My Weekend in Colorado and more...

Last weekend I traveled with Susanna to Lake City, Colorado for the fourth of July to visit Charity, Jordan, and baby Adelaide. It was mucho fun! We walked around town, bought turkey legs, ice cream, coffee and soda, we saw beautiful fireworks, a parade(my favorite was Jordan on the youth float singing Family Force 5), and beautiful Colorado scenery..... It was a very enjoyable weekend and I already miss them. Adelaide is a beautiful baby. I love her red hair, the little noises she makes, and how she falls asleep anywhere. Now I have to wait two more months to see them again, and then who knows after that. But I'll make it don't you worry.

A couple weeks before, I spent with Sarah, Luke, Shalom, and Naomi. They came here for Jeremy's graduation. It was tons of fun. I love those little babies so much! And miss them a ton. I cannot wait for our family reunion in September. That'll be amazing.

Last week Josiah came down from Canada and spent a week with us. That was purty fun, although he beats up on me too much.

Sometimes I wish that all my family would live in Utah, but then I realize that where they all are now is where God has placed them. That makes it better usually. It's really hard though, cuz all the babies that are being born, I'm missing a lot of their lives... and I miss my older siblings who live far away too. I miss being able to talk to them in person instead of on the phone or through the computer... But this is part of God's plan, so I just need to remember that.

Tomorrow I leave for Mexico. My mom and I are going down early to do all the food shopping. We did that last year and it was a blast for both of us. So I'm excited to do it again. Hopefully I can memorize 14 or more verses in 18 hours so that I won't have to memorize down in Mexico.... Did I mention I'm doing a bible bee? I can't remember if I did. Oh well, I did now! Anyway, I'm super duper excited for the whole trip!! Except for the heat that is. It's bad enough here, but it's gotta be way worse down there. Hurray for the rainy season though. I'll probably blog about that when I get back, so until then, have a great week!

The Bite

So... this is a narrative essay I had to write for school. I love it.

I never thought that at the end of what started as a typical day, I, an honest child would be stuck in my room because of a lie that I told. Everyone laughs about it today, but that day I cried more than I had on any other day.
That morning, Micah, my brother, and I were playing in our basement playroom. Blocks, dolls, cars and other toys were strewn all over the carpeted floor. Happily, we had decided earlier to build a gigantic house for my Barbies. Actually, I had decided, and Micah reluctantly followed along. What else could he do?
Whenever we played together I was usually the bossy one, always taking charge, whether it was playing house or building block structures. Usually he didn't seem to mind that I was in control, but sometimes he lost his temper if I didn't do it his way for a change. This was one of those days when his self control would be thrown to the wind. Playing happily together, no explosions of tempers or disagreements had occurred yet, in either one of us.
Then suddenly, his anger erupted when he realized that he was like a puppet on a string being manipulated by me, the puppeteer. Angrily, he roughly slapped my cheek like a madman. Being the sensitive child that I was, I overreacted by shrieking as I swiftly clambered up the stairs to my mother. Lying on the couch, suffering from the flu virus, she had a look on her face that said, "Oh please. Not again. Why is she so sensitive?" But to me, this look meant, "Oh no! The poor girl. That evil Micah did something again!" I climbed onto the couch beside her and pitifully cried, "Micah slapped me!". She, not capable of leaving the couch at the time, called for my older sister, Susanna, to bring the terrible wretch, Micah, up from his hiding place in the basement. She then proceeded to comfort me by wiping my tears away and hugging me tenderly.
That was when the real trouble began. You see, I thought that my Mom wasn't strict enough with Micah. I knew that he wouldn't get the punishment that he really deserved, therefore, I decided to make him get what he deserved. Knowing that my Mom would believe me, since I was such an honest child and never lied, I bit into the salty skin of my arm and made sure that there was a noticeable mark. Then I pitifully moaned, "He bit me, too!". My plan worked! Because she believed me, my mother's anger towards Micah grew. After Susanna dragged him up the stairs, Mom sent him into his room to sit on his bed for the rest of the day. Since my mother wasn't able to do it at the moment, my dad would give him a spanking when he came home from work. I had succeeded in making him get the discipline he deserved! Finally, there was a hint of fairness between us. Hurray for the victorious Abi! Life went on as usual. The end..... not really.
My conscience, even to this day, makes me feel guilty. From buying clothes that I really need, to biting myself and blaming my brother. Therefore, my conscience kicked in later that day. Feeling extremely guilty for my lie, and maybe even feeling lonesome for Micah, I proceeded to confess my sin to my mother. In a sense, that was my mistake. Micah and I traded places. He was given permission to come out of his prison into freedom, while I left the free world and traveled into the world of no escape until dinnertime. He still had to receive a spanking from my dad, though, which made me smile a little through my tears that I shed for the second time that day. So, instead of getting Micah into trouble with my lie, I instead found myself in trouble.
After this experience I learned that there's no point in lying, since my guilty conscience will win in the end. Sure, I've lied since then(I think), but not many times, because I know I will feel the guilt sooner or later and have to confess. God was right when he said that your sins will find you out.

