Sarah's Stuff!

Happy New Year!!!!!

2007-01-01T15:11:00.000-08:00

It is with a fulfilled, yet reluctant heart that I bid a fond farewell to 2006, one of the best years of my life thus far. In 2006 I continued my Bible College education, I met my husband, became engaged, and got married. I moved to Nebraska and became a Youth Pastor. It has been a year filled with tremendous happiness and blessing for me, abundantly exceeding anything I ever expected or desired or asked the Lord for.

My sister also became engaged and married in 2006... and now she and her husband are expecting their first child.

What a wonderul, amazing, blessed year 2006 has been!! What a faithful, loving God we serve. HE is my reason, my purpose, my everything and I am humbled and grateful for everything He is and does and is going to do in my life. Here's looking forward to all that God has in store for 2007!!!!!

Wow! Look who actually made a post!!!

2006-12-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

Hello to anyone and everyone who still subscribes to this blog. :) I have been a little out of touch (ok, maybe that's an understatement). I can hardly believe it's been a year since I have posted anything on here! A whole lots happened in the last year. Basically this is how my year went:

New years day- Sister ZB gets engaged
January 5th- I meet Aaron
February 1st- Aaron and I start dating
June 13th- Aaron asks me to marry him!
July 1st- my sister gets married
October 14th- I get MARRIED :)
End of October- I move to my new home in Columbus, Nebraska

That's right, I am living in Nebraska. My husband is the youth pastor for Discover Hope Foursquare Gospel Church out here and we are loving it. We also teach Campus Crusade for Christ out at the college. LIfe is good, God is good. We are busy planning Christmas, working at the church, being newlyweds, all that fun stuff.

My husband, Aaron is a writer and he has a blog too, so you should go check out his stuff. His latest blogging endeavor is http://www.soulsoldier.blogspot.com. So go leave him a shout out.

Loves to you all, I will post again.

Bring Your Child to Work Day

2006-05-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

Today, I brought Eve to work with me because I had some homework that I needed to get done on my lunch break before class tonight. For those of you unaware, Eve is my ibook. As I sit here writing this out when I should be doing homework at the ungodly hour of 7:30am, it occurs to me that I feel towards my ibook the same protective awareness that I would have toward a child I brought with me to work. I am a little nervous about leaving her alone while I go perform my duties even though I know she will be in a locker safe from harm. I am apprehensive about her presence here at my place of employment and I suddenly have a heightened awareness of the fact that you just cant trust anybody anymore.

If I am this protective of my laptop computer, God help my future children.

Random Quiz

2006-02-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

Random Survey
What is your favorite book?	The Holy Bible, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, the writings of C.S. Lewis
What is your favorite movie?	The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Star Wars, The Princess Bride, old school Disney Movies, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility- yeah, that about covers it. :-)
What is your favorite song?	"My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic. HA HA HA HA JUST KIDDING I HATE THAT SONG. True music lovers do not have one favorite song. I love rock & roll and worship music baby!
Who is your hero?	The Bright and Morning Star Jesus of Nazareth, Paul the Apostle, my parents, my best friend Wendy
If you could be any character from literature or film, who would you be?	Joan of Arc (though she was a real person), Peter or Lucy from the Chronicles of Narnia
If you could have one super power, what would it be?	Power to fly, power to heal
If you could have three wishes, what would they be?	Graduate college. Be a minister. Be a wife. Be a Mom. Wait, that was four... oh well! :)
What is your favorite color?	Blue
Who is your best friend?	Aaron, ZB, Wendy & Michael
How many kids do you want to have when you grow up?	at least 3
What are your favorite boy & girl names?	Hmmm. I always thought "Judah" was a super cool boy name because it's a very strong name and it means "Praise." As for girl names, I don't know. Hannah is pretty. So is Kaitlyn. That one chick from "Lost", Evangeline Lilly... now there's a pretty name. Hmmm well I guess I'll have to wait to name my kids until I am going to have some!
What is your favorite game?	Basketball, board games, cards.... it's all good
Who is your favorite actor?	Johnny Depp, Juaquin Phoenix
Who is your favorite actress?	Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock
What was your first word?	Dadadadadadadadadadada
What do you want to be when you grow up?	(in no particular order) a minister/missionary/wifey/mommy
Where do you want to go to college?	Well I went to Central Bible College and I now attend Trinity Life Bible College. My goal is to stop going to college eventually!
What are you good at?	singing. loving. counseling. compassion. hugging. arguing. debating. passionately believing.
What is your favorite city in the world?	Jerusalem
What is your favorite food?	Mexican
Reading or Writing?	BOTH! :)
TV or Sports?	Watching the TV, playing the sports. No watching of the sports on TV.
Theatre or Cinema?	Cinema, although theatre is cool, just less available to the general populace
What is your favorite time of year?	Winter & Summer
What do you call your grandmother?	Mom's Mom is Gannie, Dad's Mom is Grandma
Do you have any nicknames?	Sometimes my Mom calls me Lady Bug, I have friends who call me Sare-bear... I don't know, "Hey You," that works
If you could be any animal, which would you be?	Something that flies or something that swims
What is your favorite subject in school?	English
Who is your favorite teacher?	Mrs Barett & Mrs Olaya
How many friends do you have on myspace?	41
How many of those people do you actually talk to?	41
What is your favorite type of music?	Rock & Praise and Worship
What is your earliest memory?	Standing up in my crib holding on to the railing. Crawling on the funky green carpet that we used to have.
Do you think there is life after death?	Without a Doubt
Do you believe in miracles?	Absolutely, by the stripes and the blood of Jesus
Do you believe in love at first sight?	I believe in LUST at first site! Lol! Happens all the time! :) Now regarding LOVE at first site.... I do think it's possible to meet someone and you just "know" :)
Do you believe that everyone has a purpose? If so, what is yours?	Absolutely, my purpose is to Love God and Love you, to live my life in the service of my Great King and to help you learn to do the same
What is your favorite hobby?	Ha ha ha. Sleeping. Talking to my Aaron who lives far away. Reading, spending time with my parents and sisters.
What is the last book you read?	"Even Now" by Karen Kingsbury
Did you enjoy it?	No, I thought it was completely overdramatic and unrealistic
What is the last movie you saw?	Last Holiday
Did you enjoy it?	Yes! :) It was sooo sweet and touching
Earrings of Bracelets?	Earrings
Jeans or Skirts?	Both! :)
Do you collect anything?	Colleges? ha ha just kidding. I love things like globes and maps. And I loveeee pretty jewelry, so if anyone wants to add to my collection I am taking donations :) he he just kidding
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?	Graduated, Married, Kids, Working for Jesus
...In 20 years?	Same as in 10
...In 50 years?	Grandparent? Maybe? :) Hopefully still working for Jesus until my body fails me
What is your favorite restaurant?	don't have a favorite, Love Mexican food though
What is your fondest memory?	Standing on top of the roof of the Waterman Weise Youth Hostile at 10 Brenner St in Jerusalem.... all by myself.... praying and watching the sun rise over the Old & new Cities and the Mt of Olives. (sigh)
What gives you the most joy?	Worshiping Jesus in everything, life is an act of worship. Just loving and spending time with close family and friends is such a joy and a blessing
If you could visit any country, where would you go?	I don't now, all of them. :) I want to go back to Israel one day
What is one of your dreams/goals?	Oh mannnnnn.... just to be the woman of God that He wants me to be. To be an amazing wife and mother. To be available to Jesus and to do the work of the ministry.
Have you ever failed a class?	YES
Have you ever gotten a 100 in a class?	YES
Do you have any scars? How did you get them?	ha ha... too many to count. My most recent scar is on my left hand (I cut myself with a box-cutter at work)
Have you ever been to the hospital?	Of course. At BIRTH I was in the hospital!
Have you ever stayed up all night?	Yes, and unfortunately I have been lately without wanting to
Do you cook anything well?	Jack of all trades, master of none.
What was the last thing you did to help someone?	Buy ZB pizza! Take everyone everywhere that they need to go.
Take this Survey / Create Your Own Survey Powered by My Online Quiz.com

Bleh

2006-01-15T16:57:00.000-08:00

Hi all. I'm bored, so I thought I'd blog. I work full time and I go to school full time, so I always find myself longing for my days off to arrive quickly! And now it's Sunday, my first day off, and I am sooooooo bored. I went to church, I went out to lunch, and now I am watching TV. Whenever I don't have something schheduled to do, I get restless lately. Drives me crazy, because I don't want to be that way.

Well, I guess I'd better get back to relaxing. Ahhhh!!

Precious Time....

2006-01-09T13:27:00.000-08:00

This morning, my sister Elizabeth and my Daddy and I went to Starbucks for breakfast & coffee. And it hits me hard, that Elizabeth will soon no longer be "Elizabeth Crumpacker." She will be Elizabeth Harris. And pretty soon she will be moving to southern California to live with her new husband. And pretty soon I won't wake up in the same room as her and hang out with her every night. And pretty soon we won't be able to go out to Starbucks for breakfast wtih our Daddy without first hopping on an airplane.

When I first left home to go to school, I couldn't wait to get out. Now that I'm living at home again, I treasure every moment that I have with my family. I guess being gone for so long makes me appreciate them so much more. And who knows what God has waiting for me? Graduation's not too far off for me, and I promised God a long time ago that I will go wherever He asks me to go. And I meant it.

Seasons change in our lives, God moves us on into the bright future that He has planned for us. It is sacred, yet bittersweet.

Treasure your families and love them well, as long as it is called "today"... We never know what tommorrow will bring.

It's Official!!

2006-01-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

On New Years Day, my sister and her boyfriend became engaged to be married. Jonathan asked Elizabeth to be his bride, and I couldn't be happier for both of them. My sister's getting an awesome Godly man and I'm getting an awesome new brother! How great is that? God is faithful.

More details to come.

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-26T00:27:00.000-08:00

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:10-12

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:20-21

May this Christmas find you closer than ever to the true source of Peace, Joy, and Hope- our King and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This is the Good Life

2005-12-17T23:41:00.000-08:00

I am currently on a little getaway from work, school and immediate family members visiting my best friends Wendy & Michael and their son, my little perfect nephew, Logan. I am eating baked goods, watching TV on the widescreen plasthma TV, and prostituting the neighhbor's wireless connection. (Apparently the neighbors name is Jason, at least that's the name of his network) This moment is perfect. Best friends, food, TV, warmth, high speed internet in my lap.

I love living in this moment.

Wal-Mart's Holiday Policies

2005-12-11T23:49:00.000-08:00

As a 45-50 hour per week, hard working Wal-Mart employee, I feel it encumbent upon me to clear up a few misconceptions that ironically, both the liberal as well as Christian media has been passing around. We've had protestors outside my store for a few days this week, saying that Wal-Mart is anti-Christian/anti-Christmas. This could not be farther from the truth.

