Thoughts- June 26, 2009

Well, its clearly been months since I last wrote.. But with all going on lately, I decided to start back up again, because it feels good to let all my thoughts out.

Here I go. I may sum it up in a few different posts...





June 26, 2009 8:40AM

I've been challenged lately, in everything that has been going on, to fully rely on God. I, for one, take life for granted. I've never really had to face this kind of thing before, so up close and REAL. This morning while reading the word, I was brought to many different places.. I started off in Philippians, and then was brought to 1 Peter, and finally to 2 Timothy (+John 10:10). I challenge you to read through for yourself what God revealed to me. Perhaps I'm not alone in this, & you are struggling with letting go too. But God assured me that HE IS IN CONTROL. & He has a divine plan for everything and everyone. Even if it isn't so pleasant initially.


2 Timothy 4:5-8
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. 6For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

1 Peter 5:10-11 10
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Philippians 1:12-26 12
Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. 15 If it is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16 The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. 18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two; I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 So that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.


Psalm 116:1-2
1 I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. 2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.

who thinks i should write more?

Even I think I should write more! How sad is it that I have to admit that! hehe.


Well, its been an interesting last few weeks.
My birthday..it was September 21st. It was great. It fell on a Sunday, which sucks totally. But oh well, I cant change the calendar so i'll make do with the suck-age. oh well, next year it will be on a Monday, and that makes me happy, yes it sure does.
I got a butt load of "Happy Birthday Tessaaaaa!"s. Which of course, I loved!(:
From the Facebook wall posts, MySpace comments, and of course the text message and phone call...it was cool. I would count, because even i would like to know how many exactly, but that would be time consuming & im sure you dont care that much :P

I am: fifteen.
I am: loving YoungLife right now.
I am: missing Carly, Kevin & especially Libby Jones(:
I am: strongly disliking boys right now. ugh.
I am: still being a lazy loser & taking my time on getting my permit. YES I REGRET IT ALREADY! But i am taking the test tomorrow, so there!
I am: taking naps every day after school....Tell me theres something wrong with me? I dont care! Trust me, waking up @ 5:45am every morning & going through schoool is no walk in the park!!
I am: so sick of the MCCAIN, OBAMA nonsense on the TV. election day, please hurry & get it over with! I'm so glad I dont have to vote yet!
I am: getting stronger & building more muscle as a result of my grueling HOPE class.
I am: very ready for the GCBC football game.
I am: wondering about homecoming....dont ask.
I am: either getting sick, or allergies are present.
I am: excited for my Concert Project in Schell's class...yeah, i said it.
I am: loving the shirt I just made.
I am: ready for change.

did i ever tell you that....

I LOVE HIGHSCHOOL?


because i do.
its fabulous.
my favorite.
the best.
the bomb-diggity.


holllla to freshman year!
i love it woooo.

new york new york new york new york!

So I went to New York from August 1-7.

It was great. We were to spend a day and a half in the city, and the rest of our time in Syracuse.

We left our house reaaaaaaaaaaaaally early in the morning. Like 5:30AM. Not cool.

But the positive thing was that we flew into JFK at like 10something, so we had a full day ahead of us in the city.

We checked into our hotel & then went out and got some lunch.

We went to a place called STAGE.

It was delish. huggggggggggggggge sandwiches! I just got turkey on a kaiser roll or whatever but I had like a buttload of meat on there! It was crazy! Check out what a sandwich looks like:

Crazy, eh?

Yep. So anyways, we had our lunch there & it was allottta moolah. Like danggg. Who knew 3 sandwiches, 4 sodas, and a cheesecake could be 75 bucks?! We certainly had no idea! Thank God my parents split a sandwich or we woulda been stuck eatin' good ol Mickey-D's for the rest of our trip!

So after eating lunch, we walked around, looking for Tara's favorite NYC store H&M. (Did i say that we put all of our left over meat in a bag? hahah. cuz we did...we figured we'd give it to the less fortunate folks sitting around the streets of New York, cuz otherwise we would've had a buncha meat going into the garbage at Stage, seeing as I took like 3/4ths of the turkey off my sandwich, haha...Anyways, we gave the bag of meat away) So we ended up getting one of those tour bus pass thingys and we hopped on that & took it around the city for alittle while, with the tourguide showing us a buncha cool places. We hopped off at a shopping place & spent a good while in H&M (LOVE it!)

We then ventured on to the hotel to get ready for the Yankees game later that night. We hopped on the subway to the bronx at around 5:30 ish and got to the Stadium by the time the game started. Yank's lost the game...sad. But the experience was fabulous and I loved every minute of it.

The next day we only had a few hours in the city, so we got us some brunch at THE BEST PLACE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, Bagel Maven Cafe. We got sooo much good food. Bagels, waffles, milkshakes, eggs, sandwiches, and yummy stuff like that... for the four of us, we ate it all down woo! delish!

We then did some more shopping (because it rained...boo!) and then got on our way to Penn Station for our train ride to Syracuse the homeland.

