I am the Dancing Queen!!!!!

OK, I want to update on some of my old critiques.

The Blockbuster movie pass is doing exceptionally well. Jayme and I have seen so many new releases that now we're moving into the old section. We saw "Life Of David Gale," with Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet, Laura Linney, etc. This politically-inspired masterpiece about death row had me on the edge of my couch the entire way through. Kevin Spacey knows how to command a camera (where am I going with this?). I assure you, you'll love it and it's great twisted ending!
(Beware, there's a "scene" that we skipped past because... well, you know.. twas bad. Don't say I didn't warn you!)

We also got the Lizzie McGuire movie, which the Blockbuster employee announced loudly to the entire store. But it's OK. Situations like that will only push me to make open to the public my insane love for Hilary Duff movies. And while we're on the subject, I own "Raise Your Voice"......... and I cried. Onto the next subject!

OK, remember the delicious HEB Potstickers? I sure do! So do Jayme and Lesley, because they had to experience the aftermath of it. So we're driving to the pool, and I had these potstickers like 3 hours before or something. I burped and tasted it in my mouth (sick out!). 10 seconds later they're yelling at me because they smelled it! And believe you me, my burps NEVER smell. I couldn't stop burping for about 2 hours. They even smelled one across the pool in the open air.Watch out, these potent potstickers will have you regretting every last soy-sauce-soaked morsel of goodness.

I still really love Dr. Pepper more now! Add lime!

Surprisingly, I haven't been to Half Price Books all week! I'm kind of swamped in reading material though. I'm finishing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (old school, I know!) and I want to read the 5th one before the 6th one comes out. So that's where all my reading attention's at! I'll have to venture out to full-priced places, like (dun dun dunnnn!) Barnes and Noble! Look out checkbook!

And nowwwwwww... my mixes! They are coming along so well, thank you for asking! My dance mix is going to rock the face off of everyone until the end of time! I didn't just want it to be, pardon the term, club music, so I added some songs so that I can practice all sorts of dancing styles. It includes (so far.. I have to touch it up) Justin Timberlake (of course), Night Rider, Crazy in Love by Beyonce (this one I discovered was fun to dance to at the end of watching Brigitte Jones), Sing Sing Sing, In The Mood, Boom Boom (for cumbia), Dancing with Myself (80's), Montel Jordan's "This is How We Do It" (I got this one because it has an actual dance to go with it... it's way fun and reminds me of like high school homecoming dances), Boot Scootin Boogie, etc. I'm looking around for some latin music for to salsa. Other songs shall come along, but I'm really looking forward to this dance mix. My duplex will have a hoot of a time!

(Disclaimer: The following critique was written out of fatigue from watching a movie late into the night and getting up to work VBS 4 hours later and does not reflect specifically the beliefs of the blogger.)
OK. Now I shall add a new critique to this list. Today's topic will be about............... gas prices. I hear gas prices will raise to $3 a gallon soon. Owning a monstrous gas guzzler, this is starting to take a toll on the bankroll. I thought to myself "Wow, I guess more people will start buying cars like Toyotas and Mini Coopers.... nay nay my friend! All these Richie Riches are going out and swiping Platinum for H2 HUMMERS and other such huge cars, like we're defiantly slapping the face of whoever is making the prices go higher... like "Oh, you're going to raise prices? Well I'll just go buy a Batmobile that gets 4 miles to the gallon! There!" *stomps off* People are all like "The shedding of blood for the war on terror is really all about oil," so they don't want us to fight. Hellllllooooo.. they're picking their own fights by "fighting the system" and acting like gas prices aren't really bothering them. Meanwhile, they're working extra long hours and the office so they can make more money to fill up the tanks of their Guzzies, while conversely giving more money to taxes, which is paying for the war. THERE! I have solved it!!!!!

