Mommy, may I? (part three)

In one of the boxes full of college recruiting materials, I found the flier for the USC Resident Honors Program.

Complete your senior year of high school and your freshman year of college at the same time!

Your classes earn you double credit!

Scholarships automatically awarded for those accepted!

And I had missed the application deadline.

Being the mature, ready for college 16-year-old that I was, I had my mommy call the head of the program to ask if they accepted late applications.

"What are her SAT scores?" "Why yes, we will be happy to accept her late application."

And so it was that I was accepted to USC, and I decided to leave all my friends and high school behind.

That summer my mom and I went off to the new student orientation weekend, and before long I was 16, living in a dorm, 50 miles away from my parents.

Which in LA is really like 200 miles.

Hmmm.

*This is part three of how I became a Christian. Read parts one and two.

They say it's your birthday

What's that?

It's not your birthday?

Well it is mine!

I'm turning 30 today.

And I'm just desperate enough for attention to announce it to anyone who happens to stop by my site.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Bloggity blog

These Q&A questions made me laugh!


1. Who is your pretend bloggy BFF?

Ree, from Confessions of a Pioneer Woman! Because she makes ranch life seem so romantic, and I'm sure if we were BFF's she would invite us to go stay at her ranch and teach me how to take wonderful pictures of cows. And I'd finally know, why, WHY did Marlboro Man wait so long to call her?


2. Which blogger would you most like to go shopping with?

Melanie, from Big Mama. Because she has somehow retained all this fashion knowledge even in the midst of motherhood, and when you are shopping you really need that person who will encourage you to buy the expensive designer jeans because they look so much better than the cheap Wal-Mart ones you are currently wearing. And because she shares my feelings about Wal-Mart- that I always feel like I need a shower and a gallon of Purel after being in one.


3. Which blogger would you most like to have a cup of coffee with?

Kate, from Small Scribbles. She seems like such a fun, relaxed mom. All her kids seem so talented and because she's the only homeschooler I've ever heard of who doesn't get up at the crack of dawn and start school at O'dark thirty, but instead they wander around in their pajamas for a while and do chores and cook healthy food, and start school around 11 or 12. I can homeschool like that!



If you want to answer these questions on your blog, leave me a comment so I can read your responses!

The thing I didn't do

*Thanks to Jen, who asked about my scrapbooking in my Q&A!

When my husband deployed for six months, I had all kinds of ideas about how I was going to fill up my time.

After all, I don't have a whole lot to do after the kids go to bed.

*Ahem*

So my plan was to catch up on scrapbooking. With moving from Japan to Maryland to California to Maryland to Mississippi with a deployment to Afghanistan, an eye surgery, a baby, a broken ankle, and buying our first house all in the last two years, I had understandably fallen a bit behind.

I think Luke has about 4 pages.

And he just turned three.

Oh, ok, I'm exaggerating. I'm sure he has at least 6.

So I was going to use my evenings to catch up AND I was going to learn digital scrapbooking in Photoshop Elements. I love paper scrapbooking, but I can see the benefit of being able to make one layout and just changing the colors digitally for the different kids.

So do you want to see what I've done in the last 5 months?


This isn't a page, it's wooden letters on my mantle, in case you're wondering.

This is the only layout I've done.

I've done it here:

Not exactly the most inspiring space, but I just haven't had time to organize it better or spruce it up.

Which is probably part of the reason I haven't done much scrapping!

Both of those projects used various papers by Basic Grey, which is my all-time favorite paper line. I always go to them first when I want patterns. My other favorite is Bazzill cardstock. It's rare that I do anything without some Bazzill paper somewhere. I also love rub-ons of all types and one of these days I'm going to get myself a Cricut machine.

But first I have to start scrapping again before I spend money like that.

I make an effort not to spend hundreds of dollars on things that just sit around.

Unless I buy it with a Michaels coupon.

Because then it's a bargain.

Even if it just sits around.

At least I can look at it and feel all righteous about the money I saved on it.

An unexpected direction (part two)

My junior year of high school found me 16 and unhappy.

I had a boyfriend I didn't really want, but who was madly in love with me.

I had friends I didn't really like, but didn't know how to change the situation without causing the kind of back-stabbing, rumor-mongering war that only adolescent girls are capable of.

Well, adolescent girls and some of my grown relatives, but that's a post that will never get written. Because this web, it is world wide.

I had scored well on my PSAT's and the early SAT that I had taken for practice, and so I had two full boxes of fliers and recruitment info from various colleges in the garage.

And one day, it occured to me, "Didn't USC have some sort of early entry program..."

I figured I had thrown that flier away. I mean, who in their right mind would skip their senior year of high school? Isn't that the year that we all work toward and dream about? Senior prom? Ditch day? Getting to park in the school parking lot instead of fighting for a space on the road?

Could I really give that all up and start college at 16 years old?

Should I?

Would it matter if I couldn't find that stinking flier among the rest of the junk that I shoved into the boxes?


*This is part two of how I became a Christian. Read part 1 here.

Literally Speaking (Q&A 1)

My mom tells me that I was a very literal child.

In preschool we were told that we weren't allowed to go play until we had finished our lunch. I can remember sitting there watching the other kids run and play while I tried to finish my food.

When I asked my mom to please not give me so much food she rushed down to the school to complain about their rule only to be told that I didn't have to eat all my food, I just had to be done eating.

Obviously, not only was I literal, I was also naturally obedient.

At some point when I was very little my mom taught me to pray every night before bed.

She told me that I should ask Jesus to come into my heart and forgive me for my sins and be my Savior.

And thank him for our food.

And so I did.

In those exact words, every night of my life up until my freshman year of college...


*thanks to Leah for asking me how I became a Christian in my recent Q&A post. I'll be back soon to add another part to the story!

Pity Me

For I fell behind on the laundry.

This is just the clean stuff to be put away.

I still have more I need to wash.