Well Done Bird!

You know what I love?

Naps!

Yesterday Caroline, Lindsay, and I turned on the sixth Harry Potter and napped in Rita's living room. I had super hardcore dreams! Oh, ahhh I'm laughing thinking about it---

I had a dream that I woke up because someone was snoring soooo loudly. It sounded like it was coming from Lindsay so I sat up on the couch and looked toward where Lindsay was laying. She looked back at me and put her finger to her lips to shush me and pointed to the end of the couch where a fluffy white dog was sleeping and snoring LOUDLY. We silently laughed and fell back asleep.

When I woke up for real I thought the dream was real.....I walked to the bathroom and started cracking up when I remembered that Rita doesn't have a dog....bahhhh it was hilarious.

I napped today too, and by today I mean, I just woke up.

You know what else I love? Knitting! I finally started a new project because I've laid out sick all last week, so I had plenty of time on my hands. I am doing the Starburst stitch and I love it. Caroline and I both got superthick, nautical looking yarn--her's is cream and mine is heathered light blue. Love. Love. Love.

Starbucks.

Coffee, Knitting, and Movies with Caroline.
Just Saying.

Cookie Dough Icecream and John Travolta.

Today has been a really crazy, but awesome day.

I had to drag myself out of bed...it should have been at 8 but it didn't happen until 10.

My entire family came today, including my Aunt April, Uncle Greg, and Cousin Angel are here from Ohio. They are wonderful! And I'm so happy they are here!

Yesterday, a small group of us loaded up into the church van and headed to Ferdinand to go to the Abbey and to the Monastery Castle. They were lovely.

We got to go into the large chapel in the Abbey. The marble floors, ornate woodwork and stonework, angel carvings, stain glass windows, and statues of Christ were a little overwhelming compared to my normal setting of a gymnasium and simple stage. It was like stepping into another world. One where to show your love for God, you spent and spent and decorated and spent.

I don't think that God in anyway calls us to build ornate buildings like that to worship in, rather I believe the opposite.

But, at the same time I can appreciate the beauty of the building and the imagination and creativity and heart of the people that spent their lives on it.

My favorite part of the Abbey and the Castle were the windows.

You should have seen the detail and precision and the colors...ohhh...
They were otherworldly. They were like nothing I've ever seen.

I was afraid the pictures were going to step out of their frames at any moment. That I would be joined by the angel Gabriel, or Jesus falling beneath the weight of the cross.

I studied each one and wondered how I could take the beauty of the windows and apply to my life; to my religion. Then I thought of what the most important part of stained glass windows is....sunlight.

Without light the picture isn't visible! It's just a dark picture outlined by iron....sooo how does that apply to my life?

The windows are beautiful and painstakingly worked on. We are painstakingly created beautiful.

No one can see the beauty of the windows without light shining through them.
As Christians true beauty isn't visible without the light and love of God our Father shining through us!

Does that make sense? Or did I totally force that thought just for the sake of making windows applicable?

Mehh....who knows. I'm running with it.

His Mercies Never Come to an End.

Okay, my friends this is the continuation of the first Honduras post!

I'm sure you were just pacing and waiting for it.....
That was a little bit of sarcasm....

Anyway, onto business!

This post is specifically going to be about Choluteca, Honduras. The last time TORCH Missions visited Choluteca was five years ago! And, I think that we are the only missions team that visits them specifically.

Wednesday at 6:45 A.M. we dragged our groggy bottoms out of bed and plopped into the seats of a bus for a 5 hour drive to the insanely hot town of Choluteca.

People on the team that have gone before joked that Choluteca is where the devil goes to get coffee....

Okay, well describir the first photo: TOMS shoes (Wooohoooo REPRESENT!) had a shoe drop near-by Choluteca tons of children and women and some men were rockin the TOMS when we got there. It was an awesome sight to see my money and many other loving people's money at work on Choluteca.

The shoes seemed comfortable and reliable, they are built a little more sturdy than the for show one's we buy.
These were all business and all love.

