Friday, May 18, 2012

Ode to Buddy


Buddy, Buddy, my dear best friend.
You'll be my friend to the utmost end.

Through thick and thin, through fiery hold.
You're always there, with your heart of gold.

To write these words, just eight then nine.
Isn't that easy, have you ever tried?

Oh, wait, you have, you taught me to.
You teach a lot, you silly old you.

Yes, my friend, you've taught quite a lot.
You've giv'n me council, when it's been sought.

You don't give up, you're tried and true.
You nev'r give up, you silly old you.

[here's where I give up on the 8-9 thing]

And for that I am thankful, I'm thankful so much.
For a buddy so faithful, with an ever sweet touch.

You know me so well, better than most some would say.
And for this I say, 'bravo', on our little friend day.

  
-A.A. Smugg
So, today marks the day I met my BFF nine years ago!

It was a fateful day, that, we met at starwars.com at the forum chat room called Talk Like Yoda. 

Memories...such memories. We were but little morsels of teenagers back then!

This is a person that I went through my awkward, nerdy teenager stage with, learned a lot of life's lessons and then we crossed over into womanhood clutching onto each others arms for dear life.
God has taught me so many valuable lessons from our friendship. A lot of lessons about life, about how relationships work and how communication is necessary for a healthy relationship--no matter who it is.
And I tell you, if there ever were two people olde Satan didn't want to be friends, I'd be willing to bet it was us.
He's tried to come between us more times than I even care to remember. 
But, really, it was Buddy who was always like, "look, I don't want to give up on our awesome friendship." She was the stubborn one, I was always being the brat like, "being friends is too hard, let's just stop." haha, not ALWAYS. (I love you buddy). Those were the especially difficult times in our lives. We'd get into petty arguments or disagreements but the important thing is: We overcame. We rose above them and came out stronger and more seasoned best friends! (Super seasoned, like with garlic, maybe some onion, add some of that spice).
We've learned that if we have a problem with something the other said or did and we can't just put it behind us, then we need to bring it up. Communication is such a vital part in any relationship and I'll always be grateful to God for giving me such a great best friend to teach me this lesson BEFORE I'm in a marriage. So many people don't even know how to communicate and they've been married for years!



I'm telling you, BFF and I have faced it all (so far). We've been through a fire -- no, a real fire, I mean the hill I lived on was on fire and we almost got stuck and DIED. DIIIIEEEEDDDD. 

That was in 2003 when I still lived in San Diego. It was called the 2003 Firestorms or Cedar fire. It wasn't pretty. It was actually scary. Google "2003 Firestorms" or "2003 Cedar Fire"


Photo from top 10 fires: 
http://www.listzblog.com/top_ten_deadly_fires_history_list.html
San Diego was basically on fire. We were stuck on a mountain and the fire was licking up the back of it and the traffic was at a standstill and we haven't even evacuated our house yet. I was trying to get a hold of buddy but her mom was on the phone with her brother who lived in SD as well. Finally buddy called and asked if everything was alright, to which I told her (in a helpless voice mind you) "No!"
Just as I said that, the cars started moving and I said, "well." and then the phone cut out.
Poor buddy had no idea what kind of situation I was in or if I was okay. But, thank the Lord, the traffic was moving, we jumped in our million cars and RV and drove on out of there. I remember as we crossed a part of the road, I could see flames. It was intense. But we reached the safety of my aunt's house--that's where my whole family and our cousins stayed for, like, five days. That night was such a long night, me and my siblings and cousins camped out on my aunt's living room floor and then my aunt's sister calls and leaves a message on the machine (because it's like midnight) saying she's heard on the news that the mountain we lived on is completely destroyed. Thanks for the nice bedtime story! It'll help me sleep lots better now.
And poor buddy, I didn't want to call her in the middle of the night to tell her I was okay so she had no idea what was going on until the next morning.
It was this fire, this moment in our lives, that pushed us together. Beforehand we were just little internet friends that didn't know much about each other, we talked on the phone once a week for about an hour, but that's about it. But in the embers of this fire a strong bond was formed and it has not been broken since.