Pleasantly surprised

Well, this summer is nothing like I thought it would be. My original reason for coming home hasn't been the primary thing on my mind lately. I got the chance to be an intern with the youth group at Gardendale. You know how you always go into a situation with all these expectations and a way of doing things? Well, it never turns out like that. But thank the Lord. My time at this church has been absolutely AMAZING. God's really stretched me in a lot of areas. A lot of times I feel like I'm alone on things, but I blame some of that on my set way of doing things. But it's about flexibility. I wanted to spread vision, but I caught some. I wanted to make a difference, but I was changed. I wanted it to be a simple summer, but it's been one of the most complex times of my life. A lot of this stuff I can't explain here, just because it's sooo complicated. But everything I thought was going to happen here, did... just in a different way than I expected. The girls I've gotten to know are the greatest! I've seen so much growth in their lives over the summer. They really opened up their lives to me, and God blessed our relationships so much. I love hanging out with them and leading them in our Bible studies. The "Youth Staff" has been ridiculously fun. Pete, Ben, Dave, Matt, and Cat are so hilarious and have encouraged me so much. The families of this church are so different than when I remember them- they're servants and they love us so much. *sigh* I am so full.

Friends are friends forever.... if the Lord's the lord of them....

*sigh* I love getting those overseas email updates. My best friend Tygre will be home in, yes it's true, one week! Then Lindsay will be back the day after! I am overcome with emotion. It's crazy how much you can miss someone. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

A Critique of Daily Life for Jenny

Well, this summer has been full of many exciting things. Though I want my blog to be informative of all these things while at the same time fun to read, I cannot and will not just summarize my day. In its stead, I shall critiue the big aspects of my day. For example....

The Blockbuster movie pass This thing is ingenius. No late fees, no hassles. You just get 2 movies, go watch them, keep them as long or as short as you want, then waltz back into the Buster and pick out 2 more. They scan in your old movies and scan out your new ones. You don't have to have a card or ID or anything. No questions asked. Simply amazing.

Because of this unlimited pass into the world of movies, I've seen a whole lot. I'm talking ATLEAST 30 movies have gone from the DVD to my brain, and I wish I'd kept a list of them. Anywho, I have to comment on this one movie I watched with Jayme and Matt (my usual movie-watching-with people). It's called Birth, and it stars Nicole Kidman. To sum it up: it's WEIRD. There's no other word for it. Basically this little 10 year old kid (who has these freaky blue eyes) finds Nicole's character and claims that he is her dead husband reincarnated. He knows all these crazy details of their life. Anyway, she starts to believe him (oh and she's engaged to this new guy, which seriously complicates things). There are a couple of scenes where the "I'm uncomfortable!" alarm was sounding in my brain. Don't see it. Only rent it if you have the movie pass and are really desperate for a movie since you've seen all the other new releases.

HEB Potstickers- These things are GOOD. I know there's no HEB anywhere else besides Texas, but I'm sure these things are good in general. You see, my brother Matt and I live off of frozen foods just because we really don't cook anything when my mom's working out of town. So amidst (is that a word?) the plethora of Hot Pockets, Pop Ice, tater tots, and ice cream, stands, alone and dignified, the HEB Potsticker. Easy to make and easy to eat, these tasty treats make for a great tuesday lunch. I'm eating them right now as I'm typing this. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy and cultural inside. Buy yours today in the frozen food section.

Diet Dr. Pepper
I'm starting to believe that this is surpassing my love for Diet Coke. I'm sorry Amy, I just can't deny my feelings for it. The battle for the fave diet drink begins, and I am torn between 2 solid opponents. Lord be with me.

Half-Price Books
I'm going to start a riot in Norman if we can't get one of these stores there. This is by far my favorite store in the entire world because it smells like "old" (like grandma's house), it has a cafe, and most importantly it houses thousands upon thousands of new and used books, CDs, movies, magazines, that are, you got it, HALF PRICE. I've bought atleast 10 books from there this summer. Hastings, eat your heart out.