We spent two days in Choluteca, and stayed at a hotel nearby.

In those two days we painted a church that the team had built five years prior at their last visit, built and painted 27 pews, screamed about one tarantula, had 301 people go through the medical clinic, played one big soccer game, lost one soccer game, washed many people's hair, and treated a lot of little girls like princesses.

My heart really goes out to the people of Choluteca.

They are so joyful and greatful.

Rather than run at you and ask you for things, they stand by you and smile with you and are patient and kind. They don't expect anything but love and attention. They just want to hold your hand and be with you. The children want to sit on your lap and laugh with you. They want to clap your hands and play games you can't win...and they know it.

Ugh, it was so wonderful. See the guy in the red in the photo? The one standing up?

He's wearing my shoes right now. What an awesome thought. We sat down and compared shoe sizes. I told him to wait until we were about to leave, because I can't walk around barefoot...that's a big no-no. We walked together silently the last minute I was there. I leaned against the bus and pulled one shoe off. Put it in his outstretched hand. Pulled the other off. Put it in his hand. I looked down at his feet waiting for him to put them on.

He had no socks.

Pulled off one sock. Put it in his hand. Pulled off the other sock. Put it in his hand.

I pulled off my pink hat and plopped it on his head, it seemed to belong there.

He looked me in the eyes with a huge smile on his face. "Gracias."

How do I even begin to explain the gratitude in his eyes? All over ten dollar Wal-Mart special black shoes with sparkles on the sides? From one strange white girl in a pink hat and oversized tee-shirt with sweatstains and hathead? Did I look like Jesus to him? I hope that's who he saw when he looked in my eyes, because that's who handed him those things.

And when I looked in those eyes that's who I saw. I saw Jesus.

It might not seem like much...a girl gave a person shoes. Big deal. But in that moment I gained a friend, saw my Lord, gave someone a blessing from God, and hoped that he saw the Lord too. It's hard to write about little moments like that. Those special moments when you know it's all about GOD and nothing or no one else.

It's hard to explain what you see and feel in Honduras. It's just God working, my friends.

And it's an awesome thing.

The Steadfast Love of the Lord Never Ceases!

Well, I got back from eleven days in Honduras yesterday.

There are a lot of things I can say to describe the trip, yet none of them really cover how wonderful and new and touching and overwhelming and ugh just everything that Honduras is.

This trip was completely different than last years trip. Last year we had to leave early and while we were there we could not leave the mountains because of rioting and things like that.

This year we got to go all over--Didasco orphanage, Mololoa to take the kids to play soccer and do a "Princess Day", to the hospital to visit the kids, to a small village in Choluteca, to the famous Jesus statue, to Santa Lucia, and to many other places.

In every single way it was a completely different trip and experience, it doesn't even compare to last year.

The first full day of our trip I joined a group and we were dubbed The Patch Adams Crew. We went to the hospital dressed in clowns noses, leis, oversized glasses, and wigs with one mission: to bring laughter and hope to the people of the hospital.
First, we visited the day treatment cancerward where I held some of the sweetest kids ever. We tried to go to the other cancer ward were the prognosis is pretty much terminal, but they had a really bad off patient and we weren't allowed in.
We visited the broken bones unit, and next we went to the Hydrocephalic (I hope that's right) ward, which is what my photo is of. The babies retain water in their heads. It's a really scary and sad thing. The mothers have uncomfortable chairs to sit on and that's it. They wait day and night with their poor babies.

It was so hard to see the condition of the hospital: the mold along the floor, the lack of airconditioning, and the IV's were primitave. It made me realize how lucky we are to have the health care that we do. We are blessed with the hospitals and doctors and medicines that we have.

