Tessa's Intentional Blabber

Thoughts- June 26, 2009

2009-07-05T13:29:00.001-07:00

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.

new york new york new york new york!

2008-08-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

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!

My Summer so far

2008-07-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

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, and soo so nice. 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...

2008-06-21T06:59:00.001-07:00

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.

goodbye

2008-05-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

Oh my dang. Today marked a day that I believe I will remember forever. It was full of laughing, smiling, hugging and crying. This morning was fine. I was good... strong and stable. I was laughing, writing in yearbooks, and taking pictures with ppl and enjoying my day. Well then it came to lunch which was at about 12 30. My very last lunch as an 8th grade student at north Naples middle. I sat surrounded by the people I love. Those going to gulf coast and a few who will be going to barron. Most of my good friends are going to gc which of course is good. So I got teary but no full tears thank goodness... Then came time after lunch at about 1 where all of us 8th graders piled into the gym to chill, hug, cry and say goodbye. So the first 25 minutes I was able to hold back the tears and just talk to ppl and stuff. But once it hit me at like 1 30, I had to say goodbye to some of the people that I really truly care about. It was extremely hard to say goodbye to holly, tyler, peter, taylor and jesse. Ah, it was so sad.I was balling saying goodbye to them.

So This Is Goodbye

2007-09-02T17:55:00.001-07:00

My best friends moved yesterday. All 6 of them. Jordan, Maggie, Sophie, Jack, Jonas and Owen. In my earlier blog, titled "Ah, So Soon" (see below) I spoke of these dearest cousins of mine. As I will say, they are near and dear to my heart. And I love these people more than anything in this world. They moved to our hometown, (theirs and mine) Syracuse, NY. I am devastated and upset but I know it was the right thing for them to move.

My parents went to their house on Saturday to say their final goodbyes and to bring them coffee. Well, when they got there they ended up staying to help out some.

I said my goodbyes to Jordan, Sophie, Jack and Owen on Friday evening. However, I cried even in such a setting so odd. Unfortunately, I did not get to say goodbye to my cousin Maggie. And also her son Jonas.

I wish I could have said goodbye to her (and Jonas, although he doesn't know what goodbye means and that he won't see me until Christmas) but I did not. It would be too hard for her and for me to say goodbye like that. We are close knit and saying goodbye is already hard but with the set up of things, its harder.

I will miss the Jordan Stinziano family. Greatly. I know that God has called them to this place which HIGHLY needs their phenomenal church starting skills and their love for Jesus. I hope that they take Syracuse to bigger and better levels with the church.

I love you guys. I cannot wait until Christmas. I miss my lovely fam.

Ah, So Soon

2007-08-26T14:50:00.000-07:00

So soon, so soon.
A lot of things are "so soon". Here are a few:

Jordan and Maggie are leaving for good on Saturday. (6 days). Except I dont have 6 days to hang out with them. I have one. They go to Disney tomorrow (i think...) and return on Thursday evening. And I have school of course on Friday and they have plans on Friday night. Sad but true. So I will be there on Saturday to wave them off. Now that will be 10 times as sad as today was. Today there was a Summit Staff & Family party for Jordan and Maggie. I cried like a babyyyyyyyy. Wow. I am going to miss them so much you guys reading this have no idea. Sophie is so cute right now and she is getting so old...But the thing is I am WATCHING her grow old. Not for long. She will be gone in a heartbeat and I will see her at Christmas and she'll be old. Ah. It makes me sad. And Jack? Oy. He is growing bigger (and wider!) by the second. And he is such an encourager. Ay ay ay. Jonas is sooo cute. He's at such a sweet time in life...Although sometimes mischevious, he's a cutie. I love watching him. I tend to sit and chuckle. He's a funny one, that Jonas. Owen. Oh sweet Owen. He and I share birthdays. Isnt that fun? So he will always be my boy. I'm sad that he can't talk yet and that he can't understand me because I talk to him about us being best friends and birthday pals forever. But he fails to understand me. Its kind of upsetting. I wish I could be able to call him on our birthday to wish him well, but he wouldnt know who it was and he wouldnt understand. So thats kissed goodbye. He's going to be one on September 21st. Although we are 13 years apart, I still feel the special bond. And I cannot even write about Jordan and Maggie or I will surely cry. Maybe another time. But certainly not now. All of this to say, Jordan, Maggie, Sophie, Jack, Jonas and Owen: I will miss this clan of Stinziano's. Sweet, sweet cousins of mine.
Please pray for them. Moving with Maggie's cancer is going to be a struggle since she is weak. I pray that they can hire a nanny and that the kids will love this nanny. Prayer is key. Keep it up.

