speechless.

speech·less

speech·less [speechləss]

adj

1.	temporarily unable to speak: temporarily unable to speak or unable to think of something to say, e.g. because of surprise or fear
2.	unable to speak: lacking the power of speech
3.	remaining silent: choosing not to say anything
4.	unspoken: not expressed in words
5.	hard to express: difficult or impossible to put into words I don't have words not to express what I want to say, so I'll leave with this PS My Easter was wonderful... Laid back, informal and peacefull... I hope your's was just as good as mine! :)

what a loverly day.

It was so loverly today when I opened my Blogger dashboard and saw 4 comments waiting to moderated... That's a first for a looooooonnnnnggggg time! Thanks so much to everyone who commented! :D

It was loverly today when I got Subway and got my delish sub on their flatbread… It was so yummy! And an fyi- the BLT sub is amazing… But I don’t want to think how many carbs are in it!! But I guess it makes up for the trip to the dentist this morning {the dentist is NOT my favorite place} and also, I’m going to have to have my wisdom teeth out soon. My a couple of my wisdom teeth are coming in crooked and they are going to just take them all out… Kind of nervous about that! Has anyone else had their wisdom teeth taken out? Speaking of the dentist, I was happy to find a recent blog love of mine {Pioneer Woman} featured in a magazine in the waiting room… Pioneer Woman is amazing. *sigh*

*Micah's golf ball*

It was loverly today because I got a new fashion magazine, new from the store {which is a first for me, I usually get them from thrift stores or the library}… It’s the May edition of Marie Clare . I love looking through fashion magazines looking for inspiration in fashion makeup and even photography! Does anyone else out there love to scavenge through fashion magazines looking for the perfect fashion inspiration?

It was loverly when I was doing my barn chores this morning to hear little kitten “meows”. The cat who had kittens last year was pregnant for awhile and finally had her babies either last night or this morning… I don’t know how many kittens there are because she’s hiding them under our barn loft steps! But I’m excited to have kittens again!

*Mommy's potting plant markers*

It’s loverly that it’s not raining today! It rained all day yesterday, not really rain, but more of a “bleh” drizzle which I DID NOT want to go out in; and today I have to run {and I did! Kudos to me! lol} because I haven‘t all this week! I also came up with another motivation to run/train: the community theater that I did my play at have a 5K every year to raise funds for the theater and I have convinced Bridget and Miranda to do it with me… Bridget *loves* to run and she likes to run fast, so she’ll run across the finish lines while Miranda and I jog/walk across it… hehe. But, it should be fun!. J

Finally! Day 30 of the 30 day challenge!

30.A picture of someone you miss

- All my It’s a Wonderful Life peeps {It’s been about 6 months… Time flies in some ways but it’s been forever in another way… But I miss them all sooooooooooooo much!}

- My grandma Cindy and my Grandpa Doug who have both passed away… :’(

- My amazing family in Indiana and everywhere else!

- The friends I haven’t seen in ages

- The 30 day challenge… Hahaha

But what do YOU want to see since the 30 day challenge is over? Let me know!

Love,

-Josie

Day 22 and Confessions...

22.A picture of something you wish you could like better:
RUNNING!! I've been running/jogging for almost 4 weeks now and I still hate it. I'm doing it for the exercise by the way, not for fun, more on that later...

Inspired by Calottta's confession posts, here I go:

confession: I hate running. But it's part of the exercise program I've made myself to get in shape for summer and more specifically, Damn Yankees. The community theater where I did It's a Wonderful Life, is putting on the classic Broadway musical Damn Yankees . The storyline is genius and goes like this: *this is taken from the theater's website that you can see here *

Joe Boyd is a typical middle-aged man who is addicted to baseball. Every baseball season is painful for him because his team, the Washington Senators, always loses to the Yankees. Joe ends up making a pact with the Devil that allows Joe Boyd to turn into the slugger, Joe Hardy. Hardy becomes the savior of the Washington Senators and a star in the Major Leagues. The problem is that Joe has also agreed to let the Devil have his soul. Luckily, the deal included an escape clause that allows him to return back to his normal life. After great success as a baseball player and various attempts by the Devil to convince Joe to remain young, Joe decides to return to his wife.

