Jesus Camp 2010

Got back from camp today! ^^ I had a ton of fun, and I loved the sermons. I got to play guitar during the worship service Thursday morning. After a couple songs something happened with the guitars (I think mine went out of tune AGAIN >.> Darnded humidity), so I ended up playing one song by myself while Darin and Amanda were singing, but it's cool. Everybody said I did good. I still gotta get my guitar back from them tomorrow, though (there wasn't really room in the church vans :P).

Wyntre got saved Wednesday!! ^^

Thursday we went swimming... rode the bus with the guys and a couple girl friends (er, three girls actually =P) cuz that's how I roll. xD On the way back Dani and Jordan were singing. And Dani was squishing us :P There was a couple curves that we actually fell over (yeah, we don't always wear seatbelts... don't kill me =P), but there was one that was normal and we didn't really move. Until Dani jumped on us. I was laughing so hard xDDD I think Jordan hit his head on the window though.. =P

Learned a new game... called Ninja. Pretty fun, actually. Everyone stands in a circle and tries to hit everyone else's fingers with their hands (like a karate chop-like motion). First hit you lose that arm, second hit you're out. I gotta say, it's hard to play with younger kids 'cause they have tiny hands xD There was one girl from our church that was playing the game with us at the pool, and I kept hitting her palm instead because her fingers were shorter than everyone else's =P

I think we got hollered at by the lifeguards 5 or 6 times for dunking each other =P I thought it was pretty funny, really. Never jump on Dani... I got dunked 3 times by her alone :P And I always managed to be standing where I'd get splashed in the face when my friends started splashing each other.

Wyntre was talking to pretty much everyone and trying to learn their names, and there were a couple kids (er, teens =P) that I started talking to as well Friday. It's pretty cool meeting new people. I'm not opposed to it or anything, but I never really meet new people because I'm not good at the whole randomly-walk-up-to-people-and-say-hi-what's-your-name thing :P

I apparently shouldn't have said anything about not being in the mood to eat a bug Friday night though. Sam found some sort of bug and was scaring a few people with it, then he asked somebody if they'd eat it. I said I would probably eat something like that just to see people's reaction but I didn't really want to at the moment. Wouldn't you know it.... three different bugs almost fell in my mouth when I went back to the dorm :P I killed a gnat that was crawling on the light above my bunk, and it fell pretty close to my mouth. Then I tried knocking a stinkbug off with a piece of paper (ain't no way I was touching that thing =P) and it hit me in the lip. Then later I was looking at a scab on my arm 'cause I'm random like that and some sort of flying bug hit me in the mouth a couple times. Not to mention the moth that was laying on my bed for some reason that I came way too close to squishing with my bare feet... twice. It was insane xD

Apparently some of the guy sponsors played a prank on the guys. They all set their alarms for 3:30 in the morning, then got dressed and threw the lights on and told all the boys to hurry up and pack because they overslept and needed to go eat breakfast. Brad's re-enactment of some of their reactions was hilarious.

I think last night was prank night in general =P I woke up in the middle of the night (well, sometime between 3 and 7 =P) to see two girls on the bunks beside us stringing TP all over the two girls that were sleeping there. One of the pastors came outside and got sprayed with the water hose. The girls who had been to the camp before scared the crud out of the new girls =P Seems like something else happened too, but I can't remember what it was.

There's probably a bunch of stuff that I've forgot too... it was a pretty good 4 days. I'm already excited for next year!! ^^

xDD

~Ashley

Six Flags and Fruits Basket

Seemingly random title, no? ^w^

I'm pretty excited about Monday. My youth group is going to Six Flags for the day =DD I'm debating whether or not to bring my camera... I'd like some pictures, but I don't know if I'll actually get a chance to take any.

Now for the other half of the post title...

I think I've realized why PluggedInOnline's movie reviews always seem overdone. I submitted a review for Fruits Basket (which I finished reading yesterday. Yay! lol) on CM. When I read the story, there was a few things I didn't agree with, but nothing that really screamed "You need to quit reading this". But when you actually think about and write down anything that someone might have a problem with and rate how much stuff is in the story or movie, it looks like a lot. I thought it was a pretty good story, but I might not have read it based simply on what the review said.

Maybe part of it has to do with the fact that you're taking things out of context. Take violence and blood, for example... Someone laying in a puddle of blood seems dark and unnecessary, right? *spoiler warning* Kyoko (sp?) got hit by a car, for goodness sakes. Kyo was remembering seeing it happen, wishing he had done something to stop it, instead of being selfish. *end spoiler* Doesn't seem so bad now, does it? It explains how Tohru's mother died and why Kyo feels so horrible.

