Ukraine Share Night

We shared about Radooga tonight at church and it made me think about how much I miss it again. But I'm glad we got to talk about it. I really wanna do the camp dance now, and me and Calyn were going to, but we forgot. Maybe tomorrow. So Chris told me tonight that Sappy said "When I get old enough I want to go to Ukraine." and Chris was like "Me too." I told him that that was awesome and everyone should go because it's amazing. Chris would go next summer if he could, and Lori is pretty much in charge...so...no, just kidding, he'll only be 13. But I really hope that he still wants to go when he's 16. Anyways, the more I talk about Radooga, the more I miss it. I want to go listen to Sergey and look at pictures now...maybe I will. Or maybe I'll sleep because I was supposed to clean, but I think I'm just gonna sleep and do it in the morning instead. Good plan.

All Work, No Russian

I started my job at Canopy Oaks Extended Day Program today. I'm a counselor for the fourth and fifth graders. I love it! Well, so far I love it, but I'm pretty sure that I will pretty much always love it because it's just the right type of job for me. I'm so excited about it. I'm sure it'll get sorta monotonous after a while, but right now it's great! My mom made me a "happy first day of work" dinner that Brandon invented. I know, I had no idea Brandon could cook either, but apparently he made up this recipe and helped Mom make it. It was really good.
I didn't get to go to Russian Club tonight though, which was sad. I really haven't felt good all day but I had a test in history and it was my first day of work, so I figured I should probably get out of bed. So I didn't really ever feel much better, and I still feel pretty crappy, which is bad. I hope I'm not getting sick. That would not be good. So yeah, no Russian Club, but I guess it worked out for the better because I have something to do every night this week and that's just crazy so tonight I was able to just chill and do some reading for school. Well, I want to go to bed, maybe that will make me feel better. Good night.

"I'm Listening, I Just Can't Hear You."

Today was a great day! The fact that it was Friday made it great to begin with, and then I got to hang out with some awesome cool people tonight. I went to watch Rachel and Anna play volleyball for Maranatha, and even though they lost they still played a great game. Ya'll rock! So after the game we went to the mall to get food and then me and Calyn and Lerah went to go get Lost on DVD but we had a little trouble. So we did end up getting the second disc in season one and we are about to go watch it. I'm so excited. Here are some pictures. I love random pictures!


This is me in the car doing what Calyn always does. I like the way it turned out though. My eyes look really green.


This is me and Calyn in the car


A girl and her Coke Zero...it's a beautiful thing.


Me, Bekah, and Special K at the volleyball game


Me and Rachel sharin' smoothies


Isn't Leah beautiful?


Me and Lerah with our sour candy, yum!


Me and Calyn


Calyn and Lerah (and Diane on the phone)


Lerah and Me (with Calyn on the phone with Diane hiding behind us)


My awesome picture of the reflection of the Blockbuster sign in the puddle


I'm trying to master the art of Lerah


I told Lerah we bought her some snacks and pointed to the bag of doggie breath mint biscuits so she took me up on the offer.

PCBSers are the Coolest Kids Around

Tonight was Pink Carpet Bible Study. Bekah and Rachel couldn't come, :-( so it was Me, Calyn, Ruth, Lerah, and Leah. I love all the PCBS members! We have such a great group of girls and it's been great to be able to open up and share about our lives, struggles, and accomplishments with each other. We are reading through the book of Hebrews, and it's been great so far. Tonight we were just talking about the awesomeness of God and how we water him down and belittle him and make him fit the situation. I mean, God is God. Period. He is so awesome and so big, yet so near, all at the same time, and we rarely view him this way. I thought of that song by Nicole Nordeman, and I'm normally not into the whole posting song lyrics thing, but it really fits.

Have I come too casually?
Because it seems to me,
There's something I've neglected.
How does one approach a Deity
With informality
And still protect the Sacred?

'Cause you came and chose to wear the skin of all of us.
And it's easy to forget You left a throne.
And the line gets blurry all the time
Between daily and Divine.
And it's hard to know the difference.

Oh, let me not forget to tremble.
Oh, let me not forget to tremble.
Face down on the ground do I dare to
Take the liberty to stare at You?
Oh, let me not...
Oh, let me not forget to tremble.

What a shame to think that I'd appear
even slightly cavalier
In the matter of of salvation.
Do I claim this gift You freely gave
As if it were mine to take
With such little hesitation?