 *Dancing in the show requires athletic, jazz steps.

So seeing the note at the bottom about the dancing, my BFF Bridget and I are working out. I'm trying

getting in  shape by running, biking, sit ups, stretching, wall sits and eating healthy {working on that eating healthy part!} Bridget challenged me to being able to do the splits by the audition, I'm getting there! I can now touch my toes, which I couldn't before... ;)

The characters that Bridget and I are hoping for are "Lola" {the main girl} for Bridget and I'm aiming for the part of "Gloria Thorpe" {she's a newspaper reporter and sings my fave song in the show!!} But we are working hard for preparation for the audition in exactly 35 days!!!!!! Not that anyone is counting, hehehe... But I'm getting nervous and very excited for it... Excited to be in a show @ the OCP and see people I haven't seen in 5-6 months from It's a Wonderful Life. And yet nervous about failing the audition and the audition itself... Even if I don't get any part I'm planning on working backstage somewhere... So I'll keep you posted on  the whole thing! :)

*yummmmmmmmm*

confession: A 24" rooster scares me. Seriously. That rooster while come up and attack you... He'll peck you and ruffle his feathers and it HURTS! He stalked me while I was feeding my rabbit Darcy and scared me so bad I screamed bloody murder because I thought he'd attack me. But he would not leave me alone, he'd follow me and freak me out. If you can't tell, I don't like chickens much!

confession:  I can't stand a beagle's bark.... We found a stray beagle wandering around our yard, eyeing our chickens and so my mom caught him and he's in our dog's kennel and our dog is spending some quality time outside on a leash... But that dog won't shut up! It's sooo annoying. And I thought our dog's bark was bad... But at the moment we have 3 dogs at our house: the stray, our dog, and a dog we're babysitting. Fun, fun, fun. I'm not really a dog person either... :P

I need to go.... And work on my history homework that is calling out to me to finish.. Meh. But I'm paying attention to it's constant calling and I'm gonna go do it!

-Love,

Josie

                                     *ice in lemonade... a summer staple right there*





of day 21.... and please, i need your input!

21.A picture of something you wish you could forget

There are many things I can answer this question with...

I could say, the time I completely kneeled in the mud to get a picture of a spider walking on water, and didn't get the picture...

Or the times I've found candy... On the ground, so no free candy..

But seriously, my answer to this question is but I don't exactly have of picture of the thing I want to forget, so I'll just say it...
Seeing my Grandma Cindy's dead body before she was cremated. it was the last time i ever saw her and I often wish I could forget what I saw, but it was her...I miss you soo much Grandma! :'( ♥  I didn't think she looked peaceful, it was almost shocking to see her dead body after seeing her walking away to catch her flight on our trip to CA in 2009 for my Uncle's wedding, and then a month later she's dead. It was awful...

Grandma Cindy *around* 1974

She was beautiful when she was younger, she reminds me alot of Barbra Streisand in "Yentl"... They both had the same haircuts and look so much alike. Which is awesome because Grandma Cindy was a big Barbra Streisand fan, something she has passed onto me... <3





It's finally Spring!!! It was gorgeous and 82* yesterday and today it's 60* and cloudy.. Bleh. But hopefully tomorrow is nice-er... :)

I'm known amongst my friends as someone who has really *weird* dreams... It gets downright freaky at times!! But last night I had a dream that I lived right down the road from Carlotta and we met in person and it was awesome!! It was loverly, *sigh*... {She's one of my all time favorite bloggers}

-Love,
Josie

PS I don't want to be obsessed w/ numbers or stats but recently I've gained followers and then lost a few followers... Is there something I'm doing wrong or is there anything I should change? Do differently? Please let me know! I'm just asking you as followers to let me know how I can change things around here! I'm honestly now worried about having gazillions of followers, I already have 78 lovely followers and I'm happy if you are one of them, but I'm kind of curious of this trend of gaining and then losing followers... So PLEASE let me know your opinion!!!!

