was certainly an adventure! We arrived just in time to hear our favorite song, right after parking in some guys yard for five bucks. yeah.... like I said, it was an adventure! I love getting to do crazy stuff like that with Hales.

We got our class rings! Just one of those perks of being a junior! That is my ring at the bottom, Dylan's to the right, Hayley's at the top and Jackie's to the left. I still haven't found anyone else that got a diamond in their's. :) Well, mine isn't a real diamond, but you know what I mean.

Homecoming Week was awesome! We had so much fun dressing up on the different days, and we took lots of pictures to remember the events. The theme was the Olympics!

The first day was country day, so I repped Ireland with my green shirt and Travis decked out in German clothes. We saw some pretty interesting garb, including one boy in a kilt! Travis loves Dylan a lot, obviously.

Headin to school on Sports day!

I wore my very first-ever soccer jersey for sports day. The first team I ever played on was Solaris, when I was six years old. The jersey still fits me! Ok, it's a little small but that is pretty good for a ten year old shirt!

Trophy and Bling day was cool, I wore my last soccer medal and Sydni wore two medals, both of which were mine. Travis, as you can see got very excited and wore pretty much every medal and ribbon he owns, including putting a Spelling Bee trophy from 8th grade around his neck. Needless to say, I love him. He is there with Robert, another good friend. Showing off our medals and blang-blang was fun!
Thursday was class distinction day, juniors repped the blue! The assembly was fun, Sydni was part of the Freshman skit and Travis was on the Homecoming Court. The senior skit was absolutely hilarious, the Olympic sport they did was ribbon twirling. Yes. I said ribbon twirling.

I participated in Powder Puff football Thursday night, Juniors against Seniors. Naturally, we beasted! GO JUNIORS!! Woot Woot! Playing was awesome, and the cheerleaders performance was great. The Juniors may have won the game, but the seniors definitely win the vote for best cheerleaders. Juniors were still pretty sweet though.

That's right. I had my own cheering section. :)

Juniors are beast. We are only the second juniors ever to win Powder Puff! We are absolutely amazing!

Travis surprised me the night of the football game with a corsage! He wasn't going to be able to give it to me before the dance.

El Grupo!

This is why we are best friends

Moonstar and Snowflake!

Dinner at Capital Ale House was delicious!

He got to come the last hour of the dance!

I love our crazy selves!

It has been a busy couple of months. I miss writing and putting my pictures up here. I miss reading too. I have a lot of catching up to do! More things have happened the past two months I have been absent, and I have evidence, but I didn't want this post to be too extremely long. I'll post another soon, I PROMISE. I love you guys!

Just something to tease you with...

2008-09-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love this picture. So yeah, I am just posting a couple of these guys up here to leave you panting for more... :) I'm still trying to download all of them off a CD onto my laptop, it is proving to be quite time consuming. Those of you who have been yearning for pictures- Do not fret! I will have them up as soon as I have everything organized. I will also post other stuff, this would get pretty boring if I just talked on and on about the wedding. Like I said in my last post, stuff has been extremely busy for me; I hardly have time to do my homework, much less blog. So until I can post again and offer up some more interesting topics, here are a few more pictures.

Father helping son.

A kiss from sissy.

Dave got the black sand.

I'm the daddy's girl.

Hope you like all of those. Hopefully I will be able to put more up here. I still haven't gotten them all downloaded yet. Once again, all props go to Katelyn James. She took every single one of these and is an amazing photographer. Please, if you need pictures done for anything; Weddings, Senior Photos, Engagement Pictures, Family pictures; just call her. http://theinspireddesign.com is her website. All her information is on there. Give her a call!

I have been gone too long!

2008-09-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

DRAGONS!!... I just put that in there for Travis.

I know, I know, I miss you guys too. It's been like, two weeks. :( I have been extremely busy with school;, slacking off in homework, procrastinating, watching TV... ok not the best excuses. I have been doing a lot of stuff though including the One Act Competition play, doing Powder Puff football, small groups, which takes up two nights of the week, and hanging out with my friends. So yeah, I've been a little busy. I keep saying, I'm going to write today! I just never did. Plus I love putting pictures up, and I don't have too many of those right now.

Last time I wrote about going to Cerro Azul with my best friends! That was a ton of fun. The next Friday I went out again, this time with the church guys, it was great. We hit up Chee Burger Chee Burger, this beast of a burger place that offers up a sacred wall spot to anyone brave enough to stomach the pounder burger. I could not do it. I pretty much didn't even try. A couple of the guys did though, which was sweet. We had a ton of fun, I really love all of these guys. Even though they tease me too much. :)

This past weekend was a ton of fun, I got to hang out with the besties again! We had our first pep rally on Friday, which was beast of course. My high school is very school spirited, so we all dressed up in our orange and black. Naturally, the Seniors won, even though they cheated,(Travis!) So Hayley, Jackie, and Dylan came to my house afterwards and we hung out until the game started. (I don't have any pictures of this because Hayley wouldn't break out the camera. I need to get my own.) We went to the game and had a TON of fun, especially since Powhatan won! Woot Woot. Then Jackie and Hayley slept over at my house and we stayed up 'til two talking, which we normally do. On Saturday they both went home and my family spent the day cleaning. Blahhhh. Our very good friends The Otten's from Ohio came and visited us and had dinner at our house! We hadn't seen them in a while, and they were in VA so they visited for a while then stayed at my granparent's house and came to church with us on Sunday. Which was rockin, by the way. We had a choir and did a rap and it was sick. Then we had baptism!!! It was amazing, as always. My dad baptized David, he was the last one in the family! I was so proud. Dave's legs came up when dad dunked him, so we got a good laugh out of that. Our good friend Chris also got baptized, and that was very awesome to see. God does great things.

So that is pretty much the recap. I wish I had pictures to put up here, it seems so bland without them. I should however be getting wedding pictures this weekend, and when I do I promise that I will put some up here. Follow my link on the previous blog to Katelyn James' blog, and watch the slideshow if you cannot wait for me to post them up here. Go to http://www.theinspireddesign.com/. That is her site, just click on the blog and it will take you straight there. Make sure you look at the slideshow to see more! My afternoons are jam packed at the moment, but I am going to try to write again as soon as I can. I do love it, and it makes me sad to be away for too long.
Love love!

Oh, and if anyone has any red go-go boots, between size 7-7 1/2, I really need some! Let me know if you have any or know somebody that does. I would really appreciate it.

Wow, Craziness!

2008-09-06T20:24:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in so long! Things got pretty crazy for a while there, what with the wedding and school starting and everything. The wedding was amazing! I really wish I had a lot of pictures to put up here, but I don't yet. Katelyn hasn't posted much on her blog yet, but she did give one little sneak peek shot, go here and go on the blog if you want to look at it! She was an amazing photographer, as always, and hopefully my next post will have lots of pictures from the wedding.

I'll write more about the wedding when I put pictures up, but I will say it was pretty much close to perfect. Every single one of us cried coming down the aisle! I saw my brothers and my dad and the waterworks just started gushing. The food was really good, the dancing was great, and my shoes KILLED! Seriously, they hurt so bad. I gotta tell you though, they were cute! Which is all that matters, right ladies? So yeah, that is the news on the wedding front, here is the news on the...

School Front!

Yep, we started school this week! Back to waking up early, scrambling for school supplies, and lots of english projects! All three of us girls are in High School this year, Sydni has finally joined us! She was so excited to finally be up there with us, it's awesome to see her in the halls!

Yeah, of course I was texting before schol started. I don't exactly know why I was making that face though... So yeah, the first week of school is over, "Ahhhhhh". I'm glad it's the weekend! It always takes awhile for us to get into the groove of school at the Brawley house. I think it is going to be a good year, Junior year the hardest, but I'm excited. So after a long first week of school, we wanted to hang out and relax a little bit. Hayley, Jackie, Travis and I all went out on Friday to Cerro Azul, this awesome Mexican place. Jackie is another one of my really good friends, and we had a ton of fun at hanging out!

Speak no evil, see no- yeah, you know the drill!

This is just one of the random videos we took, yeah we usually break out the wicked dance moves in the car.

My best friends.

We actually ended up stayed at the mexican place for about three hours. Travis got there about thirty minutes after us, and when we finished eating we just stayed at talked for forever. It was incredibly fun, I'm pretty sure that everybody in the joint heard us laughing our heads off. Which is pretty much what we did the entire time. Jackie couldn't sleep over when we went home, so we went a little crazy before she left.

We did some make-up...

Sang a couple songs...

Acted a little crazy...

You know, the usual.

