Vertical Impact Blogs

Game!

2008-03-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

So I've given up on the ski retreat blog. See Alex's blog if you want a full-length update. Basically, we had a blast. No injuries, lots of great worship, fabulous skiing. OH. And Katie and I had the hottest ski instructor alive. His name was Mitch, and he helped our ski instructor Lynn last year, and when we found out we had him again, you could imagine how excited we were, hahaa. I miss him. He was very nice to look at, even under all the ski gear ;)

Soooo my friend Allie told me about this blog-game thing. Basically, here's how it works:

Rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.

2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

3. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.

4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and that they should read your blog.

As you might have guessed, I've been tagged! She texted me this tonight, and I am very excited to post this! Here we goooo. I'll tag my fellow bloggers, but I don't know if they'll actually do it, haha. Pretty much, I'm just listing the first 8 things that pop into my head. Allrighty:

1) I hate bananas (and yes, I did have to sing "Hollaback Girl" quietly in order to spell bananas). I know they're really good for you, but I've disliked them ever since I was little. There's this picture of me when I was like five, with bananas on my plate, and from my face one would think that my parents were holding me at gunpoint. That's how much I hate them.

2) I am addicted to hoodies and sweatpants. I seriously don't know why people don't wear them all the time. If it were possible, that's all I would wear. No joke.

3) I am a huge, yet organized, pack rat. I have such a hard time throwing things away, because for me, little things have such huge memories. For instance, Phil gave me, Hannah, and Katie candy when we gave him this "love letter" we wrote in seventh grade (if you didn't go to VI last Wednesday...don't ask). He gave me some gum. And you know what? I still have it. Even though I save everything, my chaos is quite organized and clean.

4) I sing in the shower. All the time. And I don't mean sing...I should say belt.

5) I have a different voice when I talk to strangers or adults, especially on the phone. My voice gets super high and I get all peppy and polite. My family makes fun of me for it to no end.

6) I am a band geek. And proud of it. Band is my dysfunctional family. And Cogo is...well, nevermind.

7) I can type without looking at any part of the computer. That includes the screen and keyboard. Sorry, that seems a bit random, but I'm typing my English research paper, and I just noticed that. And after all, these are random facts.

8) I am beyond gullible. Like...beyond. Think of a joke you tell a gullible person. Guaranteed that I've been told it, and fallen for it. These jokes include my personal favorite, which goes like this:
Cruel person: "Look Annie, gullible is written on the ceiling/in the sky!" (choose whichever, I've fallen for both.)
Naive Annie: "SERIOUSLY??"
Cruel person: "...."

Soo there are eight random facts! Hope you enjoyed them, hahaa. Doubtful.

Okay now I have to "tag" people. I guess I'll just do my fellow bloggers? So, Katie, Drew, Trey (yeah right, haha), and Alex, you have to play the game now too. Yayy! =)

Well, that's all for now, kiddos. I have to finish my research paper rough draft for English. It's just thrilling.

Much loooove,
<3 Gaburo

Ski Retreat '08!

2008-02-04T14:25:00.000-08:00

SKI RETREAT '08!

Update coming soon!

Update

2008-01-07T05:03:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a great holiday!

I really don't have that much to report. I went to Washington DC for a few days after Christmas, and that was very fun =) The first picture is a candid of my mom at the Washington Monument (it was very windy, that's why her hair is crazy, haha), and the second one is at the Lincoln Memorial (I zoomed in on his head).

Life is busy and school is insane. Mariemont's exams are this week, unfortunately. Then a week later we have SKI RETREAT! I'm very excited. If you haven't signed up yet, I really would. There's still available spots, and this is definitely a trip you don't want to miss. Even if you can't ski that well (like me), it's still a really fun time. If you want, you don't have to ski at all, there are always non-skiers hanging out at the lodge. You don't want to miss this trip, it's SO much fun.

Okay, that's about it for me. Like I said, I don't have much to post about. I hope everyone has a fantastic week and good luck on your exams if you haven't taken them yet.

Much love,

<3 Annie

Photography Boredom

2007-12-10T04:50:00.000-08:00

Hey kids. I'm extremely bored in Photography class, soo I thought I'd show you some pretty pictures. Yayy.

I took this one looking up a telephone pole:

This is a little angel statue I found in my grandma's garden.

I thought he was cute:

My sister and I went walking and I loved the color

of the leaves in front of her:

So obviously I didn't take this one but I cropped

and edited it. I'm a very vicious go-cart driver =)

I just realized that Julia is in all of these pictures

except for 2 hahaa. Oh well, here's one when we

got bored looking for Christmas trees. Whenever

I look at this I laugh =)

I was totally going to put some Elevation pictures that I took off the website and edited, but the computer won't let meee. Ohh well. Back to class now.

If I don't post before, everyone have a WONDERFUL HOLIDAY!

I love you!

<3 Mexican (It's an addition to the nick-name list. Ask Dustin for an explanation.)

Thanksgiving and such

2007-11-25T13:22:00.000-08:00

Hello darlingss! Yeahh it's definitely been way too long since I've updated, my bad.

So how has everyone been? I hope you've all been well, I know I have. I just got back from New York City/New Jersey. The above picture is of a guy I saw dancing in Central Park. I was trying to post it later in my blog, but it wouldn't let me. But he was so funny/cute that I had to take a picture. Anywayy, so we went to visit my grandparents and spent Thanksgiving with them, and that was very fun. Other than the few times a year I see my grandparents, I never see my dad's side of the family. Actually, the last time they saw me was when I was twelve. So I got the typical freak-out when they realized that my sisters and I had actually grown up quite a bit. You know what I'm talking about, the whole typical "OH MY LORD YOU'RE SO TALL, WHEN DID YOU GROW UP?". Personally, I found it weird that I've changed so much and I don't even notice it. But it was kinda funny to see them all flip out, haha. But overall my thanksgiving was good. My aunt happens to be an amazing cook, so the food was wonderful =]

So the day after Thanksgiving we went to New York City. I've probly never seen so many people in my entire life, no joke. It was absolutely insane, but I had a great time =]

We took this train into the city that landed in the train station right below Ground Zero (where the World Trade Centers used to be). Pretty much, you get off the train and go up some stairs and bam, there's this gaping hole in the ground where the World Trade Centers were. Right now it's this massive construction site, because they're constructing this huge building that's going to be called the Freedom Tower. I saw a picture of it, and it's going to be a really pretty building. It'll also serve as a memorial to 9/11. But the whole experience was kind of sad. I hadn't been to New York since after the towers fell. In fact, I was there almost exactly a month before the whole thing happened (there's actually this mildly-creepy picture of me and my sisters on top of the Empire State building with the World Trade Center towers in the background). But my visit really allowed me to get a perspective on what happened. I mean, those towers were absolutely massive, (if they were like any of the other building in NYC then they were crazy tall) and it's not like they were the only things damaged. The whole train station directly below it was completely crushed, and this huge wall under the towers that kept out the Hudson River was also cracked and there was apparently a lot of flooding. Not to mention that the buildings all around it must have been greatly damaged too. It was just sort of a wake up call to how insane that day (and the day's after) must have been. Because for me, 9/11 didn't really affect me. Our principal told us about a plane crash, and he used big words that my little 4th grade brain couldn't really comprehend. Then I went home and I was totally confused/surprised because my mom knew about the plane crash too! I definitely didn't grasp the magnitude of the whole situation for a long time. I didn't know anyone who died or was even affiliated with the situation except this old man who I had met a couple of times that lost his son. I mean yeah, my grandma watched the whole thing from the airport across the river, but that was as close to 9/11 as I ever got. It wasn't till this past weekend that I realized how horrific that whole thing must have been.

