Baby Jack

Last night, we "auditioned" a boy for the role of Baby Moses at Richland Hills. His name is Jack Pinson and his mom is Christine Pinson, the girl playing Miriam. He is 10 mths old which is a little older than we were looking for, but we thought we'd try it anyways. So they started running the scene where a guard comes in to search for baby boys. Jack started smiling and laughing at the beginning and then when they put him inside the basket, he just played. It was perfect. But then he kept reaching his hand out of the basket like he was trying to wave or something. Miriam and Jochebed are supposed to be really scared that the guard was going to find Moses, but Jack was so cute they couldn't stop laughing and smiling at him. Then when Miriam took him from Jochebed down at the river and sang a song, he started clapping with the music! Finally, right before she put him in the basket at the end of her song, he grabbed on to Christine's mouth so she couldn't sing. At the end of the run through, we decided that he was just TOO cute and we couldn't use him. What a reason not to use a baby! He was just too cute! He would steal the show completely. Baby Weaver, Jack has set the bar high for you! You are going to have to work very hard to be the cutest baby boy ever after last night!

The Great Schnozzola!

Today Patty, Wade, Katie, Stephen, Lindsey, and I spent the day at Richland making the sphinx out of styrofoam for VBS. But this Sphinx had to have a nose because the slaves knock it off on Night 1 (sorry if I'm spoiling the suspensful plot for anyone!) We spent all morning hitting styrofoam with hammers, sawing chunks off with a wire PVC saw, and carving it with chisels (flat ones, not pointy ones.) I seriously have no skin left on my fingers from the pvc saw. But it looks great! And I had the honor of making the finishing touch, the nose. It looks so funny. Granted, this was the easy part, rounding of a triangle piece of styrofoam, Stephen had the hard job of shaping the face. But mine is the most memorable. Wade and I worked on it right at the end. We had a fun time, playing in the little pieces of styrofoam that looked like snow and crawling in the crevice between the feet. The funniest part is what happened before I got there, but I'll save that for Lindsey's blog - pictures and all. It was really a fun day and now we get to end it with a fun night of eating at The Keg and watching The Longest Yard.

Unhappy Alias Day!

This week was the season finale of Alias. If you have read basically ANY of my posts, you know how near and dear this show is to my heart, but yet, I am sad. It makes me sad when you see the beginning of the end of a show in 5 minutes. JJ Abrams has decided to make Michael Vaughn a double agent (of course! If you can't bring someone back to life, make them a double agent) and he even is saying his name isn't Michael Vaughn. I'm all about the new twists, but this one just doesn't make any sense! Nichole and I sat around and talked about it for an hour today and pointed out all of the flaws in this new twist and how it doesn't match up with events from past seasons. He married a girl who he later found out was a double agent and was mad! How could he be mad if he was a double agent himself? It is just really upsetting. I'll give Alias a chance to explain at the beginning of the next season, but with the whole Rambaldi thing coming to close this season, I'm afraid we're seeing the demise of an otherwise great show. I have never been so mad at a season finale.

Creepy Crawlies Part Deux

I just killed the biggest brown recluse I've ever seen. And where was it you ask? In MY bathroom! Not the downstairs one where most of the others have been. This means I will not sleep at all tonight and there will be about 15 sheet checks during the night. Ugh! I now feel like there are about 20 different brown recluses crawling all over me. I took a picture of it and Ben is trying to tell me its not a brown recluse. Once I figure out how to post pictures, I post it so you can see what I have to live with.

Edited to add:
So Ben wakes me up at 4 am to show me a spider in the computer room in order to make fun of me saying it was a brown recluse. Then he tried to catch it and realized he'd never seen a spider move that fast before. My answer was "THAT'S BECAUSE IT IS A BROWN RECLUSE!!" So then I showed him the picture I took along with a couple of pictures printed off the internet of brown recluses and he said, 'Yup, thats a brown recluse.' Never doubt my eye when it comes to spiders!

Creepy Crawlies!