I'd give an example from a movie, but I can't think of one at the moment xP

Now, violence/blood doesn't bother me. But it might bother someone else... it needs to be mentioned. Stuff that bothers me might not bother someone else. When I check a review for a movie, I make sure to check the language... I don't like listening to that. But some people can sit through two hours of non-stop swearing and not be bothered a bit.

PluggedIn's movie reviews still bug me, because they pick out every little thing. When I watch the movie I barely notice half of what they mentioned. But, I think I do understand it a bit better now.

Woohoo, this is the first post in forever where I've actually said something! xD I should do this more often.

Summer 2010 -- June 14

Well, I'm having a pretty good b-day ^_^

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My brother and my dad and I went out to where they have church camp to help put a bunch of new (to us) bunk beds together. I was pretty fun, actually. A couple of my friends were there too, so that was cool. I'm gonna be so dang sore tomorrow, though xD

Summer 2010 -- June 12

Yesterday was Molly's b-day (Happy Birthday, Molly!!), so I spent the night at her house along with some other friends. We went to the theater to watch Karate Kid, then came back and gathered up a few things to take across the parking lot to the church. After plugging up Rebeccah's iPod, we spent the next five hours playing flashlight tag =P It was pretty fun, although I'll probably be sore and tired tomorrow. I twisted my ankle a bit once (or I guess that's what you'd call it), but other than that I actually didn't get hurt for once :P. But we did end up running quite a bit... we all got tired of sitting in one place trying to hide so we started running in circles away from the person with the flashlight instead.

We finally went to bed at 5 this morning, then I woke up at 8:30. After the other girls woke up we watched a couple movies and ate lunch, then it was time for me to go. So far I'm not extremely tired, but I doubt I'll stay up as late as normal.

Summer 2010 -- June 9

VBS was awesome!! =DD I don't guess I've ever said this before, but it was quite a blessing to see all the kids laughing and singing and dancing. And one of the girls in my group got saved tonight =D (And I think my friend's sister did to, or will when her dad gets home)

The only creepy part was that some kid who is at least 6th grade, maybe younger (I don't know anything about him, but he wasn't a leader so he couldn't have been over 12) apparently thinks he likes me o.0 I mean, it's alright if there's a kid that likes me as a leader, you know hugs me or whatever. But when there's a kid that in a completely different group that I know nothing about, who is way younger than me, that "likes" me... ew. Not to mention he asked me out >_>

Anyhow...
VBS was still pretty amazing tonight.

Oh, and we usually go to first service at church so it looks like I'll get out of the closing program thing on Sunday. YESH!!! lol (Sorry, but I don't want to get up and dance in front of everybody, even if there are a bunch of other people >_>)

Summer 2010 -- June 8

VBS has been great so far. The kids in my crew are pretty awesome. Jason seems really excited too. I can't believe Ryan's a crew leader this year, either.

Hmm... that was supposed to be a lot longer. I can't think of what else there was to say though.

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I went shopping yesterday with Wyntre and Hannah. It was great =DDD I got some cool stuff too. I love the Skillet CD I bought x)

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Well... this post definitely was shorter than I had planned.

By the way, did I mention that the June issue of Passion Magazine has been published?

Summer 2010 -- June 6

VBS starts tonight!!! =DDDD
I can't wait! ^_^

I'm a crew leader this year, as usual. I don't know yet who's in my group or who the other leaders are (two groups go to all of the stations together, and there's one or two leaders per group), but it's always fun. This year the theme is High Seas, so we're dressing up as pirates and sailors and such. I put together a sort of pirate-ish outfit... I wasn't sure if it really looked pirate--y, but my siblings said it looked cool.

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Just over a week until my birthday!! ^_^

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I played Super Mario 64 yesterday... I apparently have increased my skillz since we had the Nintendo 64 (we have it on our Wii as a download now). I actually got 9 stars in one hour or two of playing (alright, alright, I have no idea how long I played =P Not as long as it would normally take). Usually I'm not all that great. I've been playing too much Mario Galaxy, though. Apparently. Every now and then my hand will jerk out of habit before I realize it. "Wait. Moving the controller does no good. Mario isn't going to spin back onto the ledge after you jump in the wrong direction." =P

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I started reading Fruits Basket a few days ago. It's pretty good, once I figured out what was going on =P I knew part of the story because my friends used to read manga, but just the general idea. The dialogue in the first few chapters confused me because it seemed to skip stuff. Idk.

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Well, enough of the random updates =P I'll post more later when I actually have something to say!! lol

Summer 2010 -- June 3

Well, I said I would post every day, but I actually don't have anythign to say every day :P Not to mention I won't be able to post during camp either. Sooo that idea's out :P

Grr. Thanks to status shuffle, I feel like a creep now >_> lol
Not that that means I'm going to stop poking people on facebook or anything, but anyhow....