But don't get me wrong, my trip was extremely fun. Naturally, I went shopping, haha. New York City is crazy every day, but on Black Friday it happens to be downright insane...so that was eventful, but fun. We also went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway, which was absolutely AMAZING. We were right up front and ahhhhhh it was sooo fabulous. Mary actually flew into the audience, and in this one part, Bert walked on the ceiling, it was sweeet.=]

The next day, my little sister insisted on going ice-skating, and you can imagine how thrilled I was. If you saw me at Broomball, you know how incredibly skilled I am on skates (riiiight). So that was really funny, and I imagined I look oh-so-graceful, as usual.

Well I hope you all are doing well and school/life is greattt.

I love you!

- -Annie <3

No title?

2007-10-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

This is the exact one year anniversary of my blog! Ahh! How weird is that? So much has gone on and changed since October 22, 2006. I went back and read my first blog, and it was just like...whoaa, I'm definitely different now. You know what I mean? It's so funny how quickly time passes and how immensely things change in just 365 days. I mean it feels like yesterday that I just came to VI and now I'm already halfway done with my six years at this ministry. Scary much? Oh well. This year has been amazing, and I know it's only going to get better.

Anywhoo, yay for procrastination. For anyone in AP Euro, they will totally and completely understand me when I say that I don't want to start my notes for this evening. I mean, yeah I like history, but when I'm all unfocused like this, notetaking usually doesn't come easily, if you get my drift.

Soo what's been going on? Hmm, since September 29th (my last update), a lot. I went to homecoming with Taylor and a whole big group of people. Loots of fun there =) My friends and I have a hard time staying quiet, and we laugh a lot (probably too much, but oh well), and these two things thus lead to a fantabulous time being had by all. Two words: Caliente Fork.

School's been good. Everything is relatively easily, except for Chemistry. I have a lower grade in that than in my AP class, which totally doesn't make sense. Troller and I are taking the same class, actually. We made a bet that he beat me on the last quiz. Proud to say that I beat him by one point, hahaa. Drew: I'm still expecting my 5 bucks! To make another pointless connection, my lab partner in that class is the guy in the JD and Turk picture on Drew's blog, named Amir. Not that you care, hahaha.

So...now I'm deciding to break away from the generic school update. If you're someone who actually reads my blog (and I know that's a very small number), then you'll notice that there's someone commenting on mine named Allie. Don't be alarmed, she's not some creepy stalker, hahah. She's actually one of my really good friends that I met at camp a few years ago. Our friendship is kind of a weird story, so I thought I'd clue you in. Not to mention she talked about me in her blog, so I felt obliged to return the favor =) . Anywhoo, we met at this camp called Camp Crosley in the middle of nowhere in Indiana. I went there for three years, and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, lack of time and the fact that I'm getting to be too old kept me from going back every summer. So I didn't really talk to her much the whole week, but we exchanged numbers and stuff, like everyone does at the end of camp, when you're all saying goodbye. And we kept in touch, surprisingly. Actually, I'm very happy to report that we have stayed awesome friends to this day. Did I mention that I don't have a myspace or facebook? So the only way we could communicate was through AIM and phone. But I'm proud to say that we haven't seen each other for two and half years, and still are really good friends. We talk every day, actually. She's the only other camp person that I'm still friends with besides my friend Paige. You all have met her when she came to visit last year. It's funny though, I must have encountered 50+ girls at my many years at various camps, and I've only managed to stay in contact with two. It's also strange that I've lost touch with people who live in Cincinnati, yet not with someone who lives five hours away. Ironic? It's so funny, but really pathetic and sad, how easily someone important to you can totally fall out of your life if you let them.

So I guess I should really get moving on Euro, haha. But first, I'm pulling an Acheson-move and leaving you guys with a quote. Allie actually gave it to me on the back of a little card that had her phone number and stuff on it.

I would be true, for there are those who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare;
I would be friend to all- the foe, the friendless;
I would be giving, forget the gift;
I would be humble, for I know my weakness;
I would look up and laugh and love and lift.

I <3 youu
- - Annie

Photography, Lock-In, SYATP, etc.

2007-09-29T18:56:00.000-07:00

Soo here's what I'm doing in photography. We have a free assignment, and I made this picture look funky. The people in the picture are three of my friends from my MFuge crew. Basically, Adobe Photoshop is my new best friend. My friend and I played with it all bell Friday, haha. It's pretty cool, you can make pictures look like drawings (i.e. watercolor, different kinds of sketches, etc), make them black and white, change the contrast of colors(which is what I did to the above picture), and pretty much do ANYTHING you want to.

Anywhoo, I just realized its been four weeks since I last posted. Drew has been nagging me about my lack to update, but frankly I don't have that much to update about. School and cheerleading basically control my life (what else is new?). VI-wise, things are going great. Student Leadership is going great. Last Wednesday, we all presented our ministries. My personal favorite (besides Newsletter, naturally) was definitely Nikko and Angie's dance for their ministry, SOC (Serving Our Community). The whole dance thing is kind of a joke from SL Retreat, because it became Nikko's signature that weekend. He and Audrey performed it one night (complete with Audrey's AMAZING 'fro), and I basically died, it makes me laugh so hard every time. But anyway, Nikko taught it to Angie and they performed it on Wednesday, it was so awesome :) I also liked the Boy Band video, it was extremely hilarious. See Drew's blog for the actual video. But of course, my favorite was DEFINITELY Newsletter. Katie and I came up with this concept for our presentation that day in Band. It's the Newsletter's slogan/name thingy, and it's called Gossip for God. Get it? Like, gossip spreads really quickly and people are really eager to share and tell it. Soo that's what we were hoping we'd do with Newsletter, you know, spread God like people tend to spread gossip. Not to mention that "Gossip for God" has a nice ring to it. It really rolls off the tongue, don't you think? Haha :) We made pretty shirts (Katie and I had T-shirts, and we bought Dustin a tiny wife-beater, hahah), and had a great skit. If you missed our presentation, I'm very sorry. You basically missed the best five minutes that you will ever experience in your entire life. Not to mention, Katie totally fell flat on her face on her way up to the stage. Classic.

Last night was the infamous Lock-In. I got their late along with all of the Mariemont Band after our football game vs. Indian Hill (we pounded to a pulp...62-0. It was just sad, really). The whole night was very fun, I was introduced to Family Guy, to which I had been previously prejudiced. But now I find it absolutely hilarious, hahha. I guess I kinda fell asleep, because one minute twenty people were watching it, and then the next thingI know basically all of them are gone and I'm completely dead asleep, along with Drew (who, by the way, snores. But apparently I do too, but supposedly it's kind of like a whimpering snore. I've officially been dubbed "Ga'snore'ay" along with the multiple other nicknames), and Aimee, Peggy, and Hannah are watching this sappy movie called The Ultimate Gift. I watched the first twenty minutes, then fell asleep again and woke up for the last twenty. I was very confused, but overall, I really liked the movie. It's all about this guy named Jason who gets this inheritance from his dead grandfather whom he hated, but in order to get it, he has to do all of these tasks and thus recieve several different "gifts", such as the gift of work, problems, family, love, etc. Despite the fact that it was a bit cheesy, I thought it portrayed a really good message, despite the fact that it had a horribly sad (but satisfying) ending. For anyone in my English class, it reminds me freakishly of that one story we're reading, One Thousand Dollars by O. Henry

Anyway, after the movie, Maddie insisted that I come to the basement to see this dance-off. So I'm like...uhh okay? But once I got down there, I was so glad I came. Seriously, I have probably never laughed so hard in my entire life. There were several groups: "The Super Models" (my sister, Olivia, and Robby); "The Asians and Caucasians",(Nikko and his posse) "The Four Gays" (Zach, Emmett, Alec, and Oliver) and this one other group consisting of Alexis, Karyn, and Grace. Pretty much, the groups would pick a song to do, and they'd choreograph that, but then they'd also have to do an "improv" song picked out by Maddie and Audrey. It was absolutely hilarious. Let me just be the first to say that junior high boys can shake it way more than I ever thought possible, or ever wanted to see. And Karyn has the most amazing neck-bobbing thing EVER :) And Nick's group was actually hardcore, they were really good. No comment on Julia's group...let's just say that as her older sister, I did NOT want to see her move like that. But they were still good, haha.

