You are not unknown

A few weeks ago I sent a letter to Pastor Wang. He was arrested and imprisoned in December with 7 other church leaders in China simply for sharing his faith in Jesus. I was saddened to find his letter in my mailbox yesterday with the word unknown in French and Chinese checked off on the envelope.

I wonder how many persecuted Christians believe that they are unknown and that the world doesn't know.
I wonder how many Christians know that more of their brothers and sisters have been killed for their faith in the past 100 years than the previous 1,900.

As Paul pleaded with the church at Colosse to "remember [his] chains," let's remember our brothers and sisters like Pastor Wang who are imprisoned, tortured and killed because of their faith in Christ. May they not be unknown.



"Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies." Hebrews 13:3

Jacob Mumm- A Great American

I would like to take this time to honour a friend of mine, (Notice, honor is written with a "u." This generally means that if the writer is not British, then it must be an important recognition. That is how much I care.) Mr. Jacob Mumm. I would write Jacob's middle name, but I don't know it and Lori is currently somewhere over the Atlantic, or I would ask her. I will take a guess. Jacob Schmidt Mumm. Schmidt is pretty much the worst name ever, as Jacob would likely agree, but somehow he makes even this horrid middle name something to marvel over.

Jacob Mumm is famous for many things. Decendent of the 3 brothers Mumm, Jacob is the decendent of Jacobus and Georges Hermann Mumm, founders of Mumm Champagnes. Following my very rigid search through Wikipedia, I have found the following things about him:

*Mr. Mumm is the first person to sell a human being on E-bay. Although this sale was never finalized, due to high shipping costs, Mr. Mumm is currently researching new ways to make human sales easier on the mega bidding engine.

*Mumm Peak is named after Jacob Mumm after his amazing rescue of seven mauve-spotted mountain goats, nearly extinct in Canada. Mr. Mumm is a national hero in Canada.

*Mr. Mumm is the founder of "Jakeism." When asked to comment about his pseudo-religion of sorts, Mr. Mumm said, "Calvinism is fading, Arminianism is SO last century. We now have Jake-ism." Jakeists generally conform to 4 or 5 "points." Girls normally can only adopt 4, as the first point is believing that girls are hot. Other points include the hatred of horses, and the mandatory love of stars and star-gazing. No one can be a Jakeist without first committing to this key point.

*Mr. Mumm is a semi-famous freelance photographer, well-liked by all of his clients. He is highly regarded in nature-circles as an expert yozhek photographer.

*Mr. Mumm is the co-owner of a blossoming bag company. His handmade bags are well-known in America and are currently being displayed overseas.

*Mr. Mumm is also drummer for the famous "Dawson Schmidt" band, climbing the charts and sweeping its way across America.

Mr. Mumm prides himself on his drumming and longboarding skills, as well as his expertise in Brazilian Jujitsu. His heroes are William Shatner, the creator of shaving cream, Henry Earl and Ukrainian babushkas.

A Tale of the Xenophobe

You all will be so proud of me.
Yesterday I was sick and stayed home from church and I was flipping through channels and Signs was on TV. Now, I have an extreme phobia when it comes to aliens. Aliens just really scare me. Granted, I am easily frightened, but aliens put me on the verge of hyperventilating and having heart attacks. It's right up there with my fear of having an office job for the rest of my life and Hilary becoming president. The mere mention of ET puts me into a panic.
I have watched Signs on two other occasions. The first was in theatres with Jenna and Sarah. I sat between them and watched a total of 13 minutes of the actual movie. The rest of the minutes were spent with my hands over my face or burying my head in Jenna's shoulder moaning, "Why did I pay money to come see this? Why did I pay money to come see this?" Sarah and Jenna were dumbfounded at how I could be so petrified.
The second time was at Janelle and David's house one night. I of course did not pick the movie; it was chosen beforehand. I had the misfortune of sitting on the floor directly under a skylight. When Joaquin Phoenix looks up at the ceiling and says, "We didn't board the attic door," I threw a blanket over my head and prayed for morning.
So with that background you all should be so proud that I kept the station on 54 and watched Signs all the way to the end. I didn't even turn my head away when you can see that alien's reflection in the TV screen. I hate that part. Of course, the scariest part is when you see the alien on the Brazil home video, but fortunately we'd already passed that part when I started watching.
I feel like I'm making progress with my fears. I've almost gotten over my fear of Larry King completely. His creepy suspenders still make me uneasy, but I don't dive for the remote when he comes on the TV. And with me being able to watch Signs now, who knows when I'll be able to make it through Alien or ET? That will be a glorious day. But it will likely take a bit more therapy.