A Wonderful Way...

....to start the summer. Last week I pretty much finished all my school work. All I had left was my final exam in Biology for which I planned to study all week. Monday and Tuesday were great. I memorized verses, hung out with my friend Kate, pulled weeds, went to youth, and relaxed... Monday night I started coughing, and onTuesday I had a headache, then it went away, but then it came back along with chills and my body beginning to ache. So Wednesday morning I woke up with a raging headache, chills and sweats, very achy body, runny nose, cough, and painful eyes. I couldn't read or anything. This continued on all week long. I wasn't able to read at all because my eyes and head hurt so badly. So all I did was watch movies... how boring. These are all the movies I watched this week: about 20 episodes of Dick Van Dyke, 3 episodes of Mr. Bean, The King and I, Singin in the Rain, Funny Girl(my favorite!), and I think that's it. It's not as bad as when I got my wisdom teeth out..... I watched 15 movied in 3 or 4 days. I'm feeling kind of better now. Still achy in some spots like the back of my legs (????) and my lower back and I still get hot then cold. We all think it's the swine flu... I hope you like all my blogs about my pain and sicknesses.. haha. Bye bye.

Healing...

For Bible this week I've been learning about Jesus miraculously healing people with leprosy, paralysis, and other diseases. One of the activities I'm to do is write about a healing I recieved from God. I thought, "why not just blog about it?" So that's what I'm doing!

From what I can remember, I was plagued with awful headaches from January 2008 till the fall of 2008. Plus I was getting sick with colds every two weeks. No joke. I remember thinking, "ok two weeks ago I had a cold, so now this is the week I get another one." And it usually happened! It was no fun at all. Especially in the summer. I hate getting sick in the summer! And I could never ever breathe. My nose was always stuffed up. Anyway... I tried so many different remedies to try to cure both of them. Sinus meds, allergy pills, ibuprofen(of course), herbal teas... My parents finally decided to take me to a chiropracter in October to see if there was anything wrong with my spinal cord or neck. And there was. Both were a little out of place. So for the month of October I went to the chiropracter twice a week, stopped lifting weights, took the month of from gymnastics, and started drinking a lot of water. After running out of money and since the chiropracter said it was probably enough, I stopped the visits and resumed my activities. But I continued to drink 64 ounces of water a day, which I still TRY to do to this day! So I thought I was all better..... Then the first week back to gymnastics, I'm pretty sure I undid all the work that was done in my back. After that my headaches came back and my back started hurting a lot. I was really upset with this for a while. I started using a vaporizer at night to clear my sinuses and I still took all the meds and drank water. Somewhere between December and February my headaches ceased. And I could breathe. Then my vaporizer broke and I had to live without it for a couple of weeks, which made the headaches and stuffiness come back again! But I now have a new vaporizer, sinus meds and allergy pills, usually 64 ounces of water in my system, and 8 ounces of water up my nose every night. So I could say that all this made my headaches go away, but I'm not going to. I give all the credit to God. He gave me (my parents I should say) the money to buy the stuff I need, my sister(Charity) who gave me the idea of the NetiPot( nostril-water-stuff), and all that...

It's weird though cuz He healed me from this stuff and at the time I didn't even realize that he had. Now I look back and see all the pain I went through and then I thank him for it, but it's just weird how I could be healed and not even notice. I don't know how to really explain it. It just makes me feel kind of bad. Like I ask him to heal me, he does, and I don't even notice it....? Maybe you'll understand. Maybe it's cuz I don't feel it right now so I don't even think about it.. hmmmm.. something to ponder.