I absolutely love my girls. And my boy of course, I'm glad he came with us. He keeps the laughs going :) (I know you're reading this Travis, Love you!) I'm grateful my friends can put up with us, we can get kinda mushy sometimes. :) I'm glad that school has started, 'cause it means all of us are here and we can hang out and be crazy more often. I'm sure I will be putting more pictures up on here in the coming months. Between football games, homecoming, and parties, there will be a lot to share! Stay tuned for a wedding post, I will have one up as soon as I can! Peace and Cheez-itz,

*Sha-nay-nay

2008-08-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

My dad is getting married today.

This is a random title cause this is a random post that talks about a bajillion different subjects!

2008-08-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

This is what I found when I started walking up the stairs today.

No joke.

My brother's actually begged me to "Come look!" and when I did, I could not stop laughing. I think I laughed for a good five minutes straight, even though it is a little freaky, especially if you have seen The Dark Knight. If you haven't, or don't know anything about The Joker, you probably won't get it. But anyways, this is what will be waiting for Sarah's best friend Christine and her boyfriend Chase when they get here at 3 o'clock this morning. This is only one among the many of the "booby traps" my little brothers have placed around the house to scare our guests. I'm not sure how scared they will be, after driving for 9 hours and being dead tired.

Getting on to more "serious" things... I know I promised a post on how amazingly gangsta me family is, and I deeply apologize for not provided that. You see what had happened was... Sarah's memory card to her camera got screwed up. So I was not able to capture the crazy Thugness of da family. I will, however, tell you our names. This all started with L.B. aka Sarah, and transgressed from there. I'm Cinnamon Spice, but some call me Ginga. Sydni is HoneyBee, and she may seem sweet on the outside, but she will sting you! So watch out. Daniel is Gumby, or R.B. (I'm not going to tell you his original name because it may offend some. It was genius though, pure genius.) David is Bruno, formerly known as Crazy Boy, which, while fitting, just wasn't Gangsta enough. Then, finally, there is just Mama, naturally. So there you have it, the entire family. I will try and post some pics lata, but you know how it is, gangsta's don't don't like having there picture taken. We're afraid it will be used against us. Like on the o'clock news.

Without further ado, here are some pictures from the beach!!!

Hmmm, that's a nice way to start off the trip, huh? Thanks for the picture Sarah!

Its tradition, duh. There's a little bit of Cinnamon Spice and HoneyBee for ya right there. LIVIN THE THUG LIFE!

One sister takes beautiful pictures.

The other one makes pictures beautiful.

Isn't she lovely, isn't she wonderful....

And there's me, the ever present blogger, hard at work, to finish out the picture parade.

There is just something about the beach. I told my mom when we got there and were out on the sand, "I am taking my kids to the beach every single summer. Hopefully more than once." Seriously, I love it there. We go to Emerald Isle, which is still pretty small and not overly populated, like other beachs are now. There was pretty much no one there the three days that we were, just how I like it. It was just really awesome to get to go one more time before summer is over, and school starts back up, (which is rapidly approaching more and more each day.) It was the last relaxing period of the summer, especially with the wedding coming up this weekend, then getting shoved right into school. Speaking of the wedding, I will be extremely busy with that this weekend, so I don't know if I'm going to be able to post. I promise I will have tons and tons of pictures when it's all over though! Back to the beach. We had a really great time, despite the last day when it started raining in the afternoon, then stopped long enough for us to go lay out on the beach, then started again right after we set our stuff down. We layed out for about ten minutes, then had about enough of that. I cannot say it enough, I LOVE THE BEACH!

Last note. My family has been watching the Democratic Convention this week, which I know sounds boring, but it actually wasn't, and I have a few things to say about it. Here is my list.

I will never, ever, wear a pantsuit. Especially not in Halloween orange. Though, I have to add, "Sisterhood of the traveling Pantsuits" was quite clever. Not clever enough to pull me over to the dark side, however. Sorry Hillary.
Those people that hand out the signs to every body in the stadium, which is like a cajillion people mind you, must be magical. If not, they should be making way past minimum wage. One minute, the guy with the mustache and is holding a blue "Yes We Can!" sign, the next minute he is holding one of those huge triangle things that says "CLINTON." HOW DO THEY DO IT!?!?!?!
Why would you name your child Bo (I know that is not how he spells it, I just can't remember the right way,) when your name is Joe. I do not understand that.
Barack Obama's girls are adorable. How could you not fall in love with that family? So cute!
I like listening to speeches, especially ones that say stuff like, "No way, no how, no McCain!" Woot Woot. I really liked Michelle Obama's speech too.
I wish I could vote, because there would be a check next to Barack Obama's name. I honestly believe he is what is best for this country. His speech was moving, but that wasn't it. He spelled out what he will do to change this country, and how we as citizens have to be a part of that. If he becomes President, he will hold American's accountable. Go Obama!

There you go, a run down of what has been happening in the spicy life of a ginger kid. If I don't get to post this weekend, expect my next post to be full of wedding pictures! The one after that will be school pictures, AHHH! Please pray for my entire family this weekend, as we all enter a new chapter in our lives. Dad is getting married to Dana, who is a wonderful woman, and we are getting an awesome stepbrother, Spenser. It is still a very stressful time though, for all of us, including my mom and all of Dana's family. Smooshing two families together isn't easy, but it is God's plan for us, and it seems to be going ok so far :) So please pray for all of us this weekend, and the craziness that is ahead!

P.S.- It is 1:30. Sarah just started the vacuum upstairs and I swear I thought it was a chainsaw. Maybe I need to go to bed.

YEAHHHH BOY!

2008-08-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

That's L.B. y'all, don't mess with her. Let me tell you, she is THUG. Woot Woot! Yeahhhhh, boy! We at the beach son!!! This picture was from earlier this week when we were still at home, but don't worry, there will be more... "lil B ain't the only one who's livin the thug life. Expect more tomorrow, Emerald Isle Style!

He's living my dream

2008-08-20T15:26:00.000-07:00

I am the proudest sister in the world right now.

I have been playing soccer since I was 6. 10 years of sweating it out, fall, winter, and spring, running up and down fields, making passes, saving goals, and giving my all to this sport. I played mostly indoor for a Christian travel team in Ohio, where my team lost almost every game our first two seasons. Our third season we finally started winning, and got third in our district. I'm not the fastest in the game, nor can I do a bunch of crazy foot skills, but dang, do I love this game.

We moved to Virginia the summer before my 7th grade year, and my Junior High had a co-ed soccer team. So I tried out, made first cuts, but then ultimately didn't make the team. I ended up playing Rec ball then started playing on Fury, the local travel team, in the spring. I stayed on Fury for four seasons. The next summer, I tried out once again for the Jr. High team. I had an awesome try-out, and made every cut, except for the last one. Once again, I didn't make the team, and this was my last chance. Naturally, I was pretty upset. I sobbed all the way home. It was pretty rough. :(

Now, this story isn't about me, it is about Daniel. Though I will tell you that I stopped playing Fury, and I only play one season a year in the spring with my High School team now. I used to be really good, but I hardly ever play anymore, and one season with a AA school team just doesn't cut it if you are trying to be the best.

I'm extremely competitive, so I've always viewed soccer as "my sport" in my family. Sarah played for a couple of years, but moved on to other stuff, and I just stuck with soccer. But when Daniel and David starting playing soccer I was physced beyond belief! They are both naturals, sports are in their blood I suppose. So I have been rallying for Dan to play travel because I know he is good, and has potential to be even better. Rec is good for him, but in my opinion, if he is ever going to get really good, he needs to branch out. I feel the same way about Dave, he has a ton of potential, and if he genuinely likes soccer and sticks with it I would love for him to do travel also. I want them to have the opportunity I never had, to be able to do things bigger than Fury in Powhatan. No doubt about it, I had an awesome opportunity with Fury and was able to keep my skills up playing with them, but I never felt like I could do the bigger things I wanted to do, like Richmond Kickers or Strikers. I couldn't put that pressure on my family. Daniel and David could both be very good players, and I want them to have every chance to become better. I used to be good, and I'm not really anymore, because I've stopped playing. I don't want the same thing to happen to them.

So, finally I'm going to get where I'm going with this! That Jr. High soccer team I didn't make? Yeah, Dan tried out this week. I was so excited for him, and with everything in my heart I wanted him to make it. I wanted so bad for him to do something I could never do, and use what God gave him. I mean, come on, the boy scores and average of 2 goals per game in Rec! Well....... HE MADE IT!! My little brother, all 5 ft, 90 lbs of him, made the soccer team! He called me today while I was at the mall and said, "Guess what? I made the team!" I jumped up and down and screamed, in the middle of the store! I'm sure I looked like an idiot, jumping up and down with a huge smile on my face. I knew he could do it, and I'm just so, so happy and proud that he did. It makes it even better that I know he wanted it really bad, and he worked hard and got it!