But overall, the Lock-In was extremely fun, despite the fact that I had to get up this morning and cheer at another football game against Indian Hill (at which we got clobbered...again). I think I was running on this false energy source, because on normal circumstances there would have been no way I could function, much less jump around, on less than two hours of sleep. But, by some miracle of God, I made it through my game, and then came home to sleep for five hours :)

Well I think that's about it for me. Like I said, nothing really noteworthy to post about.

OH WAIT.

I almost forgot about See You At The Pole! It took place on this previous Wednesday. Last year I kind of slept through it (oops), so I made it my goal this year to actually get up and go. I was expecting ten, maybe 15 people. And I was also expecting all VI people. I am very happy to say that I was proved extremely erroneous in my presumptions. Get this, Mariemont had 41 PEOPLE show up! And there were people from all different groups at school. People from different youth groups (especially SonRise; I got to see some of their youth staff that I hadn't seen since July, it was exciting), and people that I had absolutely no idea even beleived in God! Our SYATP wasn't fancy, it wasn't anything out-of-the-ordinary, but it was seriously extremely impacting. Just to know that all of the people that showed up are not afraid to show their dedication to Christ at Mariemont High School. It made me feel so much better, like I wasn't in this all on my own, you know? So pretty much, Mariemont's SYATP was absolutely amazing, with the biggest number I've ever seen. And do you know what's weird? I found that that simple action, just praying around a flag pole before school, made my day ten million times better! Thanks to everyone who came :)

Okay, now I swear I'm done. I hope everyone is doing okay in school, and in life in general. See you crazy kids tomorrow.

Love you tonssss,
<3 Gaburray

School!

2007-09-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

So again...it's been awhile.

I hope everyone started school off well! And if you haven't started yet...well you just stink.

Let me be the first to say that my sophomore year absolutely ROCKS so far. I really like all of my classes (and I don't dread going to any of them...it's actually quite surprising). My favorites so far are Photography and English. My English class is massively huge, we fill up all of the desks, and my teacher is especially "vocal", and our whole class gotten into some really off-topic (but very interesting) conversations so far, I love it. I have Photography first bell, and it's so much fun. We've already taken pictures and are in the process of developing. Okay, funny story time: In order to develop, you have to take the film out of the camera in a completely pitch black room so the film won't be exposed, it's not like a dark room where you can actually see somewhat. So you have to open the camera, take out the film canister, take the film out of the canister, unroll it, then load it into a NEW big canister (thats the very tricky part), then put it in a light-tight jar. All in complete darkness. So this girl named Amanda and I decided to attempt doing this daunting task. Let's just say it wasn't pretty. In an attempt to load the unrolled film into the big canister I sort of...broke it, then had to put it back together in the dark. I'm going to refrain from typing the multiple "exclamations" that were said by both of us, because this is a blog on a church website, after all :) I also have yet to fall asleep in any class...again, quite an accomplishment. I always seem to be really sleepy right after lunch, I don't know why. It was kind of a problem last year, when I had my most boring class of the day then, hahaaa. But this year I have Chemistry after lunch, and we light things on fire, it's sweet. We lit these 3 different powders, and the flames all turned different colors (one turned MAGENTA, it was awesome!).

Other than that, cheerleading has been taking up my life. I adore my squad this year, we have like 5 new people, we all get along really well and have tons of fun together, haha =)

I'm also doing Color Guard (we call it CoGo, so thats what we're talking about if you hear that name mentioned). It's a ton of fun. We basically stink like no other, but we still have the best time together, and our coach is pretty much the coolest person ever, I adore her!

I feel like I haven't had time to breathe since school started. I've been so busy, it's insane. But I'm having a good time so far, and I hope you all are too!

VI wise, we have so much going on. Student Leadership has officially started, and all the new ministries are up and running. Get ready for an AMAZINGLY AWESOME year at VI!

We have Event-In-The-Tent/Student Auction coming up on the 9th. Please come, it's so much fun! SGM and Breakfast Club start soon, I'm not sure of the dates for those. SYATP (See You At the Pole) is on the 26th (more details to follow), and the greatly-anticipated Lock-In is on the 28-29th! I'm so excited for this month, it's going to be great.

So I think that's all I have for now. I hope everyone is doing awesome, and good luck at school! I'll see everybody tomorrow =)

Lots of hugs,
<3 Hold-That-Line

Multi-Purpose Blog

2007-08-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

Okay so this blog is going to cover a whole range of topics, so I couldn't pick one for the title. Here we go:

Sooo I just got back from Student Leadership Retreat. It was a ton of fun =) We have a mass amount of Student Leaders this year, there are 16 of us. This weekend really gave us a chance to get to know each other even better than we already do (I didn't think it was possible, haha), and really unite as a team. We all focused on what ministries we're doing, and how we're going to get them started or re-vamp them. Let me just say, get pumped for an awesome year at VI. There's some awesome stuff planned, and I really believe that this current team of Student Leaders can do amazing things, and I'm so excited!

I don't really want to go in to all we did at SLR, because that'd take too long. Basically, lots of fun was had (Nikko's insane dancing and Audrey's impressive afro, Vanessa, and The Yarn just to name a few incidents), and I really felt that I got to know a lot of people who I hadn't had much of a relationship with in the past. I had such a fantastic time and can't wait for next year.

This year is at VI is going to be good. Yes, it's going to be very different without people like Chris, Dave, LFD, Paley, Katy, Elliot, and all of the other graduates there, and I'm still currently in denial and don't want to deal with the fact that they're all actually leaving/gone already, but I know it's going to hit me eventually. But as someone told me, it's not "goodbye", its just "see you soon". Just because you won't see them as much, they're not gone forever, and they're still alive and everything, haha. Maybe that optimism method doesn't work well for you, but I have to be optimistic or else I don't know what to do. I'd just like to say that I love and am going to miss all of you guys so much, but I'm so happy for you because you're going to have the best time at college and do so much with your lives, and I'm so proud of you all =)

So I currently feel like I'm living in a whirlwind. My life is absolutely insane, with school starting in 3 days, band and cheerleading starting up, Student Leadership beginning, and not to mention the fact that lots of people are leaving. SLR gave me a real chance to breathe, it was nice. On our last night at the lake house (which I guess was just last night, haha), I was out on the dock by myself just listening to my iPod/sleeping/thinking. It was like, oh, 1:00 in the morning, lol. And the lake was totally and completely calm, there wasn't one ripple in it. You could see the trees and the sky reflected in the water, and it was so pretty. So I'm just looking at the water when this Lake-Patrol boat (probably the same one that kicked us off the buoy when we all swam out to it, hahaa) came up and totally killed the tranquility in the water. There were all these ripples, and you couldn't see the light shining across the water, or the trees' reflection in it. It kind of bugged me. But it made me think. You all are probably going to think I'm retarded for using this metaphor, but it's kind of like what my life (and I know lots of other people's lives) are like right now. Like, it was all peaceful and fine for a long time, with no "ripples". Then all of a sudden, this "Lake-Patrol boat" comes in and makes the "water" all choppy. And there are so many ripples that you don't ever think the water can be peaceful again. It was sort of depressing. But then I decided to see if the lake would actually go back to being quiet once the Lake-Patrol boat left. And you know what? It did. Sure there were still a couple of ripples and bumps in the water, which is expected, but for the most part it was calm again. It was a simple, maybe even stupid, situation, but it definitely gave me hope, which sounds kind of pathetic, but it's true. Just know that even if you feel like life is just insane and changing way to quickly for you to handle, and you think that there are way too many "ripples in the water" for it to ever go back to being peaceful, just know that, with time, it'll get better...the ripples will go away, trust me. Allright, that's all for Annie's Stupid-Optimistic-metaphor of the day =)