One of my very favorite days was a day when we went to a little orphanage named Didasco. Not all of the kids that live there are orpans, some come from abusive homes.
I was in a van with seven people, and the rest of the people were on a bus...which broke down. So, I got there about two hours earlier....but, I got more time with the kids and so I was happy about the fact I got in the van.
Two girls that I met first were Ada and Maria (pictured left). These two sisters immediatly came up to me and grabbed my hands. They showed me their bunks, and told me about their favorite foods and colors and about how they didn't have their dad anymore.
Ada had burn marks all up and down her right arm...I was tempted to ask how she got them but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
These girls are so full of joy and happiness and laughter, even though they have seen so much and been through so much. I had to choke back tears when I hugged them good-bye. What I wpuld give to have them with me everyday. To have them holding my hand everyday and have them chattering away about everything to me everyday.....I saw Jesus in the smiles of these beautiful girls.

Sunday night we went to the Jesus statue.

When you are up that high you can look down and see the lights of Honduras. Someone said that when you look down at Honduras at night you don't really see Honduras because you don't see the poverty and hurt and dirt and sadness.

I want so much for Honduras to constantly be the night Honduras, full of life and light.

I know that the statue is just cement, but I know that the real wonderful Savior has His hand outstretched over Honduras.

I heard a lot of people saying that Honduras is changing, and I don't think that they just mean the politics.

One of my other favorite days was when we all loaded up in a bus and went down to Mololoa. The guys filled up a bus of local boys and took them to go play soccer at a nice field. The women and a few gentle and kind hearted men stayed and had Princess Day.

We washed, combed, and braided hair. We washed feet and painted nails. The cutest part was when we dressed up the little girls in princess costumes and took their photo. Jake Lovell brought a portable printer so we could print off the photos of them. For most of the families, I would guess that it was the only photo they had ever owned.

One little girl that latched onto me was Madolin or Melanie (she told me Melanie and Brandon Madolin....so I never really figured out which was right). She gave me a Zanyband of a shoe. I couldn't believe that she wanted to give it away, so I said no. She told me she had a lot more and held out her little wrist. There were three more. I know that out of the very little she had, that it meant a lot to her to reach out to me and give me something. How could I say no?

I wore it on my wrist for the rest of the week, then passed the little shoe onto someone else.

The second to last night of the trip we went to Santa Lucia. Santa Lucia is the oldest cathedral in the Western Hemisphere! How cool is that?

I was standing down at the bottom for worship when Justin motioned for me to follow him. So Rebecca, Darci, and I followed him to this doorway that led to a pitch black rock staircase.

Creepy? Yes. I think I yelled up at him, "Are you sure we should be doing this?" Well, we didn't die. We ended up in the loft above. It was amazing. All the singing rose up to us during worship, it was one of the most astounding thing.

There is so much more that I could write about my trip...but I don't have much more time.

So, tomorrow I will write more. I still have to write about Choluteca! That was a really big part of my trip.

Well...I guess hold out for more my friends!

To be continued.....

A Diva is female version of a Hustler.

Tuesday morning.
The Pagemaster is on as I write this!
Ah, this was one of my very favorite movies when I was little. I watched it all the time. My mom liked it because it taught about books like Moby Dick, Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, and other big time need to know books.

Last night was a girl's night at Lindsay's house.
We all dressed up crazy in her clothes and had a dance party.
We filmed a part of it (in which i look rather unfortunate) and I'm pretty sure Lindsay is putting it on Facebook....
She also put up photos.

I wore sweat pants tucked into high heel boots, a white Hanes v-neck tee-shirt, suspenders, and a black tie.
Also, we teased up my already large and in charge hair.

It was a really "special" time.....really. But it was awesome.

Thursday at 3 A.M. our mission team leaves for Honduras! It's craziness that it is already here. I've got a lot of last minute shopping and packing to do today. But, for right now I'm just chilling because I have plenty of time today.

This year's trip to Honduras is going to be a totally different experience. Last year we didn't get to help at the Hospital because of Swine Flu, and then we didn't get to go to the orphanages and into the city because of the political problems. I'm slightly nervous this year because I just don't know what to expect. It's really exciting though. I'm really happy to get to go to the orphanages and to pass out food at the dump.

