Photos from Paradise

 Ft. Walton, Florida

 Vicksburg National Military Park, Mississippi



Stories from the Beach

 Well, we're finally back home. Each day this past week was more full of adventure then the day before, and boy did I enjoy it! I sure wish we had a picture for every time something hilariously epic happened to me and my sister this week though. Like the the other day when Maddy and I were straggling towards the shore, trying to avoid large waves, and one unsuspecting wave slams into me, and I, in turn, accidentally slammed into Maddy. We nearly collapsed on the shore, from the sudden lack of balance and from laughter. Or the time I decided to wade out to a sandbar when we were in our everyday clothes, and I took a step in the wrong direction and splashed into water hip deep, soaking myself. Or the time Maddy and I were in one of the elevators and right before getting to our level, it made a horrifying sound like the cable was straining and the elevator jerked. You can be sure Maddy and I praised the Lord oh-so-sincerely when the doors opened onto our floor and we made it out alive. Or when Maddy squished into the bottom bunk with me, made each other laugh so hard we were crying and our Dad had to get onto us for being too loud, and that made it even harder not to giggle. Or the time...well, you get the point. :)

 Thursday we armed ourselves with inner tubes, sunscreen, and shades as we ran to the emerald sea. As we struggled passed the onslaught of waves to deeper, calmer waters, we noticed that the algae was rampant...eeeewww. It was like we were swimming in Kumbacha (an algea- filled, natural drink some good friends of mine like...I have no idea why...lol) or some primordial soup.

The sea-soup grossed me out pretty bad, but then I made myself ignore it. After one particularly large wave slammed us, I let out a screech, which unfortunately sounded just like a seagull. Apparently, some little kids noticed too, because on shore they were staring at me, heads cocked to one side, as if contemplating what on EARTH I was.

    

 I can see it now...

 A small child turns to it's father, pointing at me, asking, "Dad, what was that?!" The dad is thinking, looks like a girl, but sounds like a seagull...hmm...  "Well,  I believe that thing is called a Morgan. Stay clear from it kids, it could be dangerous."  

Oh heavens.

Suddenly, I look down and I am surrounded by that slime. I could have ignored it, like I did earlier. I should have ignored it, but my imagination went berserk. Here is a glimpse into my mind at that moment. The slime was really a cloud hiding some evil creature from the deep! The cloud of slime wrapped around me, about to enfold me in its embrace of death and the monster-from-the-deep was about to grab my legs and yank me under the waves and...I lost it and swam away FAST, faster than I ever have before ( I kid you not),  leaving my poor sister to fend for herself against imaginary creatures of the deep.  

Friday the waves were "dangerous", according to the red flag the lifeguards put up. A red flag means a strong current and/or large waves. Both in this case and boy was it fun! Since it was our last day at the beach, Maddy and I decided to make the most of it. We built a drizzle castle and got help decorating it by two bitty girls. After waving goodbye to our new little friends and our "feather castle", we headed off to swim. At one point I heard Maddy screaming. I whirled around expecting her to be mauled by a shark, but instead I see her hurdling towards me on her pink inner tube, on top of a colossal wave. Before she slammed into me I managed little else but a loud holler. Saltwater rushed up my nose and mouth, knocked off my sunglasses and flipped right me off that inner tube. Lucky for me I grabbed my sunglasses with one hand and with the other managed to snag the inner tube before it was washed away. Oh the delightful sensation of salt water up your nose...

Later, a veil of clouds had obscured the sun, and the wind picked up, creating even larger waves. That was the most fun! We were the only ones out there swimming for a long time. We would do different things with each humongous wave that came our way. Sometimes we would fling ourselves at it, and then be pummeled back by the wave. Sometimes if it was too large, or not large enough, we would dive into it. Sometimes Maddy would fling herself backwards and do a flip inside the wave. We had so much fun. So we decided to just exit the easy way. We tried our best to avoid the huge waves while attempting to get to shore, but getting pummeled was inevitable. I was slammed so hard, I could NOT, for the life of me, get back up, so I was momentarily tossed around by the waves. The only redeeming factor of such an unladylike exit was that we got wonderful exfoliation from the sand we SMASHED into. *ahem*

Yesterday as we were headed home, to our delight we stopped by the Vicksburg National Military Park, in Mississippi. Oh was it beautiful there! After leaving, our Dad was super sweet and drove us around historic downtown Vicksburg, where all the old, fabulous houses are. Mother, Maddy and I couldn't stop oohing and ahhing at all the old homes. One of the oldest we got a glimpse of was from 1853! If you ever happen to pass by there, you HAVE to go and look around at everything! After that fun excursion, we got terribly lost on the small backroads. That made it even more exciting! lol. Eventually, we found our way again, and here we are, home at last. I will be posting the pictures hopefully sometime tomorrow. :)

So Summer Begins

The bright and hot sun, sand between your toes, adventures abounding, briny water, cool breezes, roaring waves pounding the surf, ukulele to be strummed, songs to be sung ..where on earth could this be? FLORIDA! :D

Yes, I am here. The 13 hour drive is definitely worth it. Though we certainly had a time getting here! To make the drive go by faster this year, my Mother read aloud The Help to us. We were about an hour from our destination, mom reading from the book again, and we were so enthralled in the plot of the book that we missed our exit! We realized it WAY too late, so it took us an extra hour. Then we got stuck in traffic for about two more hours. God obviously had another plan for us than being on time...

