So this past Easter, I had the pleasure of making some pretty sweet eggs...Ukrainian style!! :) And i'm not even Ukrainian, how cool is that!?

Yup! And thanks to Inna, i had the opportunity be able to do this!! :) It was great!

It was actually really, really sweet. And i know all the Ukrainians already know how to do this, so i'll expalin for the Americans!lol Ok, here goes a bad explanation:

There was like this plastic wrap thing that you put around the egg, carefully set it in the boiling water (what i found out after my first 2!) and watch it quickly, faster than lightening, shrink onto the egg. It was amazing!! :O

My first one turned out perfectly, then the 2 after that not as good b/c i kinda dropped them into the water. (Which Inna told me later not to do, but i shold have guessed!)haha. So the next two were kinda messed up as you can tell, the plastic isn't on there evenly. :( But they still looked great!! :)

And actually, i think the best part about it was watching Kelsey's face!! She was in total shock when she saw me put the egg into the water....she was almost yelling at me: "How did you do that? Where did you get that?" Well, that's my little secret!! ;)

"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?"
~Psalm 42:2

Change.

Ok. Well, seeing the update on Inna's blog bucket list made me think that i really need to update mine. (Thanks for the inspiration!) Plus, this update matches my blog's format/background update, so there we go!

~Memorize more Bible verses
*Still need to work on this!
~Get through my last year of high school w/o getting senioritious
*I seriously forgot there was such a thing!
~Find a good job (and actually get hired)
*I have 2 jobs now; David's Bridal & Old Time Pottery
~Survive Tri-C during my senior year
*I totally am!!
~Meet many new people who i can be a wittness to
* I have talked to ppl from work & college
~Become a better Godly example to ALL those around me
*Hopefully I have been
~Focus more & more on God each day
*I fail in this all the time, sadly. But with God, I can do it!
~Gain wisdom & insight on God and understand how to get through all situations i am presented with
*Have recently been learning to trust in God's wisdom even though I still mess up
~Get a new cool phone w/ texting!
*I have a newer phone, had texting for about a month...not anymore tho :(
~Take ballroom dancing lessons avec mon petit chou! ;)
*Still waiting
~Sky dive....haha-not really; not ever!!
*No comment.
~Get accepted in a good (christian) college while having a car there w/ me
*Cedarville baby!! (God willing...now it's just a huge $$$ issue!) No car.
~Finding a car!
*My dad's old camry
~Work as a Disney princess (Sleeping Beauty!) at Disney World in Florida!!! :)
*I'm getting Disney employee emails...& waiting a couple yrs for an audition! maybe.
~Learn to improvise on the piano!! (this will take some prayer!!)
*Kinda improving, slowly. :)
~Learn to sing w/ a lovely voice(...ahhh...if only)
*I'm taking voice lessons!!
~Finding God's will for my life and living it out
*Seeking it in confusion daily
~Marry that man who God has in store pour moa
*What's so bad about being single?
~Get married and have a beautiful outdoor wedding
*See above.
~Be the best wife i can be for my hubby!!
*See above, again.
~Travel to Europe avec mon amies et mon petit chou! ;)
*Maybe not w/ mon petit chou, but deff w/ my besties!! :)
~Be in (or at least be invited to) several other weddings!!! :) :)
*I'll give this one a couple of years.
~Buy a wonderful, (big) maison pour moa et mon petit chou (w/o going into debt!!)
*Big or small, it doesn't matter too much anymore. I'll sore up my for my mansion above instead.
~Take a couple road trips...(in college too!)
*Yup! Still on the list!!
~Find a good job being an elementary teacher
*Hopefully in about 4 years I can say this has been accomplished successfully.
~Go on countless missions trips during my summer off, avec mom petit chou
*Ukraine next summer!!! :) (God willing!)
~Have some kids...and stay home to raise them in a Godly manner
*God willing, my missions kids will be my life!!
~Be a wonderful, fun, funny, cute old grandma to my darling grandkids (God willing)
*Hmmm....see prior comments.
~Try my best to do everything else God wants me to b/c i can't think anymore...
*I'll aim for this forever and always!
~After a (long???), blessed life, start the never-ending one w/ my Lord
*I'm becoming sooo impatient for this!!


That's the latest for now. I'm sure I'll have to update it again in the winter or smthing....but for now, i know what i need to improve on and keep shooting for!

"Make me know Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day." ~Psalm 25:4-5

Have You Ever Hit a Snowbank?

I have! And it's about time that i share this funny/embarrassing experience!

Obviously, this happened on a very icy day b/c i'm not that bad of a driver as to where i'm always running into snow banks! I mean, i may be a bad parker, (but still better than Taras!lol) but not a bad driver. Seriously.

