I was tagged by pearlgirlforchrist!

8 Things I'm Passionate About:

    1. God and my relationship with Him
    2. Dance
    3. Acting
    4. Interior design
    5. Reaching my friends for Christ
    6. Music
    7. Reading
    8. My family

8 Things I Want to do Before I Die:

    1. Get married
    2. Have and adopt kids
    3. Travel to Europe
    4. See all the states
    5. Visit my sponsored child in Colombia
    6. Be in at least one show at a playhouse and/or local theater
    7. Have a much better relationship with God
    8. Finish college         

8 Things I Say Often:

    1. "sadly mistaken" (I don't know, that's just my phrase)
    2. "What do you want?!" (either teasing the little girls or yelling at the pets lol)
    3. "SMOKEY!!! Be QUIET!!!!" (smokey is the bird)
    4. "Don't ask" (whenever I say or do something random)
    5. "Cat, honey." (talking to Shadow, who is always doing something strange)
    6. "Dear" (I call everyone dear lol...not total strangers, but friends, sisters, pets...)
    7. "Like" (I'm not as bad as a lot of people, but I do say it a lot)
    8. "I mean" (ask my mom, I say this ALL the time!)

8 Books I've Read Recently

    1. Book #1 in a Terri Blackstock series..don't remember what it was called
    2. Book #2 in the same series (When Dreams Cross? or something like that)
    3. The Bible
    4. Jesus, the One and Only by Beth Moore
    5. Psychology: A Journey (for school)
    6. Windows Vista (for school)
    7. Computer Concepts (for school)
    8. ummmm...that's it

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over:

    1. "Wait for Me" by Rebecca St. James
    2. "One" by Rebecca St. James
    3. "Every Season" by Nicole C. Mullens
    4. "Canon" by Pachelbel
    5. "Stand" by Rebecca St. James
    6. that's about it

8 Things That Attract Me to My Best Friend(s):

      1. sense of humor
    2. serious side
    3. loves the Lord
    4. like interests
    5. easy to talk to
    6. we can be crazy together
    7. cares about me, too
    8. Hey, she's my sister! 

8 Things I've Learned This (past) Year:

    1. psychology
    2. a few things about computers
    3. history
    4. sociology (unfortunately!)
    5. dance moves
    6. how to be a camp counselor - and live to tell about it!
    7. many things about God and the Bible, especially
    8. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways."   

8 People I'm Tagging:

    1. you
    2. you
    3. you
    4. you
    5. you
    6. you
    7. you
    8. and anybody else who might want to do it!

    Well, I started filling out this tag AGES ago, and now I have something else that I wanted to blog about.  So this entry is going to be 2 in 1.
    My mom sent me an email where a lady was talking about her kids and the fort that they played in when they were young.  It made me want to do an entry on here about the places Ashley and I liked to play when we were little!
    Indoors, we spent most of our time in the playroom, which has now been converted into a schoolroom.  The playroom was labeled "the pink room" by a couple of people, because it was FULL of Barbies.  Barbies were our thing when we were little!  We got at least one Barbie for every occasion, and we had multiples of several of them because I had to have everything Ashley had!  lol  The playroom also had a puppet stage made by my dad, where we put on many shows (with Barbies, usually), including a forever-long retelling of the Nutcracker!
    Of course, we also played in our bedrooms and anywhere else we could find room.  We were always imagining up characters and stories to act out.  The stories I remember most were the ones we played outside.
    This is "The Thinking Tree".

    It was called this because we would always go stand under it to think about what we were going to play.  It was also a house for many of our characters, or occasionally a store or something else.  The tire swing you see is actually a new addition; it wasn't there when we were little.
    This is our fort.

    Daddy built this for us when I was probably around 6 or 7.  The balcony was already there, but he built the steps up to it, and the ramp.  This was where many of our characters lived.  Ashley and I (girly girls that we are) never went under the fort, because there were spider webs and everything else under there.  Marissa and Daniella, on the other hand, can often be found under there.  I think they just went right on in and knocked all the spider webs down.  lol
    Many times our characters' homes encompassed the entire yard.  The front porch was the bedroom, and the swingset (which sadly, no longer exists) was always the dining room.  The front porch was also always the "general store" and the school.
    When I went out to take these pictures yesterday (the weather was WONDERFUL yesterday...unfortunately today it was back to freezing), I also started thinking about the old trail leading up to "the ridge".  We used to walk it often, and it was one of my very favorite places.  I still go up to the ridge occasionally, sometimes to have my quiet time.  But unfortunately, the man who owns the property decided to build a house for his mother....right in the middle of the trail.  Needless to say, the trail doesn't get used anymore, except for the last part right before the ridge.  Yesterday I decided to walk up what I could of the trail, just for old time's sake.  Daniella went with me, too (and our dog Bitsy, though he wasn't invited)
    Here's the first part of the trail.

    Can YOU tell there's a trail there?  It's just barely visible.  You can also see the man's mother's house at the top of the hill. 
    This is the remains of an old treehouse next to the trail. 

It was already fallen down when we moved here, as far as I know.  I always found it intriguing.
    We couldn't go very far until we had to turn around and go down the road instead.  Here's the second part of the trail, once you walk up the road to the man's mother's house.

    As you can see, this part gets used much more often.  And here is the ridge.

    It's hard to capture it in a picture, and you can't really tell much from this one.  It's just a small clearing up beside the trail, with some views of the mountains and a really peaceful atmosphere. 
    This is the road leading back down from the ridge.

    It used to be a trail as well, that branched off from the original trail.  We always took this way coming back down.
   
    Thanks for letting me share my memories with you!
    Love,
    Briana