Just pray we don't have to "flee" the country again this year.

But really, please pray for the TORCH team as we go to Honduras. I really want the oppurtunity to bless as many people as possible and hopefully our hearts and eyes will be opened to how wonderful we have it here in America. This is going to be a life changing event, for everyone involved. Hopefully.

That'll take you far in life.

Okay, you must know that this week was IMPACT at my beloved Lipscomb University.
You must also know that it was a grand time, I severly enjoyed it.
And you must know that I am only adding more than one photo because I actually have some time to myself to sit and blog. Good stuff.

These are two of my best friends: Ashley and Rebecca.
We are being sharks while waiting for some festivities to start.

This is Jake Parsley on a carousel because he is special.

I laughed. A lot.

The theme this year was buried.Alive! and it was mainly based on the Beatitudes in the book of Matthew. We talked about the things we bury ourselves in--the things we set our minds on (fame, wants, fears, anger, jealousy etc.) and how we need to bury ourselves and come alive in Christ. We talked about how as Christians we need to die to ourselves to truly live for Christ (trust me, Jeff Walling really stressed the death part...of course.)

It was a really good week of spiritual discussion (especially the small groups with the girls and the people of the youth group!) All of the classes were wonderful, you could really tell that everyone put a lot of heart and thought into it. One of my favorite classes (besides Gary's of course) was Danny Gregg's. His was tiitled "The Meak Ain't Weak" and he talked about how being meak doesn't mean being a doormat. Jesus overturned tables when he saw what his place of worship had been turned into.

Sometimes I find myself in situations where I KNOW I need to say or do things (even get angry) to make sure people know what they are doing could hurt them or someone else physically or emotionally. And, usually wanting to be a peacemaker and let them do it, not wanting a conflict. Thinking that God is JUST happy that I am not helping. Maybe God needs me to overturn some tables everyonce in a while. Maybe people need me to overturn their tables and I'm just standing by watching their lives turned into chaos. Not wanting to anger them or upset them.

But by not stopping or yelling or crying out, am I helping them hurt themselves? Yeah, I think so.

Ugh, it's such a simple thing. Why can't I ever grasp onto the easiest things but dive head-first into the complex things?

Oh, p.s. Rebecca and I applied to Lipscomb!
Ah, I had been waiting for so long.
It felt so good to finally fill out those forms.

Must sleep now.

I'm really into the whole Irish rock band thing right now...
The Pogues
The Dropkick Murphys
Flogging Molly
The Tossers
The Young Dublins.....

I have no idea why I love it so much. Today I was mopping my bathroom. I sat my laptop on the toilet and flipped to my Pandora station of my Irish favorites and danced and clapped and mopped to Irish lyrics I don't really understand.

I've decided that Pixar 3-D films are magical. Ugh, so good.

Today, we went to go see Toy Story 3. You know what's very strange?
Andy and I are the same age.
Weird.
I've literally grown up with the Toy Story movies.
That makes me feel young and old at the same time.

My room is currently being painted yellow.
I mean, HELLO I'M YELLOW sort of yellow. And it's glorious.

Walked in the Relay for Life today. It was really great.
You know how you see the commercials and people are all decked out in pink or whatever color to support their loved ones? Not so at this one. Rebecca and I wore all out pink--leggings, tee-shirts, hats, bandanas, ribbons, glow sticks...you name it. And we were the only ones. Darci was going to meet us.
She asked how she was going to find us.
We told her that she couldn't miss us.

They do this thing were they put candles in white bags with names of people have dealt with, lost a battle to, or won a battle with cancer all around the track. And they light them up. Ugh, there was way to much light. For such a small Relay for Life they pretty much circled the whole track.

Kinda broke my heart.

They set the bags with candles in the bleachers in the shape of the word Hope then changed it to CURE.

I wish it would come. I'm sure everyone does.

I should do the dishes now.