I'd also like to thank all of you who surprised me this last Thursday for my 16th birthday. I had such a great time, and have probably never been more shocked in my whole life. Trust me, when you see all of your friends from EVERYWHERE (cheerleading, band, VI, school) collaborated in your best friend's living room screaming "SURPRISE!", it's pretty hard to not flip out, which I definitely did. I saw a picture of my face when I saw everybody, it's pretty hysterical. I had such a fantastic night, thank you all so much for coming and for all my pretty gifts/cards, I really appreciate all of them! It really made me realize how many amazing people I have in my life who care about me, and vice versa, and I left the party feeling pretty darn lucky. A special thank-you to Katie and her whole family, who had apparently been scheming behind my back with my mom for weeks to plan the whole thing, it was so incredibly sweet of you all to do that for me =) Thanks so much, I love you guys.

Okay I think that's it for now. Hopefully I'll get an update once school starts, but don't be expecting much. Have a fantastic week, and good luck at school!

I love you!
<3 Gaburrayy

The Katie and Annie Update

2007-08-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

SUP Y'ALL?

This is Katie and Annie updating. We just got home from our colorguard practice ((GET LOW COGO)). Basically, we rock.

So band camp ended last week. It was surprisingly enjoyable, although it was 200 bajillion degrees outside. But we both got sweet sports bra tans! =)

We're both pretty pumped for VI this week because it's the RETREAT REUNION! But it's kind of bittersweet because it's Chris's last VI...but not forever.

We're pretty bored, in case you hadn't noticed. We just burned Dustin a sweet CD, so yay for us.

So that's pretty much it. Annie will update later when she's not all spacey like this.

WE LOOOOOOOOOVEEEEE YOUUUUUUUU!

<3 Steph and Gaburrayy

Ouch

2007-08-03T17:04:00.000-07:00

Okay.

So basically.

I hurt.

EVERYWHERE.

It's rather pathetic, really. I just finished my two day long UCA cheer camp/clinic that consisted of hardcore cheerleading for 8 hours straight each day. I hadn't done much intense cheerleading all summer, and neither had any of the other girls on my squad. So I come to camp Thursday morning at around 8:20 in the morning after getting barely 5 hours the night before on Sloneker's trampoline (We went to bed at a reasonable hour, but then the sun woke us up at 6 a.m., and we got hungry, got pudding...and I imagine that you can fill in the blanks for yourself. Just say that Katie and Slon got a wee bit hyper, and that meant no more sleeping for the rest of us). I am, as you all know, completely NOT a morning person, especially after getting literally no sleep. My squad comes stumbling in a few minutes later, all of them barely awake. Then the two UCA (Universal Cheerleading Association) cheerleaders/counselors come in...or should I say come skipping in. I'm serious, these girls were probably the perkiest people I've ever met in my entire life. You think I'm a happy person? I basically looked morose compared to them. They liked to talk more than Angie Bell, Hannah Mauk, and Laura Gardner all combined (actually, one of them actually looked freakishly like Laura Gardner, and I think I freaked her out by staring at her, because both their physical appearances and their personalities were extremely alike. Ok, I'm deviating. Back to my story).

So long story short, we learned an insane amount of cheers/chants, two band dances, and this thing they called an "Xtreme routine" which consisted of dancing. There was this one funny/sort of risqué move that was in the dance, and I'll have to show you guys, hahaha. We also did a lot of jumps/conditioning, but it wasn't too much, which was always good. I know it doesn't even begin to compare to Alex's Two-A-Days. The whole clinic was actually really fun, I learned a lot, and I'm glad I did it, despite the fact that I'm currently hobbling around like an old lady because I'm so sore, and my family finds it quite comical. But I swear, if being elderly hurts this bad, I don't know what I'm going to do. Props to all the older people in this world for even getting out of bed.

By the way, I know this is random, but I'm in a rather spacey mood right now, so deal with it. I think my picture got changed. Not the one that's actually on my blog, but the one that's on the little gray box that says "Annie Gaburo" that you click to get to my blog. It looks like I have purple lipstick on, and I just look weird in general. So if you've never met me before, that's really not what I look like...I promise I'm not that frightening in real life. Ok glad I got that out there.

Also, welcome to Alex who just recently joined the Blogging Family! We're all pretty pumped that you have a blog now, be sure to update a lot =)

Ok I think that's all I got for now. Tomorrow I doubt I'll be able to do anything but read my summer reading books (Pride and Prejudice and All Quiet on the Western Front) due to massive soreness that I'm anticipating. Then Sunday I have church and such, then the infamous Band Camp starts on Monday, going Mon-Fri 8-4. Katie, Laura G and I are all doing color guard. It beats the heck out of marching while playing our flutes, and it's really quite fun! Our outfits are...interesting. If you don't come to the football games to see us, come to see our uniforms. That's all I'm going to say there.

VI-wise, the Retreat Reunion is on the 15th. I know Phil is going to blow us all away with his mad DVD-making skills, and I'm so excited, as I'm sure this movie will show X-Rated's amazing-ness. But now that I think about it, we don't need a DVD to show that! You know it already =) Oh, and Student Leadership Retreat is on the 17th. I didn't get to go last year, and I'm pretty pumped to go!

I think I'm done. No wait! I almost forgot.

MY BIRTHDAY IS THIS WEDNESDAY! YAY.

Ok now I'm done.

I love you!
<3 Annieeee

M-Fuge

2007-07-29T11:19:00.002-07:00

So it's been a while.

...okay no it hasn't, it's barely been 2 weeks.

Anywhooooo.

Last night I got back from Nashville, Tennesee. I was there for a week with this youth group from a church in Milford called SonRise Community Church. My friend (her name is Lauren) doesn't have anyone her age in her youth group and she wanted me to come, so I agreed. I didn't know anybody except for Angie. Well that's not true, because I knew a lot of names/faces, because a lot of them go to my school, but I hadn't really talked to most of them before. So you could say I was nervous...extremely nervous.

We we were staying at Belmont University. For those of you who watch American Idol, it was the college that Melinda Doolittle (spelling?) went to/revisited, and the place where they renamed this "street" on the campus Melinda Doolittle Lane. And yes, I actually saw the Melinda Doolittle Lane sign. I got pretty excited =) Anyway, the drive down took about five hours, then we got there and checked in, dumped our stuff in our concrete dorm rooms, and proceeded to go to Walmart, where Lauren and I got mass amounts of Special K bars, water, Lean Cuisine, and this tub of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream (that was a BIG mistake, we downed it within the first 2 days. So not healthy).

So this camp was called M-Fuge. There are lots of "Fuge" camps, such as X-Fuge (which is a camp where you spend the majority of the time doing fun stuff and serving others w/your youth group) and Centri-Fuge (kind of like Elevation with tons more people). M-Fuge was a mission camp. There were five hundred people there, and youth groups came from all over the country, it was so cool. Let me just be the first to say that worshipping with 500+ people was probably one of the most awesome experiences I've ever had. It's loud, insane, and completely sweet =) Anyway, there were six different Ministry Tracks you could choose from: 1. Social (interacting/serving all kinds of people) 2. Creative (singing, putting on puppet shows, and doing lots of other things for little kids and the elderly) 3. Games and Rec (basically playing games like kick ball, basketball, etc. with kids all week) 4. PCY (painting, construction, yardwork. Basically self-explanitory) 5. Peer (visiting juvenile detention centers/prisons/AIDS homes) and 6. Children's (basically, hanging out/playing with little kids all week long). I did Social with Lauren.