I will be at every game, cheering my lil' bro on! I got to give him some advice before he went off to his first try-out on Monday, staying true to what my grandfather has told me time and time again: "No matter what, always give 110%." My grandpa has given me that advice before every try-out I have ever gone to, and even though I always roll my eyes a little and say "I know Gramps, don't worry I will," I have come to really appreciate that little piece advice, and I am glad I was able to give it to Daniel. He apparently took it to heart! Once again, I am so proud of my little brother, and I look forward to watching him this season!

Follow Up on Sarah's first show

2008-08-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

Are you back for more? You should be, back to look at pictures and read more about Sarah's fantabulous show!! The show was awesome, everybody loved it and loved her. This first picture/collaboration was taken by Katelyn James, whose blog you can go to by clicking on her name. She took all three of these pictures then stuck them together for Sarah. If you are looking for Senior pictures, wedding pictures, or any other type of pictures hit her up!!

Baaaaaaack to Sarah, the Magnificant, Brawley. She had an awesome set list of about eight songs, only two of which were not originals. She got a standing ovation from the people that were sitting, most everyone else was already standing, lol. I have to give props to Mr. Rob Williams who gave Sarah this big break by asking for her to open for him. Mr. Williams performed after Sarah and he was spectacular as well. Click on the link on his name and you will be directed to his band's Myspace. Second props go to Common Groundz, who hosted Williams and Sarah. Check out their awesome coffee and food on West Broad St. I have a few pictures of the day, including the preparation beforehand! The pictures are a bit blurry, so sorry about that, I will try and post better ones later.

Sarah was totally rocking that zebra print dress!

Sydni and I were privileged to sing with Sar on her song "Reason". Harmony doesn't come all that naturally, and dang, did we work hard on this song! Thankfully, Syd and I got all our "Oohs" right. :)

This is Rob Williams singing his heart out on one of his originals. Don't forget to check out his band, Joe Buck Jr. on their Myspace page by clicking on the link above!

The bathroom at Common Groundz was pretty sweet. Their walls were painted in chalkboard paint, and they had chalk laying around so that anyone can write anything they want on the walls. I started it by writing "Sarah Brawley Music @ www.myspace.com/sarahbrawley" as you can see and other people added their own encouraging tidbits around it. Sarah has some very loving fans! I don't know if they had one of these in the boys bathroom, but the women's wall was pretty decorated!

This is Katie, Sarah, and Emy, three great friends. Katie and Emy are from Dana's youth group, and we have already become very close with them. Sarah was especially excited that Katie came, because she didn't think she was going to be able to.

Around 30 people came out, to see Sarah and Mr.Williams. It was pretty packed! It was so awesome to see so many people come all the way out their to support my sister, many of them from my church. Just goes to show what family really means, and who really appreciates good music!

Before we headed to the show, we had to get a little pampering done!! We all went to our favorite salon, Ahead of Hair, where Sarah got her hair done by Audra, our stylist of three years. Audra isn't just our stylist anymore, and hasn't been for the past couple of years. She is now a dear friend and we absolutely love her! There is just something about that Hair dresser/customer bond that is different. She knows pretty much everything about our lives, and we love it whenever someone in our family gets their hair cut, it is an opportunity to see Audra! Not to mention she is an amazing stylist, and did Sarah's hair perfectly.

Hayley and I had quite the adventure ourselves while Sarah was busy getting her hair did, and it was great fun! There is a Ukrop's right across the street from Ahead of Hair, and Hayley and I

were pretty quenched, so we skipped over for some sustenance! We both filled up our big Ukrop's cups with DP and went to the register. After we paid, we went back for refills and Hayley dropped her drink all over the floor! It was hilarious. So we cleaned a little bit of it up, told the lady at the register, got Hayley a new drink and left! I wanted to go back later for another refill but Hales wouldn't let me.

I was playing in the spinny, up and down chair! Those shoes hurt like crazy!! I kept walking around barefoot because they hurt so bad. We had fun running around the salon and being crazy.

We medal in funny faces. I'm not really sure what kind of face I am making however.

Hmm, let's sit on these nice comfy chairs that are painted onto the wall! Hehe. That was in the hallway of Katie's apartment at VCU, where we visited after the show. Hayley and I took the time to stop and rest on the chairs.

This would be all of us minus Maureen, who is taking the picture, crammed in the elevator! I think somene kept pushing the alarm button. Katie's apartment is pretty boosie, I plan on sleeping over there sometime before summer is over.

Basically, it was a crazy fun night, and very tiring! Be looking out for Sarah Brawley, she's gonna be hitting the big scene pretty soon. Here is her myspace. Be sure to check it out, as well as look up her vidoes on YouTube. She is amazing, and I am proud to call her my sister.

Sarah's First Show, Live Feed

2008-08-16T14:10:00.000-07:00

Guess where I am? Common Groundz, live streaming Sarah Brawley's first ever concert!! I'm SO ultra physced to be here, She's starting off with Falling Apart Today, an original song, of course!
I'm seriously the proudest sister ever right now. My hands are shaking, and I can hardly write this! First song, done. Everyone is in a clapping uproar! Now.... JONAS BROTHERS Burnin' Up! This is so awesome. If you aren't here, you are missing out.
School Girl is up next, Travis is playing the guitar for Sarah. It's gone this reggae feel, and it is awesome! It's crazy that she just wrote this song this week, huh?
YAY! We just sang with Sarah on the song Reason and it was great. We've been working on the harmonies for two weeks now, and we finally got it right!! I love my sisters. Now she is singing her most recent break-up song for her best friend Anna. I'm still shaking! Like crazy!
Now she is singing the song she wrote for me and Travis! Travis is playing the guitar and I'm pretty sure I am blushing like crazy. Ahhhh that was crazy.
:( She is singing her last song! Everyone is sad.
No, wait, ENCORE!!! She's doing everyone's favorite song, Porcelain Doll! This song is about her best friend Christine in Ohio.

So, thus ends the live feed, but trust me, I will continue up with tons and tons of pictures and probably video. Peace Out.