Last summer, right around this time, my mother and I were sitting on her bed at about midnight waiting for my dad to get home from a marathon elders meeting. I looked over and saw small brown spider crawling across my dad's pillow. We killed it. It just so happened that the day before, I had helped Patty take the children at church to the museum to see an Omni show called BUGS! and a lady out front had different bugs to show us, including a brown recluse. I picked up the block that the brown recluse was in, realizing that it looked just like any normal spider except with longer legs. And the spider we had just killed looked like any normal spider except with longer legs. I looked a picture up on the internet and compared it with the dead bug we had in a plastic bag and it was definitely a brown recluse. We found 8 more in our house that summer. Thus the beginning of my bug paranoia.

Ever since this day, I constantly feel like something is crawling on me. I check under my sheets every night before I go to bed, and sometimes again after I'm already in bed, even when I'm not in my house in Crowley. And even after I've checked, I have to consciously tell myself, "Nothing is crawling on you. You are fine." If you see me randomly brushing something invisible off my skin in public, it is because I feel something crawling on me. I know, its weird. But there have been 2 times when I have been wrong about this feeling. One was over Christmas when I was on the computer, I felt something crawling on my arm and lightly brushed it away to prove to myself it was nothing, and was promptly stung by a wasp. Not a fun day. The other was last night. I checked the sheets like normal, and tried to go to sleep. This morning, woke up to find cricket parts strewn all over my sheets and cricket guts rubbed in quite nicely. Apparently a cricket thought it would be fun to get in bed with me and I rolled over on it and smashed it to pieces. The worst part is, now I know my initial sheet checking is not enough and I'm going to end up looking under my covers several times - just to make sure. All I can say is at least it wasn't a brown recluse or I probably would have been bitten! Does anyone know a good exterminator?

50/50 chance

The last bridal show I worked at was 2 days long. During this time, we got to know some of the other vendors around our booth, particularly the ladies across from us that had a custom wedding dress shop. They would watch our videos while they sat in their empty double booth and sing along with the songs to pass the time. Finally, one lady came and talked to me to tell me how much she liked our stuff. Then she asked a question that really left me speechless...a feat in itself. She asked, "Does it ever make you sad or depressed that 1/2 of the weddings you film will end in divorce?" At first, I thought it was stupid and just brushed it off by saying something about, it didn't depress me because we only see the beginning so in my mind they all live happily ever after. But the more I thought about it, the more it disturbed me that people go into marriage thinking that they only have a 50/50 chance of making it work! I don't really have any profound thoughts on this except that when I get married, I plan on it sticking. Bad thoughts won't do any good from the start. The real reason I wrote this is to tell that little story that was too long for the comments portion of Trey's post, the original thought on this topic. Go read it, it's good. Also check out Ryan's comment. See you tomorrow!

Almost isn't good enough

Everyone has a lot of "almosts" in their life. I almost went to OC instead of ACU. I almost decided to work before going to graduate school. I almost made my first C in Carl Brecheen's Family Relations class (ok, that one's not so good.) But today I had an almost that will haunt me for the rest of my life. I almost got to drive my favorite baseball player on the planet, Mark Teixiera at the Colonial Golf Tournament.

If you don't know already, I am spending this week driving Cadillacs between the Colonial Golf Tournament and the special parking lots that they have for valet parking, club members, VIPs, and caddys. The VIPs aren't really what you think, they are people like the marshalls for the tournament and the head of the transportation committee...nothing especially exciting. Today I was on blue lot duty, which is the valet lot. Instead of us bringing your car to you, we take you to your car about 3 blocks away. There were about 15 cadillac drivers today and to keep things orderly, we line up in our cars along the front of the clubhouse and take people as they come. Then the next person moves forward. It's basically your standard elementary school line format. So I was in line, moving forward, when all of a sudden I see a very tall, really hot guy. Then I realize that it is Mark Teixiera! I start going crazy because all at once I realize that I am about 20 feet from my favorite player ever and I am second - not first - in line! And I am positive that the girl who got to drive him had no appreciation for what she was getting to do! I was absolutely sick all day. And to make matters worse, my boss was standing at the front when the situation occured, so after I made it back around, I said "Do you know who that was?" He didn't. So I told him it was Mark Teixiera, my favorite baseball player and I missed him by one car. His response was, "You should have said something! I would have put him in your car!" So not only did I barely miss him, I could have done something about it. So the moral of this story is, if you ever get within 20 feet of your favorite athlete, forget protocol! Jump in line and stomp on whoever should rightly be in the presence of greatness, or you will be kicking yourself for years to come.