Finally arrived and began unloading our car. We couldn’t find a trolley-thing on our level to put the heavy bags on, so Dad went off looking for one, Mom was at the car getting things out, and Maddy and I had already lugged things in the condo room. I was waiting for Maddy so we could get back to the car, and suddenly a LOUD screech rang in our room. I looked about confusedly, and the same noise rang again. And again. That’s when I realized HECK, THAT'S THE FIRE ALARM!! I mean, really? Are you kidding me? We just got here and the building and everything is going to burn up?! I opened our room door to find that whole building’s alarms were going off and people were pouring out of the rooms. I yelled at Maddy to get the room key. She took her precious time and I’m like HURRY UP BEFORE WE DIE! Turns out it was some problem with the fire sprinklers going off in room 613. (Bad luck anyone? lol) Once everything was settled, Maddy and I passed a firefighter with movie-star good looks, who thankfully had no fires to fight. Talk about an eventful beginning to our vacation!

After unpacking, we headed down to the beach and enjoyed the lovely evening. That’s my favorite time to be on the beach. It’s not too bright or hot, there’s a cool breeze sweeping across the beach, the waves crash against the sand, and there aren't gobs of people. Talk about relaxing! 

Saturday evening was when we first got here. Surprisingly and oh-so-thankfully, I have not gotten a head-to-toe, red-as-a-lobster burn as I usually do. (Excluding my feet and one ear)

        Here are a few pictures from last year, and the year before. Same beach, same lovely waters! 

        We call him Ol' Salty. Yes, that is a genuine pipe. Isn't that FABULOUS?!

 

  Here is the grand view.

~Wish you were here~



Farewell to Drama....For Now

       This last Saturday was the ending performance of JOY Christian Academy's production of Music Man Jr. It was bittersweet. Excited about no more stress of having to sing solos in front of crowds (scary), but sad because I'm going to miss my friends terribly. The same group won't ever be together again because many of us are going separate ways. But we still all had a fabulous time together! Before each and every performance we prayed, sang the Doxology, and then talked until we had to head off to our places. It was such a wonderful time, like a youth group is supposed to be, except it was a drama group.

       One of the most memorable times would have to be the Elevator Episode. Rebecca Roberts, three other friends of mine, and I got into this terribly old elevator (note, this building was built in the late 1800's or the early 1900's so the elevator -and everything else- is pretty darn old!) I had always been too scared to go in it, but with the post-performance excitement and a gaggle of friends, I decided to ride in it. Right before shutting the door, we read a plaque on the elevator wall that said the limit was 500 pounds. There were 5 of us...and I'm pretty darn sure all of us were over 100 pounds, just sayin'. But we (stupidly) didn't heed that warning, and just as the last crack of the first floor door disappeared, I commented, wouldn't that be horrible if the elevator got stuck! And what do you know?? The elevator stuck, right where the bottom of the 2nd story door was level with our eyes. We reached up and banged on it, yelling, hoping someone would hear, and you can be sure that Rebecca and I screamed, thinking for sure we would die there. Our other friends just laughed at us, while tyring to figure out what to do. Rebecca and I were pretty useless, hanging on to each other, almost in tears. Pathetic now that I think back on it, but then death seemed enevatable to our imaginations, which already lean towards the romantic/traumatic experiences. Even though the whole episode lasted four minutes at tops, it felt like a lifetime! After we made it out alive, my voice was hoarse from screaming. Apparently it was so loud backstage with everyone congratulating each other from a great show, that no one heard us screaming...just a tad alarming but thrilling to be sure! :)

       So Saturday, after the last show, the whole cast and some wonderful friends who weren't even a part of drama pitched in to help "strike the set." Afterwards we headed off to Rebecca's house for a cast-party, where we tried to star gaze, but the lovely moon was so bright we could only see parts of constellations. So we mainly talked, some had their guitars and were singing, and after an hour or so,  we set up music and began to swing dance! We danced until one in the morning before heading off home. Such a wonderful time!        

Between tech week, the two weekends of performances, and trying to finish up the remainder of homework, I have been crazy busy! 

     Other things worth mentioning since last post:

Garden is still alive and flourishing! (who can believe it??)

Sister got a ukulele today and is already fabulous at playing it

Sliced my finger on a can of beans today...lovely

Just have to finish reading Communist Manifesto by Marx, The Law by Bastiat, and write a paper and I'm through with World View II!  

And summer is almost here! :D Huzzah for fun times!