Greater Love

Feb. 28, 2007

Never doubt in the darkness what God has shown you in the light

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

It seems pretty much everything lately has been centered around love, not only God's love, but the love that He gives people for each other. What with Carrie and Tim's wedding, Mandy's engagement and various other things, I'm starting to feel blimmin' old.

Okay, so not really. I am after all, not yet seventeen. (I am sixteen, going on seventeen...hehe, I've always wanted to sing that.

) But I'm getting to the stage in my life when things start changing astonishingly fast. Not necessarily for me, but definitely for others! On one hand I am so super excited, on the other hand, I can't help but think, "Man, things are nice just the way they are".

But don't worry...that's generally not the prominent feeling. I am SO excited for my friends who have had one of God's most precious plan's revealed to them recently!

I had the most lovely time at Tim and Carrie's wedding. I have pictures, but the family asked people not to post them publicly just yet because the happy couple are on their honeymoon, and I think they'd like to see their pictures first. But when I am first given leave, I'll post my favorites on here for all to see!

I also did a write-up, but it was written in a hurry and contains a LOT of errors and etc. So I won't post it, but I promise you that when I put pictures up, I'll do a little summary then!

Also, a shout-out to all of you who use Gmail, AIM, MSN, YAHOO, or ICQ: I have chat accounts for all these listed, but I don't post them publicly because I'd rather not have any Tom, Dick or Harry have access to my IM handles.

So, if you don't have my handles and would like them, leave me a comment and I'll message them to you. I look forward to talking with you!

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Jul. 31, 2006

Sacramento Pictures

Well, as most of y'all know, I am now back from the Hemet CI. I thank God for bringing together such an awesome group of people. I had so much fun and I can't wait to do it again!

I'm working on my write-up of the CI right now (I'm at Wednesday morning; 7 Word pages with 10 pixel font;

Its going to be a loong write up!), but until that is finished, here are the long-promised pics from Sacramento. My apologies for taking so long to get them up!

During one of the breaks during the evening session, a bunch of us went back to the CI room so Jay and I could finish some crafts that we hadn't been able to do previously. Left to right; Me, Joy, Nicole and Elizabeth.

The blur is me trying to get out of the shot. I saw Elizabeth was going to take a picture of Nicole and Nathan on his computer, and I was trying to get out of the way when she snapped the shot. Too late!

Some of the boys decided to be creative and drew this on our board. It was so hilarious! We left it up all night and some of the morning until one of the senior staff asked us to remove it (parents, you know...). LOL

My team! (minus Brianna, who wasn't there that day). Some of the sweetest kids. Left to right, back row: Jedidiah, me, and Justin is holding Nathan. Front row: Keziah, Bethany, Mary, Joy, and Jacob, and that's Jackson in the very front.

Team G leadership! Left to right; Me, Joy, and Justin, our leader.

Team G with Justin's siblings, Jacob and Brianna, my little fireball. So much energy in one little girl!

Left to right; Me, Elizabeth and Joy (that's Joy's brother Minch in the background..don't know how he sneaked into the shot!

)

Me and my precious friend Nicole! I thank God every day for her sweet friendship. :)

Nicole and my other precious friend, Bubbly, a.k.a. Elizabeth! I never expected such a sweet girl. She brings so much joy and light into every room she's in!

And now, ladies and gents, the famed CDF picture! It was so great finally getting all these wonderful people together. It made me realize how a simple hobby has turned into something that is a blessing to others.
The guys in the back row are (L. to R.) Kevin, Nathan and Jay. The girls are (L. to R.) Elizabeth, me, Nicole, Melinda, Christy and Bonnie. Absent from the picture is Sarah B., Carrie, Mr. Blake and my dad.

Well, I hope y'all enjoyed these! Look for the Hemet pics and write-up soon. And yes, I will explain the very odd post below!

ETA: I forgot to mention. A lot of these pictures were taken by Elizabeth. I just wanted to give credit when credit is due! :)

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Jun. 12, 2006

Les Miserables

Les Miserables!

Yesterday, I had the oppourtunity to go see Les Miserables, the professional producton, at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. I went with Ruth and Roberta, and the fact that we were there at all was really nothing short of a miracle. We'd been planning this trip with Roberta's French class for ages, but several times we were sure it wasn't going to work out for different reasons. Well, it did, and it was fantastic.

Left to right: Roberta, me, and Ruth

You know you like Les Miz too much when you see this and burst out laughing.