And my final critique for the day-CDR's
I like CDRs not for ripping off CDs (which I used to do... back in the day) but for making great mixes of CDs. Finding your favorites and melding them together in one fine mix doesn't fail to give you a sense of accomplishment and also a sense of not-having-to-press-skip-to-the-next-song. Some of my favorites have been: Jen's Mellow Mix, including such songs as Sarah McLaughlin's "Angel," and Nora Jones' "Come Away with Me," making for a good turn-off-the-lights-to-your-dorm-and-sit-there-and-listen CD; Jen's LOVE songs/Amy's Process of Love, with Etta James' "At Last," Dave Matthews' "So Right," etc. My next mixes are going to be Jen's Driving in the Car Fun mix, with such songs as U2's "Beautiful Day" and LMNT's "Juliet". Then I'm making a dance mix with much Justin Timberlake and number 9 on one of Meg's CDs, hehehe.

Van Dyck, OUT!

Ouch

I think I have an ear infection. Go me.

How Great is Our God

I have a new favorite song. It's Chris Tomlin's "How Great is Our God." Here are the lyrics (with chords, for you guitar players out there)

How Great Is Our God
written by Chris Tomlin

Key of "D" Shown, the Chris Tomlin recording was in the Key of "C#"

Verse 1:
D Bm
The splendor of the King, clothed in majesty,
G
Let all the earth rejoice, all the earth rejoice.
D Bm
He wraps Himself in light, and darkness tries to hide,
G
And trembles at his voice, trembles at his voice.

Chorus:
D
How great is our God, sing with me,
Bm
How great is our God, all will see,
G A
How great, how great is our God.

Verse 2:
Age to age He stands, and time is in His hands,
Beginning and the end, beginning and the end.
The Godhead, three in one: Father, Spirit, Son,
The Lion and the Lamb, the Lion and the Lamb.

Bridge:
D
Name above all names,
Bm
Worthy of all praise,
G A D
My heart will sing How great is our God

I love this song because it reminds me of how God has recently broken my heart for the lost. It breaks a little bit more each day, but while in Mexico I really noticed a huge difference in how I viewed the lost. They're marching towards hell, and I want to give my life to stopping that. I like to sing this song to reaffirm that the whole earth will rejoice in our great God and tremble at His voice. He's great enough to reach the entire world.

Back by popular demand....

OK OK I gave in. Here are some pictures from Zacatecas.

Here's the wicked Mexifemullet we saw right before crossing over to Mexico. Beautiful, I know.


Here's our van. We were the old people. The other van was full of all the 10th graders, but we had fun being all sophistocated, playing games like Count the Volkswagon Bugs (there had to be atleast 1000 bugs on the way down, and that might even be an understatement. Mexico and Germany must have some sort of secret, underground car treaty going on.. that's the only explanation) and Truth or Truth? Ahhhh good times. I know them a lot better now.


The part of Mexico we were in was in the midst of tons of breathtaking mountains. (Sound like a tour guide).


Ahhhh... the girls. We had to do an album cover outside of Pastor Osvel's house. Here we are, the Psycho 5 (from left to right: The Cute One- Tara, The Cool One- Ashley, The Sassy One-Jenny, The Crazy One- Cat, and the Young One- Lessye). Anyways, in the background you can see like a billion tiny houses.


And here's the church on the rooftop of Osvel's house. Yes, that is the church. We had about 20 chairs set up top for the church to have service. It's so crazy- Zacatecas has about 800,000 people (almost 3 Corpus Christis) and this is the ONLY Baptist Evangelical Church in the city. Every other church there is Catholic. It dawned on me about halfway through their rooftop service how little the workers are in the city and how huge the harvest is. Wow.... I'm kind of in awe of how God is going to commission more people to go out into the world.


This picture's pretty cool. Dave was just strummin on the edge of the roof, and for miles around all we could see were houses and more houses and more houses... full of lost people. And right behind us on that roof were 20 Christians who had to reach them. But God can move mountains, right? I'm sure He could move that huge mountain we were looking at.


The View.

Oh and did I mention that it was like the most beautiful weather ever down there? It was like stinking cold at night.... in MEXICO. That's weird.

We had this bonfire on the rooftop (of course) one night. Well, whoever the genius was behind this plan made the fire in, yes it's true, a cardboard box!