To drain or not to drain

Today I went to the eye doctor (Lindsey, you've already heard this a couple of times, so you can skip down a bit). I found out that there is a reason that I seem to have an unusually large amount of eye problems and why my contacts are always bothering me and my eyes always red. And if you went to Brenham on the Middle School Mission Trip in like, 1996 or so, you certainly can't forget how my eye randomly swelled to about the size of a ping pong ball (I know, great mental image, sorry). Well apparently I have a condition called DES - Dry Eye Syndrome. Original huh? I have the exact opposite problem that Maisy Inlow recently had surgery for - her tear ducts were clogged and wouldn't drain tears...mine are too big and drain tears away too quickly. So now they want to plug up one of my tear ducts in each eye. Does that seem just wrong to anyone else? I mean, when you have had constant annoying pain for over 10 years, any solution seems like something I should jump at and my doctor says it works really well. Even insurance companies must think its okay because they are paying for part of it without any trouble or referral. So depending on how my finances work out, the next time some of you see me, I may only have 1/2 of the working tear ducts that I started with. Anyone else know of any other solution? Because I'm open to suggestions that don't involve sticking silicone into my eyelids....

A Whole Lotta Nothing

I did nothing today. And it was wonderful! At this point in my life, my perfect day would be to do nothing by myself all day (as long as I had an endless supply of entertaining TV shows that I hadn't seen yet...this is where my day fell short). After doing nothing all day, I would join up with some friends for dinner at H3 (pods anyone?) and then eat some of Jennifer Gambill's Harry Potter birthday cake that she made for Katie (obviously I am not on South Beach in this scenario...the second point in which my day fell short of perfect). After a delicious dinner, we would go to someones house and play a game for a while, watch the New Years Video, and laugh at how dumb we all really are. And Ryan and Maggie would be in town, so we would spend a couple of hours watching Maisy and being amazed at her cuteness. That would be my perfect day.

What would be your perfect day? Would it involve the word "pods"? Would I be invited along? Does anyone else catch the blatant style-stealing of Lindsey in this paragraph?

I'm ending my post like Lindsey today,
Emily

Same script, Different show

I just got finished watching the Season Finale of Project Greenlight, a show that gives a new writer a chance to have his script made into a movie and a new director a chance to actually make that movie. The director this year, John Gulager, was kind of a loose cannon in that no one really knew what to expect out of him. I knew he was awesome from the beginning because his audition video was incredible. The movie has (apparently) turned out really well (they don't really show much because they want you to actually have to go see the movie) and everyone is giving all the credit to the director. I started wondering what this movie would have been if one of the other 2 directors had been chosen.

Movies and plays can change so much based on the director. You can take the exact same actors, same script, and have a totally different product based solely on the person directing. I have the priviledge of being involved in the productions of both Altamesa and Richland Hills VBS's this year. I'm actually in Altamesa's and have just been observing Richland Hills as I help them with their music. It is amazing to me how different the two shows are. If I hadn't written the music and read the script about 500 times, I wouldn't even be able to tell that they are even the same at all. And it's all because of the directors. The two directors have very different styles. Neither one is necessarily better, just different. This fact has made it fun for me. If they were the exact same, the 12 hours each week I am spending at rehearsals would be VERY monotonous. Let me conclude with this: although Altamesa and Richland Hills are using the exact same script, they are producing very different shows. And I can't wait to see how they turn out!

==WARNING: Shameless Plug Time==
For the (maybe) 2 or 3 people who aren't directly involved:
Richland Hills Church of Christ presents Moses on June 6-8 at 7:00 pm
Altamesa Church of Christ presents Moses on June 19-22 at 7:00 pm
We'd love to see you there!

A Week of Lasts

- Yesterday was our last night with our roommate Deborah
- Today is my last day of work
- Tomorrow I will take my last final at ACU
- I will finish my last episode of Gilmore Girls Season 3 this evening
- This is the last week that I will be in Abilene wishing I was in Fort Worth
- Tuesday is the last episode of Amazing Race!!
- Today was the last time I'll vote on Ryan's poll saying I pretty much voted every day (okay, maybe I'm lying there!)
- I sold back my last book this morning
- This is the last time I write a post thinking I have lots of items to put in a list when it turns out I really don't. I'm out.