On a happier note, my friend Laura is getting married to my other friend Slim. They will wed on September 15th. I am in this wedding. I am a bridesmaid! Its so exciting. I am counting down the days, as are Laura and Slim.

As mentioned earlier, it is my birthday on the 21st of September. WOOT! I will be fourteen and I am thrilled! Whatcha gonna get me?
Just kidding. Don't get me SQUAT! I want nothing but a happy birthday from those reading this.

kaybye.

All of the Psychotic Things we did Last Night at Crave

2007-08-02T08:45:00.001-07:00

Last night at youth group we had a CRAVE VIDEO SCAVENGER HUNT.
We arrived at Mike's house at 7 and got situated. Picked our teams, got our cameras, the whole shabang (how does one spell that word?!) and then set off on our journey. I was on Jared's team. (Yes, yes same guy who gave us the tour of his house, gave us the tour of his house.)
Now, Jared drives a big blue truck (emphasize on the big... blue... truck..) So I said..."Are we for real riding in this thing?!" I thought those jokers were crazed. (It turned out to be fine; I just worried a smidgen too much about how perhaps I would get inside the flipping thing) On my team was Jared, Michael...) and Megan G., and Kelsey. I was shooting for more of a "Can I just go on Lauras team cuz thats my comfort zone, bye." type thing. But I didnt. I was a good little girl that night!
We (along with a couple other teams who had the same idea) went off to Publix to complete our first mandatory task. This was to put 3 members of your team in a cart. (Say what?!) Yeah well when Jared turned our camera on the battery died. (The guy claims he charged it all day but must have left it on in the bag... oops!) Well we had to join another team. Brandon Owen's team. His team consisted of Dane (freakishly tall boy), Jennifer, and her two friends who dont have names that I remember. So we joined that team and did our cart thing. Next up, Dane ran into Publix and bought a Pepsi (turned out to be a 12 pack of soda!) **Task 2 was to chug a can of Pepsi and then belch. (PIGS! Haha. I skipped out on this one; I get sick from Pepsi...as we later found out that Dupree does too...SICK!) Meanwhile, the rest of our team went over to Starbucks to ask someone working in there "What their perspective of God is" (task 3) we had to ask 3 people. We asked 2 workers this question and one HESITANT lady outside. (Psh, THAT WENT WELL!) Then we walked outside and found a sort of long haired fellow. (Task 4 was to give a stranger a noogie) Jared thought it would be awesome if I did this task. (FOR REAL?) I was like uh uh no way. Yeah well I was the one who gave that man a noogie. It was an event. The rest of the group finished task 3 and chugged their pepsi. Then we did a bonus task (film a boy coming out of the girls bathroom)

I'm going to wrap this up and say the rest of the psychotic things we did last night.
-Ordered a cheeseburger with no cheese.
-Put an old lady on the ground and had her fall down and say "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!"
-Hugged a gas station worker
-Hugged a stranger
-THE WHOLE TEAM HAD TO HANG UPSIDE DOWN and sing the Pledge of Alliegence to the theme song of Gilligan's Island. (We had to travel all the way to Estero Park)
-Have a little kid sing Mary had a little lamb

Thats all I can think of right now. The night was crazy. We had a good time. I hope to do it again...with a little more time though.
Sorry its soo long.

Jared got to give us the tour, Jared got to give us the tour!

