Family

We (my whole family which consists of: three aunts, three uncles, seven cousins, and three sisters) just came back from a three day vacation up to Lake Arrowhead, and three days was enough. If we had stayed a day later, World War III would have erupted. 

BUT, we had a great time. We didn't necessarily go to amazing places and eat extraordinary foods, we mostly stayed at home and just soaked up each other's company. (With an occasional "hike" to a promised stream that did not exist.) We played some intense games of Taboo, Scrabble, Monopoly, and a new one called Heads Up, which was hilarious. 

We started the vacation on a more somber note, not because we were all irritated with each other, but because we were faced with a difficulty that we were all going to have to deal with together. So, the rest of the trip wasn't exactly a carefree bowl of cereal, but I feel like it acted as a binding glue to gather us all together before we faced the storm. Together. Really, it was just a really good time for all of us. 

He posed like this and then proceeded to say he was "Lizard Man".

Munchkin-making mirrors are always fun. 

The true face of a tired dog.

#YOLO. They didn't even know what YOLO meant, I am slightly relieved that they didn't.

 I believe in God, and I believe that He is my lord and savior. I pray almost everyday and I speak with Him. It's been this way for almost my whole life. Yet, I still barely know how He works. I have no idea why difficulty after difficulty is placed in our lives. But this time, I think it's a little different. I believe that this difficulty was placed in our lives to bring us closer together and to turn us into a more solid family.  I know that God is going to be with us every step of the way, but I'm still afraid. However, I know that God makes all things work together for our good. So, I'm gonna have faith. 

Such a tiny, beautiful tree

God is good. All the time. 

Life: The Beautifully Uncontrolled

I haven't nearly experienced the amount of life that I want to, but throughout the seventeen years I have experienced, I've learned a lot.

I've learned that life will come swinging at you while you're sleeping, while you're in the shower, and even while you're enjoying an ice cream sandwhich on a cool summer evening. Talk about being caught off guard.

Today, I was caught off guard. I'm so used to being in control; from what clothes goes in my laundry basket to what my little sister wears out, I'm always in control. More recently than before, I've been relying more on myself than anybody else. I wanted to do everything alone, I didn't want help from anybody. I believed that I could and would be self-sufficient. I won't get into the gruesome details, but let's just say I was being an ignorant little fool. Then, like the kind dude life is, life knocked me right off my feet and left me there. Luckily, despite the fact that I've been a selfish prick, my family and more importantly, God was there to pick me up off my feet.

While I was still on the floor, Life handed me an envelope with an evil bug from Krypton (probably one of General Zod's little schemes) in it, and he said, "Deal with it".

And you know what? I am going to deal with it. In fact, I'm going to deal the hell out of it.

Sometimes it takes people a lifetime to change, and sometimes it takes a heartbeat. If it takes a change to deal with that godforsaken bug, then I will change. But not alone. I've neglected the person that loves me no matter how many times I curse His name for far too long. I need to go back, and I know it's not going to be easy, but I know I can do anything when God's awesome hands are there to pick me up when life pushes me down.

I've started a blog to help me express myself to some other earthly beings so that they can help me and, hopefully, I can help them along the way as well.

Life may push us down, but we all know that after he does, he comes back around and hands us another envelope filled with all the amazingness of life.