Please, please turn off the African tribal music, Melissa.

It's going to be another one of those Ace Hardware Sunday's and that's okay.

I set my alarm clock for 9:30, but woke up at 8:12.

Fail.

I bought a new bedspread yesterday, I had gotten the last one for my 12th birthday. So, I felt like it was time for an update. Maybe now I will actually feel motivated to make my bed.

I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of a manly bedspread. It's just a dark brown. It's really pretty, I just need some girly throw pillows to make it more feminine. I might sew some. That would be good.

Last night was Homecoming, Mitchell Homecoming is a big huge fail. Sadly my work shift wasn't until 10:45, so I had to stay until that long. So I hung in the back and talked with people. It wasn't really as bad as normal.

I've been having this awful craving for lazertag lately. I really just wanna zap someone good with a lazer gun.

Not that I'm good at lazertag, I'm really quite awful.

Hey guess what? Lipscomb roadtrip this Thursday!

Schnow Days and Sanctuary Music.

I had to prepare my self to open the blinds to my six windows this morning.

The ground is covered and snow and it's really sunny outside, thus it is very bright.

So, I opened each blind slowly and looked away.

It was like an explosion of white light in my room, and now that I'm used to the light, I love it.

Today is another one of those wretched, yet amazing snow days.

Wretched because Tony Bennett took away all of our snow day waivers which means it is possible that we could be going to school in July if it snows enough. Merr Tony Bennett really does frustrate me.

Amazing because it's a day off from high school. That's not a hard one to figure out.

I plan on cleaning today: laundry, vacuuming, and the sort. I like things to be clean and tidy and organized and lately I haven't had the time to keep things that way.

Of course this cleaning will have plenty of coffee interspursed throughout it, and maybe a little break to watch an episode of Dexter. Dexter is the creepiest show ever, I think that's why I love it.

Okay, another cup of coffee is calling to me. More like screaming. Loudly screaming.

We are going to censor the ship out of it.

I have consumed an abundance of hot chocolate today.

Recently I bought the Jim Henson Fantasy Collection from Amazon, this includes: Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and MirrorMask.

I had never seen MirrorMask before so I turned it on today and made a fortress out of blankets on my bed and watched it. I'm pretty sure that Jim Henson died before this was made, like maybe he died before they started working on it.

There were no puppets. Fail.

And, it was really just trippy. Trippy. Trippy. Trippy.

But, whatever. I enjoyed it, I suppose.

I made muffins for youth group just a minute ago, and I put them in plastic bags. Since the muffins were hot the plastic bags fogged up, so you can't really see the muffins anymore. You just have to trust that they are in there.

Do you remember the movie The Pagemaster? Because I most definatly found some Pagemaster valentines at work when we unloaded all the Valentine's stuff. I was super excited.

Oh, and thank you Callie-Ann for the Lion King on Broadway c.d. I'm really quite in love. No joke.

Oh yes. There is a party in this house.

Our microwave is on the fritz.

My dad taped a piece of paper on it that reads:
"Do Not Use. Shorting Out"

I kind of giggle everytime I look at it. I'm glad dad took the time to pinpoint the exact reason as why not to use the microwave.

And all though the lack of a microwave is not a big deal, I have no way to heat coffee up after it gets lukewarm. So, I just make more. This microwave dilemma is feeding my addiction.

I got a book by Mark Montano, the host of Ten Years Younger....anyway, it's an amazing book. It's called The Big-Butt (but not butt) Book of Crafts.

Katie Thomas and I were feeling especially inspired to be crafty so last night we broke out the spray adhesive and clear acrylic varnish and decorated our lightswitch covers with fabric. It turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. Insert a few claps here.

In a few moments I will put down my knitting and stop my blogging and will be going to a....school function...gasp. I know, what am I doing?

There's a FreshStart Rock-A-Thon. We are rocking in rocking chairs for six hours straight and there will be pledges for each hour and you know the drill. I rock from 10-10:30.

I plan on breaking out an amazing game of Revolution tonight.

And I will be king.

Good morning Sunday.

It's sunday, and I'm in my flannel pajama pants with ducks all over them.

My glasses are a little crooked because they got sat on when I was on the boat and I fell asleep on the top.

There's a cup of Breakfast Blend coffee next to my laptop that I lovingly made with my lovely new Keurig that sits on the right hand side of my vanity.

There are a pair of size 10.5 US bamboo circular needles with the start of a orange tweed slouchy beret hat on them.

My alarm clock says 9:09 as of this moment, which means I have around 41 minutes until I need to start getting ready for work.

I really enjoy slow motion Sunday mornings, but I adore the Sunday mornings I go to church. That will be next Sunday thankfully, I don't have to work at Ace Franklin.