The play itself was fabulous, dispite the fact that our seats were in the second to last row of the balcony. Which wern't bad seats by all means, but Ruth and Roberta had a problem with tall people sitting in front of them and blocking their view, so they ended up moving down a few seats. I stayed where I was.

I had a very nice view of the stage, although since I was on the right side of the theater, I could see into the left wings. Ah well!

When the Prolouge music started, I just had this huge grin on my face..wow, I'd been waiting to see this for ages and eons. Although I have to say, I was so confused at the beginning. Before the show started a white movie screen had covered the stage, and it had been used to display the starting title. Okay, fine. But then the Chain Gang started marching across the screen, and I was thinking, "Why on EARTH are they showing us a MOVIE of this part of the play when we came to see a live preformance?!?!?!?!"
And then the screen started to rise and I realized that the so-called 'movie' had been the actors marching behind the screen. Very tricky; them people.

I liked all the actors and actresses who sang the parts of the cast but the one I did not like was Fantine, played by Joan Almadilla. She enunciates very oddly, and I thought she had too much vibritto. But she was a fantastic actress. :)

Jean valjean, played by Randal Keith, was very, very awesome. He is a very powerful singer, and although he yelled at wierd places, he got the emotion across. Also, anyone who could lug Marius across the stage like he did has got to be commended.

Javert, played by Robert Hunt, was terrific as well...no complaints here. The young Cosette was played by Meg Guzulescu, and she was really sweet and adorable.

The Thenardier's...ah, the Thenardiers. Talk about scene stealers! Jennifer Butt (Mme. T.) was the original Broadway Mme. T., and was extremely awesome dispite the fact that she's skinny.

(I'm partial to my portly Mme's, if you know what I mean!

) Mr. T. was played by Norman Large, and was the perfect accompaniant to Jennifer. I laughed SO hard during Beggars of the Feast when they're trying to exit gracefully, and then suddenly all this stolen silverware came rolling out of the Mrs. dress. Oy dear.

Anyway...lol.

Leslie Henstock, who was the Cosette for this production, wasn't there for the showing we went to and was replaced by Suzanna Neeley Bridges. I thought she did a fabulous job, considering the small character she was working with. Really, I could count all of Cosette's appearances in the musical on one hand.

Enjolras was played by Victor Wallace and Marius by Daniel Bogart, and they were both fabulous but I guess I'm just spoiled from the TAC (I can't see how any Marius could be better then the love-sick puppy Michael Ball, or any Enjolras better than the fighting and passionate Michael Maguire).

Eponine (Melissa Lyons) was IMO one of the cleanest singers there that day...she didn't sing technical, just strong. I loved how Eponine was so chummy with Gavroche...nothing really obvious, but really sweet to anyone who knew that Eponine and Gavroche were actually siblings (it's never said in the musical).

Gavroche...ah, Gavroche. The smallest little scene-stealer you ever saw. He was played by Austyn Myers, who did a terrific job. Sometimes he sounded a little too American, but who cares?

He got the spirited part of Gavroche down pat.
My favorite part of the whole musical was during A Little Fall of Rain, and the people of the barricade start wondering what's going on halfway through the song. Gavroche started to run twords Eponine with his arm outstreached, as if he wanted to go to her, but was held back by Grantaire. *sniff* Aww...
The part when Gavroche climed down the barricade to collect ammunition was really tense...the whole theater was silent except him singing his Little People song softly, and then a gun went off (which was a live charge, btw, and REALLY loud). There was a collective gasp in the crowd..I think they had all fallen in love with the wee rascal. I know I was gripping the armrest of the chair like crazy...partly because the scene was really sad and partly because I was all tensed up for the gunshots, which were really loud and was really startling the first time they fired them (I think everyone jumped about two feet, lol!).

So yeah...I had a fantastic time at Les Miz.

It was a lot funnier then I had initially expected (I mean, how funny can a play about miserable people be?). I loved the part when Enjolras tells all the women and children at the barricade to leave, and one of the students picks up Gavroche by force and carts him off stage.

. Or when Marius was singing "I'm doing everything all wrong!" and ran frantically back to the gate and attemped to climb back over it...L.O.L.

So yes..I enjoyed myself quite a bit!

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May. 25, 2006

'Ello...

I dun got this here blog so I culd coment on Nic's sahit. Howdy do, ahll!

(Sorry, ignore me...I'm kind of out of the loop right now...lol).

ETA: You know, I think I just might like this homeschoolblogger thing...it allows you to totally edit your layout and stuff, whereas with Xanga, there is limits. I feel the creative juices flowing right now...

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