We had a VBS meeting yesterday to hang up posters and stuff (VBS starts Sunday!! YAY! x), and when we got done, me and Rebeccah, Jessica, and Jake decided to have a war with the pool noodles that were sitting in a corner. That was completely epic xD
Brad (not our youth pastor... a different Brad) finally just took all the pool noodles and what was in the box and moved them into a different room :P So we walked outside for a while instead. We actually did tell the few 10-year-old kids running around that it wasn't safe to come around to the side of the building where we were and that they really shouldn't be watching us because we weren't being such a great example at the moment :P
No, we aren't usually a bad example to the younger kids. I was being a normal teenager and enjoying life. Don't get mad at me. lol (and it's not like we were doing anything horrible anyway)

Rebeccah is coming over today! x) Her and her family are all going to go swimming. Should be pretty fun. And maybe I'll get some more pictures ^w^ I'm going to see how many pictures I can take this summer. I'm considering taking my camera (oooor maybe my sister's camera, if she lets me... it holds more pictures and it's smaller) to church camp, too.

Well, I'm off to draw a picture or two and try to figure out a couple outfits for VBS. I'll try to post some pictures later.

Summer 2010 -- May 31

Here's to the soldiers who have died for our freedom. Thank you ~♥~
Happy Memorial Day!

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And Happy Birthday Jake!!! You're oooold now =P

Summer 2010 -- May 30

Yes, in case you were wondering, I am going to try to post something every day :D Hopefully have 100 more posts (or more) by the end of this summer.

First off... 27 followers? Thank you!!!! I love you guys! :) And thanks for the comments y'all have left lately.

We had a party --excuse me, luau-- at church this evening for the kids that are graduating this year. This morning we helped get the kabobs (raw teryaki chicken is sticky, by the way XD) ready to grill (well, some of us did anyway =P Tried to get Sarah and the guys besides Andrew to help, but nope...), then later this evening after Bible quiz practice and church we had the luau. Me and my friends ate then went outside for an hour or so. I wasn't very hungry, but I ate one of the kabobs (and stole one of the strawberries from Jake's plate... he shoulda expected it, though xP), and it was pretty good. We watched the boys throw the football for a little bit beside the church, then decided to walk around front before we got slammed in the head. (side note... do you know how scary it is to have a football whoosh just over your head two or three times? =P) Then they went to the front for a little while... while it would have been funny if they hit a car and made the airbag blow out (if that's even possible with a football...), it would have been bad =P
After we finished cleaning up, we went back outside for a bit and caught fireflies (and squished a few... glow-in-the-dark guts are cool!!! ^w^). Sam stole the beanbags and ran around the parking lot, so me and Rebeccah chased him for a few minutes. Why? I have no idea XD It's not like we were actually going to do anything if we caught him, so I don't know.... Anyhow, we left 20 minutes later or so. I thought about swimming when I got home, but I can't really swim by myself in the dark.
Unfortunately I forgot to grab the camera before I left, but whateva...

Does anyone find updates like this boring? Just wondered...

Summer 2010 -- May 29

I have some more pictures, but about half of them are of me or my siblings, and only one picture of my sister doesn't show her face. Sooo yeah :P Later I'll look at the pictures Mom took too.

Summer 2010 -- May 27

Let me just say I am never buying another tankini... I wore one last summer, and of course my stomach never tanned at all. Today I tanned a bit, and my arms and legs are tan, but not my stomach, because it's basically not had sunlight for two years. So now my stomach is an entire shade lighter than my arms and legs. Yeah... >_> It's not like people see my stomach, but the uneven tan is really annoying to me.
I will be fixing that this summer...

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We had a BBQ at the park yesterday for the end of awana. It was pretty fun. They had a man come and talk to us for 30 minutes or so. It was pretty cool... I mean really, an 85-year-old man standing on a table preaching and doing yo-yo tricks? XDDD
Then some of my friends and I walked around the path that goes through/around the park. About halfway through, it started raining. My parents were ready to leave when we got back around. I think Dad thought we were insane for walking in the rain with no umbrellas xP
I actually enjoyed it though. Funny how I hate rain when I'm sitting at home, but it's pretty cool in the summer when I'm walking around with my friends.

You know that feeling you get when you wake up on the first day of summer? I definitely had that feeling this morning. Forget the "official" first day of summer, forget June 1st... summer starts today XDDD
It's been raining and cool all week, but today the skies are blue and it's already 75* outside (last I checked... about an hour ago). I'm ready to get out there and enjoy the summer ^_^


Yeah, I'm aware I still have algebra to do xP But I still feel like it's summertime x)