Now if you know me well, you know that I'm shy around new people. I mean, once you get to know me, I'm totally insane and not shy at all, but until then I tend to be kind of reserved and quiet. So when you're in Social (as would be expected, I mean look at the name of the ministry) you have to be totally cool and outgoing around/meeting new people. I only did Social because I didn't want to be all by myself and I wanted to be in Lauren's track group, but I didn't really want to to the track at all. So I find out what we're doing in Social, and whole going-up-to-strangers-and-starting-a-conversation thing, and I'm like "....Ohhh shoot, what the heck am I doing?!"

We met with our track groups after worship on the first night, and they seemed like a really cool group of people, so I was excited about that. Our group was called the Zoo Crew (don't ask, it's a long story), and there were about 15 or so of us. We were from all over the country: Ohio, Washington, Virginia, and Tennesee. Lauren, myself, and an adult leader named Julie were the only ones from SonRise. We were going to all these different places, and I was so pumped, but pretty nervous too. So here's a quick summary of my days:

Tuesday:
We went to a children's home/orphanage. Now when I tell people that, they all gasp and stuff, but you seriously couldn't tell this place was an orphanage. It's absolutely nothing like the movies, just let me say that. It was this pretty campus-like place with lots of cabins that five or so kids lived in with their "house parents", and all the kids would gather together for events and stuff like that. There were around 30 or so kids in the whole place, and it was obvious that they were really close. We made this massive-50 foot-downhill Slip and Slide with plastic wrap and tons of soap, and went down it with the kids, it was SO fun! We just talked with them and played in the pool, etc. etc. This one little girl named Natasha came up and just plopped down next to Lauren and me and starting talking to us, telling us how her brother had just gotten his driver's license, etc. We asked her where her brothers were (she had 2), and she said: "Oh, I have no idea. We were supposed to see them over the fourth of July, but it didn't work out." That hit me hard, because honestly, what would it be like not knowing where your 14 and 16 year old brothers were and not being able to see them for months at a time? She also had two sisters, and they had all moved into the children's home at different times, and been separated and stuff. And after all this, she was still such a happy person! That was what amazed me.

Wednesday:
We went to a soup kitchen in downtown Nashville. I'll admit, I was kind of nervous. I mean, we walked in, and they all stared at you, and it was rather intimidating. Our job was to take trays full of food and deliver them restaraunt-style to the homeless people, get their food ticket, and ask them what they wanted to drink. I encountered so many personalities, some people were friendly, some people didn't say anything at all. This one man named Atlas (is that a cool name or what?) was probably the sweetest person I've ever met. I brought him his tray, and he said: "Hi beautiful! Would you pray with me?" I'll admit, I was pretty taken aback at his total openess and kindess, but I said of course, and I said a blessing over Atlas and his food, etc. It was a simple thing really, but it had a big effect on me. Later, Pam (she was an adult leader in my group) and I talked for Atlas for a long time about his life. I don't want to post details here for everyone in the world to see because that's not very considerate, but if you ask me I'd be more than happy to talk with you about him. I'll just say that he had seen/been involved with a whole bunch of horrible stuff in his life, but he had found God three years ago, and was in the process of re-inventing his life and morals. He asked Pam and I to say what he called "The Sinner's Prayer", which is basically inviting Jesus into your heart, and even though he had already done that, he insisted that he needed to again, so we did. Again, small event, huge effect on me.

Thursday:
This was the day that we got to play with little kids =) We went to this massive park and some employees from a church called Grace Park were there, trying to do some outreach and interact with/get to know the parents and get them to come to their church, while we played with their kids. Simple as that. Lauren and I found this adorable boy named Bryn. He was three years old, blonde hair, huge blue eyes, round face, and absolutely adorable. He ran away from my friend who tried to talk to him, and then he ran away from me, but then Lauren and I decided to make him our mission, and we tried again. Eventually he opened up and talked to us and had us running alllll over the playground. He liked to play this game where he would go to the very top of the playset (which he called his car) where there was a steering wheel, and he would drive it. Then he would freak out and say that "There's no more gas!" So we would have to run ALL the way down to the bottom, fill up the "gas tank" with "gas" (wood chips), then run ALL the way up, and do it all over again 30 seconds later. Let's say that I definitely got a workout. There was also facepaint at the park, and we said "Hey Bryn, do you want us to draw something on you?" He had a different plan, and though it'd be better if he decorated us. Lauren and I ended up with paint ALL over our faces, it was absolutely hysterical. All the little kids (I'd say there were 20 there) absolutely adored painting us, and my whole track group went back covered in paint. I was so sad to see Bryn leave, and he was quite upset too. On his way out he was like "I'll see you later...right?" We insisted that we'd see him again, when we very well knew we'd most likely never see him again. It made me sad. Nevertheless, we all had fun, and it was one of my favorite days.

Friday:
We went to another soup kitchen and a nursing home. In the soup kitchen, we just served food to people coming through the line. Again, I encountered lots of personalities, because my happy/high pitched(my voice gets really high when I first meet/talk with strangers, especially on the phone... don't ask why.) "Hi there! How are you doing today?" was met with so many different reactions, some people didn't say anything, some people said "I'm doing great, thank you darling." A few said "Well, I'm alive, that's enough." After we were done serving, we sat and talked with them. We had to do the whole going-up-to-strangers-and-start-a-conversation thing a whole lot this week. It was hard at first, then it became much easier. Our leader, Dave, would say "Ok guys, go mingle," and we would have to go up to them and say "Do you mind if I sit with you?" then start talking. But seriously, I could hang out with homeless people all day long. They are very wise and have lived through SO much. They do most of the talking, which is fine with me, I'm a good listener. They're so open and honest, it's absolutely unbelieveable. Lauren and I sat with these two guys named Charles and John, who had known each other for years, and fought in Vietnam together. John taught me that it's not always the homeless person's fault that they're homeless. He fought in Vietnam, and they used this chemical called Agent Orange (I know I said Asian Orange before, but it's not. The guy had a thick southern accent and I guess I misunderstood. Thank you Chris for telling me that, hahaha) to kill foilage in the trees so they could see enemy soldiers. It turned out that the chemical was horrible for you, but it took 25-30 years to make you sick. So John got really sick in 2005, had to go through a year of chemo, and they wouldn't let him work for a year, so he lost basically everything. And all he did was serve his country! That seriously blew me away.
In the afternoon we went to a nursing home. It was ok, I don't like elderly people that much, I don't know why. Maybe they don't like me. I don't know. But it was fun, we had an ice cream social and there was band of 3 middle-aged men playing. They LOVED to get my track group up there telling jokes, dancing, playing piano (Lauren and I played Heart and Soul, hahaha). There were these two ladies working there and they got my entire group up on stage dancing with them. It was basically hilarious, and the residents liked it a lot. There was this sweet old lady who actually came up on stage and danced with us, and she must've been at least 85! She was so sweet, giving us all this advice, like "Stay in school, stay in church, stay close to God, and you're going to do so much with your lives." I absolutely loved her.

Friday night, back at camp, we had a Mega Relay, which is basically like 10 follies that we do at Elevation all jam-packed into one event. Our track group really came together and had so much fun. We all dressed up in black and green, had black and green bandanas, and put "war-marks" on our face with mascara, it was soo much fun =)

* * * * *

So that's basically my week. A special shout out to my Zoo Crew: I pretty much adore you guys, we most definitely had the best group. We encountered so much together this week, and it was my pleasure to get to know you. I miss you all so much, and you were such a huge reason that my trip was so awesome. I LOVE YOU!