'Cause You came and stood among the very least of us,
And it's easy to forget You left a throne.

Oh, let me not forget to tremble.
Oh, let me not forget to tremble.
Face down on the ground do I dare to
Take the liberty to stare at You?
Oh, let me not...
Oh, let me not forget to tremble.

The cradle and the grave could not contain Your Divinity.
Neither can I oversimplify this love.

Oh, let me not forget to tremble.
Face down on the ground do I dare to
Take the liberty to stare at You?
Oh, let me not...
Oh, let me not forget to tremble.

So yeah, I really like that song because that's how I want to feel. I want to know that God is my friend and I can talk to him as such, but to not forget to revere him and tremble in his presence. I had forgotten about the part "neither can I oversimplify this love" and that is so true. We don't need to scale God down so that he's easy to manage. He's not! We don't need to try to simplify him for non-believers and make him into this cute little package that caters to the needs of that individual. God will speak for himself. If unsaved people are going to "get it" and want to accept Christ, they're going to do that because the Holy Spirit is speaking to them, not because of how we present the gospel. Sure, God uses us as tools, but sometimes I think I do more to hinder the message than help it. So that's my insight for the night.
On a lighter note, I got to use Calyn's camera to take random pictures because I felt that my blog was seriously lacking them since not being able to use my camera. So I took some and will now post them for your enjoyment...


Me and Leah


I don't know what this is all about. I'm weird, okay?


Calyn with her doesn't-make-any-sense-at-all homework


Just in case you were wondering what the top of my head looks like


Me and Leah looking up to the camera (although you can't really tell)


Whose feet are these? Okay, I'll tell you, they're Leah's and mine.


Woo-hoo, Leah! What a hottie!


Calyn is NOT happy about that homework


Ruth, Leah, Calyn, and Me

"What's an Oleg?"

The Olegs were here today. That made me super happy. They hung out with Calyn all day and then tonight we all got together at Calyn's house so we could see them. I picked up Lauren (who went to Radooga camp 3, lives on campus, and doesn't have a car) and headed to Calyn's. We had so much fun talking, hanging out, laughing...a lot, eating, and sharing stories. Lauren said that she was so excited that she was going around telling everyone today "The Olegs are here." and someone said back "What's an Oleg?" We all found this very amusing. For those of you who don't know, Oleg Vasilesky is Radooga's camp president and the other Oleg, affectionately known as Oleg Jr. is an important member of Radooga staff. I would put up pictures, but I still haven't gotten a charger for my camera :-(. Well, I'm off to bed now, so goodnight. Oh, and if you happen to be near a radio tomorrow at 9:00 am, Oleg V. is going to be on Faith radio, so tune in.

Bordem

Okay, I really shouldn't be blogging because I have to finish my paper, but I just wanted you all to know that I'm still alive. Bordem hasn't killed me yet, although I've heard that its wrath is sudden, I'd better watch out. Ugh. Who really cares about "Sport in Industrial America: 1850-1920" anyway? "Not I," said the Jenna.

P.S. Publix was sold out of Coke Zero tonight. No 2-liter bottles. No 12-pack cans. No nothing. I guess everyone else likes it as much as I do.

Math

I just got paid $55 for babysitting for 5 hours.
If my fundamental math skills serve me correctly, then I do believe that that comes out to $11/hour.
I'm thinking it was worth it to miss the scavenger hunt.
Ugh. Nursery duty tomorrow.

It's the Little Things

Overall, today was a good day. Here's why:

• It was FRIDAY!
• I didn't have to be to class until 12:20 which means I got to sleep in
• I got figerprinted which means I can start my job next week
• I bought a new cd-tape convertor for my car

Okay, pause for a moment to explain that last one. I don't have a CD player in my car and also my antenna is broken so most radio stations don't come in well. However, I do have a cd-tape convertor that is like a cassette tape that plugs into my portable cd player to make it play through my car's sound system. The sad thing is, it has been broken for quite some time now. There's a short somewhere in the wire and unless the wire is in the exact position, the music only plays through the speakers on the right side of the car or there's static (or both). I've done many things to try to hold the wire in the exact position: wrap it around the cd player, prop it against something, have Brandon hold it like that (which never ends up working because he stops wanting to do it after like half a song), but no matter what I did, it would only sound good for a few minutes, and then it would mess up again. It was really frustrating. So, today a bought a new cd-tape converter and now the songs play clearly and through all of the speakers in my car. It made me happy. Like I said, it's the little things in life that make my day. Okay, where was I?

