14-19

14)A photo of a time in your life that is now over, but you wish that it wasn't.


15)A photo of a time in your life that is over, and you couldn't be more happy that it is.


16)A photo of you with your oldest friend.


17)A photo of your dinner.


18)A photo of you when you were a different person than you are now.


19)A photo that inspires you.

I fail at this.

10)A photo of the thing that you like most.

Italy.


Church people.

11)A photo of you making a goofy face.


12)The most recent photo of you.

I don't know about the MOST recent, but it just a few weeks ago so yeah.

13)A photo of you and someone that you miss.

A rant about prayer in schools.

Let me be politically correct for just a second... It's something that I don't do all that often. I'm much more concerned with being right in God's sight. But for just a second, let me be politically correct.
I attended public schools kindergarten through 12th grade. And I recieved a great education and have many amazing memories from my public school days. For the past 2 years, I have been a student of education and I am learning how to be a teacher. (No, this post is not for me to rant about hating my major.) And I am nearly sure that at some point in my life I will probably work in the public school system in America, whether it be as a teacher or not. I'm saying all this to give me some standing... Right now, I am taking a class about education law. It has been most beneficial I think, albeit a tad boring. And before I decided to quit and blog, I was reading a case involving moments of silence and teacher-led prayer in schools.
But I imagine that one day I will have even more standing than a future teacher. One day, I imagine that I will be a parent of a public school student.

And I will be SO THANKFUL for the "wall of separation of church and state."

Let me show you a quote from the case I'm reading... The governor of Alabama said that having teachers lead prayer in public schools for "willing students" is "a beginning and a step in the right direction."
Apparently, not all of the students were willing, but just scared of the reaction from their peers if they refused to participate. This isn't prayer. It's not witnessing. It's coercion. It's forced indoctrination. It makes kids resent school. It makes kids of other religions resent Christianity. And it makes parents of other religions sue you. And rightfully so. Schools are diverse these days. It's a good thing. It gives Christain students a marvelous mission field. It gives Christian teachers an opportunity to shine Light and practice loving like God does. But imagine allowing prayer in schools. Maybe in Alabama, Arkansas, and even parts of Texas, you'd get Christian prayer. But you'd also get every other kind of prayer. And your kids would essentially be forced to say those prayers too.

Can I just throw it out there real quick. IT IS NOT THE GOVERNMENT'S JOB TO TEACH YOUR KID TO PRAY. It's your job.

God made it clear. Look at Deuteronomy 6. Look at Psalm 78. And quite frankly, do you really want the government teaching your kids about religion, faith, God? Pssh, I don't. I want them to teach them how to write, how to read, how to multiply, divide, how to do well on the SAT. I don't want them to teach them how to pray.
That's why they've separated secular education from religious education. If you want kids to have religious education in school too, cough up the dough to put 'em in private school. There's nothing wrong with that. You get what you pay for in public school and in private school. Then you can send 'em to a place like Harding. I've experienced Christian education, and it's great!Or give them their education at home. That way, you don't have to draw the line between religious education and secular education. But DON'T, just DON'T keep posting facebook causes and asking me to sign petitions to put prayer back in schools. Because I won't. Because that would just suck for everyone. You don't really want your kids to say all the prayers the government would make them say, and I don't really want to lead them.

And now, to the students out there who are both Christian students and public school students- don't let them tell you you can't pray, read your Bible at school, or tell your friends about your youth group. Because you can. Check this out: http://www.everyschool.com/PULSE/Lead/Students%20Bill%20of%20Rights%20on%20Campus.pdf
. It doesn't look very legit, but it is. You have the right to freely express your religion, as long as you are not FORCING it on people. Just remember that God is less concerned with your "rights" than His own mission and His own Glory. You can glorify Him in your public school without a lawsuit. Think about the apostles. Their government was not friendly towards Christ-followers. Even less friendly than ours is. But they started a revolution in people's hearts, not in the government. You can too. Go out there and give 'em he-...heaven. And when the school gets away with violating your "rights", count it pure joy.


Oh, yeah, and my photo for the day...

9) A photo of a team or club that you were in.

7&8.

7)A photo that you may or may not have edited to make yourself look more attractive.

Haha. Michelle took this of us with my camera, so it was kina special and I thought I looked nice anyway. I just made the colors brighter, because the light in the picture wasn't so good... but I definitely look more attractive in it now.

8)A photo of one of your favorite outfits.

My Princess Aurora dress! It makes me feel like a princess. :) Oh, and my lovely grandparents... I love them too!

4,5,6.

4)A photo of you on your birthday or your favorite holiday.

This was my 18th birthday. I was on a mission trip in Brownsville, TX and my host mom, Mrs. Martinez, made me a birthday cake! :)


Mom, Audrey and me on Christmas Eve 2009. Christmas Eve. The most magical night of the year. Isn't this pic just magical?