100 Summer Memories

2008-08-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

100 Summer Memories

1. Selling Lemonade with my siblings
2. Being old enough to bike down to the pool by myself
3. Triple Sleepovers with Alyssa and Andrea
4. Spending every day with my best friend Lauren
5. The tree house
6. The zipline
7. Making up a secret code with Lauren
8. Garage Sales
9. My first mission trip!
10. Salter Path
11. Fishing on the Pier with my dad
12. My "Barbie Tent" at the beach
13. Befriending Max one summer and staying friends with him
14. Creepy Indian guy that made cool paintings on rocks
15. Riding dirt bikes and four wheelers
16. Camp Burton
17. Moving to Virginia
18. Grandpa having his stroke
19. Spending every day at the YMCA pool that summer
20. Grandpa coming home and getting so much better than we ever expected
21. Going to FOCUS for the first time
22. Watching the Women's soccer team win the Olympic Gold
23. Not going to the beach for the first summer in years
24. 7th Grade soccer tryouts
25. Meeting Courtney and Kaitlyn
26. My first summer in my house
27. IMPACT Virginia
28. Justin coming clean
29. Grandma's vegetables from her garden
30. Our first beach trip without dad
31. Hamburgers at Grandma's
32. Watermelon
33. Driving to Ohio
34. My first summer of being best friends with Hayley
35. Having the trailer at the beach permanently
36. Salter Path being destroyed by a hurricane
37. Going to West Virginia with dad and Lisa
38. The guys we met from WV, including Shamu
39. The Four Wheeler accident
40. Youth Sunday at church
41. Trying out for the Jr. High soccer team and not making it again
42. Morgan bringing me a Dr.Pepper and a handmade note after not making the team
43. School clothes shopping
44. Finding out Hayley and I had every class together
45. Not doing Marching Band because I was trying out for soccer
46. Being glad that I chose not to do Marching Band, even though I didn't make the team
47. Going to Emerald Isle, once again. (Did I mention I love the beach?)
48. Going to Camp Crossroads and climbing a 40 ft mountain, and repelling down a 70 ft one
49. Breaking up with Andrew
50. Bradley
51. Week of Hope mission trip in Manassass, VA
52. Ali and Octavius
53. "I get down, and He lifts me up...
54. Falling in love with volleyball
55. Waking up to VeggieTales
56. Talking to Quaid
57. Danielle's birthday party
58. Going to Orlando Studios with my dad
59. Riding The Hulk 10 times
60. Getting my cell phone stolen, then getting it back
61. Skinny Switching
62. Diving into a three ft. pool and totally scratching my chin up
63. Making the JV volleyball team
64. Going through hell the month of August via Volleyball practice
65. Freshman Orientation
66. Going to the James on Brian's boat
67. The Sanitary
68. Hiding the cookies in the oven at the beach
69. Boogie boarding with dad
70. Walking to the ice cream shop
71. Riding the pig at King's
72. Stopping at Sonic on the way home
73. Being single for the summer
74. Ankle bracelets
75. Going on my first out of state mission trip to Pennsylvania
76. Joseph Freeman and the Lollygaggers
77. Forgiving my mom
78. Not having to drive to Ohio for the first time to see dad
79. Watching The Grudge at Dylan's party
80. Hayley being amazed at the trash can
81. Carytown with Aunt Connie and Jarred and Jonathan
82. Our first time staying at the Beach House
83. High School Musical 2
84. The first Staff Retreat
85. Not making Volleyball
86. Driving for the first time
87. Scoping out boys
88. World Changers in Cherokee
89. Feeling God and realizing that He really is what I want
90. De-shingling and shingling a whole roof, and redoing it because we messed up
91. Going to Disney World and feeling like a little kid again
92. Meeting the princesses and seeing the best fireworks ever
93. Having a summer love
94. Hayley and I's first adventure with her driving, and getting stuck in the Car Wash
95. Gay Cowboys
96. Feeling really old at the beach
97. CentriFuge, and becoming closer to dad's youth group
98. My dad becoming a dad again, and getting a new family
99. Spending three solid days with Hayley, and driving every where by ourselves!
100. Making cupcakes and leaving them on Joseph's porch
101. Seeing Nathan preform at the Comedy club with Travis, Dylan, and Hayley
102. Looking at the stars through Travis's sun roof
103. Staying up until the wee hours in the morning
104. Daleen's vegetables
105. Realizing I am enough
106. Going to summer school with Hayley
107. Wal-Mart with Hayley at 10 o'clock and getting in trouble
108. Dancing in the rain with Travis
109. The Talent Show at the beach
110. Flip-Flops
111. Stadium Arcadium by The Red Hot Chili Peppers
112. Burnin' Up
113. Starting this blog
114. Becoming friends with Grace, who lives in Chicago, because of this blog
115. Feeling Free

So, there you have it. I know, I know, it's more that 100, but I just have so many memories! Maybe I'll do a list like this again in a couple of years and compare them. Hopefully, I can look back at this and read something that I had forgotten about. I know that some of these memories aren't very happy, though most of them are.
It's funny how so often, the things we remember aren't always the good things. We will look back at a period in our lives and there will be one HUGE thing that sticks out, and everything else kind of lays in the background. Craziness. Basically, I love summer! Especially the beach, that is always a big part of my summer plans. Now I gotta give props to Grace, because this was her idea first. Thanks Grace!

These are a few of my favorite things...

2008-08-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

This is a list of my favorite things at the moment! I have bought each of these in the past three days, and I love them all! Starting with the first item, which was purchased on Saturday:

My shoes!!! I got Nike 6.0's for school, and they are BEAST! I hope you can see the tiny silver stars, that's my favorite part of them. I love stars! Unfortunately, I can't wear them until school starts. :( It has always been a rule at my house that we couldn't wear our new school clothes until school starts, but hey, it makes it more special! (At least, that's what my mom always told me.)

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. I picked this book up at Barnes&Noble (My favorite store ever,) yesterday and finished it this morning. It was a short book. Sarah and I saw a preview for Nick and Norah, as a movie, and thought it looked hilarious. I thought that I had read something that sounded like the preview, so I looked for the book when I was at B&N. I found it! It has a little too much swearing for my liking, but it was a great read.

I finally got my laptop case!! We went to Best Buy after B&N, and I found this adorable bag. I've been looking for one since my birthday, because getting one was a birthday present from Tony. It fits perfectly with my laptop and has a strap so I can put it on my shoulder.

"Oh I'm hot, and you're cold.

You go around, like you know;

Who I am, but you don't.

You've got me on my toes.

I'm slipping into the lava....

I'm burnin' up, burnin' up

for you baby."

I love the Jonas Brothers. They are amazing, and Burnin' Up is most definitely the Song of the Summer at the Brawley house. THEIR CD CAME OUT TODAY! Sydni actually bought it, but of course we all have the pleasure of listening. A Little Bit Longer is now on my laptop and the Mac, and we have listened to the whole thing twice. Me and my best friend have created a dance for Burnin' Up and Sarah is covering it at her show on Saturday. Nick's song about his diabetes is heartbreaking, and they cover The Beatles song, Hello Goodbye. Amazing, I tell you. Amazing.

There you have it. A few of my favorite things at the moment. Now, if you excuse me, I have to continue watching Michael Phelps destroy every one else in the Olympics. Speaking of favorite things, Michael Phelps definitely deserves a spot on that list. ;)

Randolph Lake with the Youth Group

2008-08-11T19:18:00.001-07:00

So I'm skipping the post about the staff retreat, my mom wrote about it if you want to look at pictures and whatever. The month of August has been deemed "Party Month" for FOCUS (by me anyway) and yesterday we went to Lake Randolph in Millquarter. FOCUS is my Sunday night youth group and we have just been doing fun events so far this month, next week is game night and the week after is the infamous SHAVING CREAM FIGHT! So excited! We had a ton of fun at the lake, swimming and launching water balloons and paddling around in the kayak- and finding snakes! The snake part was pretty scary, but everything else was lots of fun. Yay for pictures!

Ah, my boyfriend, the lion. I hope you think this picture is as hilarious as I do.

Alyy and Sam jumped into the water right over a freaked out me!

Sydni and Robert had a pretty crazy cake fight. You may be saying yum- but it isn't quite the same when you hate chocolate!

She wasn't a very happy camper!

This was where I was considering jumping out of the the kayak because he was going to pedal us back out and I didn't want to go. I did jump out eventually- but because I had to get my water balloon!

So.... I would've thrown the water balloon at him, but I probably would have missed and he had a whole bucket of water. I thought better of it. Chad already dumped a whole bucket on me when I totally wasn't expecting it! They are all against me, lol.

Random Pics!

We had a little jam session after it got a little too windy to go in the water, three people brought their guitars. Sarah gave everyone a little preview of her stuff, she has a show this Saturday! (I'll tell you guys more about that later). We sang Burnin' Up by The Jonas Brothers, which is definitely our official song of the summer, plus a couple others. I do love a good jam session!

Travis brought his guitar out and Colby borrowed Sarah's for a little bit- brought a little of that rocker voice into it!

Kyle brought his guitar along and pulled out his tailgate to play.

So this was the only picture that Sarah would let me put on here because she doesn't like her FACE, but I think it is cute. She sang some of her originals but saved most of them for the show on Saturday.

Sarah always seems to want to take kissy pictures of me and Travis. It's not really a problem for us... :)

Kyle attempting to look cute.

Singing for meeeeeee :D

Jackie grillin' up the burgers ends our picture parade! The party was really fun, and a lot of new people came, so that was pretty cool. Water balloons were awesome, we had a launcher and we hit some people out in the lake! Finding a snake in the water wasn't the best moment... but other than that it was a good time. I love hanging with my youth group!

CentriFuge

2008-08-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

I'm back!!! I have been absent from Blogger for about two weeks, and I'm sorry to all my dedicated fans! Lol. I've been doing lots of fun stuff- I went to CentriFuge in North Carolina two weeks ago and last week I was at Lake Gaston with my church staff retreat. Both of these events deserve their own posts, so this one will just focus on CentriFuge. Let's catch up!

CentriFuge is a camp that focuses on personal growth with Jesus Christ. Fuge also hosts MFuge, which is missions, and XFuge, which is a combination of both. This was my first Fuge event, and I really hope to participate in MFuge at some point. Sydni and Daniel got to go to Nashville, Tennessee on MFuge with Dana's church, and it was a wonderful experience for them.