In addition to that, we've been through all sorts of other such friendship strengtheners. One of the other big ones is my faith. I did not always believe the way I did and we quickly found out that we had differences.
I accepted this at first, we just couldn't really talk in depth about the Bible. But then, something got at me, someone had to be wrong. There weren't TWO truths out there.
Very very very long story short, BFF prayed for me just about every single day until, finally, she just came straight out with it and told me the truth about the Holy Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. This changed my life forever and it almost ended our friendship. Wouldn't Satan of loved that?
I didn't talk to her for a week, but eventually came around and, secretly, SILENTLY, started looking into the Bible without telling anyone. I came to a lot of conclusions and God brought me to His truth. But I won't spoil the rest of the story! I'm going to save it for another special time (don't worry, you only have to wait a month).
But my point IS, Buddy and I have gone through fires physically and spiritually and came out the better for it. Christ has been so awesome to give us such a wonderful friendship and I will always thank Him for such a loyal pal.

Here's to you, Buddy, thanks for putting up with my Andreaish ways all these nine indelibly delicious years.
-Your pal, Andrea

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Billowing Curtains

Hello Jimmy!
Well, I'm back from my sabbatical.
What was my sabbatical, you ask? No idea.
Well, it wasn't much of a sabbatical, but more or less laziness. But I like to call that laziness uninspiration. I moved my furniture around to a position I THOUGHT was appropriate, but you see, precious, if the desk isn't perfectly so, my writer's mind just does not work. Really. EVEN if I use my computer on my bed or anywhere else in my room, my writer's mind is sitting at my desk and my desk has to be exactly so.
I tell you the truth! It was in a corner and only had a partial view out the window. For so long I've had writer's block or writer's apathy. But I drag my brothers in here and in ten minutes I had my desk back in front of the window and, viola, here I am! It's amazing.

Say, Jim, what'd you do for Mother's day? This is what I did! I glued seed packets on dowels to make a flower bouquet. Hopefully, if taken care of, the flowers will last a long long time! I got all perennials so that will help, and my Mother is such a green thumb, I have great hopes for them.

There are milk and dark chocolates in the bottom of the vase. I'm that good.




It is truly Spring/Summer here in the North. And I'm loving ever second of it. I even opened my window!
See? This is what a REAL writer's desk looks like--I mean where it should be. RIGHT in front of the window. Ah, so perfect.

So, I've been basically busy. I've fixed my crown molding so that the nails aren't showing (filled them with caulking). And I painted my molding and painted my ceiling.
I have just a tad bit more of details to do, but then my room will be finished! YAY!
Well, finished for now..
You can see the top where I caulked, and the bottom yet to be. It makes a big difference!!

Painting over my scripture...I've turned into such a heathen. And--what's this?? My foot??

Progress

This was my thought regarding the Swiss Coffee paint I was using for my trim.

GOLDEN fan. No thanks!

I couldn't help myself. The off-white ceiling was getting to me!!!

Pulling apart that fan was an annoyance I shan't suffer myself through again.

Tada! oh, yes, the blades look blue in comparison to my white ceiling so now I have to paint them as well.


So, wasn't that lovely?
Other things I've been doing includes riding bikes, nothing, nothing and milking a cow!
Yes. I milked a real live cow. They said she was a small cow, but she looked like a mammoth to me!! I was so freaked out to get that close to it, but once I started, milking was fun!
I also posted a color test, remember? Well, if you don't, then you must take a look!
http://stayathomesister.blogspot.com/2012/04/test.html 
Now take a moment to look it over and decide what number is my favorite. 
And below, I shall reveal it.






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keep going! It's a huge secret!!!




















Number............................































ALL OF THEM!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA not really.






























                         i am number FOUR
A close second was number 2. But definitely number 4. To further prove that point, I went out yesterday and did something I don't remember ever doing in my life--I bought fingernail polish. Wouldn't you know, it's basically the same shade as number 4, almost a mix between 4 and 2 but I thought it was funny I should find that color.
Anyways, this is where I close for now.
I hope you have a wonderful day, James, and wish your family all the best.
-Andrea