So this weekend..

Our town is having a festival to celebrate the beginning of summer. They have live bands come and play, they bring in a bunch of food vendors (I love funnel cake), host a serious amount of softball games, and usually bring in a carnival too. It's usually pretty fun. So this year somehow our church secured a time slot for musicians to play. So Joel and I, plus 3 other teenagers from our church, decided to fill the spot. (We all play on the worship teams at church, but not all at the same time) Joel will play electric guitar, Josiah will be on the bass and singing, Zach is on the drums, Hannah is on the keyboard, and I'm playing acoustic guitar and singing lead. We'll be playing music that we use for Praise and Worship at church. (not hymns) And because we wanted to avoid being called the "Assembly of God group" (because let's face it, that's kind of cheesey) we gave ourselves the name, "Illuminate." So this weekend Illuminate (the temporary band) will be playing at the park for a 2-hour time slot. It's going to be so much fun!

It's official...

I'm getting old. Ok. Just kidding about that. But after a visit to the eye doctor yesterday, I have learned that I now need glasses for reading, computer work, etc. I've always had 20/20 vision...but not anymore. My vision is still very good. And I only need a low prescription of reading glasses that you can find at drugstores....so yesterday I bought 4 pairs for $20!! Here's the best part...each pair is different, so I can change my look whenever I grow tired of a pair. I love it!! Ha ha. I like my glasses. They help me see better. And that makes me happy.

Now, speaking of getting old. Last night Joel and I attended the high school graduation for one of the teeagers in our youth group. The older brother of this particular student, who graduated only two years before her, said to us last night, "I'm getting old. My sister is graduating." And when he said this, Joel and I just looked at him like he was crazy. We exclaimed, "You only graduated two years ago!" (This guy hasn't even graduated from college yet and he's saying this!!) He then gave us an explaination of why he was getting old (which was amusing....in reality, he's realizing that he's not a child anymore...so does that mean that everyone who's not a kid anymore is old?). A couple of months ago, he was telling us that he was getting old because he's turning 20. Wow. That's funny. I don't really consider myself old...but I'm turning 27 this year. He must think we're ancient. Yeah, whatever. So anyway, after considering the silliness of what he said to us recently, I've decided that I will no longer say that I'm (or we're--meaning Joel and I) getting old. Why? Because just as it sounded silly to us for this guy to say that he's getting old at the mere age of 20, it must also seem silly for us to say to a 45-year-old that we're getting old at the age of 27. You know what age I think is R E A L L Y old? 73!!! (Just kidding Grandpa & Grandma!! (they read my blog))

It is SOOOO over!!!

Ok. So after nine long years in college, Joel finally has his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science!!! I'm so PROUD!!!

The highs and lows of our weekend consisted of:

• spending time with family from out of town (my parents, brother, aunts, uncles and cousins)
• lots of stress pre-graduation ceremony
• a really long, boring, and disorganized ceremony...we left before the ceremony ended...even Joel...he just walked out off the graduating floor. it was funny.
• spending mother's day with my mom for the first time in about 4 or 5 years.
• not being able to sit with my in-laws and husband for Mother's Day lunch at the resturant because somebody (that shall remain anonymous) failed to consider that my family would be coming too (duh). (I was seriously angry over this...and it took me a couple hours to get over my anger)
• preparing for Joel's graduation with not as much help as promised. (it still worked out anyway)
• a REALLY fun graduation party at our house, with lots of friends and family.
  
• LOTS of money for graduation presents!!!! Joel still hasn't decided what he's going to use his money for yet.
• a wonderful session of foot soaking and foot massages after it was all over and cleaned up.
• and BTW, I'm seriously sad that Yau-man was voted off Survivor last night. He was my all-time favorite!! I'm a Dreamz-hater for now (He didn't even win anyway). I yelled "NNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" When he got voted off last night. lol.
  
• Joel will not be doing any graduate work. We're not going to be doing the school thing for nine more years.

Saturday...

is Joel's graduation!!! I'm so excited. I've been waiting for this day for YEARS! It's going to be so nice to no longer have to plan our lives around a school semester!! (well, of course with the exception of being youth pastors) Today Joel is presenting his senior project to the panel, tommorrow we have family coming in, Saturday is the ceremony, and Sunday is Joel's gradution party at our house . I'm a little nervous about hosting a party at our house. It's a lot of planning...and a lot of people. I'm really looking forward to this weekend, but I'll be glad when it's over!

This weekend I...

CUT OFF ALL MY HAIR!!! Ok...well, not all of it. Thirteen inches. And then I donated the 13 inches to Locks of Love. I got tired of my hair. So I got rid of it.

Before



After

Ok. Not the best pics, but you get the idea.

I'm professional

I am a true professional. I always conduct myself in a professional way with my piano students. And this picture is the perfect example. Ha ha! Just kidding!! Joel took this picture of me and one of my piano students last night after their band concert. I was acting like I was going to bite off her head. Just for the record, we took a nice photo too.

Places I want to visit before I die:

1. England - visited in March 2000
2. Hawaii
3. Carribbean - visited in Summer 1999 & will again in Sept. 2007 (yay)
4. Thailand
5. Northern India
6. New Zealand - this one's next on the list after the cruise

Things I would like to do before I die:
1. Parasail - Plan on doing this on our cruise in Sept!!
2. Handglide
3. Learn to snowboard
4. Go rock climbing up a mountain
5. Go backbacking in at least one place
6. Bungee jump

What about you guys?

Charity

I like charities. I think they're important, whether they're with a religious organization or not. I've had a desire for quite a while now to branch out beyond my denomination's charities and support a couple different causes. There are plenty of organizations that support great causes.


After doing some thinking (I had a lot of time to think this weekend while Joel was out of town. lol) I've decided that I would like to support organizations that fight genocide, and organizations that fight against child slavery/child prostitution. So I am currently researching various charities to find some that fit the issues I would like to support. The problem I've come across is that many of the organizations that support the humanitarian causes that I would like to support, such as fighting genocide, also have a far-left liberal political agenda attached to the organization. Not exactly my cup of tea. I think a lot of times the need for intervention goes beyond your political stand, and I dislike it when people use a charity to promote their political agenda. Of course I suppose the same thing could be said about Christian Charities as well...so maybe I just argued against my own arguement...hmmm...

As of right now Speed the Light, and Invisible Children are two charities that have my support. From time to time Joel and I also send money to the St. Judes Children's hospital as well. I'm also looking into the Enough Project, amoung others. So I would like to know, what charities you support? What's your view on supporting charities inside your religion? How do you feel about supporting charities outside of your religion?

And now for something totally off the subject. Yesterday Joel and I booked a seven-day cruise to the Bahamas in September. I am really excited!!

One more thing. Joel has decided to start blogging again. You can check out his blog at www.speedthetruth.blogspot.com.