Wal-Mart radio (the music that plays in the store 24/7 broadcasted from Home Office) has lately been playing a constant stream of Christian themed music. Songs such as "Away in a Manger" and "Welcome Holy Child." If Wal-Mart were really hopping on the politically correct bandwagon, don't you think these national broadcasts of Christian music would be among the first to go? I cannot even begin to tell you how many of my vendors and delivery drivers have asked me in the last week "So, I hear you're not allowed to say Merry Chrismas." So not true! In fact, our cute little door-greeters have been wishing customers exiting the store a Merry Christmas for a few weeks now! Another myth that I've heard this week: "Wal-Mart is now calling their Christmas trees 'Holiday Trees'." Ummm yeah, there are huge banners posted all around the inside and outside of our garden center which are clearly marked "Christmas Trees."

The only legitimate claim that any Wal-Mart hater could make regarding this Christmas is that our theme this year is "Home for the Holidays." There are banners hanging in the store that read, "Home for the Holidays." I'm telling you, that "Home for the Holidays" banner,the baby Jesus Christmas music, and the Christmas trees for sale outside combined with the "Merry Christmas" farewell I receive upon my exit from this vile establishment are all clear indicators that Wal-Mart is clearly anti-Christian/anti-Christmas. Cleary. Right.

And you know I'm really rather irked with some members of our Christian community right now for making these outrageous, outlandish claims. It's not just Wal-Mart, guys. Everywhere I look on the web lately, I hear tale of the alleged "War on Christmas." So far, the only legitimate claim I've heard of a big business censoring themselves this Christmas has been Target, who admittedly censor their employees from saying Merry Christmas and sell "Holiday Trees" in the garden section.

Please realize that people in our culture have been trying to take Christ out of EVERYTHING, not only Christmas, for some time now! All I'm saying is that as the church, we can probably counteract this fact by making better uses of our time than picketing outide of Wal-Mart every day and making parking a very difficult thing for Sarah Angeline! The fact of the matter is, a lot of the world is literally going to Hell in a handbasket, because people are choosing to serve satan and rejecting Jesus Christ. That's what makes Christmas matter- having a relationship with Jesus Christ. I don't care what you want to call it- you can call it Christ's birthday all you want and it won't matter if you don't love Him and serve Him and profess that He is your God, your Lord, your Savior! That is the real issue at hand, church. The world needs to hear the message of Jesus 365 days a year. What better way to inform people of the real meaning of Christmas, than going out and sharing the Gospel with a lost and dying world?

Let's be honest with the world church, and hop off the "my group is oppressed" train that so many other cohorts are also riding. It gets us attention, but it's not the kind that we need. Let's get out there and show people the love of Jesus Christ this Holiday Season, by sharing the good news of the birth of our Savior.

Hi All!

2005-12-10T22:01:00.000-08:00

Please check out my latest post entitled "Getting Back to the Basics" over at The Melting Thought, my new blog that I am writing jointly with one of my dearest friends, "David" (Or at least David is his alias). ;-)

It's kind of a new thing we're doing over there, but we're working on some things, feeling it out and deciding wether or not we will move all of our writing to the one joint blog. Among some of our future plans for the site are obviously regular fun and interesting articles covering whatever subjects we have running through our brains at the time, personal updates for friends and family, podcasts for all of you ipod/itunes users out there (resistance is futile), and just a new and fun way to keep in touch. The title of the new site once again, is "The Melting Thought: Where Random Thoughts Collide." Our future hope for the site is to have different and interesting people writing guest articles and doing podcasts with us.

So hop on over, leave us some shout outs and let us know what you think and how you feel. I love you all!

Sarah Angeline ---> St Louis. Back Monday.

2005-12-01T06:45:00.000-08:00

I'm back. My connecting flight was an airplane full of rambunctious eighth grade ankle-biters. Must sleep. Will post more tomorrow.

Retail Hell

2005-11-25T23:25:00.000-08:00

Or as Wal~Mart calls it, "Blitz" Day. Yes, for the uninformed among you, I work at Wally. As you can imagine, today was a great day to be a retail employee. Okay, I guess technically I'm a retail employee, but in all actuality I never work on the sales floor... my job title is Receiving Directs. I process all of our direct store deliveries and do all the paperwork and invoicing for them. I do this Tuesday-Saturday, 7-4, that's the set schedule. Except for today. Because today we didn't have any deliveries. So guess what I got to do today? I got to work in layaway! Oh the joys of working the salesfloor on the busiest shopping day of the year. Then, because my mental state has obviously deteriorated by the end of the day, I decided that I would go shopping myself. So I've pretty much spent sixteen hours in a retail establishment today.

The upside to all of this is that I did pick up a really nice digital camera for only $199, and a pair of jeans for only $8. Oh the savings. I wonder.... How much sanity is worth?

I'm going to sleep now.

Happy Turkey Day!

2005-11-24T23:22:00.000-08:00

I hope you all have had a blessed day today. My day was well... interesting. Everyone's nerves were tense today because my cousin is in the hospital with some pretty serious complications... She was bit in the hand by a poisonous spider and now she has several serious infections in her arm. So my family and I ate out this afternoon and spent the evening in the hospital. After a long day of gobbling turkey and dealing with family members, I am ready to crash. Nonetheless, I have to say that I am very thankful for all the blessings that I know God has given me: I'm thankful for a loving family, good food to eat, a warm bed, and for our great country that I am privileged to call my home.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! :-)

Bliss...

2005-11-14T22:39:00.000-08:00

Four term papers and three final examinations down! One more final to go tommorrow night, and I'll finally have a well earned break from this madness of 45-50 hours a week at work and 15 hours a week of classes, excluding homework and studying. The next quarter begins November 27th. I read a statistic somewhere that a person who works more than 70 hours a week of their life will have some kind of psychological meltdown... I'm right at the edge of it, let me tell ya.

During my break I'm going to go visit my best friends in Atwater and see my baby nephew Logan, attend three advance screenings of films which I will blog about, hopefully update this website, get adequate amounts of sleep and celebrate Thanksiving with my family.

Whose Job Is It?

2005-10-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it. But nobody did. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

ELIZABETHTOWN

2005-10-14T00:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings, dear friends!

Two nights ago, I was supposed to attend the advance screening of ELIZABETHTOWN, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirstin Dunst. Unfortunately and much to my regret I was unable to attend the screening. However, Grace Hill Media (the media company that hooks me up with advance screenings) emailed me a very interesting resource in support of Elizabethtown that I would like to share with you all. It is a musical Bible study guide written by Craig Detweiler called "Music, Movies & Meaning: What is the Soundtrack of Your Life?" The Bible study is available for download at HollywoodJesus.com. SO.... Tommorrow, attend the film Elizabethtown and when you get home.... Check out the Bible study guide! Take your youth group! Do it with a group of friends! Isn't it just so cool to know that there are Christian media companies out there today who are working on resources like this for the Christian community? You have to check it out.

UPDATE: Saw it, loved it, downloading the Bible study guide as we speak.

Insert Abrupt Laughter Here.

2005-10-13T00:49:00.000-07:00

I just saw on some celebrity news show that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes might name their kid "XENU." According to the cult religion scientology of which Tom Cruise is an active proponent and member, Xenu is an alien galactic ruler from 75 million years ago.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wouldn't it just be an ironic hoot if Katie got post-pardum you know what?

Toes are Froze

2005-10-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

I'm on a break from class right now so I thought I'd give you all a quick shout out. It's only 9am and already I'm ready to go home... And have class until 3:30 today! :) I made the mistake of wearing flip flops to class today... Yeah, my feet are cold. But the good news is that I just scored a 90% on my miderm! Not bad, not bad.

I just got my first letter from my brother Jon at boot camp a few days ago. Pray for him... Everyone on his flight is screwing around. Jon's and two others are the only ones with any privileges right now.

Well, I gotta go back to class now. Love you guys.

For Leah

2005-09-29T21:55:00.000-07:00

Maybe he'll change
Maybe things will get better
Maybe it would be nice
If he wouldn't always put you down
Maybe things will work out
But maybe they'll never
And I think that you've given him
The benefit of the doubt

You need that boy like a bowling ball dropped on your head
Which means not at all
You have too much to give to live to waste your time on him
You need that boy like a bowling ball dropped on your head
Which means not at all
You have too much to give to live to waste your time on him

Maybe he'll change
If you could be better
But maybe it's not your fault
He's checking out the waitress now
But someday you'll change
One day you're stronger
And you will have changed enough
And it's time to get out

You need that boy like a bowling ball dropped on your head
Which means not at all
You have too much to give to live to waste your time on him
You need that boy like a bowling ball dropped on your head
Which means not at all
You have too much to give to live to waste your time on him

You have too much to give to live to waste your time on him

-Bowling Ball by Superchick

I'm Sad

2005-09-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

My brother Jon left for the Air Force today. Love you and miss you Jon. I'm so proud of you.

The Plan

2005-09-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Hello to all of our dear friends and readers. This is the first of posts by Angeline after a short absence from blogging due to ummmm... an overactive schedule. ;-) And due to the fact that my comma button was broken until recently. But now I can type all the commas I want, so expect more bloggy goodness from me soon!! With that, I want to leave you all with a very funny plan laid out by the man himself, Robin Williams, on how to deal with certain ummm.... "problems" in our world today. So here it is... Robin Williams in "The Plan!"

"I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of a plan for peace. So, here's one plan.

1) The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic, Hussein, and the rest of those 'good ole boys', we will never "interfere" again.

2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea, the Middle East, and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one allowed sneaking through holes in the fence.

3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of whom or where they are. They're illegal!!! France will welcome them.

4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit!!!! No one from a terrorist nation will be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself and don't hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers.

5) No foreign "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a "D" and it's back home baby.

6) The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise. This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go some place else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere." They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides, most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if anything.

9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island some place. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer. The Language we speak is ENGLISH...learn it...or LEAVE...Now, isn't that a winner of a plan?

The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'you want a piece of me?'"

'Splain Me This.....

2005-08-25T01:18:00.000-07:00

I will never understand why Andy Milonakis has his own television show.

MY COMMA BUTTON IS BROKEN

2005-08-21T02:53:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen the movie "A Lot Like Love" starring Ashton Kutcher and some other girl don't waste your time money and brain cells on this stupid slowly progressing movie. If I actually owned this movie personally I would break it up into fifty-billion little pieces and mail them to Ashton Kutcher. "A Lot Like Love" definitely reminds me of the time when my friends and I all went to see "Big Fish" together. I felt as though my IQ actually dropped while watching that movie.

Quote of the nite by my sister: The thing is that when I watch a movie I actually want to be entertained. I don't want it to progress as slow as in freakin' real life.

This Song is so Funny!

2005-08-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

When he was seeing her you could see he had his doubts
and now he's missing her because he knows he's missing out
and now it's haunting him- the memory is like a ghost
and he's so terrified 'cuz no one else even comes close

He's the guy that you should feel sorry for
he had the world but he thought that he wanted more
I owe it all to the mistake he made back then
I owe it all to my girl's ex-boyfriend

So then along comes me- this undeserving mess
who would believe my life would be so blessed
two years ago when he left all that debris
who would have known he would leave everything I need

He's the guy that you should feel sorry for
he had the world but he thought that he wanted more
I owe it all to the mistake he made back then
I owe it all to my girl's ex-boyfriend

If it wasn't for him I would still be searching
if it wasn't for him I wouldn't know my best friend
if it wasn't for him he would be able to see
that if it wasn't for him he'd be as happy as me

When she and I settle down you can bet
that he is gonna have to settle for less
he's someone I would hate to be
I got the girl and he's left with just the memory

He's the guy that you should feel sorry for
he had the world but he thought that he wanted more
I owe it all to the mistake he made back then
I owe it all to my girl's ex-boyfriend

~ "My Girl's Ex-Boyfriend" by Relient K

Exodus Spokesperson to Appear on ABC's The View

2005-07-30T03:06:00.000-07:00

Scott Davis, Director of Exodus Youth, a division of Exodus International— the world’s largest resource and referral organization dealing with homosexual issues today, is scheduled to appear on ABC’s daytime talk show, The View, on Monday, August 1. He will be joined by Mike Ensley, a graduate of an Exodus program located in Southern California.