Back when my dad was a youth pastor in Ohio, he took his youth on various Fuge adventures, and I always looked forward to being able to go on one when I was old enough. Well, it finally happened, even if it was a little differently that I expected. I went with my dad's church from Chester, and I was a little nervous. His church is great, and I really love it there, and his youth group is awesome too, but I have always been a little uncomfortable. There was a strong dividing line between "the cool kids" and the "not so popular kids" in the youth group. It was my families turn to be the "new kids", and after being a prominent part of my youth group from PCC for the past couple years, it wasn't something I was all that used to. My dad has been at Chester Baptist for about a year and a half now and I still felt like a bit of an outsider. My sibs and I usually ended up hanging out with each other at any events we attended, and even though we would talk to the other kids and have a good time, it still felt kind of awkward. Basically, we didn't feel very welcomed. A couple of the girls from the youth group were really awesome and it was fun hanging out with them, but the overall feel wasn't very hopeful. Even after spending time with these kids at various events, I didn't really have the desire to get closer to them. This was mostly because some of them angered me, because I looked at them and all I saw was Fake, with a capital "F". They came to church and youth group, but didn't really want to be there. I could see it in how they acted and spoke. I just knew their lives outside of church would not be pleasing to God. I am not judging, because I know that I do some less-than-pleasing things, but I do try. I could tell some of these girls just didn't want to be anywhere near the church.

CentriFuge pretty much changed my entire perspective. We were going to be staying in two rooms with these girls, and I was pretty nervous, but I thought I would give them a chance. I thought that they didn't like my sisters and I that much, because they had never really made it a priority to make us feel welcome. God set all of our priorities straight that week!

Happy Llama, Angry Llama, Crazy Llama, Dead Llama, Retarded Llama!

I had the best camp experiences ever that week, and there is no doubt in my mind that those girls had something to do with it. Their were nine of us in all, plus Dana and Jewel, our chaperone's. Sydni and Sarah shared a room with the girls in the above picture, the girls below were my roommates!

The girls I shared a room with weren't very close with the other girls in our group, and I'm glad I got the chance to get to know them better. Relationships started between these three girls and the girls in the other room. The gap between the "more popular" crowd and the "less popular" crowd lessened a little.

I'm sure now that all we needed was a chance to get to know each other better. We all opened our hearts to each other, and stayed up pretty late while doing it! God worked in all of our hearts that week, and quite a few tears were shed. A couple of us got a slap in the face from God and realized that He had a certain path he wanted us to take. The speaker we had was awesome, Nic-I-can't-remember-his-last-name. He was young, hilarious, and really knew how to hit us hard. God really used him to speak to me and his message's were great. The music was less than stellar, but towards the end of the week I was really able to have a true worship experience. We learned about the Roma people and how desperately they need people to come share Christ with them and show them love. God set my sister Sydni's heart on fire for the Roma people, and she is now planning on going to Poland next summer.

The Z on my hand stands for baby Zachariah, a little boy living in Poland. His parents have had two children before him that both died of a lung disease. Zachariah is battling the same disease. We all prayed for him, and I am continuing to pray for him. Then we all raised our hands with the Z's and they took a picture, to send to his parents.

The majority of the week was spent trekking up Rec Hill! Seriously though, this hill was so incredibly ridiculous, you don't even know. It was so boosie. It was about a mile long hill that wound through the mountains, (because that's where Ridgecrest is-the mountains!) Everybody had to walk it at least twice a day, for Recreation. You did Rec with your devotion group, which was represented by a country. Mine was Burkina Fasos, (yeah, I know, I had never heard of it either.) Man, were we awesome! Each country had to come up with a cheer everyday to try and win a cheer chicken and the Spirit Cup. You got the Spirit Cup if your team represented Teamwork, Unity, and Encouragement! We won it twice, and a cheer chicken once!!! We were seriously awesome. My leader's name was Cat, and she was sweet. On Friday, we had the ultimate team thing- MEGARELAY. You get to put on face-paint and go crazy and cheer yourself hoarse in this spectacular event. (The pictures are from after the fact.) All the teams gather and compete in various different relays, and Burkina Fasos placed third in our heat! We were amazing.

Now the other main part of our week was Tracks. We picked two tracks, for the first part of the week, unless you had a four day one, then two more for the last part of the week. My A track was a four-dayer, Christian Leadership. I loved it. I'm a leader in my youth group, and I really want to grow into a better leader not only at church, but at school and in normal life as well. My favorite part was probably learning about leaders in the bible and how exactly they led, and how we can be like them. We learned that in being a leader, the most important part is service. The most influential leader of all time- Jesus- came to earth to be a servant. That was how he lead, and that is how we should lead as well. My other tracks were outdoor games and Witnessing. I got to do witnessing with my younger brother Daniel, and it was great. He really has a heart for God, and I know he wants to be an example to his friends and witness to them about Jesus and his love. That class was really good for me because it confirmed my need to share God's love to my friends this year and just be a light.

It was an awesome week. I met a lot of cool people, made some new relationships and made some old ones stronger, and became closer to God. It helps that I had a ton of fun doing it! Two of the kids in my dad's youth group accepted Christ, and a lot of others realized the calling that God has for them. I feel as strong as ever in my faith and my desire to know God more continues to grow. Only one word can explain this week- It was so BOOSIE!

We had to get a group shot that Sarah was actually in, our little photographer! So we set it on the table!

Batman+Jesus=?

2008-07-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

So, I was thinking. Theologically, of course. After seeing The Dark Knight, which was an amazing movie by the way, I started thinking about analogies. One of the last scene's in the movie portrays Officer Gordon watching Batman run away, and his son asks him a question. I don't really remember what he asks him... but I do remember what Gordon says. I'll leave it to you to guess who he is talking about, but here is the roughly what I remember of the quote.

"He is the hero that Gotham doesn't deserve, but wants."

That is probably not exactly what he says, but it was along those lines. This is where my thinking takes place. Who else does this quote possibly define? Could it be Jesus Christ, our Savior that we definitely didn't deserve? I think so. We do not deserve God's unending love, nor did we deserve Jesus Christ. Jesus did not die on the cross because we deserved it, though. He died on the cross for our sins because he loves us, and wants us to live eternally with him. There is nothing that we could do to deserve God's love, but he loves us anyway. Isn't that amazing? I think it is amazing that I just compared a Batman movie to Jesus dying for us. :) Really, though, God is so incredibly amazing, and he loves us! Us, people who are full of sin, and push God away! We can push God away and try to force him out of our lives, but he is never leaving. He sent his Son for us even though we never deserved Him. I'd say that is amazing. Just something to think about.
Sadly, this is my last post for a while. I am leaving tomorrow morning, bright and early, for CenterFuge in North Carolina. It's basically a camp and I really have no idea what I am going to be doing. Campy stuff, I suppose. When I get back I will be sure to post an obnoxiously long post on here with lots of pictures and stories, which I know every single one of you will lovingly read. Peace!

The Dark Knight, Dark Nights, and Dark Chocolate

2008-07-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, So I actually didn't eat any dark chocolate recently (though I wish I had,) but I thought it fit. I did, however, went on a date and saw The Dark Knight!Most of my blogs lately have been about my bible study, and I haven't had the chance to tell you wonderful people what has been going on in my spicy life! (Which I'm guessing you want to know, otherwise why would you be reading this? =P) I have got a lot of catching up to do, so let's get started! My home this week has been in Mechanicsville, which is about 45 minutes away from my house. My dad is getting married soon to an awesome lady, Dana, and she and her son Spenser live in an amazing house here. It is huge, with tons of room, which is good, because my dad is moving in with her when they get married. Bring on the chaos! Some lucky girl gets to sleep in Dana's bed with her every night, and we usually fight for it, because of it's supreme comfyness. Every night this past week has been spent staying up until 2, sleeping in past 12 and heading for VBS in Chester by 5. We had fun just being able to relax and hang out. I was Chadder the Chipmunk for VBS, which was an experience in and of itself. Chadder is a puppet, (don't worry, I will put a picture up later) that doesn't talk, because he has "laryngytis". The lady actually didn't want me to talk because they also show a Chadder video, and she didn't want the kids to notice a difference in the voice. Unfortunatly, it did not matter that he didn't talk. After the end of the first day I had a score of 4 and 5 year olds accusing me of being the ever silent Chadder, claims which I blatantly denied. Preschoolers are very persistent. I had one little boy pointing at me and yelling, "You're Chowder, you're Chowder!" I had to try and keep a straight face while I lied to the poor kid over and over. Another one of the little boys figured me out from day one, and he and "Chowder" kid conspired together. One of the women that was working in crafts said she overheard this conversation.

Kid #1- "Ok, (kid #2), watch, when she leaves, the lady yells, Chadder! She is definitely him."

Kid #2- "Yep, she's Chowder."