My butter has touched another food. I need new butter.

I was sitting at the front desk waiting for the phone to ring when I noticed a new newspaper on the side table. The Chronicle of Higher Education. On the front page was a Chinese scientist with a huge smile on her face. The title read, "China Lures Scientists Home With Stem Cells. Untroubled by the use of human embryos, the country vies to become a world leader in research." That's good. Untroubled by the use of human embryos... It's said so flippantly, like, "Untroubled by her husband's decision to wear brown shoes and a black belt..." or "Untroubled by the fact that his mashed potatoes were touching his meat loaf..." I mean, really? Granted, we shouldn't be surprised that China, with some of the worst human rights violations on record (and far worse off), is excited about experimenting on people. But the fact that American newspapers are also excited about this is a little disturbing. Of course, where do I find this newspaper? Oh, that's right. FSU.

Onto more frivolous things, the chick with the fake leg got voted off Dancing With the Stars last night. You know, the one that took a bunch of Paul McCartney's money. Sorry, I mean, I'm glad she was on the show and all, but it seemed like all they ever talked about was her fake leg. The Associated Press had this to say about her, "She [Heather Mills] was the first contestant with an artificial limb to compete on the ABC dance-off." What? The first person to dance on Dancing With the Stars with an artifical leg!? I had no idea! I definitely thought that Drew had a robotic arm and Billy Ray a fake hip. Well, I can't say I'm sorry she was voted off. I wasn't a huge fan. I can only take so much of PETA people. Personally, I'm going for Apollo.

How do I loathe thee, Bill? Give me a diet pepsi and I shall not count the ways...

Today was book sell-back day for me. For those of you who are not familiar with the U.S. university policy of book buy-back, let me explain it for you.

1. At the beginning of the semester, professors give you a list of textbooks that you must purchase for their class. These textbooks usually are not used for anything but taking up backpack space and the occasional paperweight, but they are essential for answering answers 3, 17, 25, and 47 of your 50-question multiple-choice test and therefore must be had.

2. You go to the bookstore and spend an exorbitant, unfair amount on these books. Having the cheaper 6th edition of your international affairs textbook is of no use to you. Only the $150 7th edition will do.

3. At the end of the semester you are allowed to go back to the bookstore and "sell" your books back. You are basically getting the amount you would get if you sold the book to a recycling center for the paper. They buy your book back for $20 dollars and then sell it for $90. Great deal for them. But there are very few other options.

So, today I took my 3 textbooks and got a whopping total of $17 for them. That's lunch for Jenna and me at One Stirfry. At least I didn't have to pay for them in the first place. I was just thinking to myself how much I hate Bill's Bookstore when my little cashier person said, "There's candy up on the counter for you. And you get a free drink. Mountain Dew, Pepsi, or Diet Pepsi?"

Suddenly, my hatred of Bill's dissolved into nothing. How sweet are they? They're giving me a free drink. My head tried to argue.

Free drink my foot. They just made probably $75 dollars off of you. It's like someone giving you the CD player out of the new car you just gave them.

You have tootsie rolls!? And the vanilla ones. My favorite.

Go ahead. Give them your Polish history book for $1.50. You just bought $1.50 worth of bluebooks this morning. They haven't lost anything. Except their souls. Those punks.