Now don't worry, just because I went on a trip with a different youth group does NOT mean that they can EVER replace all of you. You guys are well aware that you're as close to me as family, and you are most definitely irreplacable =) I just thought it'd be a good experience to go, and it was. But I'll admit, it was weird be at a youth group camp without all of you.

Okay, this blog is so incredibly long. But I had a lot to tell, so there.

Tons of hugs and kisses,
<3 Gaburrayy

Stuff

2007-07-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, creative blog title, I know.

Anywhoo.

Soo I'm back from Michigan. I don't know about you, but I'm really loving this heat. It was so cold and windy where I was, and I'm super excited to be back in the sunshine, plus I missed all of you a lot.

Last night I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with Lauren and Ach. We had planned a whole group of people to go, but then everyone bailed so it was just us three. It was actually quite fun and I had a very good time. We went to Red Robin beforehand and had a very nice server named Bryan, who, as we were informed, was the best server in the whole restaurant, haha. I had already seen the movie, but I totally didn't understand it the first time, but then the second time I actually got it, which was quite exciting. It's super long movie, it started at 10 and we didn't get out of it till around 12:30, but I highly recommend it.

So after I got back from walking my dog, I decided to watch the Elevation movie from last year. I put it in, and it was actually the Elevation DVD from two years ago. I hadn't watched it in at least a year, so I decided to keep it in. It was so strange to see how different we all looked. I mean, Dustin was all pale and had black hair, and Hannah and I still had braces, etc. etc. Seriously, I barely recognized myself, I looked so different two years ago, it's weird.

On a different but slightly the same note, my family dropped Julia off at Arbutus Hayo-Went-Ha summer camp on our way home from Michigan. It's this awesome camp that I went to last year, and she's gone to for three years now. You can either go for four weeks or two, and she and I went for two last year. You get to go on these amazing trips while you're at camp, and there's a different one each year. For instance, last year I went to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and hiked for four days in this place called Pictured Rocks. It's on Lake Superior and it's probably the most beautiful place I've ever been to, no joke. The hike was absolutely amazing, and so much fun. I mean, yes, I felt totally disgusting afterward, and it was kind of hard hiking with my huge pack, but it was absolutely awesome. Julia is going on that trip this year, actually. She leaves camp Thursday and gets back Monday or something. Ok, I'm rambling. Back to my point.

So I wasn't going to camp this year because it didn't work out because stupid band camp got in the way. Anywhoo, I was really excited to go back, even if I wasn't staying. We pulled in to the camp parking lot and proceeded to check Julia in. We passed all the counselors, and they gave me this look, like "Ok I sort of remember you, but not enough to say anything to you." But I passed this one counselor named Louise who actually went on my trip last year with my cabin,and, you know, I talked to and got to know last summer, and I smiled really big at her, but she didn't remember me at all. It was weird, really. Fortunately, one of the girls from my cabin named last year named Taylor saw me and actually did remember me, and then did the whole run-at-me-screaming-hug-me thing, which was actually nice, because I hadn't seen her in a year, and it was nice that someone remembered me, haha. She looked very different, had gotten braces, cut and straightened her hair, and looked more grown up, but she still had her classic blue highlights in her hair, and I could still tell that it was Taylor, if you get my drift. On my way out, this girl named Amanda who wasn't in my cabin and I didn't know very well remembered me and said hi to me, which, you know, made me feel better, haha.
I only saw one other girl from my cabin, named Natalie. I had gotten to know her, too, and I spent at least two hours just sitting and talking with her and another girl named Elise on our last day at camp last year. So you know, I just kinda sorta assumed she would remember me. But I walked past her and gave her like this "I know you do you know me?" look. But she just glanced at me and kept walking. Not wanting to freak her out and go ambush her, when she clearly had no clue who I was, I kept walking too.

But this whole event got me thinking. It's so strange how quickly everyone and everything around us is changing. We're all growing up and changing physically and emotionally so quickly, and people that knew us a year ago may not even recognize us today. It's just weird. I'm the kind of person that absolutely despises change. But I know that change has to happen, or else life couldn't happen. I mean seriously, I don't want to stay fifteen forever. But I don't know, things just seem to be moving so quickly lately, and everyone's growing up so fast. It's just weird, but a good kind of weird I suppose. I'm sorry, I'm kind of rambling, my apologies if you're still reading this pathetic excuse for a blog post.

Ok, I have to go help with dinner now. I'll see you all tomorrow!

Hugs and kisses,
<3 Gaburray

ELEVATION 2007!

2007-07-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

7/3/07

I don't even know WHERE to begin. I've never really blogged about an Elevation before, and I have a feeling this is going to be a reeeallly long blog that I'll have to work on over the course of a few days.

Let me start out by saying that this trip was easiliy the best and most amazing (you're going to hear me using this word a lot this blog, get used to it) week I've ever experienced.

If you went on Elevation, you're probably experiencing the same post-Elevation depression/withdrawl that I am. I've been on three retreats, and it never gets easier/better. I still always cry the first night I get back because I don't want to be home and I want to be with all of you, haha. And I still read my e-mails over and over and over and over again, and paste them and my pictures to my closet door, so that your beautiful faces and words are the last things that I see when I go to sleep and the first things I see when I wake up =)

I have probably never missed you people more than I do now. I find that talking my fellow Elevationers helps, because we're all feeling the same crummy emotions. Drew Troller randomly texted me this, which basically sums it all up: "I've come to the conclusion that the post-elevation depression is there because it's impossible to go from non-stop action, non-stop hangout with friends to boredom in the blink of an eye. I miss it so badly. I miss the sound of gravel against my sandals, the random junior high girl laughs that filled the dining room. the stillness when someone began a prayer, the feel of the e-mail paper as i frantically ran a sharpie across it. But more than that...I miss the people. I miss feeling for seven days like I had sixty friends just waiting to make me feel like I was worth something." Basically, I think that's me in a nutshell. But I'd also like to add that I miss the way we all felt like family, the way we laughed alllll the time, but also cried together. The way we weren't afraid to show our true selfs, and just be downright crazy and insane. The way you could just go up to anyone and give them a hug and they'd be totally cool with it. The way you could just be sitting with someone and you didn't have to say anything, but it wasn't awkward. And how you could completely fall asleep on someone on the bus (just ask Acheson, I slept on his shoulder pretty much the whole way home), and it was totally okay. How I only slept alone for two out of the six nights of Elevation (I slept with Katie for 2, because she was scared of the ghosts...hahaha, and Slon and I fell asleep talking one night, then Alexis joined us the other night. I woke up on the last day and Alexis was totally curled up against me, it was so funny). How, after the nasty chocolate sauce folly (you don't want to know), all sixty of us jumped into the lake, had lots of splashing/dunking fights, then got out and left the water looking a really nasty brown, ahhaha.

I don't think you people realize how incredibly amazing and special to me you are. You make me laugh more than anyone else can (ok, so it's not that hard to make me laugh, pretty much anyone can do it, but that's beside the point), and I love being around you.

*******

7/11/07

Allright, so I wrote that section of the blog about a week ago. My post-Elevation depression was preeeeettty bad. But now it's definitely much better now. I'm a pretty happy person, and it's hard for me to stay sad for an extended period of time, haha. Sooo I'm writing you from my grandparents' house in Walloon Lake Michigan. It's really close to the place we went for Ski Retreat this year, in fact we drove right through the town where I stay on our way to Nubs Nob this year. Anywhoo, it's really windy and chilly today, and not an ideal day for being on the lake, so I decided to use my grandma's ancient computer and blog. Not only is it cold today, but my family is currently all sleeping. Did I mention that it's 2:00 in the afternoon? It is. And everyone but me and Julia are completely asleep. My family went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night at midnight (the movie is pretty much AWESOME, and I absolutely loved it), and we didn't get home until three a.m. Yeahh, I'm kind of a Harry Potter dork, haha. But not as much as my dad. He was definitely more excited to see this movie than my sisters and I combined, hahaa. But I thought wrong when I believed that my dad was the biggest Harry Potter fan ever. Because trust me, you see some hardcore fans at the first midnight showing of the movie. There were lots of people dressed up. In fact, there was this one guy who dressed up as Dumbledore, with the robe, beard, and his pet bird. He even had iPod speakers shoved into his robes, and they played the Harry Potter theme music non-stop, so you'd just randomly hear it as he passed you. I found this hilarious, personally.