I went to bed at midnight!

Last night, I got really tired. I looked at the clock and it was 11:00pm, so I thought, I can't go to bed yet! So I watched another episode of Gilmore Girls Season 3 (we just bought it on DVD) before going to bed early at midnight. Why is it that in college, midnight is early? I remember in High School going to bed at midnight, walking into school the next day exhausted, and making a huge deal about how I was tired because I went to bed at midnight. Fast forward one year to freshman year of college, going to bed at midnight, walking into class totally refreshed, and making a huge deal about how good I felt because I went to bed at midnight. Fast forward four more years to now when Katie and Stephen go to bed at 10:30. Its like this is really the peak of my life, because it won't be long until midnight is late again. I'd better enjoy it!

Letting Go

Why is it that we as humans have such a hard time letting go? Why is it that we hold on to things with such force that we can't even see how they are hurting us? Today I have been talking to two of my good friends who are having immense problems with this concept. One is dealing with a friendship that needs to be changed or dissolved altogether while the other is newly married and and her husband can't let go of his parents - almost to the point where it is hurting their marriage. I have countless other friends dealing with this as we approach graduation. And the reason we all have trouble letting go is fear.

Fear controls so much of our lives. It causes us to pass us opportunities. It causes us to hold back from things we really want. It causes us remain in situations that are hurtful because we can't imagine our lives with out them. And it causes us to lose sight of what is really important. I am a pretty fearful person. After the Wedgwood Baptist Church shooting, fear became integrated into my very being. I am constantly surveying the people around me, especially in large crowds, convinced that something bad is about to happen. I worry about things I shouldn't worry about (Katie knows what I'm talking about!). But the one thing that helps me keep my fear at bay, and really probably keeps me from entering into some form of social anxiety disorder for that matter, is knowing that God is here for me and is in control. I had to do an interview with my parents for my Family Relations class, and when asked to give some advice to young couples, my mom said, "Put God in the center always. Don't try to handle everything yourself before you let Him handle it." And what struck me the most was what she said after a short pause - "The sooner you figure that out, the better off you'll be." I don't know about you, but I'm ready to figure that out. I have been there once, where nothing could phase me because I was completely reliant on God. I'm not quite there right now, but I'm on my way back. And I can't wait to get there, because I know from experience, letting go feels so good.

Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight."

Blog-crush

Throughout college, I have been introduced to the concept of different crushes besides "I like you" crushes. Basically, anyone you admire in a specific way can cause a situational crush. So I would like to start a new term: Blog-Crush. And I definitely have blog crush on Ryan Inlow.

I'm pretty sure that all 3 of the readers of my blog that I know about are already fans of his blog, but I would just like to take a day to point out how much of a blogging genius he is! I cannot list one post on his site that I haven't loved reading - even the one about the international scout that he claims is only interesting to himself and Maggie. Because even things that aren't necessarily interesting become interesting when Ryan talks about them. Unlike myself who has a topic that is potentially very interesting but comes out as a jumbled mess when I try to type it. Ryan's blog is so good that I can even keep time by it! Last week, I was on the internet reading blogs when I came upon Ryan's "This is What I Clicked" post for the week. All day I had thought it was Wednesday, but since I know that Wednesday is Devo post and Thursday is What I Clicked post day, I got my schedule straight. It makes me happy that he always posts great pictures and has great anecdotes about what is going on in his family. So to sum it all up, here's to you, Ryan Inlow. Your blogging is definitely something to be achieved by others and therefore merits the amazing blog-crush I currently have. I wish my blog was good like yours.

Hit List

I am an avid reader of Entertainment Weekly. Most of the people who read this are not, so I have decided to start posting the "Hit List" each week that starts off the magazine. I haven't gotten this week's EW yet, so to start it off, I will begin with one of my favorites - the week before the Super Bowl this year. Here it goes:

1. Greek lawyers mad over bisexuality in Alexander. Where were these lawyers when My Big Fat Greek Life was on the air? Now there's a protest we could've gotten behind.