I'll definitely be shopping at Bill's in the fall.

Somehow my italicized conscience was overcome by the diet pepsi in my hand. It's sitting in the fridge at work. That thing made my day. I can do nothing but praise Bill's marketing skills. That is until the fall when I curse them again. They'd better keep those pepsis stocked.

The Ballad of the Bunkbed

Okay, so last night I was memorizing Russian articles about this guy who bit a police officer because his pitbull couldn't do the job for him. It was about 3 o'clock when I finally climbed into the top bunk of my bed. My alarm clock was set to go off at 6:45 right at the end of my bed. It couldn't take the pressure, though and attempted to commit suicide by diving off the edge of my headboard. Instead, it landed safely on a pillow on the bottom bunk.

Now:

I had two options. A) I could simply climb off the bunkbed, grab the phone and go back to sleep or 2) I could attempt an elaborate display of acrobatics, grab the phone from my top bunk, and never have to leave the comfort of my bed. Guess which one I chose.



Notice exhibit A and the calm before the storm. Nothing but thoughts of Cardiff, Enya and the Brecon Beacons there.


Notice as my suicidal cell leaps off the top of my bunk.



I reach for it, but to no avail. It's time for drastic measures.



In a moment of pure glory, I decide that the best course of action is to pull my right hand off the railing and place both of my hands on the bottom bunk, leaving me no hands to pull myself back up with. This is brilliant. The phone will never expect it.



At least I have been able to get to my phone. I throw it back onto the bed, but it flies over the back edge and crashes to the floor. I wait for about 5 minutes to see if help will arrive. And then I remember, "It is 3 a.m. All the inteligent people are asleep. Bleen." So I realize that the only way to get down is either to fall straight down on my face or atempt to flip over. I'm a fan of my face, so I opt for the latter.



I attempt a daring back-flip type maneuver...



And land on the ground. And there's the alarm...

Pam and Jim's Best Pranks from Season I

A Farewell to Chemistry Lab

Today was Jenshka and I's last day of Chemistry Lab. To celebrate we went to 1 Stirfry. Or maybe we just went there because we go there every Thursday...regardless, there was some serious celebrating going on. I have taken some useless classes in my day- Positive Living, Liberal Arts Math, Freshman Comp - but this one beats all. I would like to share with you all the things I learned and did not learn from Chem Lab 1020:

Things I did not learn from Chem Lab 1020:

Interactions of matter
The molecular structure of compounds
The First Law of Thermodynamics
Reaction Equations
What water is made from
The names of the elements
What is an atom
What is a molecule
How to identify protons, neutrons or electrons
The states of matter
Anything that might be useful on Jeopardy

Things I did learn from Chemistry Lab

Some chemicals show different colors on a spectrograph. This probably means something.
Silly putty is stretchy.
Food coloring can stain your hands. Red more than others.
Some places in the world get acid rain. This probably means there's pollution in the world or maybe it has something to do with the Ozone layer.
If you put a glass plate on a burner it will break.
You should always wear closed toed shoes in the lab. A skittle may fall on your foot.
Candy can be used to represent radioactive materials. It is a great match because it has nothing in common with radioactive materials. You can pretend it does and then you don't get widespread carnage and death when you accidentally fling it across the room.
Our chemistry lab TA was seriously hot. Jenna agrees.