Allright, so I suppose I should blog a little about Elevation, since I have yet to do that. It's really difficult for me to know where to begin. There was so much packed into this week, and it was definitely the best retreat we've ever had. They just seem to get better and better =)

Before I move ahead, I'd like to take a moment to speak about/to my family. You can read this if you weren't in X-Rated, but I don't know if you'll really care or not, hahaa.

X-RATED: Sorry, that was the best pink I could find. They don't have our trademark hot pink as a color option, haha. So basically, you guys were absolutely amazing. I knew I was going to have an awesome time with you when,at our first meeting, we got distracted and started doing one-handed push-ups, to see if they were really all that hard/how many we could do, etc. Dustin and Wiggers, you were pretty much the best parents ever, and I had so much fun getting to know you this week =) You got competitive and pushed us all, but you never got angry or yelled at us, and you both were so sweet to the whole family. And Dustin, I pretty much loved our catfight in our skit...most definitely was a high point of my week! We pretty much had the BEST family ever. All of us got along so well, and family meetings turned out to be more of hangout sessions than time forced to be with each other. You all made my week so special (not to mention insanely fun), and I was so upset when retreat was over and I didn't get to see all of you every day, because by the end, you seriously felt like my family, not to sound cliche or anything, haha. To be brief, thank you all for everything you did to make this week so sweet, you guys were the best family I've ever had, and I had so much fun with every single one of you. I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Okay so I'm not going to go into specific detail about every day like Katie did, because frankly I'm not that patient. So I'll just do some highlights, k?

Monday/Tuesday:
--The ride down was a typical busride. Katie K and I ate pita chips and these caramel chocolate things, and we had fun reading the little words of wisdom on the back of the wrapper, hahha. Around four in the morning or so, I fell asleep for about two hours. Then Katie woke me up and insisted that we were stopping, though we were still moving and no one else was up, hahaa.
--We got there and I was rooming with Stacy P and Maddie B. Maddie had to help me out with the pull-out couch, because I seriously took forever to try and get it out, and then she comes and just whisks it out easily. So not fair. After that was the quizbowl. X-Rated took third. Heckk yesss :)
Wednesday:
--I was on Dustin's boat with Slon, Katie, Maddie, and Joe. Katie and Joe did most of the tubing. Joe had the biggest wipeout I've ever seen. I'm not joking, the tube flew at least 15 feet into the air, flipped upside down, and Joe fell out. It was SO cool! Katie said something crude about how tubing made her feel, but I'll let her share that lovely sensation with you, I don't want to type it.
--Maddie Barnhill drove our boat while Dustin was in the tube. No comment on that, just let me say that it was one of the more terrifying experiences of my life. Let's just say that Maddie likes speed and turns.
--We had a sick nasty chocolate sauce folly during lunch on the lake, and all sixty of us jumped in the lake after, it was so much fun :)
--After some more tubing, we met up with Acheson's boat and went to this little cove thing and decided to go swimming. We ended up having some pretty intense chicken fights. The teams were Katie and Dustin, vs. Slon and Corey, vs. Chris and myself. Three way chicken fights are pretty darn hard, but Katie and I took Sloneker down, ending the first round, and then we had to fight each other. Now, the two of us are pretty good friends, so it was kind of funny to actually fight each other. Most of the time we were laughing too hard to actually push each other down. Acheson kind of walked off the dropoff backwards and fell into the deep part in the second round, so that was kind of bad/hysterical. In the third round, Katie and I are kind of having difficulty actaually pushing each other off, (we're not that strong, hahaa). So then Chris randomly yells: "Gaburray, kick!" Being a fairly obedient person/not really thinking it through, I kick Dustin in the crotch (I still feel bad, I'm sorry Dustin). But then Acheson and I ended up WINNING. Hecckk yessssss. :)
Thursday:
--This was the service project day. We went to this couple's house to paint the husband's tool shed. They were the cutest people I've ever met, their names were Linney and Sherry, and they were soo sweet to us, always telling us to get drinks and take a break, offering their bathroom, and thanking us for all we did. They took picutres of all of us, and they took a picture of the back of my shirt (which Maddie had so beautifully decorated with an X, our family's symbol, haha. Btw Maddie, it didn't wash out and it's still on my shirt). They found it hilarious that I was covered in paint, hahaha. We had this man named Ernie helping us out with the painting, and he had this motto that Rachel and I found funny, because he kept repeating it over and over and OVER. He'd tell all of us: "Put more paint on that brush! You won't get anywhere without more paint!", haha. I guess it was one of those "you had to be there" things. He was a very nice person though, and I'm glad we got to work with him.
Friday:
--White water rafting day! I had never been before, and I was extremely nervous. But we had a super-nice guide named Patrick, and he was very tolerant of our screams. My boat consisted of Katie K, Stephanie, Stacy, and myself. I had SUCH a great time, and I'd do it again in a second. I loved body surfing, as well as jumping off the enormous rocks =)
Saturday:
--This was basketball/cornhole tournament day. X-Rated knew that they didn't have much of a chance in basketball, so we decided to just ham it up. We had a team of all girls, and we became the Spice Girls. I was Scary, Maddie was Posh, Rachel was Baby, Erin was Ginger, Wiggers was Sporty, and Paley was "Old Spice". She even had a deodorant necklace. It was SO much fun, even though we kind of stunk, we tried really hard, hahaa. And we had a sweeeeet intro dance! X-Rated DID win the cornhole tournament, Tyler and Hayden were pretty much awesome =). My personal highlight of the day was when everyone just dumped their shoes and jumped into the pool with their clothes on.
Sunday:
--Obstacle course day! It didn't seem as hard this year, but it was definitely very fun. I liked the challenge where we had to build a raft and swim across the pool. X-Rated attached a rope to a container, and Sarah jumped in with the container and swam across the pool, and we pulled ourselves along the rope. Digging in the sand for the treasure chest was also fun, as was jump rope (Hayden pretty much saved our team, he did over forty jumps in a row), and untangling the hoses. Our team did really well, and we had a ton of fun too =)
Monday:
--This was the sad day. We cleaned up (which was hard for my room, we were so messy!), and had a fun awards ceremony, then got on the bus home. The bus ride actually went really quickly, and I even got to sleep. We got our E-mails, which happen to be one of my favorite parts of Elevation. I keep mine every year, and read them when I need cheering up.
After the bus ride, I went to Chipotle with my family (on the service day we discussed what we normally get at Chiptole and decided to go there right after we got back to Cincinnati, haha) and other people and then went home and was really sad. I always hate the night you get home from Elevation, it's so sad and lonely!

I don't think I mentioned how awesome worship was this year. The band was absolutely fabulous, and we sang a great mixture of new and old songs. I seriously grew in my relationship with God, and it was just...amazing. Such an overused word, but oh well :)

Ok, my hand hurts from typing. I think I'll get some lunch, it's close to three thirty. I've been blogging wayyy too long, hahaha. I'll see you guys when I get back on the 15th, can't wait to see you!

Love you so much,
<3 Annieee

Pre-Elevation

2007-06-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

Allright. We leave for Elevation in approximately twelve hours.

I AM SO EXCITED!