It's a Thursday and I am doing NOTHING and it's WONDERFUL!
I made oatmeal and sat my bottom on our fluffy white couch so I could write a blog post.
I turned on Golden Girls.
I love Betty White.

To the left is one of my senior photos that Jean Sowders took! She's amazing, really. It's very strange (and exciting) to think that my next school year will be my senior year. Hey College, only 180 more school days then I will be coming!

IMPACT is this upcoming Monday. This is exciting!
July 1st is the day we head out to Honduras. This is very exciting!
And you know what else is exciting? The fact that I don't have anything planned today so I'm going to veg like it is nobody's business!

When I sleep I turn my air conditioner down very low and pile on tons of blankets. That way I can bury myself in them. I did that last night and when I woke up this morning all but one thin quilt had slipped off my bed. Even my sheet had slipped from under my quilt (how did that happen?). So, I woke up frozen with tons of sunlight pouring in from my window. I haven't made new curtains yet, so the light really comes in the window in the morning.

It was really peaceful. I haven't felt that peaceful in a really long time. So, I laid there for an hour just because I could.

Wall-E ate holes in my purse.

Woah, summer. Slow down a little, huh?

I have two fish now (pictured left). Phil is the large one, and the minuscule one is named Gertrude. And they are alive despite my normal reputation for fish and plant care.

This whole week was camp, and it was wonderful. College week of camp is so intriguing and relaxing and comfortable and a little bit inappropriate sometimes.

And I flipping love it.

At the end of the week we talked about how we were going to change...well that's the bast of the talk. Anyway, I thought about how much I wish away things. How I look to the future and forget about the things going on everyday of my life.

I want to run off to Lipscomb so badly, and want to be in the next phase of my life. I feel like I belong there.
I focus so much on that, I'm sure I've missed relationships, oppurtunities, and chances to really help people. How many times have I walked through my day wishing I was somewhere else, when someone needed me to just be here? How often have I missed a time God placed someone in the place I was, when my mind was focused on being somewhere else.

It really troubles me. I need to focus on the little things and really live each day! Melissa Girl, this is your life! Where are you? You're not at Lipscomb yet, my friend. So be focused on here while you are here!

Okay, enough yelling at myself. Tomorrow morning Caroline, Rebecca, and my other wonderful friends are going to the farmer's market in a nearby town. I'm really excited!

B-9. You sunk my battleship.

No photo today, I'm afraid. I'm not on my laptop....I left it at school in the art room so Mrs. Mason took it home for me so it wouldn't get stolen.

I'm glad I'm friends with her.

This is the second night in a row of mini-Glee marathons. Oh, Finn and Artie. Kurt and Puck.

For some reason I've been insanely sleepy for the past couple days. I feel like I could sleep for a million years and I still wouldn't be fully awake. I napped today and yesterday, and that just doesn't happen normally. Only at IMPACT. I sleep everyday at camp too. And when I'm in a car and I don't drive I sleep.

Okay, so I sleep a lot. But not really a lot a lot. Just a lot but not in a habitual sort of way. Well, unless you count at night. I don't think that counts, everyone sleeps at night. And if they don't (Gary Spear) they should. And then you get up in the morning and drink the average 2.5 cups of coffee and you are good to go.

For some reason I've really wanted to sing the Church of Christ "theme" song and twice Gary has put it in the Sunday Line-Up for me. And the first time I cried. And now I'm not thinking about it so I don't cry. I suppose writing about it counts as thinking about it.

Okay, no more writing.

Did Becky just fall down the stairs?

So, went to Aaron Taflinger's graduation tonight.

It just about broke my heart.

I'm really getting quite sick of all my friends graduating! I've been through this three years now. Each group leaving me in Mitchell, when all I want to do is go to Lipscomb!

Katie, Ashley, Wesley, Aaron, and sooo many people are graduating this year. I feel like school next year is going to be morbid without my favorite red-headed friend going to lunch with Rebecca and me. Or, Ashley Squirrels and her narcoleptic tendencies and her random bursts of song. Or, Sir Wesley and his flip-flops.

