It's only been 3 months. . .

I guess this blog is about my life, so why not give you an update?

Currently I am involved in. . . .
1) School (its kinda required ;-] )
1b) My AP class! YUCK!
2) FBLA
3) SOS (serve our schools; I'm the MHS rep!)
4) Musical (Once on this Island!)
5) Vocal Varietas (Show choir and chamber choir)
6) Choir Council
7) Youth group
8) SNL (Salt 'N Light Leadership
9) Thespians
10) Working at the Stone of Coldness
. . . I think that might about cover it.

So basically I could write a book about my life. HAHA. Speaking of writing, someone recently just told me that I should do something with communications & writing because I have a way with words. I'm not sure how I feel about it. In some ways that completely seems like me, but at the same time it doesn't.

I'm crazy. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE!!!!! Part of me feels like I have a while to decide yet, but with the crazy tension in the air awaiting Kyle's purdue acceptance letter (yes, acceptance ;-]) . . it makes me realize that it really isn't that far off until I need to make a decision! Yikes!

I suppose I could continue for a while, but it's after 11 and I have to get up tomorrow so Logan and I can get our pictures taken and for musical makeup session. Yipee!

God bless,

AL

Dear Queen,

Queen Loux is

Undeniably quite

Enjoyable to talk to and

Entertaing to text & she is

Nosy Rosy who reads this. :)

Ok, so this picture is a picture of QUEEN STREET in Montego Bay, Jamaica. I tried SOOO hard everytime I went by it to get a picture of the sign, but unfortunately, this is the best I did. . .

Why The Queen deserves a post:

1) She is the only person I know of who actually reads this (not that there is anything to read most of the time)

2) She feeds me food, probably at least weekly. :)

3) She agrees that THE "Hole-y" shorts must die.

4)'Cuz I said so!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So Queen Loux, thank you for reading this and for all of the things mentioned above. :) I'm sure I'll be seeing you soon.

-Alyssa, Princess :-)

ps. I can make smileys online too.

pps. When are we going to burn the shorts ;-)

It rained and poured. . .

Hellooooo ladies and gentlemen! Today we will be playing "You know it when. . ." Today's topic of discussion will be the Cedar Rapids Flooding of 2008.



1) You know we have some 'bright' people around town when the lights are on at a building with major flooding.



2) You know flooding is overwhelming when you can't flush your toilets and you don't even live in a town where there is flooding.



3) You know the water is deep when there are waves sweeping through 1st ave.



4) You know it's not safe to be out when a now-empty dumpster which once held who-knows-what is floating through the streets.



5) You know the water is powerful when it takes out a train bridge that twenty cars were on to keep the bridge in one piece. (Yeah, that worked well. . .).



6) You know the water is high when an originally 'safe' street (it was just outside original evacuations) has a building where the water is now halfway up the door. (My daddy's office).



7) You know eastern iowa has too much flooding when equipment is being taken to a place where there is also flooding (it already crested, so at least they have less water. . .?).



8) You know there's too much water around when it is popping out of sewage drains. (EWWW!!).



9) You know water is covering a lot of roads when you see signs saying "All Cedar Rapids exits are closed."



10) You know water is too high when good ol' (or not so good. .. . rather 'shady' to quote dear Jenna) DQ is underwater.





Well I've now lived through two 'great' floods. . .'93 (which I TOTALLY remember. .. . not) and 2008 (ok, so I haven't lived through it yet, but I think I'm gonna make it. . .as long as I don't flush).



There are a couple cool things I've seen in all of this.



1) People helping people. When a few friends of mine and myself were filling sandbags last night, it was the most awesome thing to see so many people coming together. Cedar Rapids is a great community overall. It isn't just anywhere where so many people would come together to save a town and help people they've never even met.



2) Rainbows. Normally, rainbows don't get to me much, but in this past week I've seen a good handful of pictures of the most beautiful rainbows I've ever seen, and it brings a sense of peace. The rainbow is God's Promise. We may have the worst flood we've ever seen, but it's nothing like what Noah had to deal with! God will give us the strength to get through it all.





