Reach for the Stars! ~ Lesson 2

Peregrin Took
What is it that draws people to Pippin in THE LORD OF THE RINGS? Is it his fun-loving personality that people can relate to? Is it his cute red curls, funny accent, and delightful hobbit shortness? Is it his ability to break out in song and remain cheerful no matter what the situation? Or his pure love for his friends and the little things that remind us how big his heart is and how brave he really is? He is my favorite character in this movie and book for all of these endearing traits, and especially for his line, "I'm not likely to grow anymore - except sideways."

Gage Ironshanks
I know that you've never heard of him - only a select few have. He is a character I have created in a book I am writing that has no current title. This man hardly warrants the name, having seen only seventeen winters. Gage is an outcast, taken with fits of madness that lead him to do things even he cannot imagine. His scruffy appearance, piercing eyes, and dark demeanor render him almost inapproachable. His tattered cloak flies in and out of trees like a bird of prey. His continuous acts of violence and his frequent proof of a soft heart through it all keeps me, his creator, in suspense. The black sheet that seems to cover his character from my eyes exasperates me. I want to erase everything I have written about him, but it is impossible to do so. His two-sided personality eludes my pen with amazing dexterity as I try to pin him to the page. He is my enemy, yet I am somehow restrained from obliterating him. Perhaps I will one day overcome my forbearance with him and wipe him from the face of the earth.


Ok, whoa. That was WAY dramatic! But, oh well, it's true!!!:)

I hereby call an INTERNET REVOLUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VERSE OF THE DAY: "You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden…” Matthew 5:14

We had one Soccer Saturday!!!! J-dude had a game first and the Tigers won like 13-2. THEN we zipped to to where Dad was coaching Jess's game and watched the second half of his 11-0-ish win. Sticks had a game after lunch, but Swoosh broke the winning streak:( Boooooo!:P

Lets go back in time to J-dude's 7th birthday. He opened an envelope and pulled out a ticket. He didn't know what it was at first, but Sticks took one look, gasped, and did that spin he does when he can't believe something and it's so cool. It was a ticket to the opening Colorado Rapids soccer game against (guess who) LA GALAXY!!!!!!!!!! For those of you who don't know soccer, David Beckham, the biggest soccer player in America and almost the world, is on that team along with Sticks's "friend" Landon Donavan - the awesome short guy from the USA Men's National team. Turned out Sticks got a ticket for his early birthday present, AND... we skip back in time to where we were before.

So the go to the game early, hoping to catch David Beckham for pictures and autographs. We girls and littleuns had macaroni & cheese with hot dogs for dinner. Yum! Then we girls watched A NEW HOPE until the guys came home. Well, we didn't really WATCH it, per se. We were kinda busy laughing about how Obi-wan has the same clothes on as he does 20 years earlier and the New Yorker way to say "Garbage Compactor" (Jazzy, ya feelin me?). But the guys came home with David Beckham jerseys on, ice cream, and these cool loud horns. Turns out they didn't get to meet Beck, but Dad got some cool pictures of him! BUT!!!!!! Rad as this guy and Donavan and Ruise(sp) are, CO won 4-0!!!! The guys say it was so cool. Sounds so cool!!!!!

It's snowing outside, but believe it or not folks, SPRING IS HERE!!!!!!!! I can tell because the little flowers in our yard are out and the little birdies are back!!!!!!!! All I've seen mostly in the bird line are big noisy geese and the occasional crow. But the little birdies are here!!!!!!! HUZZAH!!!!!!!! Thank you God for little birdies!! They are very much nicer than big ones.