• I got to hang out with my Mom for a while
• I got to have chicken caesar salad for dinner (the best stuff ever)
• Me and Chris went and got ice cream at TCBY after everyone else abandoned us
• It was FRIDAY! (that one was so good I had to say it twice)

So yeah, a great day. Well, I was going to try to be productive and work on my paper that's due on Monday tonight, but seeing as how it's 2:05 in the morning and I've yet to do that, I don't think it's gonna happen. Oh yeah, and I still have to do the dishes. I'd better go...

Thank You Paul

You guys, Paul Fenstermaker is by far one of the coolest people ever. I just wanted to thank him for being so awesome. I love how he can tell me when I'm flipping out about stuff that doesn't really matter and I know he's right. I love how we can tell each other (almost) anything and talk about (almost) everything all in one conversation. I love how I can trust him to do whatever it is he says he'll do, and he won't just do it, he'll do it to the best of his ability. I love how all I have to do is mention something in passing and he tries to fix it. I love how he can get right in my face and tell me to calm down and I don't get mad. I love how he tries to help me understand things about cars and congratulates me when I get something right. I love how I look up to him even though he's younger than me. I just love Paul.

Paul, thanks for being such an awesome friend and for putting up with me (and my issues :-)). Thanks for the hours and hours of talks, the advice, and the encouragement. You're the best!

My Wish

Why can't all the awesome people in the world live in one place. I've got friends all over the United States and in another country and I have recently been reminded (through facebook, actually) that I have lost touch with some awesome people. Take for instance my best friend growing up, Tiffany. I found her on facebook and I wasn't sure how she was gonna respond to hearing from me again (I hadn't talked to her in almost six years and things ended kind of awkwardly), but we've been messaging back and forth on facebook and she said "i hope you're doing wonderful. i miss you. you were my first friend. i learned what a friend was by your example. thank you for meaning so much to me." As I read this I thought about our friendship growing up. She was definitely my first friend too and I can't believe that I let myself not keep in touch with her. I mean, obviously it's really hard to keep a close friendship going when you don't see each other, but I hadn't even said a word to her in six years. It's just sad that it's so hard to keep up with people. I also messaged Brandon Hasty (from Mission Merge in Birmingham) yesterday. When I got on today he had sent me one back and it's cool to be able to talk to him too. I hate that I have friends all over the place that I don't get to see. I wish I could just build a city where all my friends and family could live and we would all be able to hang out as much as we wanted. I realize this won't work (duh!) because if everyone had this type of city, then everyone's city would have to overlap and we'd end up just like we are now. But hey, it's just a wish.

Nothing to Write About

I have really been lacking in stuff to write about in my blog lately, so I just haven't written at all. But, certain people *cough*Calyn especially*cough* tend to get mad when I don't post for a while, so I'm just gonna tell ya'll about some random funny and/or interesting stuff that happened lately.

Yesterday morning I ran out of deodorant after putting it on one armpit, but luckily I had bought more already. Unfortunately, it wasn't the same scent, so my left armpit smelled like "ultra fresh" and my right one smelled like "cool shower." I know, I know, you all really wanted to know that, right? Well that's why I told you.

As many of you know, I get really bad allergy eyes. So, when I went to the optometrist, he gave me a prescription for some eye drops that will take care of all that. Well, my dad got them for me yesterday and he comes into my room and says, "These were $30, you better use them." And I'm thinking, $30 isn't that much for a prescription, but then I open the box and see how teeny tiny the bottle of eye drops are and I was like "oh." So later I was talking to my dad and I was like "my eyes itch," and he goes "go use your eye drops!!!" (So, I guess you kinda had to be there, but it was really funny.)

I got to see Carli yesterday! She stopped in Tallahassee to pick up Calyn so that they can go to Memphis to see Jake, Taylor, and the Olegs. So, we got to hang out on Thursday night. We keep telling her that she needs to move to Tallahassee, but it's still awesome that she lives as close as she does and has been able to visit semi-often. Calyn and I are planning a trip down to see her in Orlando next month (?) or sometime soon. Carli is so awesome!