It went something like that. Basically, I had to dodge little kids all week while trying to hold my arm straight while nodding Chadder's head and "waving". I'm suprised my arm didn't fall of by the end of the week. Oh, and guess what? I get to do it again on Sunday, for the whole church! I actually do like doing it, it's fun, and the kids love it. My last night of Chipmunk Chaos was Thursday night, then I had Friday free! NEWS FLASH! This is so totally awesome. My youngest brother David, who is nine, accepted Jesus Christ at VBS this week! He prayed and talked about it with my dad and the whole shabang. AND he wants to get baptized! There is a party going on in Heaven right now! Pray for him as he grows in his faith, as well as my family and I to be good examples. Back to regular news- We slept in a little late on Friday, we had a morning appointment at the Botanical Gardens, which is where my dad and Dana are getting married. We all went and ran around for a while, that place is gorgeous! Sarah got a lot of good pictures of the beautiful plants there. Dana and my dad were figuring out catering stuff, then where they were going to stand for the actual ceremony. That took a lot longer than we thought it would. Their wedding is going to be outside in this type of courtyard thing. They will be in the middle with all of the guests in a square around them, in four different quadrents. My dad wanted them to stand one way, and Dana wanted a different way. They argued about it. For a while. Sarah was mad because I had told her we were leaving and she stopped taking pictures. We were all starving, had been out in the hot sun for a couple hours, and were pretty tired. I eventually just laid down under a tree because that was pretty much the only shade around. They finally resolved the issue, which turned out to not be that big of a deal, and we got to air conditioned cars! Sarah and I needed to go shopping because we were going out on a hot date and needed new shirts so we could look even more amazing than usual, so we headed to the mall! After hitting up Wet Seal, we went and got ready, which didn't only mean make-up and all that jank. We had to mentally prepare ourselves for the drive from Mechanicsville to Midlothian in my dad's SUV! We succeeded with few damages, and only 10 minutes late! Time out! I wanted to put a picture of us in the parking lot of Barnes&Noble, which was where we met the boys, to show that we succeeded in our trip, but the picture is on my dad's camera. That would not have been a problem if his memory card was not too small for the slot on my laptop. I tried to put it in anyway. Of course, it got stuck. (Why am I suprised by this?) I had to get my dad to get it out, and it took one pair of tweezers and a needle to force the thing out. (I was on my way up the stairs with two knifes when he told me he fixed it.) The point of this story is- Shannon is retarded and there won't be a picture of us after driving all the way to Midlo. We did have an awesome time doubling with Sarah and Elijah. That was the first of many double dates Travis and I will be going on with my sister and her boyfriend. We took lots of funny, if not a little blurry, pictures.

They specialize in funny faces , and yes we so totally meant to do that. DUH.

Sarah doesn't trust anyone with her camera, which is understandable, it was a bajillion dollars, so we had to resort to putting it on the car and setting the timer. However, they failed to tell Travis and I they were taking a picture!

Travis had to get in the pic!

The movie was probably the best I have seen this year. With all the hype and excitement for this movie, the trailors and even Heath Ledgers death, if it had not held up to the standard everyone put it too, there would have been quite a few angry customers. It did. Hold it's own, I mean. More than hold it's own, this movie was amazing. It thrilled me, made me laugh, gasp, clutch my boyfriends arm, and made me a little sad. Heath Ledgers performance of the Joker was incredible. The way he portrayed this character was perfect. Perfect enough to evoke the perfect amount of fear, laughter, and sheer creepiness in the audience. It truly is a shame that this young man is no longer with us. I love thrillers like The Dark Knight, and I think it was better than it's former, Batman Begins. Frankly, Batman begins scared me. I am a scaredy cat, and I will admit it. For those of you who have to pee regularly, I do not suggest seeing The Dark Knight in theaters. It is two and a half hours long! Our little group along with half the theatre stayed till the very end of the credits, hoping for an extra scene. To our displeasure, there was none. So don't hold your breath. Really, it was an awesome movie, and a really fun night. Here are some more pictures!

We were running in slow motion towards the camera

Elijah rememberd his tickets and had them in his wallet. Travis forgot ours in the car and had to run back.

After the two and a half hour movie, we drove back over to Barnes&Noble to get our car. Sarah and Elijah went over to it, and Travis played me this John Mayer song, St. Patrick's Day. We drove the couple feet over to our car listening to it. I think it might be our song... we don't really have one yet, and it's a cute song. Plus Travis can play it on the guitar. :) So when I got out, he turned it up, opened his sunroof and stuck half his body through it and sang to me. I'm pretty sure I was blushing, so it's a good thing it was dark. It was extremely cute! Then we had to go, but it was a perfect way to end the night. Oh wait, that isn't the end! Because dad gave us the wrong directions to get back! Thank God for GPS, or we would have been in overly freak-out mode. We thankfully made it back safely. We had a ton of fun, and the day was full! It is now Saturday, well, actually, very early Sunday. Saturday was another day of running around, going to appointments, and packing stuff up for CenterFuge next week! Peace!

Hannah Montana, Cookie Dough, and Day 3 of A Call to Die

2008-07-17T20:47:00.000-07:00

I am watching Hannah Montana and I just ate a huge spoonful of delicious cookie dough thinking about my third day of A Call to Die that I just completed.

Be Still- Listen to what God is saying to you.

This is phrase is at the end of each day's devotion, and it takes my breath away every time I read it. Sometimes we just need to be still, get away from all the distractions, and plug into God. That is what this whole devotion is about. I have realized that I have so much time to do other, more important things with my time, just by not going on the internet and staying off the phone after ten. Today's devotion focused on the scripture:

"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty" Isaiah 6:5

The follow up questions asked if God has ever done to us what he did to Isiah, shown himself, which in turn caused us to see our sin and how unholy we are. I have seen God and His crazy aweosme glory. While I was at World Changers, God showed up and I saw sin in my life. Many of the friends I hang out with are not believers, and the ones that are do not live like it. My whole sophomore year I pretty much just went along, not standing out or sharing God's light with with. I have tried before, but pretty much given up. My words will not affect this group, but my life will. That is what God showed me at W.C. He convicted me, and I realized that I had not been an example to my friends, at least not the one I wanted to be. I also had some apologizing to do. One of my friends hurt me a lot this past year. She has pretty much lost all my respect and I have finally realized that I do not want to be part a friendship that is gaining nothing on both sides, except for hurt. I figured that since she had hurt me, that she had no right to my compassion or friendship, or help as a Christian sister. God convicted me. I may not want to be this girls friend anymore, but I should have been there, as a Christian, for her. She had fallen greatly in her walk with God, and I should have been with her to help pick her back up. Since she had hurt me though, I didn't think she derserved my help. Jesus loved and helped everyone, whether they deserved it or not. God convicted me of this, and made me realize that I needed to, if not be her friend, apologize for not being there and pray for her. I still haven't apologized. I am going to pray about it, and I will, as soon as I'm ready, or I should say, as soon as God thinks I'm ready. So when one of the questions asked if you had ever felt "ruined" like Isiah had, my answer was yes. I realized then, at World Changers, just how big God is. God forgave me, and healed me after being ruined. That is why He is so amazing. He will show himself to you in some totally unexpected way, ruin you by showing how you have fallen short, then heal you. I pray that God will show himself to you, and that you will let him root out the sin in your life, and be changed.

Day 1 of A Call to Die

2008-07-15T23:56:00.000-07:00

Then Jesus said to His disciples: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take on his cross and follow me.
Mathew 16:24

Today is the first day of my new bible study. I'm using a book title A Call to Die by David Nasser. Like I mentioned in a previous post, when doing this devotion you must sacrifice something. The point of A Call to Die is exactly what Mathew 16:24 is saying. We must give up our selfishness, deny ourselves the things that are dragging us away from God, and take up our crosses. I struggled with understanding completely what taking up our crosses meant. I believe it is denying the things that make you selfish, the things that are snatching away the time you should be spending with Christ. To some degree, I think it is carrying around your burdens, and as you go through life, realize how they are holding you down, and chip away at them little by little, eventually becoming selfless and dedicated to God. This would take an entire lifetime. Actually, it would be next to impossible to succeed at, selfishness is a normal part of one's, well, self. Few people have done it, say, Jesus for example. The goal of this study is to take the time that you spend doing other, seemingly pointless things, and dedicate that time to God. I am giving up texting, talking on the phone after 10 o'clock, and going online. I'm making Blogger the only exception because I am going to blog about my devotions. I have a feeling this is going to be a tough 40 days. Probably a great struggle for me, because I am constantly texting, or calling people, or surfing Facebook. (My mother can attest to this.) Thankfully, I have good accountability partners that will keep me in line. That, and, I really want this. I want to spend more time with God. To be able to feel him all around me, in little, tiny expressions of his immense love for us. I see these every day, but I want my eyes to be opened even further. One of the questions in today's devotion was What are the 3 most selfish things you do on a regular basis. The first thing I thought of was my brother's, especially my youngest one, David. He asks me to play with him alllllll the time. Go outside, jump on the trampoline, watch him do this thing on this game, little stuff. Most of the time, I don't do it. I say I'm too busy, or I just want to finish this chapter, or no, I just did my hair, I'll get sweaty! Always in the back of my mind there is the voice saying, "Go! Your his big sister, he needs you to play with him. This is how you can show your love to him. He needs it." But I ignore it, and dive back into my own selfish desires. I am going to stop this. I want to go up to David and say, "Hey, lets go play!" I will strengthen my relationship with both of my brothers, just by doing something as simple as watching them do a skateboard trick, and hopefully they will see my love for them as well as God's love for them through that. My first day of bible study was great, I've got 39 more days to go!