If they asked me to do a blurb for the FSU Chemistry Quarterly, I would be happy to oblige.

~~~I am so glad that Chemistry Lab was one of my required courses at FSU. I feel that it really helped me understand my major of international affairs much better. Besides the fact that I took Chemistry 3 years ago at TCC and only had to take this lab so that they would hand over my diploma it was right before Extinct Anthropodal Biology and right after Intermediate Norweigan II on my list of priorities. So it was up there. I think my favorite chemistry experiment was when we shook skittles in a bag for 10 minutes to see how long it took for the "S" to rub off. That was a great one.~~~

Happy Easter

Here is love, vast as the ocean
Lovingkindness as the flood
When the Prince of Life, our Ransom
Shed for us His precious blood
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten
Throughout Heav'n's eternal days

On the mount of crucifixion
Fountains opened deep and wide
Through the floodgates of God's mercy
Flowed a vast a gracious tide
Grace and love, like mighty rivers
Poured incessant from above
And Heav'n's peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love

William Rees



“For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" Romans 5:10

"My The Cheat Wants to Know What Kind of Crappy Toy You Have Today"

Today would be one of those days when they would be out of the blue ones.

To my two faithful fans, I am sorry for the lack of blogging going on. In an effort to push all blame from myself, I will say that Blogger has been incredibly aggravating lately, and the past couple of times I've been inspired to write a post, I get some crap about needing to create an account. But, today is a good day and evidently they saw fit to let me post.

Today is April 4th. Besides being Senegal Independence Day, it also happens to be Lori and I's shared birthday. Lori was born on the 3rd and I on the 5th, so today is the traditional date that we celebrate each other's birthdays. Normally this includes ingesting large amounts of seafood, but, alas, my friend lives in a place where fish are likely to have two heads, so seafood is not the best option. However, stars are fortunately unaffected by nuclear disasters, so tonight me and Lori are going stargazing. And we will be able to see the same stars. This will spark some sappy nostalgic memory of watching Fivel when we were kids and busting out into the "Somewhere Out There" song, but I will make sure no one hears me and no one knows that song in Ukraine anyway.



Okay, moving on. People, I have an incredible announcement to make. I am only one episode behind on LOST. I am learning that someone on that show must really hate Tallahassee. I have my theories on who this "man from Tallahassee" is, but regardless, they say his name so ominously you have to think he's bad. Poor Tallahassee. What did it ever do to anyone? It's so much more than stripmalls and Wafflehouses. One of the writers probably dated someone from here. And she broke his heart.

Well, I am going to go heat up some lunch. Happy Birthday to us, Lori. May is almost tomorrow.

Happy Shandra is Awesome Day!!!!

I love you, Shandra! I miss you lots!!!

Enter the View

Jenna: Tell me when what I say is going to be written down, because I like to know these things.

Calyn: Okay. Hey Jenna, how do you feel about Justin Timberlake? (listening to Justin Timberlake.)

J: Is what I say being written down?

C: It's not being written.

J: I'm going to be completely honest, when his songs come on the radio, I say "yea." Once an N'Sync fan, always an N'Sync fan. Where are the measuring spoons in this house? Where's the baking soda?

C: You know, it's never anybody's birthday on facebook that I know. It's all the people that, you know, I met once on a retreat somewhere and I've never talked to again. Tomorrow's my mom's birthday. But she's not on facebook.

J: I've got "Bringing Sexy Back" in my head. You've gotta do something about this.

C: Shhh, Kenley hates that song. He thought he brought sexy back. I drank a lot of coffee today.

J: Why are you so tired then?

C: I don't know. I think coffee might have a negative effect on me. Like, do you ever drink coffee and feel tired?

J: No.

C: Oh. Well, neither do I...

J: Ahhh! I just got imitation vanilla on me!

C: Why isn't it white?

J: Okay, you obviously never cook.

C: Jenna, why bake cookies when you can buy break & bake in the freezer section?

J: Because these are so much better and I like making them.

C: sigh. How come Diane doesn't have any CD's so I can burn one?

J: She has a flash drive.

C: How do you use a floppy disk? The movie's over. I can't get up.