5)The youngest photo you can find of yourself in digital form.

Well not, young photos of me are hard to come by in digital form. This was right after 8th grade.

6)A photo of the contents of your purse.

two of my favorite people.

Day 3)A photo of you with a parent or two.



Here we are! This was right outside of the church building in Florence, when they came to visit me in Italy.

Day 2... Aren't these just the best?

2) A photo that you're tagged in on facebook, but not actually in.

Most of the time when I'm tagged on facebook and it's not a real photo, it's those little "tag the friend that makes you smile" or "tag the friend with pretty eyes" things, and while those are all very flattering, they're just not the most funny. So I found a few that were. Ok, stories...



The first one was an incident on spring break my freshman year. We were on a mission trip and I was being goofy at dinner. I had this little packet of honey and I was going to be silly, so I tried to toss it to this girl named Amber and say "hey, I found that name tag you lost!" I knew Amber would appreciate that, lol, but unfortunately, it never made it to her because I tossed it and it landed in someone's cup. Yeah, fail. Amber decided to photograph my failure and tag me on facebook. Probably so I'd never forget how much of a fail it was.... Moving right along...




All right, so this here is apparently a sims dance party... I'm pretty sure that Robby and Spencer were being silly and put it in photos of an event that was like a church Christmas party. Several other people were tagged in this... I'm pretty sure I was tagged as that mullet dude in pink.




Ok, and this here is a bust of Heinrich Swoboda, professor of Christian something, in the courtyard of the University of Vienna. Heinrich Swoboda. Not me. My brother took this and thought it would be a good idea to tag me right on his face. I am, to this day, not really sure how to take this gesture.

O na totally unrelated note, I made pasta from scratch today. I also intended to make sauce for that pasta until both of out can openers broke. I also intended to make straciatella soup until I realized that I had only bought half the amount of broth required... Fiddlesticks.

Photo Challenge... and Day 1.

Ok, let me first defend myself. This blog started off with a purpose- to record and share my experiences during my semester in Italy. Since that semester ended last December, I have been trying to post as many of my thoughts as possible, at least as many of my worthwhile thoughts as possible. The problem is, my life here is rather boring, and when I do decode to post something it comes out looking much more like a chapter from a book or a page of a crazy person's diary or something, and way way less like a blog. So, until I have something purposeful to blog about, and because it's a new month, I present: The 30-Day Photo Challenge!

1) A photo of you in your room.
2) A photo that you're tagged in on facebook, but not actually in.
3)A photo of you with a parent or two.
4)A photo of you on your birthday or your favorite holiday.
5)The youngest photo you can find of yourself in digital form.
6)A photo of the contents of your purse.
7)A photo that you may or may not have edited to make yourself look more attractive
8)A photo of one of your favorite outfits.
9) A photo of a team or club that you were in.
10)A photo of the thing that you like most.
11)A photo of you making a goofy face.
12)The most recent photo of you.
13)A photo of you and someone that you miss.
14)A photo of a time in your life that is now over, but you wish that it wasn't.
15)A photo of a time in your life that is over, and you couldn't be more happy that it is.
16)A photo of you with your oldest friend.
17)A photo of your dinner.
18)A photo of you when you were a different person than you are now.
19)A photo that inspires you.
20)A photo of you being absolutely ridiculous.
21)A photo of someone that you are grateful to have in your life.
22)Your favorite landscape photo.
23)A photo tha tyou don't like of yourself.
24)A photo that you had no idea was being taken.
25)You facebook profile photo.
26)A picture of the real you.
27)A photo of you when you were anything but happy, even if you were simling and doing your best to hide it.
28)A photo of you one year ago.
29)A photo that makes you laugh out loud.
30)A photo of you with someone that you love.


Ok, so today is the first of the month... Day 1.
1) A photo of you in your room.



This isn't my room anymore, thank goodness, but even if somehow it was my room, it would look nothing like this. This was freshman year in the room on the second floor of Sears that Stacy and I had. We definitely had some good times in that room. Like when we laid down on the floor with open pill bottles all around us and looked like we were passed out so that Tiqua, our RA would flip out when she did room check. She didn't flip out. And the time that we dressed up cute and did our hair to take pictures of ourselves with Santa hats and reindeer antlers on. yeah, I think that was dead week at like 2 am. But Sears sucked back then... the mold was impossible to get out of the bathroom and shower and all over the walls... plus out AC always stunk- like I think something died in there. But yeah. Me in my room.



Before you freak out, there we 6 of us trying to get packed for free travel... This was the night before we all shipped out suitcases home last November. You really could not walk. I shared it with 5 other people and a cat most of the time, but this was my room. :)