2. Vanilla Ice's escaped goat and wallaroo detained after scratching woman and denting car. See, I told you he was cooler than Hammer.

3. "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan named the greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone. Fine, but isn't this a bit like Entertainment Weekly naming "That's Entertainment" as most entertaining song ever?

4. Elton John calls George W. Bush "The worst thing that has ever happened to America." Apparently, he's forgotten all about "The Macarena" and Shasta McNasty.

5. Paul McCartney to perform at Super Bowl. I think the most scandalous thing he could do is not play "Let It Be."

6. AFI to air special on the 100 Best Movie Quotes. I'd like to nominate Rod Roddy Piper for his line in They Live where he says, "I have come to kick a** and chew bubble gum...and I'm all out of bubble gum." But that's probably just because I like to nominate anyone sporting a kilt.

7. Fake story printed about R. Kelly hitting on Ashanti's underage sister. Now what could possibly make people believe an article like that?

8. Seinfeld puffy shirt donated to Smithsonian. Man, if they're still accepting, I've got shirts much uglier than that.

9. New study reveals that eating apples is good for you. Meanwhile, in an unrelated yet equally revealing report, it was found that water makes you wet.

10. Mel Gibson won't buy Oscar ads for Passion. Are you listening, Surviving Christmas?


Well, that is this weeks episode of The Hit List. I will return tomorrow with thought provoking and hopefully entertaining observations about life. I'm sure you can't wait.

Moving On

Last night was my last night as an active Kojie. We had senior goodbyes, where sophomores and juniors say nice things about us, give us a gift, and then we do the Kojie Stomp for the last time (until weddings at least). It is really emotional and always very special. All of these senior rituals that I have been taking part in recently have caused me to think about changing phases in life.

I'm really not sad about leaving ACU. I wasn't sad about leaving High School and I don't think I'll be sad when I finish grad school. I am definitely in the minority. Its just that when things end, I'm ready. No matter how long a vacation is, by the last 2 days, I'm ready to go home. I was fine during my 4 years here, but now in the last 2 weeks, I'm dying to leave. I know that there are going to be people here that I will miss, but the truth is, the ones that I am close to, I will keep in touch with. Acquaintances, although they are great, can change from place to place and I will survive.

I think the main reason that I am never sad to move on is because I am very blessed to have a group of best friends that have been there since I was a child. We still talk and hang out all the time and are very involved in each others lives. And I am pretty sure that no matter where we all go, we will always have each other. 2 have been added to "the group" because of marriage and I am honored to be able to call Ryan and Stephen my friends. Its at the point to where I forget they haven't been around since we were little. I guess 3 1/2 have really been added when you count Maisy and Baby #2. I only hope that the person I marry will fit in with this group so we can be like our parents. This is probably not the best thing, but every time I like a guy or date a guy, I try to picture if he would be friends with Ryan, Stephen, and Trey so we could all still hang out. And of course, Katie, Maggie, and Lindsey have kept me sane during my life time...or on occasion made me a little more insane when I needed to loosen up. I honestly don't think that I could ever find better friends than these people. If you could see me right now, you would know how important they are to me because one paragraph after talking about how I never cry and one night after not crying when EVERYONE else was, I am starting to cry just thinking about how special my friends are. Now I am just plain rambling so I am going to end this post, but I love you all so much and can't imagine my life with out you.

AHHHHHHH!!!

Remember the day in FW when no ones cell phone would work and we couldn't get ahold of anyone? Well it is happening here today in Abilene. It is AWFUL!!! My cell phone won't call anyone!!!

Life is weird.

I have always said that the most awkward feeling is seeing someone you used to be good friends with, but haven't talked to in a long time so your conversation is very superficial and surface-level. For example, you see an old friend in the mall over Christmas whose house you used to hang out at all the time, but now you are reduced to, "So, are you excited about graduation? How's club? Is Sing Song going to be good?"

