Surprise!

Hem hem hem hem hem...

I'M GOIN' TO DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!!!

I really don't think I can adequately express to you my intense excitement right now. Even with caps lock and excessive exclamation marks. You have to understand that I'm a little bit of a Disneyland fanatic. I LOVE Disneyland. I've read the Wikipedia pages for just about every ride (carefully skipping the "how it works" parts so as not to spoil the magic) even though I haven't been since I was eight. This is a BIG DEAL.

THE SETUP:
One of my great loves, as you might know, is the Muppets. So when we went to see Pirates 4 (which was surprisingly decent, by the way) and a commercial came on for the new Muppets movie... I was a little excited. No, I was ridiculously excited. You need to know that.
Anyway, I come downstairs this morning and Dad's like, "I found a new commercial for the Muppets movie... wanna see it?" Well duh! So I sit through the first little bit or so... it's the same trailer. But Dad says, "No it's not." (Oh my goodness, this is horrible writing. I'm sorry. I'm too excited right now to write coherently. Forgive me.) About halfway through the screen flashes "This isn't really about the new Muppets movie." I was lost. No clue what's going on. Then at the end, it said, "We're going to Disneyland!"
Still lost. All of you who think I'm smart, think again. Not until about two seconds after it was over did I realize that WE are going to Disneyland, not the Muppets.

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (That's about what I sounded like, too. Along with a lot of "What? Really? WHAT? REALLY?")

We have a six-day (yes, SIX DAYS IN DISNEYLAND) park hopper pass between Magic Kingdom and California Adventure (home of one of the coolest rides of all time, Soarin' over California). One day we get into the park an hour before it opens to get to all the rides that would otherwise be crowded. We're also road-tripping, a feat we haven't attempted in... a really long time. I don't know how long ago that was. I am stoked. I am so stoked. This is gonna be so much fun!!!!!!

My brother is beyond excited because just days before we arrive, the newly revamped STAR TOURS will have opened. The kid is a Star Wars nut and he's been talking about it for ages. The last time we went he was about three, so I'm super excited for him to actually be able to remember this trip.

I'm excited for me, too-- I still have all my childlike wonder, but not nearly so much childlike fear. Or childlike height restrictions. Haha! I'm just as excited to go on the Peter Pan ride as I was when I was eight, but now I'm not scared to go on the Haunted Mansion anymore! And I'm tall enough to go on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror! (No comment on the fear factor there.) I might even get my senior pictures taken IN DISNEYLAND... how stinkin' cool is that? To list everything I'm excited about would take pages and pages to tell, so I'll leave it at this...

I'M GOIN' TO DISNEYLAND!

Here's to the happiest place on earth!



<3

Stargazing

I have to wonder
If I were to explode
In a supernova
Would the disturbance
Shake the earth
Or would
My light go on shining
For a myriad millenia
Thousands of lightyears away?

~~~~~~~~~~

I wrote this. I got the idea in Physics today when we were talking about how light from the stars takes so long to get all the way to us thousands of lightyears away that for all we know none of the stars we're gazing up at are actually there anymore or not. For all we know they've exploded. We just won't know about it until the light from their dying breath gets to us. I guess you could look at it two ways (the poem, I mean): it's either about leaving a legacy or about nobody even noticing you were gone if you were to disappear. I like leaving a legacy. It's happier. :)

Enjoy your day. Metaphors be with you.

<3

Let Me Live

"I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." -John 10:10

"I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life, to put to rout all that which was not life, and not when I had come to die discover that I had not lived." -Henry David Thoreau

Is it cliche to say that I have a whole new lease on life?

To recap and explain everything that has happened in the last month would be quite the undertaking, so I'm not going to try. By all rights, for reasons I won't take the time to explain here, it really should have been a rough month, and at times it has been. But overall I'm filled with this overwhelming happiness and excitement. It would make a lot of sense for me to be broken up... but I'm not. I'm probably the most content I've ever been in my life.

I want to go to Heaven. I want to go to Heaven so bad. That's the most important thing. I've got to learn to cling to the things and people that are going to get me to Heaven and run far away from the things that are pulling me the other direction.

I also have to learn that I can live on the way there. In John 10:10 Jesus wasn't talking about eternal life. He was talking about this life. Christians have the ability to have the most abundant lives possible.

So you know what? I want to live.

I want to fill my days up with people and things that make me love God even more than I did previously. I want to use my talents to His glory in the greatest way I possibly can. I want to dig into God's Word so much my head spins from how amazing it all is. I want praying to come as naturally as breathing to me. I want to be so close to God that His will is my will, no matter where that will takes me.

I want to write. Oh man, I want to write. I want to write articles. I want to write books. I want to write blog posts. I want to write poetry just to get things out of my system. I want to start the second Renaissance with Jenna. I want to read good books and understand what they're saying.

I want to sing. I stinkin' love to sing, you know that? I want to dance around my room when no one is watching just because it feels good. I want to listen to the music that makes my heart soar. I want to go walking around in the rain and feel the water dance across my skin. I want to hear thunder rolling and see lightning crash and marvel at how incredible this world is and how awesome my God is.

I want to reach for the sky, not for the ceiling. I don't want limits unless they're the limits God has placed in my life through His word and my desire to get to Heaven. I want to lay aside every encumbrance that entangles me and GET THERE.

More than anything I want to NOT WANT WHAT I WANT! I want to want what He wants, because what more could I want?

So... I want to live this summer. And I'm going to.

<3