Update About Bryan and His Family in Japan!

Okay, so I'm sorry I didn't post about this earlier but, I just didn't. *hehe* But  Mr. Bryan and the two students decided to go back to Japan to be with their families and left on Wednesday morning... At the airport the local news station interviewed Mr. Bryan about what was going on over in Japan w/ his family! Mr. Bryan was a great witness to God and the interview went fantastic!

We haven't heard whether or not they made it home safe, or not. The radiation levels have increased highter than normal where Mr. Bryan lives so they have been told to stay inside... But PLEASE keep praying for their safety... Especially since they have 3 young children...

Here's a picture of Mr. Bryan at breakfast one of the days they stayed here

The one "American food" that Mr. Bryan missed was pizza! Hence the cold pizza for breakfast...

*Below* the group that stayed w/ us {Mr. Bryan, Gorgugo, and Yamato} before they left to go to the airport

The Awesome Necklace I LOVE!

Have any of you heard of *Ruche*? If not, you are missing out on some big time drooling!!!!! That store is almost as bad as Etsy in the terms of you are bond to find a whole bunch of things you *love* yet can't buy... The problem w/ me and that store is that the dresses are GORGEOUS but too short for me, I've been blessed with being *very* tall. :) I love being tall but finding storebought dresses that actually are long enough is awful!

But, my mom got me a adorable necklace that I loved... You can see it *here*... Well actually I wasn't supposed to know about it, it was going to be a Easter present, but the box came while she was away and I knew she got something from Ruche and I had a hunch it was the neckalce but I wasn't sure soooooo, I did what you probably would: I opened the box and saw the necklace and tried it on and I loved it all over again... Here are some pics of it I took ;)

Here it is again {below} with some of my bracelets.... :)

Pray For Japan!

*UPDATE* We have just found out that another reactor blew up, this time it is more serious and closer to Bryan's home.... Bryan and the guys who came w/ him are out tonight and we haven't been able to get ahold of him to tell him what has been going on. His wife would like him to come home but we don't know if that is possible, but the family is in more danger now, PLEASE PRAY!!!!!!

I'm sure many of you have heard of the devastation in Japan this past weekend, it's all so terrible. Our church has a missionary family that we support in Japan and they weren't effected by the earthquake {thank you Lord!} but they are somewhat close to a nuclear plant.

While all this happened on Friday, on Thursday the dad of the missionary family {Bryan} and two Japanese college students that Bryan has reached out to, came to America, well, not *just* America... Our house. They came to the U.S. for a global outreach celebration at out church this upcoming weekend. They actually are staying for 10 days at our house! It's been alot of fun hearing about their ministry over in Japan!

But on Friday morning as we were getting ready to leave for our co-op at Delta, my mom was checking her e-mail and saw a new article about the earthquake. Bryan read it and explained where exactly the earthquake was in relation to their home, while the two students read the article in Japanese on the computer. :) But as I said, the rest of the family still in Japan are okay, but they are somewhat worried about the nuclear power plants because they have 3 small children and it's it really hard for the mom as she is trying to make all the decisions without her husband by her side. But thankfully Bryan has been able to talk w/ her every morning about what is happening...

But having them here has made this disaster more *real* and *close to home* for us all, but it must be really hard for Bryan as he isn't even on the same continent as his family. I don't think it was coincidental that they are here now as this is happening, my family and I have a big opportunity to be a shining light to our friends from Japan after their world has been turned upside down!

Prays not only for his family and Bryan, but also for the people of Japan are desperately needed at this time!!!! Thank you! :)

Love,
Josie

Tattered and Worn

Those shoes were my Grandma Cindy's... She wore them for a highschool dance and since then they have been well loved...I have loved stomping around her house wearing those elegant shoes, brings back alot of good memories of my Grandma Cindy, I miss her sooo much :(

I remember the shoes were kept in a toy trunk at her house... I would peak into the trunk and see them, beckoning for me to try them on and play...

The dress she wore with the shoes was a silver grey with red crinolin undreneath, it must have looked gorgeous, the colors of the dress have to be left up to my imagination beacuse the only picture we have of it is black and white. But leaving it up to my imagination makes it more exciting and elaborate...