2007-07-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

Last night was a good night. Tara, Drue and I went to Jared & Heather Longshore's house. It was a lot of fun! When we got there, we walked in the door and who other than Laura McElheny was standing in the kitchen! Ah, such a sweet surprise! (I failed to see her car in the parking lot.) I instantly exclaimed, "Where in the world is Slim?!" And she replied, "He's in BOSTON." (She said this with much pity.)
I then talked about how what a shame it was that Slim was stuck in the evil town of Boston, where the foolish foolish Red Socked FIENDS roam. (I HATE BOSTON, as you can see....I much prefer, hmmm, NEW YORK! Side note: Go Yanks!)
Anywho, our dear friends Heather and Jared have a stunning abode which we went to on this night of July 30th. When we got inside, (after quick-chatting with Laura) Jared began to jump around and proclaim "I GET TO GIVE YOU THE TOUR! I GET TO GIVE YOU THE TOUR!" (I chuckled.) We then went on the tour, and oohed and ahhed of their beautiful household. (Heather did a grrrreat job...Jared did too!)
We ate chips (lime tortilla chips with cheese dip and salsa, justincaseyouwondered) and we talked for a little bit. Then we broke out the XBOX and started playing the beloved Tetris. (Ah, such fun! And memories of when dearest Laura would come over to my house and we'd sit on the striped rug and play Tetris!) We played until the dinner was ready. Heather did a phenomenal job! Wow, shes a good cook. We had chicken and rice and it was deeeeeeeeeeeelish. (Emphasize on the 'eeeeeeee') We ate (and notedly scraped our plates) and talked. It was a mighty fine time. Then Heather pulled out the CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. Dang, those were heavenly. I ate four. (Shh.) And Jared, Drue and Tara had ice cream (with such extraordinary toppings, might I add) We then chatted for a good while and enjoyed ourselves greatly. Then we watched Blank's Kitchen. (Ha! Jared insisted that we not call it HELL'S KITCHEN. Jared said to us, "I'm going to call your parents and see if you are allowed to watch..." We laughed and said they totally wouldnt care that we watched this show and he proceeded to call them. As of course our parental units said yes, we watched the show.) Silly Bonnie wasn't even evicted from the competition. FIEND! Poor Jen was. Ah, the sadness. At 10 we watched Making the Band 4. (The show with P. Diddy. See also Puffy, Puff Daddy, Diddy, Sean Jean, Sean Combs, and probably more that I cannot seem to think of.... We also noted that the fellow has too many names although we commended him for pulling it off.)
Afterward we left the Longshore home. We had a great time and love us some Heather and Jared! (They are pretty much on my top list of people I love)

Thanks Jared and Heather! We had a goood time at your house!

Mission Trip Type Thing

2007-07-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

I went on a mission trip type thing to Orlando on the 19th- 22nd of July.
I had such a great time there and I loved it. We had four sessions (one each day) and they were amazing. Levi, Jared and Todd are such great speakers. I learned so much through this trip. We went to Islands of Adventure on the 20th and we had a pretty good time. I am not a roller coaster person. AT ALL. Laura and Tara convinced me to go on Spiderman. The wait was only 45 minutes (ONLY?! yeah i know it was Lonnnnng) so we decided to go ahead. Me, Laura, Tara, Todd W., Niko, Kelsey, Haley and Laydie went on it. In the car thingy that I was in was Tara, Laura, Todd and I. I sat between Laura and Tara and held their hands. We started to go and all was fine. Then we started being jerked around from left to right. Todd and I were screaming. (Did I mention that Todd was scared of rides too? I dont know why but he most certainly is....So Todd and I were the scared people on this ride.) Well... When we were jerking and then SPINNING, Todd and I were totally hating it. Todd was screaming "GET ME OFF OF THIS...NOW!" and i was squeezing the crappp out of Laura and Taras hands and asking, "Is it almost over?!"
I laughed that my youth pastor was just as scared of the ride as I was.

The next day we went to Give Kids the World. It was ah-mazing. I learned to give myself up and SERVE. Later in our "venting session" that night, I said "I learned to put myself in the closet and put the kids in the trophy case so that they can have the spotlights on them, not ME." I think everyone sat there and thought about that one. It was a real experience that I will never forget.
I am trying to keep the attitude that I had on that weekend. Its hard though. But it is in my prayers that I will live out the server's heart DAILY.

Since this is already long and I am totally rambling, I will stop now. I wish I could say more about our Give Kids the World Experience, but I'm afraid it will be a little much.