We were singing and guitaring and the box like blew up and embers kept flying everywhere and burning people left and right. It was short-lived, that bonfire. May you rest in peace. Here it is in it's full-fledged flaming... everyone pictured before sitting down are now up and against the wall, trying to save their own lives.


And then my camera battery died and nowhere in Mexico can you find a $10 (or 100 pesos) E2 Lithium battery to save your life. But everyone else has some sweet pictures I'll get of other stuff. I still want to talk about the night we shared the Jesus Film, which was by far my absolute favorite night of the week.



Oh yeah, this picture is for Amers. I found some of your boys lurking around last night after youth group. They should look familiar here doing their boy band pose.

Summer days wastin away....

Yeah, I'd totally post those pictures, but nobody reads this anymore. I blame summer. Everyone's gone, so nobody can keep up with these. I shall wait until later and post most of my summer pictures. Until then, I'll update when I'm really bored.

I'm back

Zacatecas was wonderful. I'll have a full update con photos soon, but for now I have a fun Taco Bell party with my 10th and 11th grade gals con dance party. I'm excited. These girls are great and fill my heart with joy.

I'll tide you guys over with one picture. Since Amy's the only one who reads this/the one who told me to update, here's a pic of her and her man.


Peace out!

Adios!

Well, this will be the last update until Saturday, because I'm heading out for a week in Zacatecas, Mexico!



Yesssss! See you guys later!

"Why did I just put blush on?"

I asked myself this question when I was putting on my make up this morning. "Why?" do you ask. Because I'm so stinking sunburned! It's like an evil person poured hot coals all over my body, and every move I make (I make in you. You make me move Jesus!... sorry, I just busted out into song) feels like sandpaper is being rubbed all over me.

Atleast I don't look like this guy.


Yeah, I'm sunburned from the mondo-crazy car wash we had yesterday to raise money for camp. I feel like a real youth intern doing that kind of stuff. It's way fun. We raised $600! Hopefully camp will be rad and we won't all come back with a crazy case of camp high. Don't you hate that? I hope whatever we learn out there will be life-changing and not one-week-after-camp-changing. Anyways, let's get a holla for all the dad's out there for Father's Day. I'm going to go cook steaks now! YUM!

Pictures

Well, we replaced some sort of ATX power supply in our computer, so now it works. So I was browsing the pictures on the computer and found some that I liked, and considering I'm updating at 2 in the morning, I'm going to put them on here.


We went on this cruise last summer. This lady was selling doughnuts on the beach in CanCun, so of course it was picture-worthy. There's nothin like sand and fried dough to make your Caribbean cruise the best it can be. (SICK)


Here's me underwater snorkling in Roatan. For some reason it looks like I have a horrible farmer's tan on my right arm, but it's just the lighting underwater. I promise. The coral reef was like 2 feet beneath the surface of the water. This one time I was out there and I came up out of the water and hit my leg on the coral, which scratched my leg up pretty bad. By the time I was done screaming I realized that sharks can smell blood from a mile away. Needless to say, I swam back to the shore very quickly for the preservation of my life.


Here are the Van Dycks being all fancy shmancy on the cruise....


And here we are 20 years ago!



Here's a snapshot of the Pride of Oklahoma in action at one of our 5:30 a.m. gameday practices. Nice Santa Pants! Can you see me???


Here's one reason why I love my dad. He's hilarious.


"Sisters... sisters... never met a better pair of sisters...."

Well folks that's all we have time for today. Tune in next time when I talk about.... loose leaf paper!

