When Things Don’t Go As Planned…

Disclaimer: I originally wrote this sometime in late September, but apparently forgot about until now.  Enjoy!

Last year, when we went to Ohio, it was a rather mashed together, spontaneous, more-stressful-than-necessary trip.  

So, once we got home, my dad started immediately planning the next year’s (this year’s) trip.  We called up friends and got dates settled for us to see them, researched white-water rafting places, etc..  

When we started our trip in late August, however, things immediately began to fall apart.  

First, because of the beautifully chilly weather and because it started raining, our rafting trip was cancled.  Next, some friends who were going to host us got sick.  Then, Hurricane Irma made returning home on the planned day rather impossible.  

However, through all of it, God’s hand shone through:  

Instead of going rafting, we went to an American Ninja Warrior gym in Atlanta and saw ANW legend Ryan Stratis!  

When we realized we had no place to stay for the night when our friend had to cancel, we got the opportunity to spend the night at another good friend’s house.  That 24 hours was one of the funnest I’ve experienced in a long time, and it wasn’t even planned. 

Staying up in OH for an extra 4 days meant we could go to church (twice in one morning!) with our family, hear powerful sermons and great gospel worship, and reconnect with old friends.  It was a huge blessing that we would have otherwise missed out on had we left as planned on Saturday.  

My sister and I rather fond of our cousins (understatement of the year), but we were supposed to leave early Saturday, the one day our cousins didn’t have school.  We were very happy to not have to leave then!  We made a lot of fun memories in the extra days we had with them. 🙂 

Thank God that He always knows which plans should prosper and which shouldn’t! 

Squid

Naples Trip Pics

Hey, guys!

Our family recently took a mini vacation for the weekend at a beachfront condo in a town not too far from here but far enough away to feel like far away. 🙂  

While we were there, it rained.  But, it didn’t just rain, it deluged the entire area for a short period of time.  

This made for awesome cloud cover!! Naturally, I took pictures. 

These are the lower-quality versions, so, if you want to see the high-res originals, head over to my Flickr page (link on the side widget with the pics!) and check them out!  

Squid

A Long Time Ago In a Galilee Far Far Away

No, I did not just mess up my Star Wars reference, I actually meant exactly what I said. Why?  Because a long time ago (the end of July 2016) in a Little Galilee Christian Camp High School Main Week 2 far, far away (In Illinois, which is a two-day drive from Florida) I had one of the greatest weeks of my life.

I had never thought that I’d actually go to a summer camp, but my dad knows a guy. 🙂 Mr. Bob and my dad helped out at church camps together when they were in college, and, this year, Mr. Bob was the dean at the second High School week. He invited my dad to come up to Illinois and help him out as a staff member for the week.  My dad loved the idea, but it was my birthday week and he would have had to miss my birthday.  When he mentioned this, Mr. Bob suggested that he just “bring her too!”  They were able to get a scholarship for me because my dad would be working there, so my dad and I drove for two days and arrived late, somehow.  Thankfully, we were able to get registered and my camp experience was commenced!

The worship for that week was a led by a band from Ozark Christian College called Frontline.  Each year, students audition to be part of this band, so the lineup always changes.  I was blown away by this group’s enthusiasm for worshipping God and learning to know Him better, despite the terrible things some of them had been through.  They were such an encouragement to me and I am so thankful to God for putting me with them. (Also, my dad had toured with their predecessors, Impact Brass! :D)

Ryan, their drummer, was my family group leader, aka “dad”.  If you’re not familiar with family groups, the premise is this: You have 60ish campers and 20+ staff.  That doesn’t give you very many opportunities for real relationships to form and for people to lose their shyness.  So, they split us up into 6 family groups of about 10-14 people, each with 2-3 staff members to lead it.  My “mom” was Amie, one of the four students from Central Christian College of the Bible.  I also had an “uncle”, Jacob, the sound technician from Frontline who likes Star Wars and Relient K and was homeschooled up until college. How could we not get along?

From left-right, back row: Brennan/Brandon (I never actually knew his name; there was another guy with whichever name isn’t his), Ryan, Isaiah (Poe) with Thomas behind him, my friend Hallie with whom I hung out pretty much all week, Zach, and Jacob. From l-r, front row: Rachel (one of two, both in my cabin), Aly (also one of two in my cabin), Lexi (my dorm mother’s daughter), Amie (the sass is strong with this one), me, and Taylor.

That was my amazingly crazy family and I loved them.  I mentioned in my preview post that our family name was The Spicy Bois… I suppose I should tell the story.

We were waiting in line for the zip line (we went by family group) and started talking about Florida since that’s where I’m from.  Fire ants were mentioned, along with the fact that a petition was started to change their official name to Spicy Bois.  Somehow, this was agreed upon to be our family group.  We decided that, in addition to a name, we also needed an anthem.  Soooo singing the words “Spicy Bois” over and over to the Jurassic Park theme became a regular occurrence.  I hummed it constantly, haha.