Well if you've reached this point, thanks for reading about headaches and remedies and forgetfullness... I hope I didn't bore you. Have a nice whatever you're having!

Spring in Stockton

Spring has come to Stockton. It was so nice last week, but I had to stay inside the whole time because I was sick. Today was in the 90's.... way to hot, I think, but much better than winter!! Along with the beauty of spring come all the disgusting bugs that bite and sting. I didn't even feel this one at all when it bit me. I was talking to Kate inside the house and she said, " wow, did you get stung by a bee?" And so I went and looked in the mirror and this is what I found! It's humongous!! And it didn't even hurt!

This is the shed my dad built. It's so cool!

And this is the greenhouse my dad built; even cooler.. actually it's hotter. It was 114 degrees in there today.

Moco, the fattest cat in the world, who is hated by every person in our house, except my Dad.

Trinity. I think she was still depressed about her babies. :(

Zoda. He didn't care at all. He's the brattiest goat in the world. But I think he's funny... sometimes. we have a love-hate relationship.

Our willow tree.

My favorite! Apple blossoms!! They're gone now, pretty much. That makes me sad.

Lilac.

Tulips

I have no clue...

Shilo(h)! Micah doesn't spell her name with an 'h', but it looks naked without one.

Happy spring to you all!

A Few Things....

that I'm certain of right now:
:: Besides Jesus and Katherine( who I get to meet this summer!!!!!), my nalgene is my best friend. I take it everywhere.
:: I still don't really know who I am. I know that sounds really cheesy, but it's true.
:: I do know that I want to be a missionary, preferably in Mexico, or a youth leader, maybe at the church I grew up, and a mom(although I'm terrified of labor).
:: I'm getting better at being brave about small things, like calling people on the phone or talking to new people, but it's still a constant struggle.
:: I can't wait until school is out! 2nd week of June here I come!
:: The pets in my house need to be destroyed. I can't breathe.
::My whole family needs to move to Utah. Especially with all the babies they are having.. peoples I'm missing their best years!! Just kidding... They'll probably move back when they are teenagers.. great. that's the worst part of life. hehe.
::Speaking of teenage years.. mine haven't been as bad as most people. I haven't been suicidal, except a couple times, but they were kind of fake, I haven't gone into a deep and long and dark depression like some of my other siblings, I haven't messed around or physically hurt myself on purpose.... and I only have two years to go! yay.
:: People keep asking me if I have my license. No, I don't and I probably won't be getting it until the fall of 2010 or later. I'm terrified of driving. Most people tell me that's a good thing.
:: I have $357.89 in my bank account. I think that's the first time it's been over 300 dollars, so yay for me! I'm a miser, therefore I won't be spending much of it very soon.

Well there are some random facts I thought I would share with you. Hope you enjoyed! Now back to my essay.....

My sad, but awesome weekend

This weekend I went to Acquire the Fire in Denver with 17 kids from my youth group. I never imagined that many kids going! It was awesome; all of us grew closer to eachother, which is really a work of God because so many of us are really shy people. And I could tell that a couple of lives were changed as well....
The sad part is that on Saturday, my goat had her babies, but they died. No one was home at the time, so they either suffocated because the mom couldn't get the sack off them or they got chilled and died. I was hoping they were born dead, so they wouldn't have suffered at all, but I'm guessing that's not the case. And that just makes me feel terribly guilty. And sad. It's been kinda hard since I found out... see we got her bred last spring and she was due in July during a week long conference that I wanted to go to, but skipped just in case she delivered then. Unfortunately she wasn't pregnant at all, which was a big disappointment. Then we got her bred again in October, and finally knew that she really was pregnant in like January. So I was getting really excited cuz it was the real thing this time. This time she was due on the 30th, but she didn't have them. So I thought she would have them that weekend while I was gone to surprise me.. and she did. Ugh... my dad told me over the phone in the van, which wasn't a good time cuz I was with tons of people and I was really sad.... All that I've pictured in my head today were the white and brown teeny little goats laying dead in the shed. Trinny, the mom, has been looking for them all day, but can't find them. It's so sad!! This probably sounds like a lot of wimpy stuff huh? I guess I've never experienced death in my life except once... Hopefully we'll get her bred this fall so she can have them next spring. So there's my sad story....