The discussion will focus on issues surrounding homosexuality and youth culture. The View, hosted by Barbara Walters, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones Reynolds, Joy Behar and Elizabeth Hasselbeck airs on ABC at varying times. For more information, consult local listings, or visit their web site.

Founded in 1976, Exodus International offers help to the over 400,000 people who contact the ministry each year. Exodus International is the largest resource and referral organization dealing with homosexual issues in the U.S. and throughout the world. With over 125 ministries across North America, Exodus is a growing network of former homosexuals dedicated to sharing the transforming power of Jesus Christ.

Matterhorn Mountain!!!!

2005-07-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Last post I posed a trivia question: "Where inside DisneyLand is there located...a basketball court?" And the answer to that question is Matterhorn Mountain.

Yes people, you read that right- there IS a half-court complete with painted lines a backboard and rim located inside the fifth story of the famed mountain. The good people at Disney had to give Harold something to do during his spare hours overnight when he's not frightening passengers on the Matterhorn.

The straight story is that the court was installed some years ago by one of the matterhorn mountain climbers, to give the guys something to do to pass the time between their climbs up the matterhorn. I've even heard it rumored that a few old time cast members have special jackets that read "Team Matterhorn."

Disney has brought the Matterhorn Mountain Climbers back this year for their 50th Anniversary Celebration. I wonder if, in between scheduled climbs and while people are riding the mountain, those boys will be up there in the fifth story of the ride shooting around, playing a game of "21" or "horse." One thing's for sure: when I ride the Matterhorn on August 2nd, I WILL be listening very carefully for the distinct sound of a dribbling basketball.

7 days and counting, people!!

Disney Trivia

2005-07-20T02:07:00.000-07:00

As part of the impending excitement due to my up-and-coming family vacation to DisneyLand, I have decided to post a little Disney Trivia. Okay so here goes...ahem (Sarah Angeline clears her throat):

Where inside DisneyLand is there located....a basketball court?
Leave your answers in the comments! And no search engines, people. I will post the correct answer in a day or two. (ZB you can't answer because I know you already know!!)

I love everyone!! Have a Blessed night.

Guess What?

2005-07-18T02:03:00.000-07:00

I'm going on vacation to DisneyLand in 15 days!!

Blah.

2005-07-12T01:51:00.000-07:00

I just saw the movie "Constantine" and I thought it was stupid. Some Christians think that the movie's cool because it puts the message of Heaven and Hell "out there" and I will say that anything that gets people thinking about God and Jesus and eternity is a good thing. However, I felt that this movie glorified the devil, made God seem less powerful than He truly is and presented a confusing, scewed theology of the afterlife that I feel will only further confuse the masses concerning the subject of Christianity. It's not that I don't believe in spiritual warfare- I certainly do. However, in the film the forces of evil are fought with objects and relics and exorcisms- never in the name of Jesus.

I understand that this is Hollywood, so what can I expect? For them to present the Bible realistically? Nope, and I realize that fully. But as for saying that the film is so cool because it's about the Gospel...I don't think we can realistically make that stretch.

I love Jesus. Have a nice night. :-)

Surprise Surprise

2005-07-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

I was just looking on the site for registered sex offenders in California and I saw someone listed that I happen to know fairly well! You can imagine my surprise. This person has two counts of child molestation. I mean, this is someone I interact with on a semi-regular basis, several times a week. There's also a guy registered on there for rape and he lives only a few streets away. In our small city of Rocklin California we have 22 registered sex offenders amidst our population of 36,330.

I guess it just goes to show ya that we never know nearly as much as we thought we knew about our friends. Am I devastated by this information? No. Will I now behave awkwardly every time I run into this person out of fear or some other emotion? Nah. I always believe in giving people the benefit of a doubt...Perhaps he's rehabilitated. On the other hand, as a casual aquaintance I highly doubt I will ever again hang out in groups where he is present now that I know what I know.

I'm leaning towards saying that having a registry of sex offenders available to everyone is highly appropriate and in no way an invasion of privacy. These individuals gave up any right to privacy they possessed when they invaded the privacy of their victims. One word comes to mind: Castration.

What's your opinion on the subject? Is it useful and appropriate to have sex offenders pictures and personal information readily available on the web for all the world to see....Or is it an unacceptable, unforgiving, panic inducing and problematic to make this information available to the general populace? What about 18 year old kids who engage in consensual sex with their underage partners committing statutory rape and branding themselves as rapists? Does this registration apply to them?

Hello World!!

2005-07-03T01:26:00.000-07:00

Update update time for an update! Okay, I know you're thinking "how is this girl so happy at 1:27am?!" Well my dear, the answer is that I don't know. Ha ha. The one thing I know is that my God is good and faithful all the time, and that's plenty reason to be a happy gal. So hmmmm....What's been going on in the world of Sarah? Let's see...

I still work at Wal-Mart in the Paint and Hardware department. Works been very busy lately and paint season's really picking up. I made at least 50 gallons of paint today, and as an added bonus I got green paint sprayed all over my face within the first 30 minutes of arriving to work! It's all good though...I didn't get any in my eyelashes this time and I washed it all right off, no problem. (My bud Jason and I have actually been covered head to toe in pink paint before because the lid popped off of a can of paint while it was in the mixer- fun fun) Also, my health insurance kicked in today. As of today in addition to Kaiser, I have chiropractic coverage. This is something that I have needed for about the last 3 or so years, so I am very happy to have it.

The decision has been made about where I am going to College this fall, and I am happy to say that I have peace about it. I will attend Trinity Life Bible College in Sacramento for at least one semester. Upon completion of that semester I will be where I want to be financially and there are other options in the works that I have been praying about and considering for a long time. It will be exciting to see how God moves in my life this coming school year.

I'm also thrilled to inform you that the Crumpacker family (yes, for those of you who didn't know- that is my last name. My Mom really loved my Dad, okay- she decided she and her children could live with that last name. I'm totally joking I love my Daddy he's wonderful and I even love my last name, believe it or not!) will be taking our first vacation together since, well uh.....I believe it's been about eight or nine years. Almost nine. Anywho, I'm home now from school and other things and my sisters and we all decided that we could pull this off, so we've all been paying on our vacation and today we actually made the last payment. Soooooo, on August 2nd through the 7th my parents and two sisters and I will be at DisneyLand for their 50th Anniversary Celebration. We are all very happy to be able to finally have a vacation together.

My personal outlook and approach to life has also changed dramatically. Most of you know that I've had some really hard times during the past oh, six years after high school. I've learned that despite my perception of things, God is always faithful. It just doesn't always come in the form that I expect it to. I'm so glad that God knows what's good for me, better than I do. Seriously, my whole attitude needed an overhaul because I was getting bitter and resentful- it had to go. Somewhere during this whole time of working so hard so that I can enter full-time Ministry, I stopped asking God what He wanted me to do, and I started making assumptions. I had to reset my whole outlook and get back to scratch. And God has richly blessed me. God's faithfulness....So much more than we expected.

I am going to go to sleep now. I love you all and I will try and update things and write more frequently than I have been lately. Luc and I also have something nifty in the works over at The Melting Thought. It's definitely still a work in progress, but we've got some great plans for the near future after we get everything settled. I'm glad to be working on this project with him 'cuz he's my best bud and I miss him.

Well, nite all!

Map Quest and The Perfect Man

2005-06-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Map Quest I almost missed the pre-screening of The Perfect Man last night at the Century Downtown Plaza in Sacramento. The directions actually turned out to be completely useless, telling me to turn the wrong way onto one way streets and indicating that the distance between my freeway exit and my first right turn was .02 miles, which actually ended up being around fifteen miles! I ended up asking for directions and thanks to Map Quest we ended up arriving just as the movie was starting and a 20 minute car ride turned into an hour-long ordeal. But it's all good...From now on it's Yahoo! Maps for me.

Release Date: June 17

Cast: Hilary Duff, Heather Locklear, Chris Noth

Logline: Funny, fresh and full of surprises, The Perfect Man is a humorous story of love, longing and leaving and what can happen when good intentions go awry. At the story’s heart is the romantic notion of finding the perfect partner-and on the not-so-romantic flipside is a portrait of a family that’s just dealing with the ups and downs life brings while trying to stay together and stay put—at least, that’s what the story’s protagonist, teenager Holly Hamilton, is hoping for.

Website: www.theperfectmanmovie.com

The movie itself is actually very cute and I did enjoy it, though I'm not usually the biggest Hillary Duff fan. The Perfect Man is a very family friendly movie and a lot of single mothers and their children will be able to relate to the story. The Perfect Man is a sweet movie that has something in the story to offer young and old alike. It is definitely a clean, wholesome film that I would take children of any age to see and that I would recommend for the whole family. The film is rated PG.

The Orange County Supertones Farewell Tour

2005-06-06T02:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight Matt, John, ZB and I all went down to Club Retro to check out the Supertones farewell tour. A total of five bands played. We were actually there for five hours and by the time we left we were all completely soaked from jumping and skanking all night long- it was a blast! The bands that played were Opium for Angels, Illuminate (which I had never heard before), then Flip the Switch played. Roper went on next (they weren't actually scheduled to be there but they had a last minute opening. It was weird seeing Reese without Five Iron Frenzy) and then the Supertones finally played after four hours.

I tried really hard to think of something awesome that I could say about the Supertones and their ministry over the last ten years. I will simply say that they have been my favorite band ever since Junior High because of their relentlessly uncompromising Christian lyrics that move and inspire the body of Christ to action. I love the Supertones because they don't just get up, play a show and take off. They share the message of Jesus Christ at every single one of their shows and you never have to look for any "hidden spiritual meaning" in any of their songs- they come right out and boldly say it and I think that rocks.

After the Farewell Tour, Matt Morginsky aka "Mojo" and front man for the band is going to begin touring giving talks on Apologetics, teaching young people how to defend their Faith in Christ.

American Family Association ends Disney boycott

2005-06-02T01:48:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday the American Family Association announced the end of it's nine year boycott of the Walt Disney Company. The reason? AFA president Tim Wildmon said that the organization now feels the need to focus their efforts elsewhere and that since 2001 Disney almost became “lost among the other battles being fought on a crowded cultural battlefield.”

The American Family Association also pointed to what they feel have been a few positive changes within the Disney Company such as the impending resignation of Michael Eisner, Disney's split with Mirimax, as well as Disney's impending December release of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

When I found out that Disney was distributing the film, I had a feeling that it would represent the effective end of some organizations Disney Boycotts. Funny that I was right. However, AFA President Tim Wildmon did say “If, for example, Disney removed the clear Christian symbolism from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe film, then all bets would be off. So I guess one could say that, as far as we’re concerned, Disney is on probation.”