Is there anything that you can only imgine about it? Do tell!
Love,
Josie

Change.

Change is scary. Change is awkward. Change can freak you out. Change is sadly a part of life. I believe in change. As Aristotle said, "Change in all thing is sweet". But, cahnge is not always sweet, but it can become sweet {at least I hope it does}. I've recently experienced change with a friend. She became a new person who has a wonderful husband. I feel mad. I feel sad. I just want to cry. But I know it's God's plan and it will be okay. Even if I cry today, tomorow I'll laugh again.
Josie
PS I wanted to put in a picture but the uploader is being funky with me, sorry. :/

Your Heart

      Your heart is a fragile thing...Keep it safe...

Sometimes...

Sometimes it's good to look back at what you were and where you were...Here are some pictures from my past...

 *above* me when I was 4 or 3

*above* Me when I was like 6

 *above* Me and my bestie Miranda

*above* me and my Daddy

Love,

Josie

A Path

"Your word is lamp to my feet and a light to my path"

Psalm 119:105

*above* a path in the snow at our family farmhouse in IN

A Totall Confession Post

i need to apologize. i need to confess. i'm hoping to get it all out in this post and possibly a picture thrown in as well. this post is inspired by Carlotta who is one of my all time favorite blogger and she's amazing. :)

confession: i have been totally lazy in posting, finding things to post about {i can blame facebook for it} which resulted in not posting at all, which i'd like to apologize for. to the 75 followers i still have: you guys rock!

confession: i need to post more. possibly posting one picture a day and then posting about it. how does that sound?

confession: i love country music. it's a new found love, and i can't say i regret it. the singers {think Reba, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert, i don't have a favorite guy country singer so i just listed my favorite female vocalist} all have amazing strength in their voices and all the songs are catchy and just totally dance-able... whose your favorite singer?

confession: i strongly dislike math tis year...seriously, who's idea was it to mix numbers AND letters????

confession: i'm being lazy/creative {it's all how you look at it} and using lower-case letters in this post...if you haven't already noticed ;)

confession: i often forget i'm only 14 and have my whole life ahead of me and want to do everything all at once. or do something i want to do right now and then remember the fact i'm only 14 and have a whole life ahead of me. is this just me?

confession: i want to learn to figure skate...just learn  the basics and learn how to do those fancy spins *sigh* any skaters out there?

confession: i'm obsessed with bokeh... since my camera {a Nikon Coolpix L100} won't let you adjust aperture, getting a bokeh shot is about 50/50 so i just drool over other images with fantastic bokeh.... what photography technique do you love?

confession: i'm a horrible writer, i rather say things with my pictures. this year i really want to work on that. i've kind of started by written creatively in my journal {i've written in a journal daily for about 4 years now. i'm really proud myself. it's so fun to look back and see what you were doing that day 4, 3, 2, and 1 year ago.} rather than writing just what i did that day, i pick an idea from a bowl i have filled with journaling ideas and do that for that day. i might do that someday for my blog....

i'm all confession-ed out, i feel lot better after i've gotten all this out and shared you with you all! thank you for reading this and my blog...
<3 Josie

It's Over.

It’s over. The play I was in “It’s a Wonderful Life” did its last performance yesterday…. And I’m really rather sad about it, but you have to be done w/ one show before you go on to the next one, right?


But I had so much fun and made a lot of new friends and I hope I can see again through future productions.

It was kind of funny but my character had the more costumes and accessories than most of my cast mates… It took a while to check it all back in on Sunday.