Writing into the wee hours of the morning...

2008-07-14T23:16:00.000-07:00

Crap. It's past two o'clock in the morning. Again. But hey, that's what summer is for, right? I just don't see the point in going to sleep in the summer. I've just spent the past two hours reading blogs, and the time really does fly. Since I really should be going to bed, here's the run down of the day:
-Woke up at 3 in the afternoon after going to bed at 3 in the a.m. and sleeping for 12 hours.
-Chilled, didn't take a shower, and ate "lunch"
-Left for VBS around five-ish. I was going to drive, buuuuttt, I didn't.
-Got to be Chadder the Chipmunk at VBS! Was bored in between shows.
-Left VBS at 8:50. On the way home, dad decides we want to see a movie.
-Argued about what movie we were going to see for 20 min. Get Smart was deemed the winner.
-Went back to Dana, my dad's fiance's, house, and ate cookies and frozen grapes.
-Saw Get Smart at 10:25.
-Laughed without caring who heard me, because only one other person other than us was there.
-The movie let out at midnight!
-Finally got home and got on Blogger! (After eating more cookies and buying shoes online.)

It was a good day. I got to sleep in, and sleeping is always good.
God is nudging me right now, pretty hard, via my sister. Earlier this summer, I went on a Mission Trip to Cherokee, NC with World Changers. God touched me there, more so than any other mission trip I have ever been on. I realized that to have a better relationship with Christ, you have to want it. Really, really want it. I do want it. I want to be a stronger Christian, to be a stronger prayer warrior, and to feel God more. I came back from World Changers fired up and sincerely ready to change my life. I still am fired up for God, and want to better my relationship with him. But I am lazy. I whine and complain, and say I'll do it tomorrow. "I'll start when summer is over. Summer get's too boring without the internet." That is a direct quote from me. Even I know that is lame, and I said it! Often, I complain to myself about feeling far from God, or not being able to feel him. I'm complaining, but I am not doing anything to grow with God! Sarah just told me I should have been reading the bible instead of being on here for 2 hours. She is right. I want to do a bible study called A Call to Die. In this devotion you have to sacrifice something. My sister and her boyfriend Elijah did it, and they sacrificed talking on the phone after 9, going on the internet, and listening to secular music. Sarah said she felt closer to God during that time than she ever has before. That is what I plan on doing. So, once I get the book, (I think it's at my mom's house) I am going to give up texting, the internet other than research and Blogger, and talking on the phone after 10 o'clock. I'm not positive those will be the things I give up, but that's pretty close. I'm not giving up Blogger because I'm going to use it to blog about what I've learned that day in my devotion. Until I get the devotion book, I am going to read my bible and maybe do snippets of another devotion. Thank you God, for sisters that keep you accountable. Please pray for me while I do my best to stay on track!

Focusing on what and who is in My Life right now.

2008-07-13T23:10:00.001-07:00

It's 2 o'clock in the morning again! Unlike last night, however, I get to sleep in tomorrow! I'm watching video's that were played at MFuge, and they are pretty hilarious. "DAN SCARLTON AWAY!" Oh geez. I wanted to put a big post up here about the stuff I've been up to the past couple days, but it is crazy late, so I'm just going to put some pictures up! Sarah wanted to do "couple" pictures with Travis and I. So here are some of those!

I'm so short! It's ok though, 'cause I can smile up at him. :)

I love having a Photographer for a sister. His Kissy Face was really cute. Mine? Not so much. So I just stuck with laughing. :D

I love it when he makes me laugh.

Yes- We do normally look this goofy.

I did not realize that this post was going to be a big shannon/travis picture fest. Oops! :) I probably seem very happy in all of these pictures... that's because I am. Except for the fact that Sarah had just dug her elbow into my chest, and I could hardly breath. Beauty for Pain, they always say! Today, or technically, yesterday, was Travis and I's two month anniversary. No, I am not one of those crazy girls that must get a gift because we've been dating for exactly two months and however many hours, I just like thinking about it. I get scared about stuff like this sometimes. I start thinking ahead of myself, about what it will be like in two more months, or how it has to end sometime. I'm just not used to being happy like this. I am a generally happy person, and I do not need a guy to make me happy, but I haven't felt what I feel everytime I am with Travis before. This sounds kind of cheesy, especially since I've been so skeptical of the whole "Love after 2 weeks thing." But it has been two months, and I still feel the same as I did when we first hung out. I'm not planning my wedding or something crazy like that, and this relationship will probably be the first of a few, but I do love Travis. I think God put him in my life for a reason. Part of that reason, I think, is so that I realize that I am worth it. God loves me for exactly who I am, and he wants me to have somebody that knows I am worth it too. So, for now, I'm going to try not to think about what could happen when school start's, or when Travis graduates, or any of that tough stuff. I'm going to think about what God has put in my life right now, and how much of a blessing he is.

Just Like her Daddy...

2008-07-12T22:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I forget. I forget that my life hasn't always been this way, that where I am now isn't where I've always been. I forget that I am a daughter of a broken home. Nights like this kind of jolt me back to reality every once in a while. I start thinking about what it used to be like, and how it won't ever be like that again. Even though I've known that for a long time now, sometimes it just hits me. I can't remember what it is like to have my daddy tuck me in and wake me up in the morning, then make breakfast for me, in the same kitchen as my mom. He does it now, but it's in his house, and in a bed I barely sleep in, and in his kitchen. I can't remember what it is like to have him there, everyday, for the normal stuff. I just feel so rushed when I'm over at his house, on "his" time. I think most divorced kids can attest to this feeling. You take advantage of just laying around your house with him there, not having to DO something to be "with" your dad. Now it feels like we always have to be DOING something. Most of the time I just wanna freakin lay around the house in my pajamas, watching tv with my dad or just hanging out with him. I just miss him so much sometimes. Just getting to be around him and have him proud of me. To be able to hug him whenever I want, just because I feel like it. I'm so sick of not seeing my dad for weeks, and having the feeling of missing someone!! You take for granted when he is there all the time. I don't want to have to miss him anymore, I want him to always be there! It's not fair. And I don't know why I'm feeling all emotional right now, but I don't care. I know this isn't going to change anything, and that wasn't my point. My parents are still divorced, and my dad still lives in Chesterfield. Soon, he will be moving to Mechanicsville, which is even farther away.

I started remembering this stuff because of a song. A new song, one that really fits exactly what I'm feeling, because listening/singing this song was what made me remember all this stuff. Remember that my little sister and brothers don't remember a lot of the stuff I do, when our lives were "perfect". It wasn't, but 10 year olds don't know that. It makes me really sad to think that, when my little brother grows up, all of his memories are going to be of going to visit daddy. Never knowing what it was like when he was there after school, or going into his office and messing with his things, or seeing him work with kids and change their lives, or playing baseball with him. He can have some of these things now, but it just doesn't feel the same. So much of that innocence is gone, and sometimes I really wish I was 7 again and could curl up on his lap or play Monopoly with him. I miss him I miss him I miss him. Knowing that I'm going to see him tomorrow doesn't help. I miss what I used to have. Which seems stupid to me, because I know I can't have it, but hey, a girl can dream right? I'm pretty sure this was just a ton of thoughts jumbling onto here, but I'm glad I let it out. I so rarely do. I'm not trying to say I would rather be with my dad than be living with my mom, either, because that isn't true. I'm very very happy with where I am. Sometimes I just can't help but to think about where i used to be.

What a crazy day!

2008-07-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Sarah rocking it out in a fedora, HUGE sunglasses, and boxers pulled up to her belly button.