While the American Family Association has ended their Disney Boycott, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Assemblies of God are still involved in the boycott and indeed still support it.

Plan C

2005-05-27T01:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight I had a good talk with my sister's boyfriend, Jonathan, about learning patience. The purpose of this dry spell in my life and this period of not knowing where I belong is so I can learn to be patient and happy in any situation even if I don't know what my direction is, what God's plans are, what my future holds. I know that until I learn this lesson God wants me to learn, God will not move me into my next phase of life/ministry etc. I need to be patient and happy. I need to forgive my grudges and abide in love 24/7.

God, help me to learn my lesson. Show me the areas, show me how to let go. Take away the sadness that comes in the downtimes...

In Jesus Name...

Oh. My. Goodness.

2005-05-25T01:32:00.000-07:00

This day I know now more than ever the thing that I have been in denial about all along. You're inside of me- no matter how hard I've tried and how much distance I've put in between us, you never leave the back of my brain. Others have come and gone from my life, but no one has ever replaced the spot that you fill at my table...at the feasts where only the closest family and friends are allowed to attend.

I selected you. I invited you in and you became one with us and I with yours. You had the world but you thought that you wanted more, so you disengaged emotionally. And now the trouble is that I can't get you to leave. You are on me like a leach, you're just always there but you don't even know it. I know I can't move on without removing you but I fear that I cannot live without you. If I ask you to stay, you might leave without having to be removed and I could never live with that.

I want you to stay, but I'm afraid to ask. So I'll just remain here quietly, hoping that if I move and act and breathe justttt right, maybe one day you'll realize that where you are is where you belong, and you will want to stay forever.

College tour bus crashes at construction site, worker killed

2005-05-22T00:47:00.000-07:00

I just received this report in my Gmail inbox. Heartsong is the traveling musical group of Central Bible College, the school I attended for three years. Heartsong travels during the summers ministering and representing CBC.

Associated Press

CASTLE CREEK, N.Y. - A worker was killed Friday when a bus carrying a Missouri college group crashed into a tractor-trailer and a cement truck along a highway construction site.

At least seven other people were injured and taken to area hospitals following the wreck, which occurred about 10 a.m. on Interstate 81, seven miles north of Binghamton, state police said.

Four of those suffered serious injuries, said Jon Tooley, a spokesman for Wilson Memorial Regional Medical Center in Johnson City.

Police on the scene told WBNG-TV in Binghamton that two construction workers were pinned against a guide rail. One worker was killed, the other was critically injured, the station reported. State police in Binghamton confirmed one person was dead but could not immediately provide the victim's name or any other details of the crash.

The tour bus, operated by Show Me Coaches of Ozark, Mo., was heading south on Route 81 on its way from Syracuse to Long Island. The bus was carrying about three dozen students from Central Bible College in Springfield, Mo. The students were members of a choral group, Heartsong, on tour in New York.

Show Me Coaches spokesman Mark Winter confirmed that one of their buses had an accident Friday morning, but refused further comment.

The bus driver was trapped in the wreckage for nearly two hours before he could be extricated.

UPDATE: Fatal I-81 bus crash claims third life.

Cinderella Man

2005-05-17T00:55:00.000-07:00

Tonight, thanks to Universal Pictures and Grace Hill Media, I was able to attend the pre-screening of the film Cinderella Man as a member of the press.

Release Date: June 3, 2005

Cast: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger

Logline: Crowe stars in the story inspired by the life of legendary athlete Jim Braddock, a once-promising light heavyweight boxer forced into retirement after a string of losses in the ring. As the nation enters the darkest years of the Great Depression, Braddock accepts a string of dead-end jobs to support his wife, Mae (Renée Zellweger), and their children, while never totally abandoning his dream of boxing again.

"Cinderella Man" is one of the best films I have ever seen. Come back on June 3, 2005 to read my review of the film and then make sure to go watch it in theatres!

That's a Healthy Piece of Real Estate

2005-04-21T03:13:00.000-07:00

I Used to Hate Country Music....

I Really Did...

Until Kenny Chesney came into my life. Ha ha. ;-)

What is Love

2005-04-19T23:35:00.000-07:00

I am full of rage and anger right now about a situation in the life of a friend. This song expresses my sentiments exactly...That's all I'm 'gonna say. Heal her, Lord Jesus.

Artist: Pax 217
Album: Engage
Song: What is Love

Hey kid, what are you lookin' at
How'd you get so evil so fast
Where's your mom, where's your dad
What did they teach you
Did they touch you
I can't believe this happened to you
I promise it's not supposed to be this way
But you have no right to repeat the same
She's not yours, this ain't a game

Step back, watch where your hands go
They might come back to haunt you
It might do you good to cut 'em off
Better that than to rip her off
You're a thief an abomination
Lucky for you I'm no assassin
I love her, you distorted her view
God help me not to distort you

So let's just say you're blessed
Blessed that I never met you

Hey you, son of a preacher man
I got some words for you
Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near
You stole something that you can't give back
From the one I love
And now she's forced to pray daily
To fight against your flashbacks

So let's just say you're blessed
Blessed that I never met you

Hey you! You better take your eyes off of her!
Your eyes are evil so look away!
I'm warning you there'll be
Hell to pay! hell to pay!

Little girl, don't you cry
This boy can't steal what's inside
Let my Father hold you up
Heal the thoughts that make you throw up
I know this life has been hard on you
But the next will never end
The only thing I know to do
Is to ask my Father to heal you

No soap will ever scrub away
The memories, the memories

Hey you! You better take your eyes off of her!
Your eyes are evil so look away!
I'm warning you there'll be
Hell to pay! hell to pay!

I'm sorry, sorry
Little girl don't you cry
You're beautiful, beatiful, beautiful
I love you, I love you
Father, heal us! Won't you hear us!
Show us your mercy forever
I love you, I love you

The Strings Need to be Left Alone

2005-04-17T00:37:00.000-07:00

Just a few minutes ago I read a post over at my friend Maggie's site and it really spoke to me concerning a situation I am facing.

There comes a time when all strings must be cut. Most of the time, you don't want to cut them. However, you know if you don't, they will just keep getting tighter and tighter on you. When does that time come? When you just need to say "I can't anymore?" I wish I could tell you. When those strings are cut, you need to leave them cut. Sometimes we get out of things but we keep getting ourselves back into them. If you cut the strings leave them cut. You can't mend cut strings without hurting yourself.

The strings need to be left alone.

It is hard to cut certain strings in our lives even when it is for our own good. I'm realizing now that sometimes it can be even harder to stand by your decision and keep the strings cut. The temptation to settle or fudge the line is sometimes great, and sometimes the devil can be so deceptive by telling us that we made a mistake in the first place, we overreacted, we weren't really hearing the voice of God, etc. In the words of my buddy, "Sarah you dealt it, now see it through."

Never settle for any less than what God has for you. What's right for another person is not always right for you. Don't act apart from God. Take your cues from Him, get rid of anything standing in between you and the will of God. After you've handled that....

The strings need to be left alone.

April 15th!!

2005-04-15T03:05:00.000-07:00

Why do I wait 'till last minute EVERY year? Agghh, stress! Chaz, if you're reading this... Do you REMEMBER what WE were doing on April 15th of LAST year? :-) Sitting at the library....Doing MY taxes!

There must be something wrong with me.

Update: I filed an EXTENSION. :-)

Good Night.

2005-04-12T03:20:00.000-07:00

Well, great night, actually. Tonight was a great night. I had the day off all day today, so that was good. Around six this evening I was napping on the couch when our buddy Justin showed up and said "Let's hang out." So we did. Justin, ZB and I went for dinner at Olive Garden where we met up with Leah and hung out with her for a while. Then we left Leah and had ICE CREAM at Baskin Robins.....Mmmmm, cheating on my diet tasted great tonight!

I had a great conversation on the phone tonight with a friend who I haven't actually seen in a few years, which was very cool.

We were 'gonna go see "Beauty Shop" tonight, but instead we decided to go over Gayle's house for a little Bible Study/Prayer meeting, which was just a much needed time of sitting in the presence of God and worshiping Him.

So I'd say all in all it was a great night. Thank you Lord for blessing me with good friends.

Nite everyone! ;-)

Progress

2005-04-11T02:11:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I took the first steps toward correcting a situation where I was greatly at fault and hurt another person who I value very dearly. In this situation, I badly misrepresented this person and I have been feeling the affects of it in a very deep way. Today, I have confessed truth to two people that I misrepresented the truth to, and tommorrow I will tell several other persons involved. After I make these confessions of misrepresenting someone very dear to me, I will ask this person for their forgiveness. I need to pray for God's timing and I really pray that my apology is received well and out of knowing that I am sincere.

God has been dealing with me a lot for the last few days, letting me know that I don't have to be perfect. The reason the other person in this situation was misrepresented is because of my compulsive perfectionsim, which led to me completely misrepresenting the truth.

Well, now I can actually post something like this on my website. I'm not perfect world, and I don't care who knows it. God looks at me and sees the blood of Jesus, because I have given everything over to Him. Over and over and over again, every day, with every breath, giving everything all over and over and over to Him.

2005-04-10T03:47:00.000-07:00

For the 2nd night in a row, I can't sleep. This sucks.

How am I Doing?

2005-04-09T02:01:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted anything up here and some of you may be wondering how I am doing. Well...

IF you were to pour acid down my throat and HOLLOW ME OUT inside both physically and emotionally, leaving me devoid of any thought or feeling, at that point I would probably feel/be doing better than I have been feeling/doing in the last 24 hours. I just realized that I made a HUGE mistake that involves another person and I don't know WHAT I am going to do.

I FEEL LOST.

UPDATE: God is good, and the bottom line is, that's all that matters. "Hallelujah, Praise the Lamb. My heart sings His praise again. Hallelujah, praise the Lamb!" When life gets ya down...Praise His name. Your problem might not disappear, but God will always give you the strength to carry on. Praise God He is so faithful.

"Look How Sexy I am as I Gnaw off my Finger"

2005-03-05T04:36:00.001-08:00

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Err, ummm...yeah.

A Life at Stake...

2005-03-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

This little guy's life is in danger and he needs your help. Only YOU can help Save Toby from imminent peril!

My Resolution

2005-02-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

Hey all, I know it's been a long old time since I've actually posted anything. I've been under a lot of stress lately and haven't really had the energy to write anything down. I just feel so discontented with where I'm at right now in my life. My ultimate goal is graduation from Central Bible College, and yet I am stuck at home out here in California (Not that I don't LOVE Cali because I LOVE CALI and being home with my family!) This makes like, the third time I've had to come home to raise money to go back to school, I am a junior and all the people I entered cbc with as freshman are graduating in May. *Sob*

Side Note: IS there ANYONE out there who would like to pay for this missionary-girl to graduate from cbc? Anyone!! :) Okay just thought I'd ask....