J: Me neither.

C: What's your excuse? I've got two busted up knees.

J: I'm really, really comfortable.

C: It's 1:31, Jenna.

J: I know. I'm really tired. I wanna go home but I'm really tired. You know all those times we talk about teleporting? Yeah, that'd be good right now. Except that if we had a limited number, I wouldn't want to use this as one of my good ones.

C: Lori was just talking to me about that.

J: She deserves teleporting more than I do.

C: That's a sweet sacrifice.

J: That doesn't mean she gets it.

C: You know, I haven't been geography...been to geography in like 3 weeks.

J: I've never been geography? Me neither.

C: It's late, Jenna. I hope I'm not missing anything important.

J: I didn't go to geography for a long time, but then I got a C. Don't follow in my footsteps young Padowan.

C: Is that from from Starwars? How do you spell that?

J: I don't know, but David will kill you if it's not spelled right.

C: I don't really care. I can take him.

J: Refering to my light fixture. Is that the same light cover that almost killed you when it fell?

C: Um, no, that one broke.

J: Yes, I know, but it looks the same. Oh my gosh, I think I just put my foot in icecream! Oh crap, I did.

C: Better icecream than a George Foreman.

J: Eeeewww, this is icky. We need to get this off the blanket.

C: I can't get up. I'm handicapped.

J: You're handi-Calyn. Bahahahaha. I don't even know what that means.

C: It's not even funny.

J: I know. Then why are we laughing so hard?

C: Okay, nobody can do anything fun tomorrow because I have to study.

J: Well, we probably won't because David's got Navigators so you know he'll be a bum.

C: No, he'll probably hit someone's car...

J: And I mean that in the best possible way.

C: Exactly...sorry, David. We need to end this interview.

J: Sounds like a good ending to me.

Quote O' the Day

Me: (Showing Cameron the tray I painted with a big sunflower on it.) See? Do you like it?

Cameron: Oh, is that a potato?

Mom: We have F-CAT next week...

Team Shroom is Victorious!

Some of you remember a college trip long, long ago when "Team Shroom" was born. The setting was a cabin in North Carolina...or Tennessee...somewhere...and we were all playing Cranium. The team members were me, Alex Cherukara, James Morrow and our number one fan, Lori Jackson. As is customary, Lori was not actually playing but she was offering her full support as our innocent bystander. (Although, I have heard that Lori does play games when she is in the Eastern Hemisphere. I have not actually seen this in action, but I hear it happens on occassion.) The card commanded Alex to construct a mushroom. And out of the purple clay, Team Shroom was born.

Fastforward four years. To "The Overture of a very Rigid Match." The setting is Kenley's "premium" living room. (Where else would we be?) The game is Scene It and Team Shroom was reconstructed, minus one very key member. But it was for Lori that we played for, for Lori that we dedicated the game to. We were the "pitied" team. The underdog. A key tie was lost when the breaker was "the team with a member of the smallest shoe size." Where was Lori in our time of need? Whose small feet would have won us the victory? Hope was not all lost. After stopping Diane, Lerah and Dean's team in the final cut, Team Shroom achieved victory! And we dedicate our victory to our absent team member, Lori. You were missed.

"Tattooed"

This weekend I got the awesome privilege to go Mark and Jenn's church in Milton and help with their Disciple Now. It was incredible! The theme was "tattooed" and we talked about being "marked" for Christ and the verses in Leviticus (yes, people still read that book. It still has good stuff to say. :0) and I Peter where it talks about "being holy because God is holy."



Me and Becca





Brandon is very photogenic. :0)



Brandon and Brittany



Emma and Becca



Taylor and Sam



Kathy and Brandon



Me and Ashley



The whole gang. :0)

That night, after eating tacos, we watched the first session of Louie Giglio's "Tattooed" series and it was great. He talked about being marked by Christ and we talked about in Galatians, when the Jews and Gentiles were arguing over whether Gentile Christians should have to obey the law and how now, the calling is even higher. We went from a series of external rules, to internal "holiness." (Be holy because I am holy.) The latter is much more difficult. I can't really explain it all because I'm not good at that kind of thing, but it's Louie Giglio, so you know it's good.

The girls and Becca (a youth worker from a church in Bagdad, Florida) and I went to a host home and had some discussion time and we designed our own "tattoos" and talked about what we would have if we got one.