In Syracuse we went to Missio Church (which was great), the Westwood, the Brooklyn Pickle, Heid's, and the Carousel Mall. It was fabulous. We got to see a lot of our family, my cousins, and aunts and uncles, my grandma, my great-aunt, my dad's best friend's family, and the Murphy's & the Owen's.

It was really great to spend time with the Stinziano clan. I had a blast being with Sophie, Jack, Jonas, Owen & Jordan & Maggie. It was awesome getting to see Brandon & Alaina Owen and Jim, Tara, and the Murphy kids.

Laura, have a great time...its a blast from the past!

Lake Placid08

Since my last posting, I've been to Lake Placid.
In depth version:
I went to Lake Placid, FLORIDA (no, not NY) with the high schoolers of FBCN. Reasons I wanted to go: (1)- A lot of the group at FBCN go to Gulf Coast, like me. I wanted to build relationships with my soon to be classmates. The bigger part of it is that they are Christians & I wanted to build relationships with my Christian friends who will go to school with me. (2) I really like the leaders. Stacie Dooley is the high school pastor's wife. She leads freshman girls BLG's and stuff and so I got to get to know her on this trip & we had 'Girl Sessions' with her.

I really loved Lake Placid. It was no Lake Aurora (last year's FBCN camp, which I loved) but it was still good. I much perfer Lake Aurora and hopefully next year we'll go back there. Things I liked about Lake Placid Camp:

a. the people. (my favorite group of people while at camp were Amelia, Courtney, Grace, Candace, Maggie, Rick, Katie C., Liz, Molly, Madi, Amber, Stephen, Leah, Claire, Justin, Ali, Kevin, Emma, Adam, Kodi, Logan, etc.)

b. the leaders. (Pastor Nate & his wife Stacie...they were awesome!!!.. and Emma *my dorm leader!*, Kevin *my team leader! GO PERSIMMON![=* Adam *even tho he always sprayed me with the hose and squirt guns!*, Stephanie, Mary Beth, Ginny, and Evan. ...and thats all i can think of right now[; )

c. the teachings. (Pastor Nate spoke on Spiritual Warfare and I learned alot that week from him!!!) (Stacie Dooley, his wife, taught 2 Girl Only Sessions which were REALLY great and I really learned alot from that! She talked mostly about modesty and purity and it was fabulous!)

d. the beach. (The beach was about a 5 minute walk from our dorms and it was really nice! I enjoyed walking down there with my friends and chillin down there...even canoeing and kyayking!!!!!!!!

e. the free time. (We had a lotttt of free time. It was really nice. I got to meet new people, and got to get to know people better. It was really fun!!!!)

f. the fun nights (One night we had Nerd Night...See pics below. Another night we had Twin Night (pic below too) and the last night we had Gangster Night. pics down there vvv)

g. the bonfire. (It was a really great experience with nice worship and sharing time. It was so cool to see my peers standing up and having the guts to share what they are going through!!!)

h. the foot washing service. (On the last night, we had the opportunity to wash feet. First, PNate washed all of the seniors & leaders feet. It was really cool. Then the seniors could wash our feet. Then we could wash our friends' feet. *No male/female foot washing tho!* But yeah... it was really cool. I washed Amelias, Maggies, Candaces, Ambers, Mollys, Savannahs, Graces, Courtneys, and Stacies feet. I think I washed 2 other peoples feeet...but i dont remember right now! lol. With each person that I washed feet, I told them how much they meant to me and what an influence they have on my life, etc. It was really cool to be able to do that and show each and every one of them how much I love them. I washed Amelias because shes been my best friend since we were little. Maggies & Candaces because they'll be my school buddies. Amber because I wanted her to know that she has an influence on people and that people look up to her. Mollys because Ive known her since we were little. Savannahs because she is such an example to me. Grace & Courtneys because I really love them and they are so stinking cool! and Stacie's because she is such a great leader and I really look up to her and know that I can go to her for anything.

The things I did NOT like about Lake Placid are....

a. the food. (G-ROSS! It was not good at all. I'm picky but come on!!! I had straight up salad for lunch and dinner for FIVE DAYS STRAIGHT. Lets just say my stomach was a growler! And when I came home, I feasted on a full rack of ribs!!!!!!!!!)

b. the bathrooms. (In my room, there were 10 girls....and 1 toilet and shower! That is just ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

c. the ants. (I had 46 bites when i came home!)

d. the waiting time. (not fun)

LAKE AURORA IS SOOOOOOOO MUCH BETTER IN SOOOOOO MANY WAYS! I cant even describe my love for lake aurora in comparison to Lake Placid! Lake Aurora is dirty and hot and stuff, but even so the 2 camps do not compare!!!!!!!!!!

pictures!

NERD NIGHT: my outfit consisted of gym shorts pulled way high, tape as suspenders, nerdy socks and shoes that looked weird, my signature item: DRAW ON GLASSES, and pigtails.
TWIN NIGHT: My bff since preschool, Amelia & I were twins. We dressed as Gulf Coast students, sporting GC shirts & jeans, and paint on our arms & hands...nothing too fancy, but still fun!