Ok, so here's what happened: I was happily on my way to my gym class (hence my silly outfit!) and i took a turn down a street that i never turn on, but decided to on this particular day. Not realizing how icy it was, i found my turn going a bit further than i expected. I figured it'd be fine, i tried turning the wheel out of my skid, but it was no help. I was heading straight towards the snow bank! Ohhh nooo! I figured it'd be fine, that i'd just hit the front of it and my car wouldn't go anywhere b/c of my slow speed. Boy! Was i wrong or what!? The next second i find myself IN the snowbank and very embarrassed! I tried to reverse out of there but it was hopeless. I got out of the car to see how far in i was, almost falling on the cement b/c of how slippery it was, and i realized i was good and stuck. At the very end of the street, i saw a car coming and figured i should stand outside and wait until the car passed just to see if they'd offer to help. I was also planning on having a nervous, shocked look my face just for dramatic effects!ha. But as the car drove closer, i realized God couldn't have planned it any better b/c it was Inna & Julia!! :) They were on their way to pick up Kelsey but were coming to rescue me first!!

And i didn't even call them!! What sweethearts!
We laughed a little, actually, a lot. And i explained how everything happened & that their timing was perfect. Surely they couldn't leave me abandoned in the snow bank, so they made a very hard decision...they decided to sacrifice school in order to help me!lol Me and Julia attempted to remove some snow out from under my tires w/ mine and Inna's snow scraper. I don't know what Inna was trying to use in this picture. We did quite a lot of work out there in the freezing cold...but sadly, it wasn't good enough b/c when i tried to back out again, it was still good and stuck. (but our efforts weren't in vain!)

Anyways, to make a long story short, I had to call my dad and nervously explain what happened, Inna, Julia, & Kelsey went to school, and when my dad came to help me dig out more (this time w/ a shovel!) it was still impossible and we had to call the tow truck! :( Thankfully we have AAA so everything was free! :)

Looking back though, it was just neat to see how God worked it all out. How i ran into the bank literally 1 minute before Inna & Julia came down the street, and how it was even on that street that i was stuck on! If it was where i normally turn, one street down, Inna & Julia wouldn't have driven past me!! :O And also, it was neat that everything was FREE!!lol But my lesson is sure learned. Now i know to be extremely, extremely more cautious on an icy road! :)

"Brothers, i do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." ~Philippians 3:13-14

My sweet job! :)

So as ya'll should know, I work at David's Bridal as a CSR (customer service representative) which includes things such as answering the phone, welcoming people who come in, ringing them out, assigning a consultant, etc. However, I just recently promoted to be a consultant myself!! yeayyy me!! Lately, i have been training like crazy and praying that i remember every single detail about the dresses, styles, undergarments, shoes, jewelry, veils, bridesmaid dresses, etc. It's a whole lot of info and i'm not sure if i can remember it. :( But basically, i have to persuade my brides to buy stuff otherwise i don't get paid good; cause this is on commission now...ahh! It should be fun though! And the good thing about working here is that, when the store empties out, i get to try on some dresses myself!! :) It is really fun and I love doing it. Of course i take pictures too so i can share my excitement with my blogging buddies!!

Ok, let me begin by explaining the gowns. This one is the very first i tried on. I was in love with it for a good couple weeks before i actually got to see it on me. Then when i did, i continued to love it, except for the band that goes across the waist.

And this one, it is a Oleg Cassini signature dress. Ha! I bet you don't even know what that means! (it's ok, neither do i...i should look at my training book again!)lol Anywho, being a smaller store and all, we don't get all the dresses in. Like this one, we weren't suppose to get it in, but magically one day, (by God's awesome power, because i kno He just wanted me to try it on!lol) it came in!! :) It is completely stunning and i felt almost like a Disney Princess when i put it on. Until i looked at hips. They were HUGE!!! I was shocked at couldn't believe all the weight i was gaining and realized that maybe i wasn't done with growing yet.haha.

I mean look at those monsters!! I look crazy!! Then i realized that i have never noticed my giant hips before and started wondering if it was just the dress. I showed some of the people i work with and complained. They said that every bride who tried it on loved it but hated how huge it made them look in that area. Ok good! So i wasn't the only one! And of course, in the magazine, the model who is wearing this dress is sitting on a big comfy chair, turning to the side. A genius way to cover up the flaw!! So this dress...ehhh....i still love it, but on me...not so much.

Alright, then there's this one. This was a size 0 and was still big on me. A reassurance that my hips aren't as big as the other dress made me think they were. This dress though, is a little more simple, and very pretty, but not as "Ow ow" as the others i guess you could say.

