Yay! Hooks won! Just kidding. We lost =( But we were awesome anyway! I haven't been to a Hooks game in soooo long! It made me all happy inside ;) Yesterday was just a pretty a.m.a.z.i.n.g. day. It started out with a brisky ocean walk, and ended with fireworks! Oh, and in between was amazing too =) Joy = Erika and Hanna! And Christiana, but I didn't get to see her yesterday =( And the tradition lives! We had our community bowel. Yay =) I kinda missed a little drama... But Mrs. Hallock forgave me, so all is well... with my soul... =) Mr. Bickham continued his tradition of being awesome and gave a great lesson in which my Holy Spirit question was answered =) Then this epic hat appeared on Mr. Bickham's dash board... And I HAD to wear it. It was blinding ;) Then the game! We were nice last night and decided to let the other team win. My idea. But the fireworks were heart stopping. Literally. No joke. I almost DIED!!!!! But then I was ok. And I was oreo filling...Thank you Jake and Carolyn... Then there was this GIANT metal man!!!! With a bat! I thought he might be dangerous, but he wasn't disturbing anybody so I let it drop. Oh goodness! I want a part! Hopefully in Whatever the Cost, but really, right now I just want to memorize lines. Yay for Saturday! I got about 3 million things done today, and I ate a blackberry. It was good.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

..::Revelation 4:10-11::..

Has anyone else noticed that Casting Crowns brings up so many questions...

• Just how close can I get to my surrender, without losing all control?
• Just how far is the East from the West?
• If we are the Body,

~ Why aren't His arms reaching?

~ Why aren't His hands healing?

~ Why aren't His words teaching?

~ Why aren't His feet going?

~ Why is His love not showing them there is a way?

• Whom shall I fear? Whom shall I fear?
• America, what will we miss while we are sleeping?
• Will we trade our dreams for His... or are we caught in the middle?
• What if His people prayed?
• Are we happy plastic people?
• What if the life that we pursue came from a hunger for the truth?
• But would it set me free if I dared to let you see the truth behind the person that you imagine me to be?
• Is there hope for every man?
• Have we become so blind that we can't see?
• Does anybody hear her??
• If he loses his soul, what has he gained in the end?
• But how then will he know what he has never heard?
• Is there anyone that fails? Is there anyone that falls?

• Who Am I?

..::Washington D.C.::..

Oops... got a little behind there didn't I? =) But hark! That was such an amazing trip! Where do I start? I guess I should list everywhere we went... so I don't forget... =)

..::Monday-

• National Zoo... Mom wanted to see a Panda =)
• Open City for Dinner

::..Tuesday-

• Capital (to take pictures with Cornyn, take a tour, observed the senate in action)
• National Archives
• Old Post Office... with an insanely high tower... and I ran up the stairs and lived to tell the tale
• Open City for dinner

..::Wednesday-

• Pentagon... Go Mack!!!
• Bureau of engraving (Insane amount of money)
• National Portrait Gallery... Way a.m.a.z.i.n.g!
• Ford Theater and Peterson House
• WALK... to the White House =)
• Open City for dinner

..::Thursday

• Pictures with Kay Bailey Hutchinson at Capital (Met aide named Sarah Hunt from Texas and a baptist and amazing =) I won't her job someday =)
• House in action (fell asleep and proud of it... land of poppy's =)
• Supreme Court
• Holocaust Museum
• Jefferson Memorial
• ... Open City...

..::Friday- ~Best Day EVER!!!!!~

• Arlington Cemetary... IN THE SNOW!!!!!

• Library of Congress... Most a.m.a.z.i.n.g. place EVER!

• Old Post Office

• Smithsonian of American History

• Then... walking from the Smithsonian to the Washington Monument, from there to the WWII Memorial, and from there to the Lincoln... and from there to Korean Memorial =)

• Open City for dinner... The last time =( Such good memories of that place... such friendly people =)

That's the boring schedule =) Gotta go now, but more later =)

..::Washington D.C. - Day 2&3::..

..::Day 2&3, Saturday&Sunday, March 6&8::.. What an awesome couple of days! Cousins truly share souls! We left our cousins in San Antonio for the airport at 7 a.m. Lovely time of morning really... And we arrived at the airport with no perilous delays. And we sat for a while and then remembered my promise to dear Caleb about taking a picture of something every day that reminded us of him... a whole "you're there in spirit" thing. I will share my findings on a blog post if I return home alive. The plane rides were fine... I spilled orange juice on myself both times... and we finally landed in Baltimore! Where six separate strangers nonchalantly told me how nice it was the temperature finally rose... Last week it was freezing and snowing, they said. I almost burst into tears! It was so aggravating! But I found solace from laughing at this guy from Australia I met on our plane as he had dropped his suitcase and his sand spilled... The sand he had in his suitcase you see... Yeah, I didn't get it either. But we did make it to cousins house where it felt like we saw each other every day, except for we talked a lot faster so that we would have time in the next 42 hours to say everything that needed to be said. Aunt Sandi made us some homemade food and we played about 4 million games until well past midnight. The next day we went to their Church and went for walks and took many multitudes of pictures, and then for the grand finale:: at midnight we watched this a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Celtic Women at an Irish Castle as they sang Irish folk songs and other a.m.a.z.i.n.g. songs! We stayed up a little late doing that... but we laughed and we cried and my soul will never forget that night.