Meanwhile I am out here at the community college taking the last of the gen ed's. Which is fine cause it's way cheap-o. And I work full time at Wal-Mart in the Hardware and Paint Department. (Which IS fun actually I like making paint) And all I do is school work sleep school work sleep. And I feel like I don't belong here. And I feel like I will NEVER save enough money to go back to school.

I also wish I were more involved in a church out here. (for those of you who don't know, I'm from the Bay Area of California, but my parents moved out here to the Sacramento area while I was at school) It's such a large church so it's hard to get to know people, plus I work every night. And the only people my age in the church are in Master's Commission so they are always off traveling and what not so it's hard to get to know them. I almost feel as though I've lost myself...God feels far away. I know He is not, but sometimes that's just how it feels. It's time for me to buckle down and make my future happen, make my calling happen, make my relationship with God happen more productively and more fruitfully than it has been lately.

The words to the song "Resolution" by the Supertones has been swirling around inside my head all day:

Looking back...
The way I used to be
It was just me and God...
Can I ever be there again?
Today I make my Resolution

No more wallowing around in self doubt or pity or looking at others who are already where I want to be and wondering why it's got to be more difficult for me. As of today, I am making changes in my outlook and attitude and getting back on track.

Today I make my Resolution.

Pray for me.

Love all you guys.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Artist: Supertones
Album: Supertones Strike Back
Song: Resolution

I've meant to do this for some time
I've gotta get it right this time
This time my God I will be Yours,
All my heart, my soul, and mind
It's been so long since I truly smiled
You touched my heart today
Reached through my mind of mud and mire
Consumed the idols in Your way
So I am brand new, Today I make my resolution

Been down so long that is seems like up,
Even now I've had enough
Of the life that I've been livin'
It feels so cold this far away
So Today I will make a change
I will make a change today
Purge my mind of mud and mire
Cast all of my gods away
So I am brand new, today I make my resolution

Looking back the way I used to be
It was just me and God
Can I ever be there again?
Today I make my resolution.

2005-02-18T03:48:00.000-08:00

Sick Cycle Carousel, by Lifehouse

If shame had a face I think it would kind of look like mine.
If it had a home would it be in my eyes?
Would you believe me if I said I am tired of this?
Well here we go, now one more time...

Cuz I tried to climb your steps
I tried to chase you down
I tried to see how low I could get to down to the ground and
I tried to earn my way
I tried to change this mind
You better believe that I tried to beat this!

When will this end? It goes on and on,
Over, and over, and over again.
Keep spinning around, I know that it won't stop
Till' I step down from this for good.

I never thought I'd end up here
I never thought I'd be standing where I am
I guess I kind of thought it would be easier than this,
I guess I was wrong
Now one more time...

Cuz I tried to climb your steps
I tried to chase you down
I tried to see how low I could get to down to the ground and
I tried to earn my way
I tried to change this mind
You better believe that I have tried to beat this!

When will this end? It goes on and on,
Over, and over, and over again.
Keep spinning around, I know that it won't stop
Till' I step down from this for good.

This is a sick cycle carousel

In Christ Alone

2005-01-21T03:35:00.000-08:00

I'm lovin' the words to this old hymn, re-done on Newsboys new "Adoration" Album. This song brings tears to my eyes, these words are so potent and powerful...

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

Blonde Joke

2004-12-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

A blonde called her boyfriend and said, "Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure out how to get it started." Her boyfriend asked, "What is it supposed to be when it's finished?" The blonde said , "According to the picture on the box, it's a tiger." Her boyfriend decided to go over and help with the puzzle. She let him in and showed him where she had the puzzle spread all over the table. He studied the pieces for a moment, then looked at the box, then turned to her and said, "First of all, no matter what we do, we're not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a tiger." He took her hand and said, "Second, I want you to relax. Let's have a nice cup of
hot chocolate and then............", he sighed, "Let's put all these frosted flakes back in the box."

Interesting.

2004-12-06T19:39:00.000-08:00

According to MSN's Live Vote Survey from today, 65% of 1,113,999 people who took the survey said that yes, they believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin birth like it says in the Bible. Of the other 35%, 26% said "no" while 8% said "I'm Not Sure."

Impact: The Passion

2004-12-06T18:13:00.000-08:00

I saw an advertisement for this at the theatre the other day when we went to see the Incredibles and I just now took the time to check out the website and see what it's all about. Turns out the film "Impact: The Passion" is set to release this month in the Sacramento area. The film is a commentary on the impact that the film "The Passion of the Christ" has made around the world.

"Impact: The Passion of the Christ" takes viewers around the world to England, India, Japan, Norway. Directed by award-winning Christian filmmaker Tim Chey, the movie uncovers the controversies surrounding "The Passion of the Christ." "This is not a documentary film – it’s a commentary film," says director Chey. "It will show the wonderful and absolutely powerful impact "The Passion" made in people’s lives around the world while at the same time uncovering the controversies that surrounded the film." "I did this movie to glorify Jesus Christ and show how the world is being changed through Him."

That rocks. Praise God for talented Christians in professional industries who are taking a stand and using their skills and talents to glorify God in the secular marketplace. I can't wait to see this film.

Assorted Randomness

2004-12-06T18:05:00.000-08:00

SO sorry for not posting much at all lately. Every time I actually have time for blogging anymore, I'm just not getting the usual inspiration to write anything remotely interesting. Which is sad, because I love to write. I've been working a lot and taking classes a lot, which has depleted my level of brain creativity. Never fear dear friends, as soon as the inspiration hits me, I'll write it on a napkin at Denny's or something so that I remember to blog about it later.

Today is my day off. I slept all day and went to class- it's a beautiful thing! I just drank a bunch of starbucks on an empty stomache, so now I have a caffeine buzz like you just wouldn't believe! I can't even type or read straight but oh well.

I love ya all, just wanted to write a quick update and say I'm alive and haven't forgotten you....I just don't have the time or inspiration to write anything clever at the moment. Pray for me. Luvies! =)

A Passage

2004-11-27T02:56:00.000-08:00

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. -C.S. Lewis

Gobble Gobble!!

2004-11-26T01:37:00.000-08:00

Happy Turkey Day everybody! So here's what I did for Thanksgiving:

First, I worked late the night before so I got my mad sleep on and that was awesome. Woke up, dragged self to couch to watch Macy's Parade in between naps. Ran over to Starbucks in my boxer shorts to pick up a Caramel Mocha Frappacino, came back and chilled with my blanket and my family some more. Ate some strawberries. (yummm) Finally got a hot shower and drove to Sac-Town to see the grandparents and cousins. We actually went out to eat for Thanksgiving this year! It's the first time we've ever done that, but we were all too tired and busy this year to cook and we enjoyed not slaving away all day in the kitchen. Oh- and we saw the Incredibles tonight in theatres. Let me just say, it was incredible. He he. Yeah, I'm a dork....Anyways....

It was really awesome for me to be home for Thanksgiving this year because I've actually been away at school for the last three years on Thanksgiving. So needless to say I was very thankful to be home this year...I am truly thankful.

Due in part to my tired state and my sugar-high, I am now rambling. But I love you all lots and lots and lots. May God bless you richly, I hope you had yourself a wonderful holiday.

What are you thankful for?

Is This For REAL?!

2004-11-10T03:22:00.000-08:00

Cause it it is, it totally rocks!! I can't believe I never heard of this before- it's the Mighty Mighty Meat-Shake everybody!

"Welcome to MeatShake!

Here at MeatShake Corporation, we have a simple vision:.

Meat. Lots of meat.

We bring you our vision in the most amazing and scrumptious forms imaginable. Our dedication to meat is nothing short of mighty.

That's our promise to you, the valued customer."

I know. I can't believe it either.

They have a Meaty Mobile and a Carnivore Club. You will die for the hilarity of it all when you read the Testimonials. You know what? You've just have to check out the website. Seriously you guys.

I don't know what else to say. If this is for real, I am speechless. I mean, the thought of sipping my meat through a straw is sort of grotesque, but yet in some strange way, it totally rocks.

End Game.

2004-11-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

Goodbye, Johnny Flipper! Not even Eminem degrading President Bush on SNL, "Rock the Vote" or your elitist celebrity supporters can help you now. The people have spoken, and George W Bush has received the most popular votes since his Father, George Bush Sr. The people have spoken against you. Do you seriously think that any rational person looks to the Celebrities as credible sources of relevant, educated information? Do you really think we're that stupid? We are offended by your uncohesive voting record, we are disgusted by your arrogant attitude. Immediately following the announcement of Ohio as a Republican vote, John Edwards approached the stage and arrogantly announced himself as the "Future Vice President of the United States." Arrogant, two-faced man. I just watched them announce the election results, and then I saw John Edwards speach in which he said "We will continue working for you! We will continue to work until we make sure that every vote has been counted!" Give it up, man. You lose. Please give your unity speach and get off the stage. Bow out gracefully, please don't run again in 2008. I don't like your morals, your politics, your regurgitated rhetoric, or your ketchup.

It is clear to me that we are engaged in more than just a war on terrorism- we are engaged in a war of our values and our national morality. Of all the blog reviews I've read today, I think Josh Claybourn expressed it the best:

In my estimation, there is a stronger undercurrent driving this election; something more than terrorism or the economy. That undercurrent is a culture war pitting traditional values against more progressive ones. (For Josh's full write up, look here

On November 2nd, the American people asserted themselves. We defended traditional values. We are still people moral character. We are people of religious conviction, we value traditional marriage and the sanctity of human life. We are unwilling to surrender to the moral degradation of our society trickling down from Celebrity culture such as MTV and the liberal media just yet.

With all that said, FOUR MORE YEARS BUSH!!

Bad Blogger. Bad!

2004-11-02T22:31:00.000-08:00

Hey all, been pretty busy here lately! Here's a very teeny tiny recap of my life currently. Spent about the last week doing lots of things with school and work and church. I'm currently working two jobs now, though I will be leaving one here shortly so I'm only working one full time job. Also I have class two nights a week.

Thursday-Sunday I've been checkin' out the Hell House that we had at our church! Hell house was basically how it sounds- a Hell House. The flyers said "Hell House, Signs of the End Times. Let it scare the Hell out of You." Let me tell you, it did! Basically the tour through the "Hell House" presented people with this choice that they must make for eternity. It illustrated for people all the different scenes and ways that Satan lies to us until he has us right where he wants us. The house takes you from a rave scene, straight to a suicide scene where there are two girls killing themselves and satan is walking around explaining to people how he tricked them into thinking that they are worthless. On the wall behind satan, seen under the black light are painted the words "I want your future." The house takes you through the events of the Second Coming of Christ, and the tribulation. It actually makes you FEEL like you are there- it was so intense. (Not to mention GRAPHIC) Guards actually stamp your hand with the "Mark" which glowed 666 under a black light and showed Christians being tortured for Christ. The tour ends in Heaven, where all the people who died for Christ met Jesus when they died. Then they tour guide leads you into a room where there's a Pastor and an alter call!! I don't know what the new numbers are, but before Halloween night we had a total of 226 FIRST time decisions for Christ!! It was SO exciting! Some folks are against the idea of scaring people in this way. But I say that it is the TRUTH and the greatest offense that I could ever commit against an unbeliever would be to NOT tell them the truth about eternity- about the TRUTH about Satan and Hell and the TRUTH about the Love and SAVING GRACE of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Bless His Name forever!

