the season of FUN!

my family is awesome, and christmas was great. it was so much fun, passing around everyones presents, and having our eggs and cinimon roll breakfast. our family has really gotten into the reason for the season.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
and a happy new year!

Glenn Beck

is the most wonderfully inspirational man ive seen ever. go out and buy his book 'the Christmas Sweater'. if you cant, ask me and ill loan you my copy. his book is everything someone struggling needs to read, and i know very well the feeling of relief and wonder one will get after reading his work.

i got to see a live broadcast of his theater production. i was moved to outright weeping several times, as was he (and this wasnt his first performance). there was just so much feeling in his words alone as well as in his performance, and in the music selections (words cannot describe the emotions that oh so blessedly talented singer stirred in me)

he spoke so plainly, i couldnt help but automatically understand. his message is everything that someone who has lost all hope, all faith, needs to hear. when the credits began to roll i didnt want to leave, i just wanted to curl up in my chair and continue to cry. cry out my dispair, cry in rejoicing, in awe, in misery all at once. i thanked my mother for taking me several time, and it still isnt enough. as we walked to the car i started to cry again, because i couldnt get over the feeling that he left me with.

most of you know, im not an easy crier. but glenn had me weeping like a baby. at first it was just tears running down my face, then the shakey lip, and then i couldnt keep it in. it was just so overwhelming, that i wish i could take you guys back to see it. it was his last performance, and just watching him on that stage you could understand why. the emotional toll that telling this story takes on him, to go through that time after time after time, its amazing. i want to relive the moments in that theatre again and again. it was all so amazing, so awesome, in the original sense of the word.

i cried even as we walked to the car, i was so moved by him. and then i had to compose myself so i could go run to barnes and noble so i could by my mother and myself copies, because my aunt (her cousin) has our family copy. and at B+N there were hundreds of christmas books, so many copies of classics and new releases that i over looked the seven lonely copies of the christmas sweater. but i found them, and ive got one for my very own.

any one who has issues with their past they have yet to come to terms with, any one who has problems with their parents, please read this book. its the reason that this time of year is truly so celebrated. its about hope, redemption, atonement, loss, suffering, love, joy. most of all, love and joy. any one who has ever felt so hopelessly lost, so achingly far from home needs to read this book. please.

and now to sleep.
farewell my friends

english class

HAS BEEN TOTALLY AWESOME!!!

we're reading 'parable of the sower', which is a science fiction book, set in the future, that deals with religion, adapting to the changes in society (not many for the better) and survival. the discussions in class are so much fun! this is the first book ive read all of so far for class, and its been amazing how the class is responding to it. the discussions are fun, if a little chaotic at times, and i love debating themes and ideas, as well as bringing in new perspectives. its so much invigorating! i used to sit in class and contribute very little, bare minimum, and usually what i gleaned from the comments of other students. but now? im starting discussions, contributing meaningful feedback, and really really getting into it. augh! i wish you guys could see me. its so much fun. id forgotten how much i liked doing this. hopefully my history class will be this much fun. i didnt sign up for an english class, and now i wish i had.

adorable

apparently my occasional incoherency is adorable.

i stutter, lose my thoughts, mix up my words, and apparently it just makes me more endearing to other people.

you should have seen me in class yesterday. it was a riot of adorable-ness.

what is it about problems like this that makes them so cute on some people?

X-Mas Spirit: Pond Style

Trans Siberian House Lights

Mad Russian Christmas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4FW4pukdFI

Wizards in Winter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szLmAPW39uE

(these are two different houses with the same song. this one is better)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYyoLLO8yz8

Nutcracker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJISYEbPF4E&feature=related

Siberian Sleigh Ride
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq4VMwN2aJw&feature=related

Queen of the Winter Night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGRXiy2ODqw&feature=related

Carol of the Bells (my FAVOIRTE carol)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot-B4V8oqPQ&feature=related

problems?

maybe just a little....

when i like a movie, i get a little fanatical about it. you can tell what movies ive gotten obsessed with just by looking at my bookshelf.

illustrated visual companions for serenity, firefly (both volumes) lord of the rings and now twilight.

i love knowing the stories behind the scenes, funny things that happened on set, reasons behind costume choices, random micselaneous stuff that no one but me really seems to care about.

i saw twilight again. i cant help it, its just a nice movie i can get into. its not phenominal, not ground breaking, but i enjoy it, and ill probably go see it again. lets delude ourselves into thinking its because every one who wants to see it with me has a scheduling conflict shall we?

on another note, a friend of mine got back from his mission. and some other friends of mine get to go see him. yes, i am jealous, but being there myself would probably have been awkward, because we werent close before his mission (and really, we still arent) and i dont know his family well, but theyre really nice people. i just wouldnt have fit in there. so heres to hoping that he'll come down here to see hes sunshine weather friends (and those of us who could afford neither the plane ticket, nor the time off from school)

and now im off to see transporter three. yay JASON STATHAM!!!!

responsibility whats that?

so my brother and i decided to go out and get a movie. we decided on speed racer, and since we were at target and i hadnt had their swiss chocolate bars for a while (for some reason ive been cursed that i dont get to finish them because they get devoured or otherwise made un-eatable by the nearest canine) and decided since i was going to have milk with it, i might as well do the responsible thing and get some more so that my mom didnt have to do it tomorrow.

i feel so grown up!

marines rock

danny's home, for those of you who follow the sad monotany that is my life. danny is the totally awesome dad of one of the families i baby sit. it was fun to really sit down and talk to all of them. you can tell hte kids really love their dad. ive never seen any of them so lively. it was a little funny, seeing the boy and their oldest daughter climb all over this burly marine.

apparently its really boring over there sometimes. danny had SO MUCH miscellaneous videos on his computer. he maxed out his memory on his back up memory thing. i got a glimpse of some of the stuff. It was alot, and much of it funny. apparently the bases have a main storage computer thing and when new guys come to the base they swap whatever they have, vids pics etc. sounds interesting.

so he's home, and that is one happy family. im totally jelous of her.