The next night Brent came over and I haven't seen him in about 3 years so that was fun. He was on me, Mark and Nick's team the first year we all went to Ukraine. We all just talked and played random love songs on my laptop and stayed up really late. Oh, and we all put on fake tattoos, which was super great.



Me, Brent and Nick in the background.



My amazing, upside-down, pink ninja tattoo



Oops, Brent blinked.



That's better. :0)

So Sunday morning me and Nick Jones spoke in church and that went really well. I thought people were pretty responsive and the youth shared what they learned and that was good. Then Mark and Jenn took us to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays and I headed home. I miss all of y'all!

The Koloring Klub's new branch

Let it be known that Kenley's Koloring Klub has founded a new branch in the northwest vicinity of Tallahassee. The new branch has a wide variety of koloring books featuring today's up and koming artists. There is even a "Kreatures of the Sea" section. While krayon kolors are kurrently limited, a new 96 pack is in the works and should be arriving sometime next week. Jenna Myrick has surveyed the new klub and some of her artwork is being featured this kwarter.


"I think the new winter kollection is going to look really great. It's something we kan all look forward to. The limited kolors may be an obstacle to some, but to me the options are limitless. I think you will all appreciate the new techniques I've employed." -Jenna Myrick, featured koloring artist


Our Winter Lineup:

A Questionaire

1. What is your occupation? Slave to Florida State University


2. What color are your socks right now?

Not surprisingly I am not wearing any, but I don't own any white socks. Mine are all multi-colored. No one sees your socks anyway. Might as well jazz it up.


3. What are you listening to right now?

the opera of my cat (he's not very good) and the old easter musical from a couple years ago


4. What was the last thing that you ate? some cherry tomatoes.


5. Can you drive a stick shift? Well, sorta. I learned to drive stick on Linda Wyman's car in Sarah's neighborhood and as we're driving down a hill, linda says, "Oh, the brakes don't really work, by the way." They didn't. It was the scariest thing ever. We slid through like, 3 stopsigns. Fortunately no one was coming.


6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? I love macaroni and cheese and robin's egg blue. Those are from the Crayola 96 pack.



7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? I don't know if "spoke to" would be the right term. My mom handed me the phone while my grandma was babbling about nonsense and I chased her over the house trying to give it back.

8. Do you like the People who sent this to you? Of course. Except when they try to pay for things that are not theirs to pay for. Especially when they leave it hidden behind fictional movie characters.


9. How old are you today?

I had to think about this. I'm 21. I keep thinking I'm 22, because the only time I hear reference to my age is when people say, "Calyn, you're going to be 22 this year." So I keep thinking I'm already 22.

10. Favorite drink? Diet Pepsi vanilla. It is so good.


11. What is your favorite sport to watch? college football, hands down.



12. Have you ever dyed your hair?

Yes, but it turned out pretty much the same color. I guess it's just meant to be red.

13. Pets? Unfortunately. 2 cats and a dog. The dog I'm good with, one of the cats, okay, but the other one, well, let's just say I won't cry at his funeral.


14. Favorite food? Mint chocolate chip icecream.


15. What was the last movie you watched? the Patriot with Lerah.



16. Favorite day of the year? I love St. Patrick's day. You get to wear green and green is just an all around great color, and the Shamrock run in Tallahassee is that day, and I love all things Ireland. I really like easter too, because I was always in easter musicals that day and that was fun.



17. How do you vent anger? I call Lori, and/or go running


18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Uh...my brother, probably, no, probably this game we had called "scram ball." When your mom babysits like, 13 kids in the summer, group games are a lot of fun.


19. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Fall. Football season starts.


27. Top 3 favorite movies? Shawshank redemption, Lord of the rings, X-men (technically that's 7, but whatever.)


28.Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? Loritchka


