Heidi

Well, graduation is over…
No more Steven at school to make me laugh my head off and no more Matt to hold the door open and say good morning…
Oh well, way to go guys!
Graduation weekend was fun…pretty much fried my brain the first half and partied away the second half and got no sleep either half. Friday afternoon Steven and I were at school finishing up tests and Mrs. I and Mr. Schrock were both there working hard. Steven was giving us the layout of his day, “Today is just a good day. First of all I get to hand in my last PACE, go hang out with friends, get the final things ready for tonight, get all dressed up, walk up on stage, get my diploma, and everyone claps for me. Then I get to stand in line and shake everyones hand and get my flowers squished. Then we have the party at church, and I get lots of presents. And after that party, go play basketball in the shop with a bunch of people for a long time. And maybe after that I should do an all-nighter with Matt…hmmm.” Mrs. I and I both give him deathly cold glares, then he adds, “BUT, of course, the best part of the whole day is hanging out here right now with such excellent people!”
Much better.

I’m discovering Photoshop. Here are a few creations I made while learning how to use it…

We will definitely miss you seniors next year, but I know God has other great plans for you besides just school!

*Photos by Benji

Monday evening we left Wichita and flew to Chicago then to Boston. We spent the night in Boston then in the morning flew on a really little plane (6 passenger) to the island of Nantucket. Our friends own a house here and are generously letting us use it! The house is charming, the beach is amazing and the whole island is super fantastic!

*Picture credits go to Benji*
More pictures may come later, but we’re heading to the beach now…

Any questions?

Ok, no I didn’t choose the colors, no, I didn’t choose the day, no, I didn’t choose the bridesmaids, no, I didn’t even know I was having a wedding today actually, and the worst part of it was that I didn’t even get to choose the groom. =O

Well, actually, It was kinda crazy, but all of us underclassmen girls showed up at school today dressed like this, totally unplanned and we started looking at each other and were like “wow, this is amazing!” Then someone suggested that it looked like a wedding, so we had to take pictures of course and have ourselves a little wedding. lol. Thanks to Sheila for being the photographer…

Now a slight change in subject, but tomorrow is our last day of school!! (Those exclamation points were not for excitement, but for grief and…umm…sadness.) You might think it’s crazy, but it is really sad that school’s ending so fast! We had so much fun this year and the fun seemed to only be gaining momentum towards the end. Don’t get me wrong I am looking forward to this summer, almost like no other, and I will be glad for the break from all the PACE work, but it’s still just a ‘tiny bit sadish’ as Frieda would say. Btw, some of you might know this already, but our family is going to Europe this summer for almost the whole month of June…I! Can’t! Wait!
Today was the second to last day of school, and of course it was a blast! But sort of a sad blast…if that’s possible. Cause everything we did was so much fun, but I kept thinking that this will be the last time we do this and have so much fun with these same people for a long time. At least I’m not graduating this year…whew.
After school a group of us played basketball. It was great, we played hard and had fun. After we reached 50, we went outside and played v-ball in the rain, that was awesome, except the ball got heavy and rather slippery. We talked for a while in the shop, laughing about funny things that had happened this year and just hanging out. We relocated to the kitchen when someone mentioned the ice cream left over from lunch today. We found some left over Pepsi from lunch and had Pepsi floats then also discovered that there was some chips, salad, and Bar-B-Q beef stuff left over from lunch as well. (We ordered that stuff for lunch today with our money that we got from recycling pop cans.) So we had some more fellowship with food. Good Times.

Now, I’m at home updating my blog when I have a ton of schoolwork waiting for me in my bedroom. I’m sure I’ll be up till 3 or later, cause I really have to get that stuff done before tomorrow. So ttfn, pray for me that I’ll get it all done =)

There’s a fairly nice sized thunderstorm going on outside tonight and just after a really loud thunderclap, Dad randomly opens the door, looks up and says, “Hey God…Nice!”

This group of girls rock!
Oh they are so much fun…This last Saturday, we had to have school because we had one too many snow-days. So since we had a make-up day and had to get up early on a Saturday anyway, we decided to just get up a little earlier and enjoy our day. Getting up at 5 or getting up at 7 doesn’t seem much different to me, getting up in the morning is hard for about the first 5 minutes, but after that it doesn’t make a difference to me what time it is. Anyway, all of us school girls decided to get up really early and go up under the overpass and watch the sunrise! It was the bomb! We sat there watching the sun come up sitting close beside each other wrapped in blankets. We sang and I played guitar a little, then we partied a little longer up there and took some pictures. A train came past while we were there and the conductor leaned out the window and waved at us, then blew his whistle in a funny little rhythm.
At about seven we all hopped in Alicia’s SUV and went to McDonalds to get hash-browns and try out their new coffee drinks. We were soo loud and laughed soo hard on the way in and out…I’m glad we were the only ones who could hear/see us.
Well, we got to school…and we were late. We all sheepishly filed in with our coffee in hand and set up our chairs for chapel next to all the guys who were having a nice little chapel with, themselves. As soon as we came in and were still setting up our chairs, they rather quickly ended their song they were singing and began singing “Come Bless the Lord”. We caught on pretty fast to what was going on and actually came in on time…It was a good day. Even though I’m not big on the whole idea of having school on Saturday, it was such a good day, I almost wouldn’t mind doing it again.