Okay, another funny story. My cat has been really hyper today and he's got these toys that are like little fluff balls. He has a lot of them, but they all get knocked under the couches and stuff within like 5 minutes of him playing with them. But my mom moved a couch today, so he found one and has been playing with it. Well, I had this plastic container out on the floor in the living room and I hadn't heard Sammy batting around his ball in a while so I went out there and he had put the ball in the container and I guess he thought he couldn't get it out because he was just sitting there staring at it. So I picked it up out of the container and threw it across the room and her ran after it like he always does, but after that he did something a bit weird. He picked up the ball, brought it over to the container, and put it back inside. I thought, "hmm, that's odd," but I picked it up and threw it again. He did the same thing. So I start laughing and Brandon comes out and I'm just like "You've gotta see this. Sammy can fetch." So every time I threw the ball, Sammy would run after it, pick it up, and nonchalantly bring it back and put it in the container. I don't know why it was so funny, but it was. He did it for so long too. I still haven't figured out why.

Well, I think I've rambled long enough. I should go to bed now. If you actually read all of that, then I'm impressed. Thanks for listening to the random ramblings of me. :-)

FAA (Facebook Addicts Anonymous)

"Hi, I'm Jenna..."

"Hello, Jenna."

"...and I've been addicted to Facebook since I became a member on August 23. I don't know why it's so addicting, it just is. I normally end up at the site while checking my email because I get emails that someone has added me as their friend or posted on my wall. I usually end up spending hours on the site and forget about checking my email. I also get on when I'm putting off something important, like homework. I've tried to quit, but it just keeps getting worse. Now all my friends are addicted too. I need help."

Whew, I'm glad I got that off my chest. I really am addicted though. It's bad. I'm pretty addicted to blogs too, but you can only read blogs for so long at a time. With Facebook, it's pretty endless, which is why I end up wasting so much time there. But, I should probably go because I'm supposed to be doing homework right now. I have to read for every class, but I don't really feel behind because I haven't been to any class more than twice (I didn't go to school last Wednesday because of Mrs. Becki's service and I accidentally slept through my class today. Oops. I did fully intend to go though. I wasn't gonna skip like all the other people who stayed up "late" because of the game. Oh well.) So, I'm gonna go read now.

Quote o' the Day

So, we (FSU) won! We actually beat Miami! I can't believe it still. It was such a crappy game as far as offense goes. I mean, our defense was good. I'd say nine sacks are pretty good, but we still really need help. Coach Bowden on what his team needs to do better: "Well, our quarterbacks need to be more...they need to play better." Duh! That's the quote o' the day for sure. Thanks for that, coach, I'm pretty sure we realize that. Anyways, we did win, and that's what matters. For once the kicking game went our way, for the first time in the past six games. All I have to say is: it's about time!

In other news, I'm thinking we really should not have school tomorrow instead of not having school today. Whoever made that decision was not thinking straight. But, me and Calyn did get to ride our bikes to campus and hang out, get free Chick-Fil-A (twice, actually because Paul also brought some to when we hung out to watch the game), visit the BCM and, meet cool people. I feel accomplished, because we rode 15 miles today. That's the most I've ridden since the bike trip and so I feel like I got a work-out (it's freakin' hilly between here and campus). So now I'm here at Calyn's to watch the game and we were just saying that we don't feel very victorious. But anyways, it's midnight and I have class tomorrow, so I should go home.

Two Things I Got

(I know the correct grammatical form of that title should be "two things I have," but I don't mean it like that. I mean it like "two things that I received," or "two things I obtained." Okay, just wanted to clear that up.)

#1- I got glasses today. I had an eye appointment last Friday and I found out that I need glasses for seeing things far away. It was weird because, yeah, I knew things were a little blurry, but when I got my glasses today and I walked out of Sears and put them on I looked ahead and there were a bunch of trees in the distance and before I put my glasses on they were just trees, but with my glasses I could see individual leaves. I was just like "whoa," I didn't even realize how much better I could have been seeing this whole time. Anyways, I don't have to wear them all the time, just when I need to see something far away, or as the guy at the optical center said, "whenever I want to see better." Ha.

#2- I got the job at Canopy Oaks. I actually found this out at my interview, but I haven't told too many people about it yet. I just have to get all my paperwork taken care of and get finger-printed and stuff and then I can start (will won't actually happen until next week sometime probably.) I am so excited, this is exactly the kind of job I wanted, and I thank Jesus that it all worked out. So, yeah, that's basically it. Just thought I'd catch you up in the life of me!