GANGSTER NIGHT: I wore a wifebeater (2 actually, due to the "It's-Church-Camp-&-We're-Modest-Here" factor. and I wore some low hangin' b-ball shorts. and I wore boxers that hung out a smidge, and some BALLLLLLLLLLLLLLIN borrowed nike's that I fell in love with. The picture does no justice, but i loved my SICK Kicks. I was a STR8 UP G.


Me, Leah Carroll, Amber Emerson, and Claire Dougherty on G-NYYYTE. holllllllllllla to the balllllas.

My Summer so far

I just got back from Maryland the other day, and I had a blast!
From tubing to tanning, badmitton, baseball, mini golf, boating, watching movies, playing games, staying up late and sleeping in, I had a great time!
One day we even went to this guys house like 45 mins from John & Kelly's house and we had the best day ever!
His name was Rob Markwood & he was filthy rich. He had a whole lot of land and a whole lot of toys. When I say toys I mean this:
- four ATV's (four wheelers)
- a couple of go carts
- a couple of golf carts
- three Segways
- a private lake
- ^with jetskiis and mini boats
- a carriage with horses thats like 80 years old that we rode around in for a little bit (feeling like i was in Little Women!)
- and of course his own private helicopter that we rode in!!!!!!
- did I already say that he bought the BatMobile? Because he did. The original batmobile. It was so crazy!
-and he also bought the orange car from Dukes of Hazzard!!!
-and the Barney Fife's cop car from the Andy Griffith Show!
NUTSSSSSSSSS, i know!


It was a great day, needless to say!

The Adventures of Traveling to Maryland...

So, this summer I've been insanely excited to go to Deep Creek Lake, Maryland.
That day finally came, June 20th.
After I shoved every last possible thing into my suitcase, we left and headed for the airport. I got to SWFL International Airport at like 1:3o. [side note: I was traveling with John, Kelly, Drue and Maddie DeAngelis, and my parents and sister are to join us in a week, on June 27th.]
We all get in line and check in and take off at 3:10. As we checked in, the man helping us said some strong four words. "Your plane is delayed." We figured it was because good ol George W. Bush was in Naples for a luncheon (I know, isnt that SICK?!) and he would be flying out of that airport soon. We were like oh okay, how long? And they were like welll... your plane had some mechanical problems, and they arent going to fix it, they're just sending another plane. They said that that plane would be arriving in Ft. Myers (where we were) at about 10:30 pm, possibly earlier. [[insert jaw droppage here]] Luckily we are Christians and were able to keep sanity for the guy and we didnt even drop any vile or vulgar language! Lucky him.
They told us we had an alternative, and that was to fly out of Fort Lauderdale and take off from there @ 8:30. But, it seemed pretty ding dang risky because they were like, you have to get yourself there and go from there. So we were like, who wants to drive to Ft. Lauderdale and then MAYBE get on a plane? We didnt want to get stuck in ft. lauderdale because this way in Ft. Myers, we could just go home if the flight got completely cancelled.
So we were like nah, we'll wait til the 10:30 (or earlier) takes off. Meanwhile, my mom and dad had taken me to the airport, and my dad had come straight from work. So he had to go back to work. We said our goodbyes to dear ol dad and off to work he was...Well with our 1o dollar per passenger vouchers that the airline gave us, we went to Chili's in the airport cuz we were hungry. My mom too, because she wanted to say goodbye to me and wait with me.
My dad calls us 20 minutes later saying he's still in the parking garage and his car wont start. Lucky day,eh? Blah Blah Blah, AAA comes and tows the car to get a new battery, and I have to say bye to my mommma there.
SOOOOO. We are chillin in the airport from 1:30- about 5 when we go up to the front desk to check on our flight times. Well now they are still delayed and tell us were leaving at 12:45 am now. "Um, ok?" We were like ok were sick of the airport, so Bill and Lauren Vecchio picked us up and brought us to their hizzle which is like 10 mins from the airport. We chilled there and then went to the Firepit @ Gulf Coast Town Center (greatttttt new restaurant, by the way!)
After dinner we called and they said that we needed to be through security by 12am, because it closes. So we we hung out at Lauren and Bills and got to the airport at about 11:20 (to beat lines). Through security and in the terminal they told us the plane still hadnt even left Philly yet to come pick us up. It was like 12ish and they said it'd probably be like 1:3o or 2 and they would do everything as quick as possible.
After a 13 hour delay,we took off and headed for Pittsburgh.
13 hour delay. 13 HOUR DELAY! UGH! HOW HORRIBLE!
We got into Pittsburgh at around 5am-ish and then had a 2 and a half hour drive to our final destination, aka paradise: Deep Creek Lake, Maryland.

I slept probably 1 or 2 hours total? Maybe 2.5 hours?
I was exhausted and still am. We're at the house now, and I cant fall asleep its too bright and exciting here.
I'm just laying low though.
Its been a crazy last 13 hours. wowwwwwwzers.