Minuetto, Bradenburg Concerto No.1 in F Major, BMV 1046- J.S. Bach

Monday May 16

Well now i realize that it's almost a week after my birthday and I know
I said that I'd mention all my birthday gifts, so I'll try to list as
much as I can right now. So the way this is going to work is that i"ll
mention the "gift" and then the person(people) that it's from and plus
I'll probably mention my thoughts about each thing (these are pretty
much in order of recieving them):

Wake up "call"- Nikki, Stacey, Ruth-I already elaborated on this so I
just won't repeat myself
A birthday hat-Diane- It was one of those cone shaped ones that sort of
resemled a dunce cap. But ya it was kinda fun to wear a fun hat on my
birthday. It's presently attached to my bed cause it's a fun hat :)
A birthday card-Nikki- I saw this in my mailbox and I was like "the
mail came already?" but it made my day to get a card from Nikki :)
A black shirt with a black flower pin and the new Kelly Clarkson
CD-me!- I think that everyone should buy themselves birthday presents. I was
going to buy tall black boots but then they were kinda pricy for me at
the moment so i settled on a black shirt. Which is cool cause I'm
thinking I need more black to balance out all the colorfulness that I have.
About the CD, well I was going to buy the new Britney Spears because
Laura Bl. has it and it seems like a fun CD to dance around to (even
though I really dislike Britney Spears as a person, her songs are fun) but
I thought I'd go for Kelly because she's cool and she does actually
wear clothes. Plus I like her songs, so ya maybe I'll get the Britney CD
later on, who knows *shrug*.
A slab of 3 Wishes chocolate-Steph- She told me to check my mailbox and
I was so clueless but then I checked it and believe me, I was happy to
get chocolate :) Plus she even wrote me a really cute note on the
package :)
A Turkish Delight Bar & 2 packs of Tim Tams-Graham- He told me that he
wanted to take me for a walk, and I figured that there had to be some
sort of scheming behind it. He actually led me on an "obstacle" course
around campus. Basically I had to jump and dive and go through all the
things that he went through. I actually fell down because I was laughing
so hard. The whole thing ended when we got to his room and I was like
"Um, Grammy! I can't go in there!" He came out and produced the Turkish
Delight bar and explained that since we were doing "Narnia" for
Breakthrough I could be like them and eat Turkish Delight. Then he disappeared
back in him room. I yelled at him "Is that it?" "Yep" was the reply.
Um, ok then...then Graham came out again and produced the 2 packs of Tim
Tams. I seriously started crying!! Aw! Plus they were my 2 fav kinds of
Tim Tams. So ya that totally made my day :)
2 slabs of Fruit & Nut Chocolate and party favor parachuting men-Jana,
Whitney, Bianca- More chocolate!! yes! Plus it's my fav kind! I love
this stuff because it kinda makes me feel as if I'm eatin healthy-ish
because of the raisins and almonds that are in the chocolate. As for the
parachuting men, I got 4 of them and they remind me of when i played
with those things when I was kid. One of them is hanging from my bed; his
name is Walter. Plus they also remind me of skydiving, which is reall
awesome.
A pack of stickers and gel pens-Nikki, Stacey & Ruth- Now they know how
much I use stickers in all my letters to home and that I pretty much
only buy gel pens here in NZ. Yay for usefulness!
Fondue Party- I'm not sure who all put it on but it was really
awesome-Since it was mine and Angeleah's birthday's pretty much everyone showed
up in the Homestead Lounge and had some fondue. Simon even played me
"Take Five" which is one of my fave jazz songs. Aw :)
Another birthday card-A bunch of the girls here from school- Vanessa
was the one who actually handed it to me and even though everyone didn't
sign it it still made me feel special :)
Bee earrings and a gold bracelet-mom and dad- they actually got the
secretaries here at school to hid this form them until my birthday. This
was pretty much perfect timing for the earrings because the gold
earrings that I usually wear, well I kinda lost a stud on one of them, oops.
But that's okay because having these bee ones kinda make up for it...if
that makes any sense to you

The day after my birthday (Wednesday) me and Mark started building the
"beaver dam" for Breakthrough that Sat. Stacey came and joined us too
because she really didn't have anything else better to do. Pretty much
the whole time she killed herself laughing at me and Mark because we
kept bickering and arguing with each other. No wonder they put us as Mr. &
Mrs. Beaver! Oh well I had fun with it :)

