you should probably follow ladaisi's blog.

i'm in love.

can you explain it?

Listening to Bill Maher ridicule our beliefs with a crowd laughing at every word makes you wonder if the reason he’s never understood Christianity properly is because no one was able to explain it to him… or maybe he’s just what he looks like, an irritating, ignorant rationalist trying to put on a comedy.
The only reason I would, or could ever be ashamed to call myself a Christian is because of other so-called “Christians” parading around like some know-it-all-self-religious-throw-it-in-your-face idiots who when asked to explain their reasoning come up with a load of crap you can’t even back up with the Bible.
In America, those “claiming” to be Christians have decreased from 86 percent in 1990 to 75 percent today, and I know that is still a rather large portion, but it’s not the “claiming” or “labeling” that should matter but what people believe and do… and if they can explain themselves—the reason for the hope that should be very apparent in their lives. To call Christianity “just another belief or religion” is degrading by all means and if a so called Christian is not capable of explaining what it really is than they shouldn’t be claiming any religion at all until they’ve got their facts straight. To have a religion means to have faith in it, something that backs you up that you believe in and work for… you can call Christianity what you want as a religion---but what it really should come down to is a person distributing Christ’s love through a very evident relationship with the Father.

nothing

She twirled the match around, like a sorcerer with a wand controlling the flame before it bit at her fingers. I imagined the smoke, now climbing in the air from the black head of scalded wood, was an old woman with long gray hair ever entwining behind her coal face. She proceeded to light the five candles, each rich vanilla. They were all below four inches high and would not last long. There was a blue candle of which I did not know the scent, with a glass frame to keep the wax from spilling. When she blew them out I put my finger in the milky wax. It burned for only a second until it dried into a round crust on my fingertip. I peeled it off to examine the perfect, smooth print inside the now hardened impression.

Christmas

I have decided I’m looking forward to Christmas this year. I wasn’t at first because who knows what it’ll be like without my whole family here… but today when we went to Goodys they were playing Christmas music (and it wasn’t as bad as last years, surprisingly… well, except this one song where the lady sung REALLY out of key)… last year it drove me insane because they start playing Christmas music sooo early, but, it didn’t really bother me this time. In fact, I’ve missed it. We kinda missed Christmas last year being in the Keys in all, so yeah… I wanna watch all our traditional Christmas movies we watch every year, set up the tree and play the old records… yep. And even if it’s dorky and we don’t really do Christmas gifts I just don’t care… I wanna have a good Christmas.

smithy

i've been tagged

Rules consist of:
Link to the person (Lauren) who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write Six Random Things about yourself.
Tag a few other people at the bottom of the post and leave comments on their blogs to let them know they've been tagged.
And also let the person who tagged you know when you've written the post.

1. I get the hiccups whenever I eat pancakes, toast, carrots or hamburgers.
2. The longest I've ever gone without biting my nails is a week--and that was almost painfully hard.
3. The sound or feeling of wood scraping against teeth just kills me like a fingernail against a chalkboard.
4. I don't like pie.
5. I've watched Much Ado About Nothing about 5 times in a row and I'm still not sick of it... and I bet I could quote the Emperor's New Groove and Monty Python the whole way through.
6. I have a deadly fear of spiders.

I've always wondered what it would be like to get tagged... huh. It was actually kind of hard thinking up six things... lol... well, I hereby tag Kacie and Christa... yep, looks like everyone else I know on blogger has already been tagged.