Sheila, Frieda, and Elaine with the upcoming sun glowing on their faces…

Sheila Sheila =)

Love you guys!

Here’s one of my favorite pictures of the day check out John’s blog to see what it’s all about…enjoy!

I wrote this song last night…thinking about the children we saw in Asia…also thinking about all the poor children in the middle east with the war and all. I just wish we could scoop them all up and love them. Pray for them!

A little girl wakes
and suddenly remembers
that her life is cruel and
and her world’s been shattered

Only yesterday
her momma promised
that she’d always be there
to hold her tight

But as they ran for cover
from that awful hell
another bomb exploded
and her momma fell

It had ripped the promise
out of her small heart
it had smashed her world
and tore then apart

Why why why
can no one hear
I’m calling out
through my tears

Wrap your arms around me
and touch my hair
please hold my heart
show me you care

Now no one’s around
to see her tears
no one’s around
to relieve her fears

And the only things
surrounding her
are her two small arms
that are shaking her

She lifts her eyes
to the blackened sky
as another tear
escapes her eye

How can they be so cruel
and does no one care
she feels no love
from anywhere

Why why why
can no one hear
I’m calling out
through my tears

Wrap your arms around me
and touch my hair
please hold my heart
show me you care

She lays on the ground
and the sun sinks lower
she shuts her eyes
and her breath grows slower

She slowly slips away
from this world of pain
she lays still and cold
she sleeps again

This time she’ll never
open her soft eyes
some one came for her
she’s beyond the skies

Now God holds her close
nestled in His arm
and she’s safe forever
safe from any harm

And now she knows
that Jesus hears
He answered her
through her tears

He holds her heart
and shows He cares

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve updated! We had spring break this past week so I was gone from Thursday the 20th to Monday the 31st. It was awesome, I got to spend over a week of vacation hanging out with friends in Labett County, Catlett, Faith Mission, Virginia Beach, and South Carolina! I have tons of pictures to put on here, but Benji has my laptop for the last week of SMBI since his is dying. So you have to wait at least a week before you get to see any…sorry. I had so much fun! I got to hang out with my old church friends, school friends, cousins, some new friends, and my family!! (first time in months that our family has been all together.) Benji and I shot the wedding of our first cousin on either side to get married. Anyway, I can’t wait to share some of my pics with you, but I have to wait till Benji gets home. He’s driving all the way home (24 hours) and will prob get here Monday or Tuesday. I can’t wait till he gets home! (for more then my laptop!) Hans comes home in about 3 weeks, after he’s done with tour…can’t wait to have him home either! Pray for them as they wrap up the last week at SMBI and as Benji comes home and Hans goes on tour!

Last night our youth group had a “box social”. A box social is when all the girls in the youth group make/decorate some sort of box and make a meal and put it inside (or as a lot of people did prepare it in the kitchen). The guys can have no idea who made which box, then we let the guys in and they look at the boxes, and sit back and have an auction to sell them. So the guy buys your box and you go down to the basement and eat your meal with whoever bought your box.
I had never heard of a box social before then, and when it was explained to me, I was a little scared. It turned out not to be scary at all and tons of fun!
First of all, Tues. night Frieda, Ida and I went to the mall to find all the supplies we needed…I love Hobby Lobby!

Then on Wed. my crazy friends came over to “help” me make the box at midnight.

And here are all the beautiful boxes…they were all amazing!

(mine’s the camera. suprise suprise.)

Here is Dorcas wearing Shane’s coat that ‘fit her like a dream’. =)

Afterwards we played an awesome game of human Dutch Blitz…some people really got into it! =)

Ryan and Sheri

Justin and Danny

My amazing teacher/aunt…
I totally flipped when I saw her. All my 16 years I have always seen her with the same hairstyle…then to see her like this!

Sheila and Elaine

As Brother Miller would say, “Seth only got half-way through his haircut.”

After school, Em and I went up on the roof to play/take pictures with our guitars. We took some cool pics while we were up there, but my favorite was when we were getting down, I handed her my guitar so I could climb down, so she put it on and I thought it made a cute picture.