Ah, and it comes to it now. The fateful moment. A bit back, I started posting of the Girls of God Blog after a long delay. I noticed a little something. These blogs may be familiar. You may even be an author of blogs like Undercover, Soli Deo Gloria, or Extreme Revival. Anyway, I noticed that some of these blogs were getting, well, slow. Nobody commented anybody else. Sometimes posts took a long time too, but it was the lack of encouragement that bugged me most. I thought, "We are all friends in real life that share the same beliefs in a lost world- why don't we talk about it and encourage each other on the most widespread thing on earth - the internet?" I thought I should do something about it, but I wasn't sure quite what besides just commenting people myself. THEN I felt a revolution coming on. THEN it turns out I wasn't the only one! My dear bestest friend Emy has started a blog called Jesus Freak Teens for anyone who wants a internet revolution like us!!!!! I think the next step is to promote each other's devotion blogs when we can, comment each other, post on our own blogs, and most of all pray for each other. My point:

I hereby call an INTERNET REVOLUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you'll all join me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reach For the Stars! ~ Lesson 1

Book: The LORD OF THE RINGS
Character: Frodo Baggins
Setting: Middle Earth
Problem: The Dark Lord Sauron's Ring of Power
Plot: Frodo the hobbit must destroy this Ring of Power - or give up their free lands for lost. He is joined on his quest by his friends, who have personal battles of their own to fight. Braving terrible dangers, the fellowship sets out on its journey to Mount Doom - the one place the Ring can be unmade.
Solution: Through the perils of backstabbing traitors, evil wizards, ravenous orcs, and other vicious devices of Sauron, the Ring travels across Middle Earth to the fires of Mount Doom, and is cast into the flame.

FIREPROOF

Provident Film and Sherwood Pictures (or, the FACING THE GIANTS people) are working up another movie and the trailer is OUT!!!!!!!!! The movie is supposed to be released August 2008 so tell me what you think!!!! More on J-dude's birthday later!

Happy Birthday Lane!!!!!

Welcome to your blog party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For your 14th birthday, I thought it would be fun to go here:

Of course all the animals are tame so you can pet them. After we have hours of fun with tigers and hippopotamuses and all that jazz, it's time to go... SWIM WITH DOLPHINS!!!!!

They don't bite and the water's fine!!!!!!! Also nice to have some hot weather for once. Letsee... what next... Oh! You must be kinda hungry, so lets go to...
You'll probably only eat salad, but oh well. Now it's time for presents. I got you:

Baby lion cubs!!!!! There are five, and their names are Dog, Cat, Bunny, Horse, and Charles-Lorenzo Humperdink.

Well, I think that's as awesome as a birthday can get! Oh, wait. I forgot. Johnny Depp, Geoffry Rush, and Kiera Knightly stopped by to say happy birthday, but you were swimming with dolphins. So they just told me to tell you happy birthday for them. Shame you missed them.

So there ya have it!!!!!!! Hope you had fun at your blog party and have a great 14th year!!!!!!! *it sure beats 13 I can tell ya that*:P Well, Luvyalots!!!!!!!

AZ Bound

Going to Arizona for Sticks's soccer tourney!!!!!!!!!! See you when the weekend is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God Bless Yall Bunches!!!!!!!!!

Farewell Favre

VERSE OF THE DAY: Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life. Proverbs 19:20

You know I've said it (and cried it) before and I have. You know he's said it (and cried it) before and he has. But now the nightmare is reality - Brett Favre, the 38-year-old, 17 season, hall of famed, number 4 quarterback for the Green Bay Packers is really gone.

Gone.

He has retired and we shall never see him throw a football again. America shall miss him so and all Packers fans shall spend this never-forgotten night with pillows drenched in tears over our "mentally tired" quarterback. Toria and I found out at the exact same time, so we talked about sorrows and weeping and gnashing of media teeth on the phone. You may notice I am being very sorrowfully subdued about this. I thought he would retire last year and got my tears out and my heart close to healed. He was my favorite best awesomest, so I cried as he did in 2006 and gave my heart to Peyton. A worthy recipient, but Favre came back!!! But I knew it was coming: he would have to leave soon. And somehow I know now... inexplicably... unexplainably... that it is time for him to - not step down as some would say - but set in concrete his hall of fame place and set in stone his fans' support and love.

This is NOT defeat.

This is NOT retreat.

This is Victory.

It is finished.

A good career ended.

A living legend in place.

A drug addiction.

A Super Bowl.

A wife with breast cancer.

Two daughters.

A number 4.

A big "G".

Seventeen years throwing pigskins.

Thousands of fans.

A Hall of Fame.

Nothing left unsaid.

Nothing left undone.

It is finished.

Brett is Victorious.

Favre 4ever.