I discovered today that there is only one thing more awkward than the situation mentioned - spending time with an ex-boyfriend that has now been reduced to the same level of superficial-ness. Today was COBA Senior Blessing, a day when the professors take all of the seniors to a retreat center in Merkel, TX and have a last-ditch effort to impart some wisdom on us and hang out with us and then give us a blessing at the end of the day. It was really great except that Chase was there. At first, I was really excited to see him, we haven't really talked much in the past couple of years and I was looking forward to possibly catching up. Yes, I am that naive. It was even neat when he got up to read a scripture and I noticed he was using the Bible I bought him for his 18th birthday. But when I finally got a chance to talk to him, we had nothing to say. It was an awful feeling standing next to someone that used to be such an integral part of my life for quite a significant amount of time, but yet, feeling like he was a total stranger. I wish it wasn't like that, but I guess that is just how things happen. I now understand why some people make such pain-staking efforts to avoid their exes when in familiar places (you know who you are!). Maybe I should just do the same.

You're a Winner at the Winstar!

Yesterday, Nichole and I took a road trip to Oklahoma to go to the Winstar Casino with her mom. And it was totally worth it.

In September after Maisy's 1st birthday party, Katie, Stephen, Lindsey, Trey, and I decided to make an impromptu stop at the Winstar. It was fun, but we lost all our money pretty quickly and only stayed about an hour, (and Lindsey won $50, if I don't put that, I'll get berated in my comments...) so I was pretty skeptical about spending a whole day there. But believe it or not, it is actually possible to stay around 4 hours and not go completely broke! We played all kinds of machines that have different bonus games and it was really fun. I came out around $10 under what I started with (and that was with winning $70 at the last minute). I now know which games I like the best and which ones are not so much fun for me. There was one game that had 6 rows across and you bet all these weird lines, but it was fabulous! I didn't do well with it, but one lady that we were with won about $400 on it. It was nuts! It really made me want to go to Vegas and play the real games like craps and blackjack (mainly craps), but Winstar is a good Vegas substitute. I propose a summer roadtrip to either Vegas or Shreveport, and Lindsey can join us from Abilene. Any takers?

Happy Alias Day! (Part 2)

Last week after Alias, my roommates and I were commenting about how it was possibly the best episode ever. So our friend, Ryan, asked us what had happened. Upon telling him what had occured in the episode, we realized how absurd a synopsis must sound to anyone who doesn't regularly watch the show, and it made us laugh. So in honor of Alias Day, I give you our synopsis of last weeks episode:

"So first, Sydney pretended to be a flaminco dancer in Cuba to get a guy to tell her where a disk was that told where the next terrorist attack would be. The guy told her it was in a locker and Dixon went and got it. On the way back to the airport to leave Cuba, Sydney and Vaughn talked about going dancing, but then the bad guys shot her cab driver and kidnapped her. Then the hard drive exploded inside of APO (the division of the CIA they work for) and it had a bio-weapon in it! Everyone ended up being okay because they sucked the stuff out through a vent and injected themselves with an anitodote, but they had the building in lockdown. But Marshall was late because his son was sick, so he couldn't get in. Then they called Sydney and she was in a coffin buried alive! Since they were in lockdown, no one could go but Marshall. So he went to Cuba and tore apart a radio to make a thing that could track her through her cell phone signal, but right when he got to the graveyard, her phone died. So they re-routed the satellite to Cuba and turned it to track body heat and he found her and gave her CPR to save her.

But they couldn't go home yet! They had to go to Germany to find the bad guy and get the real hard drive so that they could stop the attack. But the bad guy knew who Sydney was, so Marshall had to go in and get info from his harddrive through a cigarette case. While he was in the bad guy's office talking to him, he accidentally killed the bad guy with his cell phone..."

Ryan interrupts: "What? He hit him in the head with the cell phone?"

Me: "NO! There was a gun IN the cell phone!"

Ryan: "Oh, right, silly me..."

Me: "ANYWAYS...they needed the bad guy's eyes to do a retinal scan to get the encryption code off the server, so Marshall cut out his eye with a letter opener and a spork. Then they took it downstairs and got everything they needed to save Hong Kong because thats where the next attack was going to be. Then they went home and Dixon was okay and Sydney and Vaughn danced in the train station. Best episode ever!"

What TV shows do you watch that sound completely insane and stupid when explained, but are awesome when you watch them? (I know at least one of Lindsey's!)