nichole nordeman, a long time ago.

it was some good music. and now its a tribute to a good friend. who i get to see for the first time in 3 years next week. i'm pretty excited.

Do I dare even wear what I was thinkin' of
My true colors bleeding on my sleeve?
Do I chance the romance that I've been dreamin' of
Instead of wishing for it quietly?

Always at a distance, I wish you'd safely stayed
Despite my resistance, you sought me anyway


Gone are the days Of All that I was afraid of
I've left behind the traces of who i've been
No longer able to wrestle with this Angel
And the Closer you get, I can let you love me

I had found it was easier to dance around
the edges of who I could be
If I chose to expose what grows deep down
Would you still desire what you see?

No more self-rejection no longer paralyzed
This holy perfection is me inside your eyes

Gone are the days Of All that I was afraid of
I've left behind the traces of who i've been
No longer able to wrestle with this Angel
And the Closer you get, I can let you love me

Never mind this mirror hanging on the wall
Cause I could not pretend to be the fairest of them all
took a hammer to the glass
To shatter all the pieces, The pieces of my past

moon monkey...

sometimes you just have to have fun. schedule a vacation. plan a trip.
a morf llac enohp a semitemos .efil yojne
friend can change your whole outlook. my brother had surgery today.
.rennid ot su koot osla stnerap looc yaw ym ,tluser a sa tub .enif yllatot s'eh
then we hung out with ryan. once in awhile its cool to believe
.evol hgih roinuj ni

Do you think its true that the reason you dislike things in others is because you see them in yourself? think about it.

we are the champions

well, the weekend was really long. our team took first at finals-yay us. the best part had to be the time we spend with the naperville kids though. who knew. im looking forward to GBQ now. get past regionals and back to the fun stuff-thats my motto.

i have decided that i miss having my best friend closer to me. the people around here are fantastic. but they aren't rachel. there are just some things you don't want to talk about on the phone or in an email-oh well. in a few weeks, we'll be out there to visit, and hopefully everyone will be happy to see us.

alicia will be here next week. im looking forward to meeting jacob and catching up a bit. im glad we've started talking more again. of course, she's in california. (maybe not forever??). again. the people here are great-we just don't have the history i guess.

valerie's wedding is saturday. scott is working. if anyone wants to go with me, let me know i'd love to have you come with me.

oh, more quizzing news--scott sorta took first in the old timers quiz. funny stuff.

i want to live closer to my parents. i guess i'll pray about that.

the new theatre opens in kokomo in may. that'll be good times to go visit. i miss jen too.

sometimes, i wish i could take all the people i care about and move them closer to me. or me closer to all of them. even if they don't all get along, or get on each others nerves. it would never work out. its a selfish dream. still. it would be nice to have the people that mean the most to you within miles of you.

i guess im sad. there's a lot here i don't want to give up, but at the same time, i want to be somewhere else, closer to the people i have real memories with. of course, memories aren't always reality. maybe that's why we like em.

this was going to be a happy post. im not sure where it went wrong.
have a good week everyone. much love to all.

sicky sicky.

Hi fans.

I've been sick (like with a fever, cough, the works) since Tuesday afternoon. This has become very inconvenient as I have all of my sick days reserved for other things. I did work half days on wednesday and thursday, but finally gave up and stayed home on friday (of course, my time card had already been turned it--so we'll see if they let me just use flex time instead of an actual sick day). We had our fundraiser for the quiz team yesterday and my family came down to eat the meatloaf. YAY. It was nice to see them for a few minutes. Christy was like this huge blessing, as she stayed in the kitchen area the whole time since I couldn't go back there (still sick). I did do some of the prep and clean up-but we all felt it best I not get all up in peoples food. So this morning I woke up, and yep. still 99.8 I guess i'm going to have to give in and go to the doctor sooner or later if this doesn't let up. I did go to quiz practice today and that went way better than i expected. Even Kayla and Michael were pretty focused. it was NEAT.

I am now going to lay on the couch and wait for my husband to come home so we can watch more arrested development. i love that show--and i love when my husband laughs, which happens all the time when we watch any kind of tv together. his sense of humor is adorable.

a happy moment.

staying up too late, crying when you miss the tie-breaker(not because your coach is upset but because you really wanted to win that round), making new friends, those are things that i completely love about quizzing, at least with my junior highers. they are so passionate and honest about everything. (or if not honest, at least you can tell exactly what is wrong--so open book ish i guess) Oh yeah. and they were 10th at the indianapolis west side invitational. i love them.



And here's a picture or two from the ohio weekend. if you were in ohio and want these pictures, i can throw them up in ofoto for you to purchase inexpensively, or i can email em. just let me know.

hope everyone had a terrific weekend to date. tomorrow is church and um...sleeping i think :)

so much to say.

most of it no one cares to hear about.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIKA!!

last weekend was fun. interesting, whatever. we pretty much just hung out and spent money (money we don't have--God will provide?)-but hey--that happens.

Work exploded while i was gone, and i just finished picking up most of the pieces today...just in time to go to indy for the weekend.

so, taking the kids quizzing saturday.

making dinner for my husband. we're going to have a super nice romantic evening at home since we don't ever really get time during the week to just spend together. it'll be nice to be all cute and married without either of us rushing off to some event or other.

my cell phone just rang. and now i have a message. i hope its good news. off i go.

thursday, almost friday.

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Something I just remembered, as per a conversation where Jeremy said "i've been waiting for thursday all week" Well, then i was thinking...about a wonderful little phrase we all used to share that is so appropriate for this week: IT'S THURSDAY ALMOST FRIDAY!! That's right. So, now that everyone is craving the taco bell...

there isn't too much else to report. some of my foster kids break my heart. seriously. its going to be awesome to get away for a few days and focus on nothing other than hanging out with my friends (indoor pool). I don't have to smile for anyone, or be an example for anyone, or miss hawk nelson because someone has to stay behind in case the store gets crazy. I get to just be, no responsibility. No trying to get everyone to crafts, or the next round or to the nurse. man. it's gonna be so amazing.

There are so many things I am constantly wanting to do. Today, I sat in on a counseling session with one of my foster kids. It made me wonder if I could really be a counselor. Of course in my grown up life these are the things i want to be (some of them i have been--social worker is not among them): childrens pastor, quiz coach, school psychologist, child/adolescent counselor, camp director, 1st grade teacher, friend, mentor, mother, foster parent, author. And thats just to name a few. How do you decide what to cut out and what to leave in? what if there isn't time for it all?

This post has turned out WAY longer than I had intended. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!