Welp, here I am finally updating. My parents' computer's power supply like busted when lightening struck it or something so their computer don't work, mees. Matt hooked up his puter up to the internet for a minute, so here I am updating, finally.
Well, after a couple of weeks here in Corpus here's what's going on:
-My mom got the Blockbuster movie pass, so Matt, me, and Jayme have seen about 40 movies so far. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's the thing where you can take 2 movies at a time and keep them as long as you want and switch them out whenever you want. Basically we watch the movies then return them for 2 more. It makes the time pass quickly.
-I'm interning at Gardendale Baptist Church. There are 4 other interns, and together with Pastor Pete we've had a hoot of a time. It's been soooo fun getting to know the youthers and hanging out with them. Hopefully God will give us some good ideas about stuff to do this summer to get them "fired up" (I hate that term).
-Jayme and I have hung out sooo much. I'm really excited to go wedding dress shopping with her! It's been good catching up on all the times and being BFFs again. When Tygre gets back from overseas the 3 of us will be reunited into the crazy club that we were in high school.
-Dad and I are playing in the Corpus Christi Municipal Band again (I know, we're nerds). It's a cool Father-Daughter thing we can do every Sunday, where we go and play out at the ampitheater on the bay. It's way fun. And I'm getting so geared up for football season now! We saw the Red and White game on TV and heard Boomer playing in the background and I got all excited with flashbacks to pregame and supporting the team. I'm so excited to run out of the tunnels for the first time and play the first note of "Oklahoma!" It gets me every time.
-I shaved my dogs.
-I've read sooooo many books already! It's only been 3 weeks and I've knocked out The Fuel and the Flame, Don't Waste Your Life, The Hiding Place (loved it!), and that's it so far, but believe you me, that's A LOT of books for me to read.

Well it's kind of hard to be in Corpus. I never thought I could feel so alone among even believers sometimes. It's hard to realize that not everyone has had the same background as me and have different standards on almost everything. Hopefully we can spread some vision with each other. Hopefully I can learn just to rely on Jesus each day amidst a family who doesn't understand and doesn't like to talk about faith. Hopefully something fruitful will happen this summer. I figure if God can use me to influence just ONE life, then my summer was worth spending here.

And I'm done updating. Sorry it was long and lame, but it's been so long since I've been on a computer. Hopefully we'll fix the fam puter and I can update with more fun things. But until then, peace out!

whaaaa

It seems like I've updated, but obviously I haven't. Ummmm so it's really kind of a boring existence going to work from 7:30 to 3:30 everyday then coming home and watching hours and hours of reality TV and/or cheesy movies, like the Oh-so-good "Raise your Voice" (quiet Holly) with Hilary Duff. Hmmmm... anyways, I feel kind of bad that this is what I'm doing while everyone else is at O-week running around in firefighter suits and getting yelled at. But my time will come. I'm going to Corpus on Sunday and there I will start an internship with the ole youth group. I'm way excited while at the same time I don't know how to go about any of it. It's going to be an interesting, and in some ways not quite literal, a lonely summer.

Could you? Would you?

Here is a public restroom in downtown Houston. This picture is from the outside.



And here's the view from the inside.


It's made up of a one-sided mirror. Could you bring yourself to use this? I'd probably go up to the glass from the outside and point and laugh at people when they went inside... just to make them feel funny.

I'm Mexican... and Musical

Your Mexican Name Is...

Doña Miranda

What's" your Mexican Name?

First I'm from South Texas, love Mexican food, and know what cascarones are, but now I actually have a name! I'm officially Mexican!

Your Dominant Intelligence is Musical Intelligence

Every part of your life has a beat, and you're often tapping your fingers or toes. You enjoy sounds of all types, but you also find sound can distract you at the wrong time. You are probably a gifted musician of some sort - even if you haven't realized it. Also a music lover, you tend to appreciate artists of all kinds. You would make a great musician, disc jockey, singer, or composer.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Yes! I've found my life's calling... to be a DJ!

It's official

I have no obligations to school whatsoever anymore! I just got back from my last scholarship thing and all finals are taken, so therefore, I am done and I'm a JUNIOR. Go me.
In honor of being done having to do anything, I'm going to waste some minutes filling out a good ole fashioned survey. I feel like I'm in high school again! Here goes.