That week of camp was crazy.  My legs were really sore from walking to and from everywhere up and down hills, but they eventually just got strong… eventually. 😛  I laughed a lot, learned new songs, cried way more than I thought I would, and made some great new friends and memories that I hope I never forget.  I’m so thankful that God worked everything out, and there were so many fingerprints he left behind that I’m uncovering now.  Our God is good! 😀

Anyway, I’m sorry this a terribly belated post, but I hope you guys enjoyed it. 🙂

Squid

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Recently…

I recently realized that I’ve been neglecting my blog.  It wasn’t like I wasn’t on WordPress, it’s just that I never thought about posting or was able to come up with anything to post about. Then, I realized that most of you have no idea what’s been going on in my life, and my friend Bri seemed to think that you guys would like to hear about the Squid’s recent happenings. So… 

I started volunteering at my local library!  I’ve had two trainings and I could totally see myself working at a library for my entire life.  Shoutout to the Mid-County Library’s staff members for being so incredibly nice and welcoming and for showing me where the sticker station is and how to use it on the materials!

Also, I’m going to be teaching at our next B.R.I.G.H.T. (Being Radiant In Godliness, Holiness, and Testimony) Lights meeting on the Authenticity of Scripture!  For the whole of 2016, girls have volunteered to co-teach on a topic, and I finally am going to have the opportunity! 😀 

I never actually posted about the two trips I took in the past 3 months, first to Little Galilee Christian Camp in IL back in July, and then to Ohio over Labor Day weekend for a family reunion:

“Hi, nice to meet you, I guess I’m related to you somehow. See you next year!  Maybe I’ll remember you that time…”

Both trips went really well and, hopefully, I’ll get individual posts on both.  Hopefully.  I also have a In A Nutshell St. George and the Dragon story to write… (I haven’t forgotten! 😊) 

For now, here’s my awesome family group members and me from camp. We were the Spicy Bois and had an anthem.  Basically, sing the words “Spicy Bois” over and over to the Jurassic Park theme. We would sporadically belt it out while walking to and from camp activities… to the complete confusion of the rest of the campers. The name itself had to with Fire Ants, not us, lol. 

Then, in Ohio, we spent the week with our crazy family members, but, due to the fact that I actually took those pictures off of my phone, I’m going to, instead, show you a picture of my new favorite Ohioan dog lovin’ up to me.  His name is Banjo and he’s super smart and quiet, barely barking at us at all when we first pulled up to his house.  Also, he herds chickens, so that’s pretty awesome. 🙂

Both photo credits to my dad 🙂

Also, I started school this past Monday, and I’m having a blast! #homeschooling

Looking forward to a whole other week of it! 😀

Friday morning was a field trip with our homeschool group to the Edison and Ford Winter Estates where I took pictures while singing Tobymac with friends. #bestdayever 

Anyway, that’s all for now. 🙂 #askmewherethebooksare #homeschoolnerdlife #likemysocks #spicyboisforGod

Squid

Tallahassee Trip Day 2: Part 2 – On Light, Refracted Natural and Bright Artifical

On our way home from Tallahassee it rained.  Poured.  Stormed.  Dad and I were in a gas station and BOOM! Lightning struck quite near us.  So, intelligently, we climbed into our metal box and drove away. Just kidding, we have rubber tires. 🙂

Anyhoo, while we were driving along we saw the faint traces of a rainbow forming near us. I started getting pictures.

It started becoming quite prominent, and then turned into a double.  That in itself was cool, but then we

FOUND THE END OF THE RAINBOW!

And the front, too, but that was behind us.  Depending on where you start from, I suppose.
It was so cool!!! We could see the start of the vibrant arch in the meridian, and pictures don’t do it justice.

Here’s the “front”.

Later on I decided to experiment with lights at night from the car.  That was… interesting.

 

That’s it for Tallahassee!  I think I’ll just throw a few pictures from Ohio on here, not do long sagas like this one.  So, until next time,

Squid

Daily(ish) Thankfulness List #6, From OH

(I found this post that was supposed to be published but somehow got overlooked.  This is from a couple weeks ago while I was still in Ohio.)  Sorry I’ve been so lax on keeping this up… My excuse is I’ve had no WiFi while I’m on the road, and when I’m not I’ve been hanging out with my family who I’ll only see at this time.  What was the other one?  Oh yeah… I forgot. 🙂  But… Now I’m chilling at my grandma’s house, so I have time!  Yay! 

1. Safe travels.  We passed so many accidents on the highway and I am very thankful that we were not a part of one. 

2. My extended family.  I just spent a weekend with my cousins at a hotel and reunion, and we had so much fun!  Some of them learned how to play chess, so we played a lot!  My uncle is a Grand Master, so I was thrilled when he taught me a lot and corrected my terrible openings!  I’m still working out the kinks, but there is hope in my future. 🙂 
Anyways, I am very thankful for them and all the laughter they brought and will bring me!  🙂

3. Running water.  Something we take for granted so often, yet we’d have no idea what to do without it.

Daily(ish) Thankfulness List #7

1. Cool weather.  It was so nice today up here in OH that Dad and I took a walk around the neighborhood!  The hills were hard, to say the least, but it was fun and I got lots of pictures! 

2. Running water.  Wonderful, multipurpose, and almost a necessity in America.  So thankful for it!

3. Spotify.  Without it I don’t know how I’d listen to all my favorite songs from my favorite Christian artists!  (TobyMac is blasting right now. 🙂 )

4. Great friends.  Last night we had a jam session with a couple of old friends and it was so awesome!  Worship songs with a couple old love songs thrown in for good measure, while the little ones were trying to sleep.  What could be better?  😀 

5. My camera and camcorder.  I was able to record a couple of the songs we did at the jam session and snap some cute pictures of the kids.  So pleased! 🙂

6. I brought 10 pages of math homework that was due on the 14th with me on this trip, and I already finished it!  So I’m thankful that that’s out of the way.

‘Till next time!

Squid