If you actually read all of that randomness, I salute you. :)

Joy from Sorrow

I have some friends, The Berberichs. They work at EIBC and have been so special to me from the day I met them. Ben and Sarah are amazing, God-fearing parents, and their kids (Jonah, Lydia, Fiona, Ruby and Lillian) are adorable!

I don't remember exactly when it was, but I found out that Ben and Sarah's three-year-old niece had cancer. She's been in my prayers from that moment on. It breaks my heart to hear stories like that, because, as you may know, my baby brother, Grady Paul, passed away in 2002 from a rare brain tumor called a Pineoblastoma. He was such a trooper and it was unbelieveably hard to watch him go.

This morning, precious Shaelynn Sue went to be with Jesus. Through the tears of my aching heart, there is a ray of hope. Jesus is holding on to darling little Shaelynn with all his might. She isn't hurting anymore. There is no more pain in her life!

It's the hardest thing in the world to watch a loved one, especially a young child, leave your life, but knowing the Jesus is in control is everything.

I love you Berberich's/Kelly's! You are still in my prayers in this hard time. Remember that God is faithful.

-Alyssa-

In Loving Memory of:

Grady Larson. Ben Ries. Doug Ruley. Shaelynn Kelly.

This picture was taken days before Grady went home to be with Jesus.

One Month. And one day. . .

This year I decided to expand my life a bit, and try out for the Spring Play. I got the part of 'Fairy May' in The Curious Savage . It's been a really fun time, with lots of funny moments.

I'm turning into a 'drama geek'. I must say, I feel quite well rounded. . .and almost hypocritical. I hang out with everone from Cheerleaders to the Band geeks now! I definitely am not only trying out for the play next year, but the musical as well.


Anyway, tonight was our first run through of Act One without our scripts. It was a DISASTER! No one could remember their lines, but this (as well as people misreading scripts in past rehearsals) as given many great quotes. . .

Max: "ROAR!"

Derek: "What would my wife think if she came in and saw another man kissing me? . . .I said man didn't I? WO man. "

Alex/Hanna: I can't really replay it but one of them reading lines from off stage was hilarious!

Me: "I'm hiding." Sarah: "From who-ohhhhhh. Never mind. Sit."

Andrea (picking up phone): "I don't know what to say." Amanda: "Hello?"

Sarah N: Parcheesi. The royal game of India!

Drea: What are you talking about? Mack-Man: English?

That was probably pointless, I realize now, because most of those were more 'you had to be there' moments.

OH well.

Oh how I love this type of drama! :)

-Alyssa

Blogger history, Writing, and Stomp

Believe it or not, I used to be an intense blogger. Seriously, I blogged nearly daily, not that you'd be able to tell since my posts are quite a rarity. . . bt anyway, it was actually about things. . not like my last post. :)

It was a summer where my friends and I commented on each others blogs ALL the time. It was rare that we wouldn't comment on a post. Katie, Kristin, Kyle (WHY DO ALL MY FRIENDS START WITH K???) and I talked through blogger. HAha.

I have no idea where I am going with this.

Sorry to bore you, but I am bored and thus my boredom is going to shine through this post.

My writing teacher said I should take creative writing next year because I am very creative. I'm not seeing it.

Well, it would be lovely if the snow would stop.

STOMP! I was typing stop and typed stomp, which reminds me. . . I SAW STOMP THIS WEEKEND AT THE PARAMOUNT! My friend Jackie turned 16 and her parents bought us tickets to go see them. . and let me tell you, it was AMAZING!

Well now, it is nearing the hour of 5:00 PM and one of my obsessions. . . 8simple rules, it about to begin, so I will spare you from any further rambling and leave this keyboard alone.

Enjoy your day!
-Alyssa

Intro to Blogger

I'm really not sure what I have to write about, but my blog looks too bare without a post.

:)


All I know for sure is that I miss HS football season ^ ^ ^