I love my church. It's theme is "Making no small stir to reach just one more." I've never been in a church before that was so intently active in evangelism. Our pastor's heartbeat is winning people to Christ through the many varied outreaches that we have at our church and doing it with a spirit of excellence. I feel like my ministry fits in awesomely here because of the focus on evangelism- I love it! Sunday I ended up being there from 8am-11pm, teaching children's church during first service and setting up for the children's event we had on Sunday night. I had to work the bounce house for part of the night- let me tell you, those kids are animals! =) Ha ha ha...I love 'em.

Right now I'm just chillin' out in my pajama's eating Taco Bell and watching the election coverage. I voted of course, and I hope you did too. Fox just called Ohio for the Prez, I'm crossin' my fingers and prayin'.

And that, as they say, is that! Luvies to you all. =)

Hi Kids

2004-10-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

This is my obligatory "Sorry for not posting very much lately" post. =) Been a little busy, but now I'm back! =) Bye the way guys, thank you all for your kind and encouraging comments on my last couple posts...I am encouraged. =) God is so so good to me.

Tommorrow is my day off, so I'll post more tommorrow! Later Gators!!

The Road Ahead

2004-10-22T01:59:00.000-07:00

Hat tip to Lisa for sharing this awesome prayer with me!

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
-Thomas Morton

I especially love the line "But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you." It's so relieving to know that God judges our hearts & motives. I believe that as long as we follow our hearts and do our best to work for the Lord, He will be pleased with us. God is so good. =)

Trust and Obey

2004-10-11T01:03:00.002-07:00

I first started this blog as a way of getting things off my mind by being free to say whatever was on my heart and spewing it into cyberspace. I felt more free to say whatever I wanted without having to worry wether or not you think I'm a strange and misguided individual, because I didn't know you.

But now I know you & love you. =) There are those among you who I have never actually met in person and a wonderful friendship has blossomed between us as a result of this wonderful thing we call blogging. And there are those among you who I have known forever and you have just finally discovered that I have a blog. Either way you slice it, I know ya and love ya.

Well, tonight was the kind of night where I come home with things that I want to blog about that are personal. But because I know you all, I don't want you to think I'm a moron and I want to keep certain personal things personal. (I have even contemplated starting a new blog where I would remain anonymous and aloof as the blog author so that I would again feel free to honestly say whatever I was thinking or feeling.) However, because I detest not being honest about myself with virtually everyone, and because I want to stay true to this sites original intent, I am going to go ahead and blog on what I feel like I want to blog about anyway. So here goes.

I am 23 years old and I am facing a lot of decisions in my life. I already know what the end goal is for myself, aka, full time vocational ministry. What I am deciding isn't wether or not to obey the call of God, because I will follow my Lord to whatever end. The decisions I am facing are regarding how I am to go about getting graduated, aka, where am I finally going to graduate from and how am I going to finance it? Some of you may not know that I have already had to come home and take off semesters to raise money for lack of fundage. It's taken me quite a long time to save the $$$ and get where I am today as regards my college education...It's been a long hard road to travel, and I'm just barely over the hill. I've still got quite a bit of time to go. To paint a picture for you: I'm a junior. The people I entered CBC with as freshman, are now seniors graduating in 1 1/2 semesters.

Basically I had to come home from CBC in May to attend community college out here (Rocklin, CA) because I ran out of money. And to be completely honest with you, I'm tired. I'm very very very tired of always dealing with wondering how I'm going to feed myself and pay my bills while I'm away at school. I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of working full-time while in school. I'm tired of going for weeks without having quarters for laundry and I'm tired of fasting inadvertently because the only thing left in my cuboard is peanut butter. And that's why I came home. And that's why I've been thinking about finishing school out here while living with my family instead of going back to CBC.

But I don't want to stay here just because I'm tired and I don't want to stay here just because it's easy. I want to go wherever I go because that is the place where God wants me to be. And right now I don't know where that place is.

I am perfectly happy with the person that I am and I am grateful for these years of learning to rely on God. More young people need to take that time to define themselves and their relationships with God, learning to become men and women of God whose sole focus is relationship with their creator. But at this point I would be very happy if God would choose to bring that awesome Godly man into my life who I am going to partner with together in ministry. And so it occurred to me tonight, what if the man is here in California? And what if he's in Missouri at CBC? And what if I end up in the wrong place because I didn't obey God as regards my educational endeavors?

I know that when I seek the face of God, He will tell me where He wants me to go and what He wants me to do. And I will do it, whatever it is, because God is a good Father and He has profound plans for our lives that He would love to fulfill if we will only be courageous enough to trust Him and obey.

"When You say go, we will go. When You say wait, we will wait. When You say 'Step out on the water' and they say 'It can't be done'we will fix our eyes on You and we will come."

Coalition of the Bribed

2004-10-10T03:37:00.000-07:00

Saddam instituted an epic bribery scheme aimed primarily at three of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, with the intent of having them help lift those sanctions.

Holy Spankin's!

2004-10-09T01:25:00.000-07:00

We're handin' them out like they're candy and there's plenty to go around!!

Cox & Forkum

2004-10-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

You all have gotta check out Cox & Forkum, Editorial Cartoonists. Their cartoons and editorials are always thought provoking, relevant, and often times a little humorous. Get over there and check 'em out...You just might learn something from them!

Quote of the Day

2004-10-03T01:53:00.000-07:00

Hat tip to Reverand Mike! I love this quote so much I gotta stick it up here:

So, I get it. We are wrong and bad and stupid and stupidly wrong-bad. We failed to make France act as though it wasn't, you know, France, a militarily insignificant nation that is understandably motivated by self-interest, and we haven't convened a summit so we could be castigated for ignoring the extralegal use of Israeli helicopters to turn Hamas kingpins into indistinct red smears. You'd think we nuked Paris and converted everyone to Lutheranism.

Here's the thing. I'd really like to live in John Kerry's world. It seems like such a rational, sensible place, where handshakes and signatures have the power to change the face of the planet. If only the terrorists lived there as well. - Lileks

U.S. Army Makes Plans for Kerry Win

2004-10-03T01:27:00.000-07:00

Editors Note: BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Celcius 41.11...

2004-10-02T01:06:00.000-07:00

The temperature at which the brain begins to die.

Celcius 41.11 is a film that was released in select theatres and on DVD on September 28th. The movie reveals the many lies behind Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11. Think Dan Rather along with rest of the liberal media have this story covered? I somehow doubt it.

Good Morning,

2004-09-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

It's 11:15am and I just woke up about 30 min ago to drop my Dad off at work. On my way back I picked up a Double Double Animal Style Protein Style from In N Out, and now I am sitting here in silence doing nothing.

This is so much fun. I'm serious. It is my day off, but I never actually have a day off where I seriously do nothing. And while my day will pick up with lots of activity in about two hours from now, I am enjoying sitting in the silence and listening to the sound of...Absolutely nothing. I never get to relaxe like this.

I have to savor this time, because in a family with five women and one man, this won't last very long.

My Neuroticism

2004-09-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that I am neurotic.

In the ideal situation as I imagine it in my head, things would be even better than they already are if I could just manage to get a few basic things that I already do in spurts down as part of my every-day-life routine. I have narrowed them down to a small list of habits that I would like to make.

1) exercise everyday. I already do this one faithfully for moderate periods of time. Usually, I'll lose 5 or 10 pounds. Then, after several months I have total burnout on the workout-gig. This burnout probably lasts for 2 or 3 weeks, during which time I will typically gain BACK 5 or 10 pounds. If I could sustain this kind of a workout routine for oh say, the REST OF MY LIFE, I'd be lookin' pretty good.

2) Sleep on a regular basis. None of my other functions function unless I do this.

3) Go to College and Work- These two wishful-habits of mine go hand-in-hand because I could easily sustain one of them for virtually any period of time (there are people who make themselves into career students, right? he he) My basic problem with trying to form these two habits concurrently is that if I do, as a result I don't have time for one of these four things:

(a) Sleep

(b) exercise

(c) Work

(d) College

Usually it is the sleep department that suffers. After this department is thoroughly depleted, the work department is the next to go. (by this time the exercising department has slowly been put on an indefinite hold as a result of the depletion of the sleep department) The reason the work department goes next is because I am too prideful to drop some classes to lessen the load so that I can continue attending College full time. Consequently the bills go unpaid and I somehow manage to scrape through till the end of the semester on a diet of Ramen Noodles. (I actually KNOW a student who was hospitalized for malnutrition because he lived on Ramen Noodles!!) In fact, now that I think about it, this scenario is in fact how my semester ALWAYS plays out.

And you people wonder why I'm crazy.

I now realize that perhaps it was a bad idea to number my list of things I would like to add to my routine 1-3. Perhaps it would be a better idea to squish them all together on the same line, as they are all interdependent and if one suffers, they all suffer. And they are all bound to suffer, because I do not have time to do them all. I might be able to sustain this kind of schedule for myself if it weren't for the issue of time. There just aren't enough hours in the day to attend college full-time, work full-time, sleep eight hours a night and exercise daily. (So that's what I really need...More hours in the day) And yet for the past three years of my college career I have faithfully attempted to sustain this schedule and failed miserably every semester. I ACTUALLY feel that I SHOULD be able to work full-time, go to college full-time, sleep regularly and exercise every day. And I always feel very guilty every time I fail miserably at successfully maintaining this schedule.

All of that said, my goals for the next month are as follows: Attend College full- time, work full-time, exercise everyday, sleep eight hours a night.

I told you I was neurotic.

Gone Again

2004-09-25T01:29:00.000-07:00

I'm in Lake Tahoe with Wendy and Michael for the weekend. Boy, I sound spoiled don't I? It's for Wendy's Aunty's wedding. It's gonna be pretty. =) I'll be back on Sunday.

LUVS!

I Need Wisdom!

2004-09-23T03:03:00.000-07:00

All I can say is that I really need all of your prayers right now, guys. I need God to give me wisdom.

I love you all so much! =)

I Have a Drug Problem

2004-09-20T01:06:00.000-07:00

I had a drug problem when I was young:

I was drug to church on Sunday morning.

I was drug to church for weddings and funerals.

I was drug to family reunions no matter the weather.

I was drug to the bus stop to go to school every weekday.

I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults and teachers.

I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents.

Those drugs are still in my veins; and they affect my behavior
in every thing I do, say, and think.

Those drugs are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin,
and if today's children had this kind of drug problem,
America might be a better place.

Signed,

Older than Dirt

HALT

2004-09-18T01:03:00.000-07:00

HALT is a nifty little acronym that I would like to share with you.

H- Hungry

A- Angry

L- Lonely

T- Tired

I first heard of this awesome little acronym during a chapel service at my college a couple years ago. The sermon was about personal sin & temptations that we all face. Though most of us all generally struggle with the same temptations, each of us have our own set of areas where we know we are weakest. For instance: I have always been fond of telling my youth kids "The Hershey factory is not the best place to decide to go on a diet." The reason for this: If you have a game plan and know your enemy before entering their territory, your chances of survival are a whole lot better. Are we all on the same page? Cool.