Tomorrow is a whole new week of school, work, art class, TurboJam and Zumba, showering, and coffee. I would be okay if I had a little more time to myself before it all starts again, last week was really overwhelming.

I'm craving a roadtrip to Tennessee.

Still rollin? Hello, tell me you know that you figured me out.

I tend to mark my life by summers, rather than school years or winters or springs or falls.

Summer seems to be the source of all things good in my perspective.

Summer has sun and church camp and the a release of responsibilities that normally overwhelm.

So, when I look out my bedroom window and see this image that I have posted, it's hard for me to find it as beautiful as I am aware that it should be.

Cold, icy, dark, and school. That's what I see.

I'm not saying that winter isn't lovely, but it's just not my summers. It's just not as joyous.

Especially with all the things happening the past week or so, the two deaths that shook Mitchell. It's easy to sink lower and lower into sadness when the sun is hardly out and school and work keeps you so busy you don't have an appropriate amount of time to adjust and just think.

I feel myself sacrificing my time with myself to get things done. And I am not okay with that.

I want to lay down and think about all that's happening, not think about it while I'm doing homework or behind a register at Ace Hardware, or when I'm stuffing laundry into a washer. It's just seems impossible to stop. And slow down.

On a lighter note, I did TurboJam with my friends last night. Ah, so funny and complicated...but amazing. And, tonight is Zumba. Zumba is also amazing. I shake things I never expected to shake in Zumba, and I adore it.

I don't know why this is center aligned, but for some reason my computer won't let me change it, so it's gonna have to be okay....

There is fire on the mountain.

I went up to Bloomington today for a portion of a youth rally.

I really enjoyed what time I spent at Renovate.

Then I came back down at around...3:35....that time is questionable.

Then at 4:30 I pulled myself into Ace Hardware.

I had forgotten my key, so I walked in the front door and borrowed Alene's.

Then I trudged back up to the register and sold things for 3 hours and 33 minutes.

And now, I'm going to Rebecca's.

It feels lovely to be in my sweatpants with the paint stains, and my dad's sweatshirt that has a rip in the sleeve and loudly announces, "THE BEAST" on the front of it.

My heart and my head feel like they are filled with cottonballs, a boy at school that I knew committed suicide.

And I don't know how to react, we weren't close. We never talked, but I know his famiy. And the house I'm living in right now was his old house.

And I want to cry because of the uncertainty as to how I am supposed to react to this situation.

And I want to cry because I'm just sad for his family.

False, I'm not sad. I'm heartbroken for his family.

"There is fire on a mountain top, and no one is running." -Asa

One of those wonderful lazy days.

Today was a snow day!

My snow day agenda was:
-Wake up at 9:00
-Make coffee
-Drink coffee while watching the Ellen Show
-Make more coffee
-Shower
-Put sweatpants in the dryer so they are extra warm
-Go outside to take photos
-Make even more coffee
-Start DVD episodes of Dexter
-Start knitting a cream colored cowl
-Eat breakfast for dinner
-Make sure Rebecca can come over to spend the night

Tomorrow is a snow day too!

2000+10=This New Year

2010. . .craziness.

Complete annual insanity.

2009 was such an eventful year for me:

-A new blog
-Two weeks of church camp
-5 youth rallies
-At least 6 trips to Lipscomb
-13 episodes of Glee
-Two new pairs of TOMS
-2 seasons of So You Think You Can Dance
-At least 30 pizzas made with my best friends
-Many many new friends
-A new job, that I love
-Going on a mission trip to a new country
-Having to leave the country for political reasons
-Falling completely in love with the people and the country
-Falling down at least 100 times
-Getting back up at least 100 times
-17 new paintings done in acrylic
-One lovely wedding in Alabama
-Finding out that I'm actually not that bad at math
-A coffee addiction that grew stronger
-A seventeenth birthday
-Finding out that I'm stronger than I thought
-Going to see the Nutcracker for the second time
-A million hugs
-Taking an interest in photography
-Enough naps to last a lifetime
-Two new cats: Mold and Small Cat
-One whole filled up diary
-Enough Starbucks to fill Lake Michigan
-Three Parsley family vacations to Tennessee
-One unfortunate vacation to Florida
-Around 20 candles burned
-One art festival
-A million moments of feeling loved
-A never ending need for my God

2009 was more than anything I can ever write in statistics, numbers, charts, or paragraphs.

It was a year of everything, and I will always cherish it. I don't mean to get mushy or anything, but it was a year from God. I learned so much about love, humanity, and how to get back up after I fall down. How to brush the dirt of my knees and go at it again.

My God is a God of a million chances, and a million new years.