..::Washington D.C. - Day 1::..

..::Day 1, Friday, March 6::.. I have just left many of you, and my quest has begun! I am in the car on my way to San Antonio and I am wearing my epic coat (which I have named Epic... Sorry Jake =) and am beyond excited excited about seeing my beyond a.m.a.z.i.n.g. cousins! I have several goals for this trip, but we will see what happens won't we?

• SNOW! Yeah... that would be blinding ;)
• Take a.m.a.z.i.n.g. pictures and use up entire memory card
• Dance on a sacred spot... in a sacred way, of course
• Stay up one night fully
• See Obama... I don't need to touch him...
• Share Christ's love through my speech, my life, my love, my faith, and my purity
• Lay under the stars at night to see if I can find mine <3

Apparently I am distracting other drivers (Please don't ask why =) So Good Night!

..::Epic::..

..::Epic- Surpassing the usual and the ordinary; Heroic and impressive in quality::..

This guy? Up there? He's epic. He embodies everything I have always wanted to be after I have rolled along right over the hill... Epic. He is the greatest literary master of all time (That's pretty much... well, for lack of a better word epic) and he smokes a pipe. In a red leather chair. In a library... lit only by a single fireplace. Oh, and the chair's back is to the door... Now that's epic.

BUT! I have realized something... quite tragic. Please don't get offended or refuse to speak to me, it's just that this thought never before truly occurred to me.... I. never. get. to. be. an. epic. old. man. I will never be the one to smoke the pipe. I will never sit in a red leather chair. Nor will I ever be in the library... lit by only a single fireplace. I must go think real fast. but perhaps... just perhaps... I will be the first epic old woman....

..::Not all who wander are lost~ J.R.R. Tolkien::..

..::To be a star::..

It is true, sneaking out of doors in the middle of a cold night is not always a good idea, but it was all I could do not to! And I didn't feel like doing that much... so I did it =) It was unbelievable! I truly believe that for just a second I thought about nothing... not about nothing, but about nothing-nothing. And when I did think, it just occurred to me, and I think I have always known somewhere that it is impossible... not capable of happening; something that cannot be done... to exaggerate the stars. Utterly. Impossible. I tried. They exceed everything we could ever think or say about them. Everything. And as I gazed at them, I saw a palm tree. Not just any palm tree, but the tallest palm tree ever, right across from me. Now, being cold it was windy... or being windy it was cold... and the palm tree shook and the palm tree shivered... and I just knew for certain it was going to crash down! And I sat up (Yes. I was lying in the grass.) and watched as the inevitable... did not happen... And I put down my guitar (because if you are going to sneak outside on a cold night, you must do it right and bring a guitar) and thought about how utterly small and weak and insignificant I am. And how I wanted to be that star! (I had picked out just one in particular, you see) And, yes, I wanted to be that palm tree! But even as I sat on the wet grass, the sun began to come up, and one by one the stars dimmed until even the one I had picked out to be me left me, and its influence dissapeared with it. For one cannot remember just exactly how utterly impossible a star is until you see it... and feel it. And I looked at the palm tree and when the wind stopped dancing with it, how old the palm tree looked! And you could just see it was sad. And as it sagged two exhausted leaves fell to the ground... dead, brown. And all at once I was glad to be me. Not glad as in satisfied, but glad... content (they are different, you see). And since then I have wanted to be a palm tree only once. And I have wanted to be a star only twice.

Then again... Maybe I can be... =)

..::So that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you may shine like stars in the universe ~Philippians 2:15::..

..::The righteous will flourish like a palm tree planted in the house of the Lord ~Psalm 92:12::..

..::Heart of this Nation::..

I am about to embark on a journey from which I may never return! Not because of some intense danger involved in my quest, but because I just might not be able to pull myself away once I get there. Washington, D.C! Although... With Mrs. Hallock guiding us, intense danger is probably part of the plan =) But I am really very excited! Because of my interest in politics, I would rather go here more than anywhere... Except maybe Enchanted Rock. We are planning to go to all the "A list" places and maybe more. I really like trips like this, planned out and swift moving... no time to eat and lots of walking =) I am going to try and update you on every day we spend, whether by keeping notes and posting later, or by doing it from there on a laptop. I will be seeing my cousins which is exciting! And I want to buy a sweastshirt... I must! But I still have a few days, and I will try to update often. Genuinely, A

..::A Blog with Purpose::..

Since everything must-and does- have a purpose in life, I thought I should explain my intention for this blog before some of you begin to assume =) This is to me more like a journal more than anything else. A record of my thoughts and adventures so that, being the forgetful person that I am, I may look back to laugh at myself, post philisophical ponderings I truly have no answer for (and probably never will), and most especially to recognize God's goodness in situations I was too blind to see into. I make no promises... about being a steady and consistent blogger... You simply stuck with the ebb and flow of my disposition. Oh, and if you do not understand how you may drink the wild air, I suggest you have yourselves a merry little adventure and discover how! Genuinely, A