And yet while it is sometimes best to know what tempts us to sin and to avoid those situations, there are exceptions to that rule. Take for example: The internet. For some people, one of the biggest temptations/opportunities for sin is the internet. And yet daily the internet is becoming more and more of a necessary tool we are required to use if we are to function in today's postmodern society. Joe Christian who has come out of a past pornography addiction may also be a businessman where the internet is a part of his job.

We all know our limits and we all know what entices us. And that is why I want to encourage you to learn to HALT if you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. If you look closely, you may observe that the times when the most well-meaning and devoted Christians are the most tempted to sin are the times when he/she is angry, hungry, lonely or tired. If you experience a situation where you are facing extreme pressure to make a mistake, remember the HALT acronym. Leave the situation, halt and get refuled. When you are not hungry, angry, lonely or tired, you will be better equipped to stand up to the temptation to sin.

Baby I'm Back

2004-09-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back from DisneyLand. Details and pictures to follow. =)

That Day

2004-09-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

I'm Going to DisneyLand!!!

2004-09-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe.

My best friends Wendy & Michael just called and asked if ZB and I wanna go. (Their treat so it's even better!) Okay so I'll explain. =)

I had requested Sunday and Monday off because we originally planned on the four of us -Wendy, her husband Michael, ZB & I- driving down there for the Supertones concert in Riverside. Well, Wendy & Mitael being my awesome best friends as they are, had the fun last minute idea of staying the extra day and so they went ahead and got the room & tickets & stuff. Which I am soooooo excited about it's 'gonna be so much fun!!!!!!

If I can get the day off.

Dear God, please let me get the day off...

Update: I did manage to get the day off. However, Leo, the person who "delivered" my message of needing the day off to my manager totally delivered the wrong message. Instead of giving him the note requesting the one day...Leo told my manager I needed the WHOLE week off. So I'm not scheduled to work at all next week. Hopefully we will be able to get this turned around...Suffice it to say, this stinks big time.

Icky

2004-09-04T01:20:00.000-07:00

Gross from working at a fast food-restaraunt, Sore from my ear-infection, Blah just because I feel "Blah"- I am feeling icky today. I'm sure all my ladies out there can relate to those kinds of days where we feel, shall we say...Less than cute. =)

So I ate some ice cream. And then I felt guilty for eating ice cream and I did Tae-Bo. Maybe painting my toe-nails will do the trick. *happy* (Yayyy...Acetone...Just Kidding!) =)

Yeah, sorry guys I'm a dork. Hopefully I'll feel more chipper tommorrow! =)

Prince of Peace

2004-09-02T01:19:00.000-07:00

"Does your world ever seem like a nightmare? Some suffer but the other ones don't care. Doesn't matter if it's going on elsewhere, like it doesn't happen if it's not happening here. There's a girl with only a mother, and her Dad just won't seem to bother. No love so she finds a lover, now she has a child who doesn't have a father...

I hope the Prince of Peace is coming soon
I hope the Prince of Peace is coming soon
We'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun
cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes

Then the communists turned into the terrorists, but the axis came before the soviets. And before that came the confederates- we'll always have a war to fight, you can count on this. With every cure their comes another sickness, the earth dies with every bit of progress. We've gone deaf to the cries of the oppressed- what we need is JESUS to REDEEM us....

I hope the Prince of Peace is coming soon
I hope the Prince of Peace is coming soon
We'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun
cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes

Now the world doesn't work 'cause we've broken it, and we need dope and prozac just to cope with it. Now the beast speaks his peace to the congress- plans to propagate proposition 666! Hittler's still alive in the knives of abortionists, and the news twists the truth like contortionists. And I wonder what happened to humanity? They say "Peace" but we're headed for calamity!

I hope the Prince of Peace is coming soon
I hope the Prince of Peace is coming soon
We'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun
cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes

We long for the day when we will see the Heavens and the Earth as they should be."

- Prince of Peace, bye the Orange County Supertones

Simply Beatiful

2004-09-01T00:14:00.000-07:00

I want it.

Two Things

2004-08-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

First Thing: I don't know WHAT'S going on, but I think someone may have hacked my blog because there were all these links in my posts to "American Singles" & other sites. SO- if you see these odd links in my posts, IGNORE THEM and know that I DID NOT put them there. Thanks. =) I'm working on it.

Second Thing: I have just enabled this cool new feature at the bottom at my posts. It looks like a little envelope. If you happen to think that one of my posts is absolutely phenomenal, click the little envelope and you can email someone a copy of my post. Some of my most favorite recent posts are:

To Date, or Not to Date- Is it the Question?

John Doe

"Relationships"...Muwahahahaha!!

When You Say Go, I Will Go

Live to Live

The Passion of the Christ

My Impassioned Reaction

So Check 'em out. These are some of the best and brightest of Sarah's Thoughts & Convictions.

My Fun Weekend

2004-08-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!!

It's been a few days since I updated, but I've been busy because I just ended a really fun weekend with some really great friends. What did we do that was so fun, you ask? Welllllllllll I will tellllll you!

My friend Daniel drove up here to spend some time with my bro's Matt & John & me- Friday night we went to see "Princess Diaries II", which was a VERY cute movie which I would love to see again. There's one part in the movie where Princess Mia stops the parade she's in to go talk to some orphan children who were watching from the street....and man...Made me wanna cry. Hmmm, what else did we do- Saturday we all got up and drove down the the river for the afternoon- we spent the day jumping off of rocks and swimming and getting all scratched up by smaller pointy rocks (there was no sand) jabbing into our feet and behinds- but it was still a lot of fun. And this morning we went to church and worshiped the Lord...

And tommorrow, it's back to work & school. =)

Luvies. =)

There's a Fork in the Road!

2004-08-25T00:05:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since I've updated on here. Usually, if I lack anything creative to say, I will just wait for the inspiration to hit me. That, however is not happening right now because of all the other tasks my brain is having to function at this time. =)

There are many changes in the works right now, my friends. I don't want to go into detail yet because I don't know for sure what I will be doing...Suffice it to say that it pertains to my college career. Now, don't go thinkin' I'm changing my major or dropping out- that's not it. In fact, I started classes tonight. The changes have more to do with the location of my future education. Could be as close as ten minutes away...Could be Australia! Literally! =)

Can you tell me what to do with myself? I feel like I'm at a crossroads and there's like, a Denny's on one corner...And an IHOP in the other!!

And a Gmail account to the person who can tell me where that quote's from.

Hopefully my brainwaves will return the their routine less than normal but average for me function sometime in the near future and I can get back to posting things which are relevant.

Ouch!

2004-08-21T01:31:00.000-07:00

My back is acting up again. For those of you who don't know, I hurt my back about two years ago working at a nursing home. One of my patients fell, and I caught him- suffice it to say, he was a BIG guy. And I was on workers compensation for about half a year, but the workers compensation doctors were never overly enthusiastic about helping me heal...Instead they gave me cortisone injections to numb the pain in my back. FYI, needle in spine = NOT FUN.

Anyway, I have had little flair ups of back pain ever since then, but this flair up is the worst ever. It feels like the first time I hurt it, honestly, and I have no idea what I did to cause it. Sometime it: hurts to breathe, hurts to the touch, hurts to lay down so I can't sleep, hurts to do anything, hurts so that I feel like upchucking my breakfast, etc etc. I'll bet you all wanted to know that. And sometimes, it doesn't hurt as badly. It just comes and goes like that- it doesn't ever really disappear entirely.

Soooo, after about a week of the current flair up and after a night of not being able to sleep, I called into work and drove myself to the doc. He gave me muscle relaxers, has me taking 600 Milligrams of Ibuprofen three times a day, and is sending me to physical therapy. Oh- And he has me running. Can you believe it? I thought he would make me stop running...Instead, he says I need to keep doing it to strengthen my back and I also need to work my abbs daily. So that makes me happy, that I don't have to stop running, because the running's not the source of the pain. However, it is still painful to run.

I fear that the real issue is a chiropractic one, but you know how reluctant doctors are to make that diagnosis. I had my back x-rayed by Koobi's chiropractor. He said my lower spine's not in a straight line and my vertebraes are starting to touch eachother at the bottom of my spine. I think that's probably not a good thing...But it explains all the pressure I feel at the bottom of my spine.

Can you believe that I just spent all this time whining about my back??! I'm ashamed of myself. But seriousy...I want to ask you guys to please pray for my back, if you could. I'd really appreciate it. =)

Luvies,

Michele Diane Tooley Claybourn

2004-08-17T01:31:00.000-07:00

December 24, 1954 - August 14, 2004

My sincere condolensces go out to Joshua Claybourn and to the entire Claybourn family as they mourn the passing of Joshua's mother, Michele Diane Tooley Claybourn. Joshua's a good blogger and a good man...He must have had a great mother.

Silliness

2004-08-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

To Date, Or Not to Date- Is it the Question?

2004-08-13T00:56:00.000-07:00

And THIS is yet another example of why I hold fast to my opinion that people who are not ready to be married or who cannot see themselves married should not ever start dating in the first place.

Shall I elaborate?

When I was starting high school, I thought to myself "Self, all of your friends are dating around and dating eachother and trading places and it's pretty gross and weird. Plus, it's just too much drama for yo mamma. Isn't the point of dating to get married? And if you're not ready to BE married...Then why date?" And thus began Sarah's great theology of "Don't go shopping unless you're ready to buy." Because I was no longer concerned with dating (because I had decided already that I wasn't going to give my heart away repeated times before I was ready to actually BE married to someone), I had a wonderful experience in high school that was free of stupid emotional complications and unnecessary drama.

It was soon brought to my attention that I was not the only one who held to this unheard of theology. Young writers such as Joshua Harris' "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and "Boy Meets Girl" were making their way to bookstore shelves- I read them all and learned a great deal. The premise isn't that you never date...It's that you don't date unless you are ready to be married.

As I'm sure you well know, this didn't go over too well with some young people. Unfortunately, Sarah's theology of "Don't go shopping unless you're ready to buy" is a lot less popular among teenagers today than the non-commital-repeatedly-giving-you're-heart-away-practicing-for-divorce-if-it-feels-good-just-do-it "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" Theology. Yes, I did just say that. Let's face it- a great majority of dating relationships aren't based on having respect for the person you are dating...They are based on lust and immediate self gratification. We live in the microwave generation- we want the goods and we want them now! But the way pop-culture and God define love differ from eachother greatly. Let's take a look at our Lord's definition of love:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Because the point of dating is to be married, and because marriage is a forever-deal, I think it's safe to say that not dating unless you're ready to be married and having respect for your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who are (albeit one) someone ELSE'S future husband or wife, is more than an admirable thing to do- I think it's what is expected of us. I think it should be the standard...I think it is God's standard.

I know this concept my sound really foreign or just plain too difficult to actually achieve to a lot of people...But let me encourage you! I completely devoted myself to God and to my church and to having fun and learning who "I am meant to be" and all that jazz. And God totally rocked me during my high school years. They were not torturous years of "NO DATING!!"...They were years that I cherish and that I am so grateful for because God absolutely defined me and His will for my life during that time. The result is that I have no regrets, and when I do marry, I won't have an endless string of old-boyfriend-baggage to accompany me. If you're not ready for marriage now, take this time in your life and learn to be alone with yourself...Learn who you are and who God wants you to be. Focus on THAT relationship first...And then God will bless you with your spouse when he knows you are ready. Take the high road and have respect for yourself and for other people. (even if they don't want you to!) Don't go shopping unless you are ready to buy.