And there was one more dress that i tried on. All lace. But sadly, those pictures are on my phone b/c my camera ran out of battery. :( It's funny though. I never was into lace wedding dresses. But after working at David's, i come to see that most of the dresses that i'm falling for have lace. I never thought it'd be my style, but it doesn't look old fashioned or gawky or anything!! It's great. Then again, i don't even know if it looks good on me so if i ever get married....i'm gonna need to be taking some ppl with me for their opinions!!

Inna-get ready!! Second thought....maybe not. :(

"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." ~1 Samuel 16:7

I kinda like this...

Regret Today

By Catherine Pulsifer

How many times do we say something that we immediately realized was not the right thing to say?

How many times do we look back on an event and think, if only I had.... How many times do we do something that we wish hadn't done?
You can't change what has been said. You can't change a past event. You can't change what has been done.
Do you call it regret, sorrow, repentance? Do you think about what might have been? Do you relive an event the way it should have been?
Forget about regret, and focus. Focus on today, not on the past. Focus on what you can do, not what you didn't do.
The only thing to regret is living in the past The only thing to feel sorrow for is not living each day to the fullest.

The only thing to do to repent is to sincerely say, I'm sorry. Don't live your life regretting yesterday.

Live your life so tomorrow you won't regret today

My loves!! :)

So these are countless more pictures of the Foxy Fearsome Foursome!! :)

Julia, me, Kels, and Inna practicing our yoga poses! :) How do you think they are coming?!

After skool one day, like always...looking pretty cute! Julia-you must have not gotten the memo here- we are all wearing scarves except you! :( OHOH!!! speaking of!! Let's have more matching days! :)

Ohhhhhh!!! a change in the scenery!! FINALLY!! we are not in the parking lot....but over on the field next to the retirement center one day!! :) Wanting to get the pretty colorful trees in the back....but as you can see....there's only a limited amount of color because it was hard to grasp all of God's beauty in a camera's lenses. :)

Me and my dearest best friend!! :) Whom i will miss soooo much when i go off to college next year!! A college hopefully called CEDARVILLE UNIVERSITY!!! Seeing as how I got accepted for admissions there today!!ahhhh!!!! That's right!! :-) I am truly sooo happy!! Praise God!! Now lets just hope that He continues to provide scholarships and a job and a 27 on my next ACT and stuff of that sort!! :) Willing that's where He's leading me to go!



























Kelsey and Julia are always cracking up!! But me and Inna look pretty hot here i must say!! :P

And then the whole group!! All of us who participated in going to the retirement center this lovely afternoon. Kels, me, Taras, Victor, Julia, and Inna.

Actually, I kinda think we all look awkward in this picture....like it was awkward for us to take a picture together or something. Idk....Kels is standing weird, my hair is blowing kinda crazy, Taras looks embarrassed or something, Victor is kinda leaning into Taras....and Julia and Inna....you guys can criticize yourselves here. I cannot find a flaw!! :)

Right after we pushed the camera timer on, Victor gets a phone call. I decide to point to him and give a weird face....Taras is kinda catching my drift which Julia finds amusing. Inna and Kels are just happy to be taking another picture as Kels decides to show off her but and make it look big! :) lol






What nerds!! :) but cute nerds we are!! Ok, the "cuteness" is just a given by now!! ;)

Looking beautiful after a long orchestra concert at a church one Sunday. (Inna-i love that coat!! can i borrow it one day?!)lol I'm kinda serious!! :)

Looking hot in black and white after yet another orchestra concert! Ohhh!! Speaking of black and white.....has anyone ever heard of the store White House Black Market!? It's super cute, but also super expensive!! (note to my girls- we have to go there one time; save up!!)

This set of pictures was hard to get us all looking good in. Our eyes were either closed, looking away, or laughing!! But it looks like after some time we finally got a decent one!

This one too!! :)

















Yea...this is just evidence that it took us awhile! Look at me and Inna!!lol










Ok. Now i had to find a super cute picture to close the post with. Here, after the retirement center one day again we have me and Julia, Victor, Inna and Kels. And the tree climbers....Taras and Andy! I'm not sure why...but i really like this picture!! Victor looks like a pimp with four lovely girls around him....and it looks like he is enjoying every moment of it!!lol Taras looks kinda disappointed he isn't in Victor's place and Andy just doesn't care much! :) lol





Well, many more to come! That's for sure! :)

"Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth." ~Psalm 73:25

(what a powerful verse...think about it!)

Game ON!!!