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says.
"devoured each other like angry dogs." (I'm serious)
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch?
Our Mr. Wonderful doll! Let's press his hand and see what he says. "You've been on my mind all day. That's why I bought you these flowers." (That's so hot.)
3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
I watched one episode of American Idol... and that was about 10 weeks ago.. I'm not even kidding you
4. WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what the time is.
8:57 pm
5. On the clock, what is the actual time?
9:01 pm
6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
nothing... the sound of silence... tis bliss..... oh nevermind. Some girl down my hall just slammed her door and yelled "loser" to some guy. How melodramatic.
7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
I went with Tod to an Indian church and played with some little kids. By the way, that made me get tons of sand in my Chacos and now I have a reason, besides them already smelling bad, to wash them.
8. Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
OU Mail
9. What are you wearing?
Purple tee, capris, and black Chacos (Z2 Terrenos to be exact)
10. Did you dream last night?
yep, thought I slept through my final
11. When did you last laugh?
just now in the car playing the A game with Tod. Twas amazing!
12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
bright pink paint (as you can see in the pictures of the previous post) a bunch of pictures, a huge poster of a monkey, and crayons where people wrote to us (we have to paint it anyway)
13. Seen anything weird lately?
We were going to A this guy we thought was a Mormon because he had like the white button up, tie, and black pants. Then after A-ing him we realized he wasn't mormon because his tie had stripes on it.
14. What do you think of this quiz?
splendid waste of time
15. What is the last film you saw?
I can't even remember... that's SAD
16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
my tuition
17. Tell me something about you that I don't know.
who's "you"? I'll tell you something random. I love ketchup on macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches. Don't make that face. You can't judge it until you try it!
18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
I'd get rid of gravity. Everyone wishes they could fly!
19. Do you like to dance?
duh.... funner with a partner though
20. George Bush:
is the president...? I don't understand the question
21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
I've never thought about these. I'm all about classic, simple, not-spelled-weird names.... like LaQuintisha and Mearcabala
22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Marfonso or Mufasa
23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
are you kidding me? It's going to happen.

Banquet

Well, here are some pictures from the banquet. Sorry they are so huge. I have no idea how to make them smaller.
Here's us corsaging/boutineiring each other. It took a couple of tries considering none of us had done that since prom.


Here are our cool dates. They had guns because they had to protect us from dangerous things that night. Thanks guys!


Awwww... here's the Party Plex. I can't wait until next year!


Awwwwwwww... here's the Pink Room partying it up post-banquet. We started moving out today and we have no furniture. The Pink Room will live on in our hearts, Megs and Ty. Don't forget the dog piles, midnight dance parties, scaring each other at 4 in the morning, and that one night after Vespers (hehehe... that's all I'll say about that one).


Here's a glimpse of the dance party that happened after the banquet. After rolling the Party Van up and blasting Michael Jackson's greatest hits, we all (here pictured are John and Jen Kelsey) had a fun time dancing it up in the parking lot of a Baptist Church. Ahhh memories.


Here's a great view of the back of the Party Van. Nice face Chauncey!


And here's my hot date and me steering around "the Land Yacht." We took that while we were driving- how dangerous! I'm so thankful the hood of that thing didn't fly up after all the flappin in the wind it was doing. SCARY!


Here's Danny Beck DJing it up at the BSU after party.


Mmmmm... ice cream.


OK there you have it. You gotta give me props for being so prompt with the post. Peace out guys!

Tonight..... is the night!

Tonight's the BSU Prom. It's gonna be exciting. I just have to give a shout out to the guys in our group who've done a great jarb already getting ready for tonight-Tim Hearon, Danny Beck, and of course the hottest date any could get-David Cottle. Ha! And to the seniors: tonight's your night! OK I'm gonna go paint my nails.

What the...

40 degrees in May. The world is turning upside down!
The sun will come out tomorrow.....

Anyways, the song that was number one on the charts on my birthday was "Wake me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham! How awesome is that? (You can get yours too by going to http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/inner.php).

A friend of mine (I won't mention names) was telling someone else that their birthday song was "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon, but they didn't say R-E-O... they said it like "reo" like it was one word. It was way funny.... guess you had to be there.... then I found five dollars.