But there was one fur coat I will most definitely NOT miss. I was a really pretty coat, like velvet and a huge fur collar and was a couple sizes too small! I wore it in like 3 scenes and I didn’t like it. : P and my red dresses will be kind of missed, but I did wear a lot of red! Red and black were my colors in Act I. And also my hats were fun, if you like hats falling off your head while onstage, but it added spontaneity to each show :P

That's all for now, I hope to be back to posting regularly soon!
Love,
Josie

Miscellaneous

I'm sorry for my lack of posts, but life can get crazy! So this is going to be a hodge-podge post, just be warned! :P

1.) my birthday was yesterday! I turned 14 and it was like the best birthday I've ever had! Everyone actually remembered it was my birthday {people sometimes forget} and I was sung the "Happy Birthday" song three times...Once at my percussion class, four little girls from the pay sang to me at the cast party {more on that later}, and everyone from the cast party sang as well. At the last time, I almost cried 'cause it was all so sweet. I had so much fun! The people in my cast are the best! :)

2.) 5 dozen cupcakes are alot of cupcakes to frost all by hand! :) I took cupcakes to Delta and to the cast party...Everyone seemed to like them!


3.) cast parties are the best! We had one at the lady who plays "Ma Bailey" 's house and it was a blast to just hang out and talk to all the people I've come to know and appreciate over the course of 8 weeks. Sadly, that time is coming to a close..... :(

4.) our performances are going very well, this Saturday and Sunday are THIS CLOSE to being sold out...which is great but very nerve-wrecking! And Sunday is going to be awesome because my family and Bridge's family are coming and also 3 friends of mine are coming. Tonight, Sat. possibly some other friends are coming {if they can get tickets}

5.) a cold is  going around the cast, which is very bad! Our Mr. Potter's voice last night was terrible. He had gotten the cold and he couldn't project well enough so they microphoned him and it helped a little but he still sounded really sick. I feel really sorry for him. But I have the feeling I have a touch of it and this morning I had tea w/ lots of honey and some garlic o help w/ it. I feel fine but I think I'll get sick after it's all over. Oh, well....

I hope I haven't bored you all, but  hope to get back to posting more regularly after Sunday!
Love,
Josie

Thank-You All!

I just wanted to let you all know that last night, opening night for my play went really well! I did puke, but I thought I came close once. My friend in the play and Bridget were all so supportive and wonderful! And I also want to thank you all for the lovely messages and comments! :)

 I have 5 more performances to go and I'm going to be very sad when it's all over, but I'm going to live in the moment and have a great time at it! 

Tonight's the cast party and I'm hoping to take lot's of pictures! But before last night's performance I went around taking pictures to help relax and here's what I got: *NOTE* the reason why I'm in hot rollers and in a big, pink bathrobe is that I was cold and my hair was curling...No, I didn't go onstage like that! :P

                                                                         "Play Day"

                                                         Bridget and I, being normal

                                                 And then there's the goofy side of us! :P

                                        Jamie { Who plays Bridget's play mom, Mrs. Hatch} and I

                                                 Jonathan {the news paper boy} and I

                                                 Empty seat ready to hold theater-goers

                                                  Nicole {Ma Bailey} and Me

                                                Bridget drawing crow's-feet on Mike {Clarence}

                                                           Mike {Clarence} and I

                                                And the star of the show {George} and I

One again, thank-you everyone and have a great day!

Love,

Josie

aka "Violet"

Rehearsal Fun

Yesterday we had an early rehearsal and there was a potluck and I brought cheesy potatoes {my favorite potluck dish!} and tried to take as many pictures as I thought I should. I still don't have very many good ones :(  But I still have 2 weeks. But have a look!

                                                   They got the marquee up! :)

                                                   
                                                        Bridget and I in front of the marquee

                                                  Damien {"Mr. Martini" and "Harry"} and I {man, it's grainy....}

Bridget and I...again :P

Racks of costumes downstairs

                                                                 Me! {In my RED lipstick}

Mr. Potter and George

Marquee letters

Me in Bridget's stage glasses

                                                    Mike aka "Clarence", Bridget and I

I hope you all enjoyed these pictures, hopefully more to come...

On a sad note, my sister lost one of her angora goats yesterday. We think she died because she ate a plastic tie that she had found somewhere. It's Gabbi's first "big" animal to die {no, goldfish don't count}, so if you could keep her in your prayers, that'd be very appreciated. :)

I've decided I'm going to wait to launch my photography blog, "Still Memories". And then I'll launch it on January 1st, 2011. I just wanted to let you all know about that....

Love,

Josie