I have screamed myself to the point of my throat hurting over the past two hours. Christine and Kristen, Sarah's best friends from the North, have been here all week, and tonight is their last night. We made it a memorable one. After a long day of shopping around Richmond, we came home and Sarah broke out the guitar. She just wrote a song, and was singing it when we decided to turn it into a screamo tune. "DON'T LET THE ORDINARY!!" Oh man, it was hilarious. Then Sarah says "Laugh out Hard!" So, naturally, we started yelling, "LAUGH OUT HARD!" and screamo-laughing. Geez, I love these girls. They only get to come down to good 'ol VA about once a year, this is their second summer trip. Kristen got salsa up her nose, so Christine yelled, "KRISTEN SNORTED SALSA!" Hyperness abounds.

Our days journey began with my mom taking all of us including Elijah, Sarah's boyfriend, and David to Bottom's Up Pizza on Canal Street. It was amazingly delicious, and as you can see, we devoured it. We walked around Canal Street for a little bit, looking at the canal (it wasn't all that impressive), and soaking up the historical atmosphere. We felt sort of rushed, because the girls wanted to go shopping, but it was fun. We found this box that had been set up next to the canal, with the outline of a person in it. We read the info-board near it and discovered that an ex-slave holed up in this box for 27 hours, to escape slavery and to find his wife and children. A grown man, in this tiny box, for 27 hours! And let me tell you, this box was no first class ride. That thing was cramped! Makes you realize how many things these people went through to find their freedom that they should have had in the first place. 27 hours! It got pretty uncomfortable after a couple minutes, at least for these three. After we hung out around Canal Street, we loaded back up and promptly got lost trying to find Carytown! We were losing precious shopping time, I had started falling asleep, and everyone was frustrated when I hear my mom simply say, "Oh. Here's Cary Street." We had been lost for about thirty minutes. I thought it was sort of funny. For those of you that have never been or even heard of Carytown, it is a thrifter's paradise. So, naturally, my family loves it. This quaint little city street has everything from Lex's, a high end dress shop, to Bygone's, a 50's style thrift store, to World of Mirth, a totally fun if not slightly weird toy store. Carytown is one of the must-stops when Christine and KP come to town.

It is such a fun store! We walked around for what seems like foreverrrrrrrrrrrr, finally made one last stop, the Chocolate store, and left. (I absolutely love shopping, and Careytown, but staying up till one o'clock everyday this week has made my legs a little weak.) We got home and mom and David both left to hang out with friends, so we decided to take some pictures at the railroad!

They look so adorably cute!

I'm coming for you!

I love this picture.
Incredibly Beautiful

We are Sistas. OW!

We just love playing with rocks!

Thank you Jesus, for friends that drive eight hours to see you. Thank you to see my big sister having so much fun with her best friends, laughing and glowing, which makes her look all the more gorgeous. Thank you for letting me be a part of their friendship, and to have them to look up to. Thank you for inspiration to dedicate myself to you by seeing the way these girls live their lives. Thank you for having fun, being crazy, and shopping! Thank you Lord, for proving that relationships can go through anything and still come out strong, including being hundreds of miles apart. Thank you for silly pictures, and providing the perfect backdrop for them. Thank you for being present in my life.

This is Me.

2008-07-09T21:56:00.001-07:00

Here we are, just a few short hours from my first post, and I am on here again, click-clacking away. I must say, I am hooked. This is the post where I will tell a little bit about myself. First, I have a confession to make, about one of the reasons I really felt compelled to finally start a blog, and her name is Sydni. I am one of 5. Sarah, Shannon, Sydni, Daniel, David, all of the wonderful Beth Brawley, and my Daddy, Lonnie. My dad has a bit of a competitive streak in him, and lets just say... I take after my dad a little bit. Ok, I am HUGELY competitive. Well, I had been planning to start this blog "any day now" when Sydni up and starts one!! I was very excited for her, and thought it was cool that she had started one, but mmhm, that got my competitive juices going. Like I said, this is a confessional, and I do confess to have letting the green eyed monster get the better of me, just a little bit. I love writing, and when I saw how well she had started out, it just made me want to write an even MORE awesome blog. There you have it. My confession to one of the reasons I really started this blog, but only one of the reasons. Now I am going to stop blathering about that and tell you what I promised I would.

The name is Shannon, (as you all know,) but my most prominent nickname is Shan. Obviously, I am of the Ginger species, otherwise known as a Redhead. Kids call me a Ginger with the intent to insult... though I haven't quite figured out what is so insulting about it yet. As I mentioned before, I love writing. I am in Journalism at my high school, where I'm going to be a Junior, and I am very interested in the Journalism field, possibly in Missions. I play soccer in the Spring for my school, and I love it! I am very passionate about this sport, and though I don't play as much as I used to, I love coaching, and wish I could do it more. The names of my family members have already been stated, and I'm pretty sure we don't want to go through that extensive list again, so we'll just leave it at this: My family means everything to me. I honestly do not know what I would do without them. I love each and everyone of them, and the unique way that God has made them. I am blessed to have such a large, caring, loving family.

Now, as most teenagers do, I have a best friend. I probably shouldn't put her name up here, she seems to be afraid of "Internet predators", though I doubt that is going to happen. "H" and I have been best friends for almost 4 years, and I love her like crazy. I'm sure I will be putting tons of crazy stories of our adventures on here for everyone to see. :D As I try and grow closer in my faith this year, I would like to bring her along with me. She is one of the only ones that truly gets ME.

Travis, Travis, Travis. I am going to put his name up here, because I'm pretty sure he can hold his own. I think.... I love this boy. Which, trust me, is a hard thing for me to say. My mom will probably see this and gasp or something, but if she has been anywhere near me for the past two months, she could probably tell just by looking at me. (Moms are good like that.) He makes me laugh like crazy, we are so goofy together, and I always have fun. He is charming, kind, and wonderful to me, and sometimes I can't believe it. I feel like I'm bearing my soul here, but I did say I was going to write about myself. (You can stop reading if you find this too mushy. I probably would have, if I had been reading it three months ago.) Travis doesn't just hear what I'm saying, he listens.

I have seriously written way too much. And to think, people I don't even know could be reading this! :-O That's the point though, isn't it? Someplace that you can write, write, write, about whatever you want, and it doesn't matter? Someone could choose to read it, or choose not to. It is like a big, open diary. It doesn't matter if people like it or not. You just can't be scared to let people in.

Hi Everybody!

2008-07-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

So, I am Shannon. That seems like an extremely boring way to start what will hopefully be a very fun blog-experience, but keep in mind I have never done this before. I have been wanting to, for a while now. I am one of the many children of Beth Brawley, so I have been highly encouraged to set one of these thinga-ma-bobbies up. Being an aspiring writer and journalist, I also thought this would be a good way to start.

Usually, things are WAY too crazy around here to take the time to start one of these, much less keep up with it. I honestly do not know how my mother does it. I, however, am doing it because..

I am alone in my house.

That is correct. No one else is here, except for me, myself, and I. Mom and Sarah, along with her besties from out of state, are at band practice. David is at a friends, and Sydni and Daniel are with my dad in Nashville, on a mission trip. Some of you may be saying (if anyone is actually reading this,) "Wow! She must love this peace and quiet for once!" Well, I have come to a revelation.

I am bored out of my mind.

I have watched four episodes of The Office on my laptop, checked Facebook many times, made myself an egg sandwhich, re-did my hair and make-up, and thought about watching a movie. So, basically, if I was not crazy bored like I was ten minutes ago, you probably would not have been reading this, because it wouldn't have been here. (I am kind of glad for my boredom now.) I seem to find that I thrive in the chaos of my life. Yes, it is extremely crazy sometimes, and my sibs drive me up the wall pretty much every moment of every day, but I love it. I love being around people, my people. I can sit in a chair and read a book while someone else is playing video games, someone is listening to music, and someone else is talking on the phone, completely at ease. That is where I am most comfortable. Constantly being around lots of people has affected how I relax. My "Quiet Place" is with at least 3 other people around. I don't like being, Alone. Not in the sense that I am scared of being by myself, but that I love having others around me. I think my heart fills up. Weird, right? So, right now, as I'm sitting on my laptop, I am counting down the hours for when my mom and sister and her friends will be home. On the other hand, I get to suprise mom with this, which is exciting. :)

Oops. I kind of wrote a lot for my first blog. :) I guess I was putting this off for too long, I didn't know I had so much to say. Not much was said about myself, either. Well, another blog, another quiet moment alone, I'll tell you all about the wonderful world of Shannon. Adios