Oh, and since I know you are wondering...I'm READY! Where is He, God? SHOW me the man....

Until next time, friends.

yucky gross bad

2004-08-10T01:50:00.000-07:00

I don't like bloglinker. I signed up for blog linker originally so that I could get linked to on another person's site- that's the way blog linker works. It is reciprocal linking...You link to them and their list automatically links to you. Sound harmless? Right. Whenever someone new links to you, you receive an email notifying you that someone new is linking to you and vice versa and your list automatically links to them.

Just a few minutes ago, I was notified that a bunch of porn sites had linked to me!! Porn sites!! I know...I can't believe it either. Fortunately, I decided a long time ago that I wasn't going to use blog linker. (you just copy the code into your template and it automatically updates your list for you) But what if I WAS using it and some random passerby saw my link list and it appeared as though I was actually endorsing those sites?! Geez Louise.

Which leads me to the purpose of my post: it occurs to me that perhaps, the title and domain of my site "Sarah's Stuff" could be enough to enduce a porn site to link to me. I turn up a lot of web searches on my retrostats that are inappropriate search queries- and you and I both know full well that nothing inappropriate goes on here at my blog!

Because this is a post with a purpose, I will quit rambling and get to the point: do you guys think the title and domain name of this blog sounds pornographic enough that I should change it to something errrr...Else?? Just a question. Let me know what you guys think.

I am Speechless

2004-08-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

In this moment, as I look upon the Tiki Head Tissue Box Cover, there are really no words to describe what I am feeling. *sniffle, sniffle*

If I were a youth pastor, this would BE in my youth room!

Apparently I'm 'Gonna Marry THIS Guy!

2004-08-07T00:36:00.000-07:00

Ha ha ha!!! Well, at least according to Quizilla I am! (funny funny)

You will marry him and produce five children,
although one will be mentally retarded. You
will be a house wife, and he will own a music
store. Your love for eachother is immense and
nothing can bring you apart.

Which random guy will you marry? (.pics.)
brought to you by Quizilla

In Other News, my brother's girlfriend LEAH rolled the car window up on my ARM just a few minutes ago on the way back from In N Out! That's love, baby. Just wait 'till next next Friday when I get my new campera phone and I can post pictures of the insane hilarity that occurs here on a nightly basis.

Doesn't this guy look happy? Just a thought.

Anyway my arm hurts so I gotta go. I love you all~ Peace, homies!

The Shepard is the Lamb

2004-08-05T02:43:00.000-07:00

So what becomes of those small unwanted souls,
Who spend their lives breaking their backs?
Those who dig the gold for the rich and powerful,
Who place their feet upon their necks.

The Shepard is The Lamb, do you understand?
That God became a man, The Shepard is The Lamb.

Where can junkies go, when high has laid them low,
Are they truly on their own?
It seems we've lost our way, like sheep we have gone astray,
Can anybody lead us home?

The Shepard is The Lamb, do you understand?
That God became a man, The Shepard is The Lamb.

Who is The Champion? The Friend of the suffering!
Of those who were never born? The King with the crown of thorns!
And I'll consecrate a verse, to the Kingdom in reverse,
Where the least are most and the last will be the first.

The Shepard is The Lamb! Do you understand?
That God became a man, The Shepard is The Lamb.

The Shepard is The Lamb! Do you understand?
That God became a man, the Shepard is The Lamb!

~ "The Shepard is the Lamb", by the O.C. Supertones

The Return of Sarah Angeline

2004-08-01T23:05:00.000-07:00

Well all, I'm finally back home. I'm sore, exhausted and I haven't slept in my own bed in three nights. My average sleep per night was around 2-3 hours! But it was a beautiful wedding and just a really very nice time spent with loved ones. I am sooo happy for my best friend Wendy and her new husband Michael. I love them both lots and lots.

Anyways, I am exhausted from the weekend, so for now I'll post something mediocre for your reading pleasure: Yet another quizilla quiz!

Category I - The Hub

You're a 'people person'. Networking runs in your
blood. Consequently, you can move through most
social circles with ease.

What Type of Social Entity are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Stupidity Relived

2004-07-29T02:03:00.000-07:00

Whoahhh!!! I regretfully cannot tell you, dear readers, what I am "Whoahhh-ing" about, but let's just say that I just experienced a situation tonight that is similar to another situation that I have been in before where someone was stupid. Sorry guys...I shouldn't even blog about this because I can't tell you what in the world I am talking about. I am so amused right now. =) Anyway, ON with the madness!

In other news, Sarah Angeline will be suffering through internet withdrawels for the next two days as she will be down in the Bay Area for the weekend setting things up/being in her best friend Wendy's Wedding. I love Wendy and I love my friends...But I start shaking uncontrollably if I go for too long without caffeine and without the internet.

I took onother one of these silly quizilla quizzes...Here are my results, you plebians. Just kidding. =)

From Timbuktu to Tijuana, you know all about world
culture and politics. You've seen it all, and
what you haven't seen, you watched on one of
the "smart people channels." Your
friends tell you that you should run for
governor.
What people love: You've always got a great story
to tell.
What people hate: You make them feel like ignorant
plebians. Sometimes you slip and CALL them
plebians.

What Kind of Elitist Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Happy Birthday

2004-07-27T23:59:00.000-07:00

These Happy Birthday wishes go out to the MAGNIFICENT Kyle of That Other Guy's Thoughts. He is a cool guy.
Kyle, May you consume many Swiss Cake Rolls in celebratory revelry of your 21st Birthday!

"Relationships"....Muwahahahahaha!!!

2004-07-26T01:23:00.000-07:00

A few hours ago I had a converation with someone about his girlfriend. He was talking about what he could do to "Be a better boyfriend" and how he doesn't know how to entertain his girlfriend anymore because it's been like, eight months now and he is out of ideas. It was such a funny conversation! I told him "Just be yourself. This is life. You can't take her out to an expensive restaraunt every night. Learn to have fun with her! Do dorky things...Play cards. Jump on trampolines. Toilet paper houses."

I just ran across this article about High Maintenance Women on MSN...I thought it was kinda funny, but also very true.

But seriously people...Is it just me? Or does it seem that all too often, people put unrealistic expectations on the person they are dating? I know I have. In my opinion, the goal of any relationship should be to simply be best friends and have fun! If you don't do that, how will you ever know eachother really, or know wether or not you can actually live with this person for the rest of your life? Furthermore, people need to learn that their dating or marriage partner cannot and should not be expected to fulfill their every emotional need. That is something that only God can do...It's a void that only God can fill. No human being could ever fill that void and love you perfectly and completely...Only God can.

John Doe

2004-07-23T23:43:00.000-07:00

A friend from Missouri called me on the phone a few hours ago. He was telling me about a friend of ours (who we'll refer to as John Doe) and how he's worried about John Doe and blah blah blah because John is always up and down with God if you know what I mean. God will totally rock John's world on a Sunday or a Wednesday...I mean, God will just majorly touch John. John's got a really good heart. And John will last maybe a few weeks or so before he starts going downhill again.

I think the thing that people don't realize, is that yes, it's wonderful and great and awesome when God touches us so amazingly...But He does it for a reason. He does it to get our attention and so that we will know how powerful He is and how much He loves us. He "Jumpstarts" us, in a sense. He takes some of our junk and baggage for us and totally rocks us.

But mister John Doe needs to realize that the work that God does when He touches us so dramatically must be married with an intellectual decision if it is going to last. Too often people blame God when they start "backsliding" and what not...They expect God to do all the work for them and for their awesome God encounter to carry over into their every day life. They get discouraged and start doubting. Satan lies to them and tells them that it wasn't what it was..."It was just your emotions." Therefore, they feel justified when they backslide.

Someone needs to tell John Doe that he needs to make an intellectual decision about how he is going to live that can't be based on a spiritual "high." The way that John chooses to live (not the way that someone else, or fate or his circumstances chooses for him, but the way that HE chooses to live) will set the trajectory for the eternal future of himself and eventually, his family.

I have noticed that a lot of people never deal with their issues and their past hurts because they just simply don't WANT to. They don't want to, because IF they do turnover their hurts and issues to God, then they will not have an excuse to be angry and hurt anymore. People begin to feel justified in their actions and hardness to a certain extent...Justified because of everything that they have "Been through" or something. And they don't want to deal with it and give it to God completely because it is their crutch and their excuse to feel justified in being hurt and in behaving wrongly. And God wants to take away all their pain and filthy rags and give them beauty for ashes, if they would only let Him.

Some of you may know this "John Doe"....Many of you are him, in fact. This is the Lord's Word to you:

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Josh 24:15)
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." (Hebrews 12:1)
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. … To grant [consolation and joy] to those who mourn in Zion--to give them an ornament (a garland or diadem) of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment [expressive] of praise instead of a heavy, burdened, and failing spirit--that they may be called oaks of righteousness [lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice, and right standing with God], the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." (Isaiah 61:1a,3 Amplified)

Make an intellectual decision about how you are going to live that is not based on blaming others for how you are today...Give over your hurts and your issues to God, make a decision for eternity.

I Can't Think of a Title

2004-07-22T01:08:00.000-07:00

Deal with it. (ha ha!) Yes, I am well aware of the fact that I am a dork. Anyways ummm, yeah...So I just got back from my brother's house. We watched "The Bourne Identity." I had never seen it before...Pretty good movie.

I had my final fitting today for my bridesmaid dress for Wendy's wedding. I brought the dress home today (remember, I am home for the summer) and tried it on to show my Mom. I was all excited about showing it to her because it's so pretty. Anyway, she "doesn't approve" because it's (gasp) strapless! I dress very modestly in my opinion...I always have. I think you guys all know me well enough to know that I am one of the good girls...She just doesn't like the lack of a strap. You'd think by the time I was 23...Oh well...I guess she's just being a Mom. I think that I will let my family wait 'till they get there to find out that there is (gasp, oh gasp!) dancing at the wedding. But it's all good...No worries.

Look at this silly quizilla quiz that I took. My sister and I got the same results!

You're Element is Water. You are soft and serene at most times but like Wind, you're scary when you're mad. You probably have a talent in singing and even your speaking voice is lovely. You have an innocent type of beauty that makes you look younger than you are and you like close relationships with people.

Until next time, I luvs all of you!

When You Say Go, I Will Go

2004-07-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

This morning in church, they showed this video of this missions trip to Peru that the youth group went on...Man, it's like torture in a way, when I see that kind of footage and I hear the testimonies of what God's doing. I want to GO so bad! It's hard to be patient and finish college so that I can prepare for the ministry.

God's been testing my heart lately...He's been tugging at me and asking me if I am prepared to do whatever he wants me to do, and to go wherever he wants me to go. They played this worship song...I've made this song my prayer and my cause- here it is:

When You say go, we will go
When You say wait, we will wait
When You say "Step Out on the Water" and they say it can't be done,
We will fix our eyes on You, and we will come

"Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel unto every nation!"
(Matthew 28:18, The Great Commission)