Then the day(Thursday) after that some of us gave blood. I didn't have
the same experience that I had last time (thank goodness) but other
than that I was ok. I was actually expecting it to be alot worse but it
wasn't. When we got back to school, I layed down and rested which felt
really good

On Friday Mark invited me to play chess with him. Now he plays chess
pretty often so I knew I was going to loose. Plus I kinda got distracted
by the letter that I got from Amy that day (Thanks Amy! I'll reply
soon, I've just been busy with stuff) but here's the funny thing...we tied
in chess! Huh? Wasn't I supposed to lose? Guess not. Somehow I
couldn't do anything with my king and I was basically trapped or something
like that, I didn't really understand how, but anyway I was tied. So that
was something interesting that happened that day.

Amy send me another article that I'd like to share with you:

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In Step - Chasing Gilbert
by Natalie Lloyd

When I was a chubby 12-year-old with big pink glasses, stringy hair and
a gap between my teeth, I fell in love.
Boys had cooties back then anyway, but it was becoming more and more
obvious that they didn’t like girls like me. I couldn’t play ball,
and because I was very shy and awkward, I never attempted to say
anything funny. There was nothing about me that really stood out. I was
perfectly content keeping my face in the pages of a book or holding a pencil
and paper in my hand. Then one day my mom gave me the book Anne of
Green Gables. I curled up on the couch and met the guy of my dreams -
Gilbert Blythe.

Gil (as Anne called him) picked Anne, a feisty, freckle-faced redhead,
over all the other beautiful girls in his class. He liked the fact that
she was intelligent, and he didn't think it was weird that she loved
to write. They started out as friends who stood by each other through
every crazy circumstance imaginable. I read each book following Anne and
Gilbert's love story. I was there the second she broke a blackboard
over his head (sorry, you've gotta read the book) and squealed and
clapped when he finally asked her to marry him. Gilbert was sweet,
charming and funny. So I made up my mind - I wanted a Gilbert!

The Waiting Game
I still joke with my mom that I'm "holding out for a Gilbert," but
the joke isn't as funny as it used to be. Most of my friends are in
pretty serious relationships. I'm not.

Much of the time it doesn't bother me. But I wish I could say that
I'm always satisfied with Christ, that I don't care about spending
time with a guy for a fun movie date or holding hands or having one of
those conversations that seems like 10 minutes but really lasts for
hours.

All it takes is a little lie or two that the enemy slips my way to make
me feel like an overweight 12-year-old with telescope glasses. There
are random days when I start to list everything that's wrong with me:
any reason I can think of that I'm not the one hanging out with the
guy who other girls wish was theirs.

To be honest, there really are times when it bothers me that I'm
still waiting.

I Want To Be Like . . .
Isn't it so easy to think that if we were just someone else, we would
be more lovely or more loved? It's not true. You and I are made in
the image of the One who is beauty. We're already loved. If we keep
thinking about our outward appearance that's going to get wrinkled
anyway we'll always be unhappy.

Know what I think God is teaching me through this waiting business?
Until I'm happy just being with Him, and until I'm more satisfied with
myself, I can't truly appreciate any kind of romantic relationship.

Instead of wasting energy worrying and wondering about who my Gilbert
is, I'm slowly learning to leave it every bit of it in the
hands of Someone who knows exactly what He's doing. Instead of getting
upset over a long wait, I'm learning to anticipate what God has in
store.

God's dreams for us are better than what we could dream for
ourselves. He knows how much we like being with the opposite sex that's
part of the beautiful way He created us! But happiness isn't going to
come for us when we find our Gilbert; it's going to come when we
find our true worth in Christ.

The Sweetest Relationship
No, I haven't found my Gilbert yet. I'm not even looking. I have
tremendous confidence in the One writing my own love story. He knows my
heart and knows what makes it thump so loudly that I think everyone
around me can hear it. Romance may not come for me in a fairytale cloud or
Cinderella moment when everyone else in the world will see it. That
stuff is too cheesy anyway.

It might happen slowly, though, in a way so amazing that I'll know
Who's behind it all. Don't settle for anything but God's best! He
isn’t having us wait as some kind of a cruel joke. He's teaching us
how to fall in love with Him. Don't lose heart; God's saving a
Gilbert out there just for you!