These pictures are from quite a few weeks ago already. It was the first Forge football game i have been to during my high school years that i wasn't playing in band for. And man, it was truly great to be there-band free-not having to worry about the stress of unloading and loading the trailer or leaving 7 minutes before half time to practice or getting those butterflies in your stomach the moment your on the field and play the down beat of the music (& the list goes on!!) I did miss Will and Jon incredibly though; I'm not gonna lie.

Anyways....yes. It was weird to be there and not be in band; it brought back countless of good memories. But during this game we made some more memories.....Me, Kelsey, Karah, and Kevin. We all had some fun taking some silly pictures....

(Yes, this post is in reverse order again-feel free to read from the bottom up-i dnnt feel like fussing to get the pictures in order!)

These pictures were where we tried to pose so you can't see a double chin on us!! :) I must say, i think it did work!! Am i right or what!?lol Yup, we set the camera on timer mode on the bleacher seat in front of us. A very interesting way to take pictures i must say! :)

Then, during half time, several of us decided to take group pictures. Yes, involving jumping!! But it was hard to time it so it was Justin's idea to just kinda jump whenever....someone was bound to be in the air when the picture actually took!!

Chris, me, Kelsey, Justin, Kevin, Karah, Sam and Andy

I think we were getting ready for jumping pictures here......we were truly all set and ready to go!! :)

Taking after the pose of our "Foxy Fearsome Foursome" with the whole leg kicking thing. (But dnnt worry guys; ours is the original b/c in this picture, only every one's right leg is kicking!! (except Sam) Our FFF is much more advanced; using both legs to make it look symmetrical!) :)

Wanting to take pictures w/ the Tenors like in the good ole day when me and Kels used to compete to see who could get more pictures w/ them!! (haha-funny, but true!!) :)

I'm not gonna lie (once again!! yeayyy!! Please be sure to congratulate me for my honesty!lol) but it was horribly awkward taking these pictures w/ Nick in them b/c i'm pretty positive that he hates me and Kelsey for not doing band. I mean, he always glares at us in the hall or looks the opposite way or just totally ignores us all together when at one point we used to be friends and give hugs, complement each other, and (Nick would) even pick us up and spin us around w/ hugs!! (yea; if you can believe that!!) In this moment though, we all kinda played it cool. Below is our "ZOMBIE" pose; since all night we were talking about zombies and vampires!!ha

A family portrait with Mr. Brown. hahha-doesn't it look like that; i mean, i dnnt kno why Kels put her hand on Kirsten's shoulder like that!!?!?!haha

Then Karah was telling me to take a picture w/ Justin. I dnnt want it to just be us so i yelled for Kelsey...but it was me that he put his arm around!!!hehe. ;) lol Actually, please excuse me in this picture..i look absolutely horrible!! :( ewww!! i look sooo fat!! :(

Then trying to get Patrick to take a picture w/ us...apparently, he wasn't too thrilled about the idea as you can see my trying to urge him to pose!

This night was also "Future Patriot" night when the middle school band gets to go out onto the field and play w/ the high school kids during pre-game. (wow, i remember doing this-i was always out there playing drums/cymbals w/ Ragelle and Karah; years, years ago!) Anyways, Kirsten was paired up w/ Justin, as it only made sense to have the 2 best saxophone players paired together as the band assistant Mr. Morran said. But i love this picture!! I think it is totally cute how Justin put his arm around Kirsten!! I tell ya, if he would have done that to me when we were in the 7th grade, i would have probably passed our and never washed my shirt again!!lol Ok, that sounds really really weird!! :) lol

me and Amanda!! :)

haha-look at her dorky band uniform!!lol Truthfully, i love those band uniforms!! well, the design of them anyways...i must say, they are the nicest looking band uniforms i can think of....for being band uniforms!!

Had to snap a picture of her in the stands!! :)

Here, Preston wanted us to take a picture together so i invited Justin in it also.

Coming off the field after a success during pre-game

Look at how happy they both look!! :D

Sorry, couldn't resist taking a picture of Taras' brother Zack...he is just sooo cute!! :)

(But he looks very concentrated here!)

Kirsten & Justin having fun on the field!! :) It is blurry b/c they were hoping from side to side!! :)














Them actually playing this time!! The real reason for the game!! Kirsten did soooo good and i know she had a blast!! I also know that she will in the future, as long as never joins band in high school!! :-P hehe. lol

Well, i kno i have literally countless more pictures to post. But i have to get back to studying so leave me some comments on this one and in a few days i'll be back to upload more pictures. Only this time of the FFF!!! :) :) :) yeayyyy!! ;)

:)

"Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self control, and in your self control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." ~2Peter 5-8