smithy

boomin' out the computer screen

Last night I stayed up late doodling in my artbook. I haven’t been working on artwork much lately and I’d just been looking at sketches on google and I guess it inspired me because I can’t put my pencil down now… it’s fun, but I’m having a hard time keeping my characters modest. I know, that must sound awful but I can’t help it. A true artist learns the curves of the body and draws them out as a beautiful masterpiece, if I have to keep clothes on how are you supposed to see the body? Alright, so that wasn’t rightly put because most people probably say that to today’s skimpy fashion, but seriously, this is just my artwork and nobody really looks at it anyways. The female figure has always inspired me more than anything else when it comes to drawing, and that’s what I like to draw, so why not expand my talent? All the great artists back then didn’t bother to add clothes, why should I? I guess I just have to be careful how far I go with it—not to mention, who I let see my work.
I got this cute forward I love that goes like this: A girl asked a guy if he thought she was pretty. He said no. She asked him if he would want to be with her forever. And he said no. She then asked him if she were to leave would he cry, and once again he replied with a no. She had heard enough. As she walked away, tears streaming down her face the boy grabbed her arm and said... You’re not pretty, you're beautiful. I don't want to be with you forever, I NEED to be with you forever. And I wouldn't cry if you walked away...I'd die...
That is just about one of the sweetest things I’ve ever heard… man, I wish someone’d say that to me!
Luke came charging into the living room this evening with a shirt and some tight sweats on. He was growling at Lydia and began hissing through his teeth, “Don’t make me mad… you don’t want to see me when I’m mad.” He then proceeded to take off his shirt while making his own sound effects. *Rip rip rip*. Then off went his pants—don’t worry he had shorts under them—running around the room like a crazy monkey shrieking and growling. He then ran down the stairs leaving his clothes on the floor and those of us who witnessed the “transformation” in hysterics. Hmm. Well, I think his impression of the Hulk was pretty good if I do say so myself.
The weather lately has been getting colder and colder… it makes me sad. It reminds me of grandma when she’d come up from Florida for Christmas. We’re going through another drought and our well is getting rather low. It didn’t bother me as much before because it’s supposed to rain during the spring and summer—but it hardly rains in the winter… this could be bad.
What’s been up with my fam: Lydia and Luke are reading the Bible now and whenever we have devotions they pray just about the longest prayers ever---I remember going through that stage. Peter just got over his “two month” cold—which we found out was allergies. Me, well, I’m the usual—except for a little something something going on with me and someone. Matt is going to Tri-County, he was working at the Comfort Café again but he quit because it was taking too much time that he needs to study. Steph is still in Florida working at Peir One, and Tim informed me she misses us! It’s amazing… lol… jk… Lauren and Tim are doing good—raising Isaac, writing another book, working on college… the usual I guess, but then, when is anything exactly like usual? Just read Lauren's blog. We still get emails from Noah every now and then telling us what he’s been up to over there in Laos. They’re very interesting emails because the grammar is usually all wrong, and he’s started referring to God as Papa… it’s rather hysterical. But yeah, he sounds like he’s doing good. I miss him, and Steph. Mom always seems to be filling out these surveys for Home Depot, Landsend, Country Living or whoever to win their store sweep stakes—and she’s handed the emailing homeschool work over to someone else so—amazingly—I won’t be called down here to help her figure out email stuff, as often, that is. Honestly I don’t know why she was chosen—or picked, I don’t know which—for that job because she knows nothing whatsoever about computers. Dad has allergies in the fall so his eyes are always pink and puffy and it kind of scares me. He’s still always pausing movies in the middle to give a history lesson… and he’s gotten very cautious about electricity savings and when I’m in my room he comes in and turns the light off on me. He bought a machine that changes videos into dvds---which is a good thing because our vcr just quit working I miss watching Disney cartoons.
Annnnd I'm afraid that's all I have to update on now... so, until next time my fellow bloggers.

smithy

funniest scene in Blades of Glory---it's Beau's fault

John Heder (Jimmy): “I see you got fat.”
Will Ferrell (Chazz): “I see you still look like a fifteen year old girl but not pretty.”
Jimmy: “You crushed my dreams.”
Chazz: “Dreams? I haven’t had one of those in years.”
Jimmy: “Zip it, Chazz. Zip it or I will punch you in your crap lousy face.”
Chazz: “Hey, this ends tonight.”
Jimmy: “It’s daytime, you douche.”