Becky Warren fell down the stairs a moment ago, her boots were slippery. From my spot on the couch I only heard the procession of thuds as she fell her way down the stairwell. Amusing? Yes. Did I giggle before I checked to make sure she was okay? Yes. Am I a bad friend? No.

Real friends laugh when you fall down, then make sure you are okay.

Those is the rules.

Tomorrow we are tie-dying tee-shirts for camp, I'm pumped.

Oh, and tomorrow we move into our new house! I'm really excited, I get to basically redecorate the whole thing which is really wonderful. I love doing things like that. Say a prayer for me, yes? That this project isn't too much for the Three Wilson's. We may be tough, but we are busy. And I really want this house to work out, and in a quick sort of fashion.

P.S. That's Jake Parsley in the photo.

Mom. Mom. Mommy. Mommy. Ma.

Happy Mother's Day!

I spent mine with the Burrises which always makes me happy. I bought Father Wilson lilies to plant in the new house, they are a really dark red color. I had never seen any like them before.

The college kids are all coming home which is very exciting and makes me insanely happy. I miss them all so much through the school year when they are gone.

There are only 18 days of school left, that's it. Only three weeks and three days of school. 18 days.

3 Mondays.
3 Fridays.
And done.
I'm overjoyed, I can't stand high school anymore.

Okay, gotta go now. It's pizza time. Pizza time is a very imporant time.

Let's just eat and forget it for now,aye?

I'm sitting in the truck outside the church building waiting for Rebecca to get off work and meet me so we can go to watch the softball game and go to zumba.

I'm feeding off the wifi from the office.

And I'm watching all the cars go through the parking lot and I stare at the people in them.

And I'm being a complete creeper.

Sometimes I like to sit back and watch. You know? Sit in my truck in the parking lot and watch people pass. Sometimes I like to feel like I'm just a little bit invisible, that people have no idea I'm here. They go on with their lives and I think, "Why do you do that? Why act like that? What drives that person to do that?"

Human beings are really quite fascinating. I sound like an extraterrestrial being who is observing life on Earth to report back to my higher master.

I know that while I watch people, people also watch me. They have to. And I wonder if they wonder the same things about me. Down in the heart of it I feel like we are all alike in a way. We don't understand any other person completely. We don't know any other person one hundred percent of the way through. And there's no way to argue that. No one knows every single thing about you. They couldn't. We are similar in our lack of knowledge about each other.

Complicated, a little.

God knows. He looks down on this curly hair girl sitting in a truck in the church parking lot and knows her fears, how she is afraid that people will leave eventually leave her and how replaceable and disposable she feels. He knows that she has been on a Brett Dennen kick lately, and that she's seriously craving an acai berry smoothie. He knows that when she sleep she covers her head with the blanket and that she really doesn't like argumentive people. He knows the only reason that she doesn't like argumentive people is because she's an argumentive person. He knows her toes are painted silver. He knows that he radio is off, but music is always playing in her head. He know's it's The Beatles right now.

He knows her in and out. The best part, He's okay with this creeper, coffee loving, wifi mooching girl.

And it feels good to know that she doesn't have to hide anything, because He already knows.

Goodnight for real this time.

One down fall of working in a craft store and being a slightly crazy person?

You come up with a million and one ideas of what you want to create.

My latest mission?

Monsters.

Fluffy monsters with eyes and fangs and paws.

It will be amazing.

And after that I will attack the idea of creating the most amazing Senior Yearbook evah. evah. evah. I shall conquer the world of all things reminiscent. All things memorial and sentimental shall be mine to conquer.

Yesterday was the SAT. What is it about the SAT that zaps your soul and makes your whole day bleak? I honestly felt severly depressed after the SAT. I change the SAT acronym to Sadistic Academic Torture. I don't know if that even makes sense, but it sounds awful so it will work.

I mean, it's not that the test is incredibly hard, it's just long and monotonous. And really quite pointless.

P.S. Kedra made the corsage above. I love it.