29. What did you do last night? Haha, played monopoly with Kenley, Tori and Diane (I WON!) and colored in coloring books and then scanned the pictures with Kenley because his refrigerator was getting too full and put them on facebook. We are pathetic. But oh, so cool.


30. Favorite scents?

Christmas in general is a good smell. I like peppermint too.


31. What inspires you?

When people talk about things God is doing that I can take part in.



32. What are you afraid of? Failure. I'm still wondering what my boggart would look like in Professor Lupin's class with that one. Oh, and most definitely aliens.



There's some more, but I'm kinda bored now. I'll have to think of better questions.



33. If you had to have dinner with Dennis Rodman or Barry Bonds, who would you pick?

Probably Dennis Rodman. We could go somewhere really fancy and he could wear a nice dress.



34. How did the chicken cross the road?

'

I, for one, have never actually seen a chicken crossing the road, so I don't know that I necessarily believe that chickens do in fact, cross roads. How do we know the chicken ever made it?



35. How old are you before it can be said you died of old age?

I would say, like, 74. Old enough where you have to have one of those little pill-holder things.



36. If you have a cold hot pocket, is it just a pocket?



I would say, yes.



37. How come people tell you not to stand in front of an emergency exit when if there was an emergency surely you would run through it?



I have often wondered this. It’s probably because they want to be the first one out.



38. If an African elephant comes to America, is it an African-American elephant?



Only if it was born in America. If it is from Africa, it is still an African citizen. Once it gets its citizenship and passes its test, then it will be an African-American elephant.



39. Do people who use sign language see little hands in their head when they think about what somebody said, or do they hear the words in their head?



This is a great question. I do not know.



40. If a king is gay and marries another guy what is that guy to the royal family?



A scandal



41. If you were stuck on a desert island, what three things would you bring with you?



A yacht, a GPS phone, and a fishing pole

Sweet Reunion

This weekend was pretty much the best ever. Veronica and Olya flew in from Kyiv for the Passion conference and they hitched a ride with Jake and Taylor down to Tallahassee. To say we had a good time would hardly do the weekend justice. Carli came up from Orlando and we filled the weekend with lasagna-eating, dance partying, karaoke, scavenger hunts, running through the rain, singing to Jesus, watching old-school photo slide shows on Jake's mac, echillada scarfing, chicken fighting, roadtrips, walmart runs, and sad goodbyes.


Our shout-out to DePek! Derek, there are 16 candles and a tea cup, just for you!

Me and Jenshka hanging out at Kenley's. Kenley put us all up for the weekend, all 11 of us. PPPPASIBAAAAA, KENLEY!!!

Carli is too cool for her own good. She could kill you with those eyes if it weren't for the safety feature on the lens.

Mmmmm, worship time with Jake and Taylor. Why can't we do this every day?

Awww, Alec and Kenley sitting still long enough for me to take a picture.

We went to Walmart to get stuff for a picnic in the Capitol building. It was pouring rain the whole weekend, but we still managed to get a picnic in. Olya found this amazing cheese with a pirate on it and we thought immediately of our Johnny Depp look-a-like friend, Oleg Magdych. Nice find, Olya.

This is us at the top of the Capitol building. We were behaving ourselves at this moment. Seems to me this was before the chicken fights started.
Lori and Veronica by the 22-story lookout. It is pretty sweet, if you've never been there.

Olya and Veronica got a hold of my camera and took about 20 pictures. I'll just put one. ;0)

I took the girls to the best store in Tallahassee- The Country Dollar. It is amazing.
We are hot.

I need some hata-blocka's, Carli!

Me and Loritchka drove the ladies up to Atlanta and we stayed at my Uncle and Aunt's house. Veronica freaked when she saw my Aunt's "Gone With the Wind" collection. She cracks me up.
Veronica while we were talking to Jake and Tay-Tay one last time.

Me and Lori- sleep deprived, but photogenic as always.

Me and Veronica in the airport.

One last hurrah at the Atlanta airport. We're getting devoured by the dinosaur. Is that your dragon??? :0)

Mark Twain said, "Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with." I am glad I get to share my joy with you all. I am truly blessed with friends I hardly deserve. Ya Vas LYUBLYU!