I still have yet to start to pack, haha. I think I'll do this after I write this blog. I don't have much to tell you, it's just been your typical summer so far. I've been doing a lot of stuff, but I reeeally don't want to write it all down, and frankly I don't think you'll find any of it interesting.

The past two Wednesdays at VI we've been meeting with our families for Elevation. Let me just say here that my family is going to DOMINATE. We have a hilarious skit (I get to be a skank and Dustin gets to be a woman, I know you're all excited) and our song is...creative. Not to mention that our shirts are just about the most beautiful things I've ever seen =)

I'm going to make this one short, because I'm going to write a huge one after we get back. I'm going to go finish my apples and peanut butter, then I guess I should start to pack.

Love you!
<3 Annieeee

Voice Recital

2007-06-10T22:53:00.000-07:00

Okayyy so I just got back from my voice recital. Katie and I did two duets, it was so much funnn. Even though some of you who said you would come but didn't (coughDustin&Drewcough), it was still awesome. We basically bombed the first duet (even though our parents insisted that it was awesome...but they're our parents, they have to say that), the second duet was basically amazing. It's that one that we were practicing on ASP for like 3 hours that one night after worship, haha.

Other than that, I've been to the pool (I got an huge sunburnn on my chest when I kinda fell asleep in the sun when I was at the pool yesterday...but it doesn't even begin to compare to Katie's burn), been to cheerleading (we have these practices for the upcoming freshman at 8 in the morning...you can just picture how extremely excited and enthusiastic I am at that lovely hour...in the summer), walked my dog a LOT, etc. etc. I've had a really great summer so far...and I've really been loving the excessive amount of sleep I'm getting =). Today I totally slept all the way through the 11:11 service, even though I was supposed to go, haha. Ohh how I love summer.

Currently I'm at Tessa and Haley's house. We're talking about names, like what we'd name our kids, what names we hate and like, etc., and Tessa is singing really loud to these random songs and drawing me these lovely self portraits that are awesome, but look nothing like me. Haha, I just re-read that and noticed the randomness of that sentence. Oh well, it basically describes our friendship. Julia and I have been friends with them since we were pretty much born. They're basically hysterical, I'll have to bring them to VI one time, you all would love them.

I'm very excited for VI this week. I hate that there's no small groups, I get to only see you guys once a week. Someone told me that technically I see you all twice a week, if you count church. But I don't since not all of go to church, and you can't talk for the majority of it. This week at VI is family group meetings, so be sure to go, it's sure to be funn! Even if you're not going on Elevaiton, feel free to come and sit in on some meetings, it'll still be fun.

Again, this was a pretty pointless blog. But it's summer, and not much is going on. And I think I kind of lose all of my writing skills when I no longer have Mrs. Lowery screaming at me (well, not at me, just in general. I'm in the first row, and she tends to be overly-vocal at 7:45 in the morning) first bell and making me focus on English. But I definitely like that, haha. The school year is so incredibly insane, and I adore the break.

Elevation = 15 DAYS! Gahhh, I'm so incredibly excited!

Okayyy wellll I have to go now. Tessa is reading over my shoulder, haha. She says hello =).

Love you lotssss,
<3 Gaburay

SUMMERRRR

2007-06-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

AHHHH.

GUESS WHAT.

IT'S SUMMER!

Ok well I don't have that much to say. I didn't fail my exams (a miracle), I'm done with Freshman year, and it's summer.I've pretty much been hanging out with my friends and getting fried at the pool. I'm pretty much totally sleep deprived, but it's not like school, when you just feel that miserable-ish tiredness, it's more like a happy tiredness. Okay, that made no sense. Just smile and nod.

Katie says hi and that she loves you. But I don't know why I'm talking about her in my blog, because she has one. Okay. I'm rambling. I have absolutely NOTHING productive to say here. I'll write back when I'm not all spacey and not concentrated.

ELEVATION = 18 DAYS!! WOOOT.

Bye I love you,
<3 Anniee

Friday

2007-05-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

Sooo...it's been awhile.

Okay. So it's Friday. It's been a REALLY great day today.

-First off, I have four more days of school. Can you say EXCITED?
-I presented a Romeo and Juliet monologue today in front of my Language Arts Class, in which I spoke the part of Romeo and professed my love to Juliet. Yes. Very awkward. But I said it without notecards or anything and only messsed up once, and got a really good grade on it, which actually plesantly surprised me =)
-I made Showstoppers, (which is this singing and dancing group that you have to try out for) along with Katie K, Hannah, and Drew. You should've seen me, I was basically jumping up and down, squealing. Classic.
-I got a 95.5% on my huge Bioethics research paper (you know, the one that I had mentioned months ago, that kept me inside on all those glorious snowdays). Everyone in my class did really well, it was so exciting!
-Freshman year is almost over! Don't get me wrong, this year was absolutely AWESOME, and I had so much fun. But, it's going to be nice not to be at the very bottom of the ladder, if you know what I mean.
-Elevation is exactly ONE month from today! I have been on two Elevations, and they've both been totally different, but absolutely amazing. This year's retreat sounds so awesome, I honestly can't WAIT!
-I saw Mamma Mia last night. If you haven't seen it, you definitely should. It was absolutely AWESOME, I haven't stopped singing all the songs for 24 hours now. Plus, it's a surprisingly and unexpectedly hilarious musical.

Okay, I think that's all the noteworthy happy stuff that happened to me today. Like I said...it's been an awesome day =)

****

Allright, now onto a different topic. Soo I'm kind of stealing this one from Acheson, so I'm sorry Chris. Anywayy...

Okay, for all of you kids who watched the Grey's Anatomy season finale (which, by the way, was EXTREMELY depressing and frustrating. But, don't get me started on that topic, I could rant for hours), do you remember the very last song that was played? It was basically the only good thing about the episode. Anywhoo, I have this slight obsessive disorder that I have to find the name of a song if I hear it and I like it. So I spent about half an hour Googling the lyrics I remember hearing, searching for playlists from the episode, etc. Then, on this one random website, I found the name of the song. It was called "Keep Breathing" by Ingrid Michaelson. It's really really pretty, and has good piano.

So, wanting to find about about Ingrid Michaelson, I Google her too. She's basically my age, maybe a year or two older. Here's her Myspace if you want to find out more about her. You can also play Keep Breathing on her website. Unfortunately you can't buy it on iTunes until the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack comes out in September. However, you can buy her other albums on iTunes. She has two CD's, Girls and Boys (her most recent), and Slow the Rain. My two favorite songs by her are "Corner of Your Heart" and "A Bird's Song". Ingrid has the prettiest voice, it's really soft and clear. Just listen to her, you'll see what I mean. I'm kind of addicted to her music, it's funny.

Allriiight, this blog is basically a bajillion lines long. But what can I say, I had a lot to tell you guys =). Okay, I'll hopefully see all of you next Wednesday, I love you!

Mass love,
<3 Gaburray

Bored In Math Class

2007-05-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

Okayyy...so this is what I do when I get bored in math. Sydney and I are here in the library, done with our Geometer's Sketchpad assignment and I'm like "LET'S MAKE A BLOG POST!" and she's like "YEAHHH!" She says hello ("Guten Tag" to be specific). Laura Martin says she's really cool. I love her, she's basically my idol...besides Jesus. Claudia says hola too. Hahaha. Can you tell we're bored?

Sooo what's new with you kids? VI was absolutely PACKED on Wednesday, it was soo exciting!
Paintballing is on Saturday, which is even more exciting. I'm not going, I have to babysit, but have fun!

Okaayyy, well sorry to make this one short, but the bell's going to ring in like 2 minutes. I'll write more laterrr, see you all Sunday! =)

LOVE YOU!
<3 Annieee

Appalachiaa

2007-04-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

HELLOO DARLINGSS.

Okaaayy so last weekend VI went to Appalachia, Kentucky (Chavies to be specific). This was my third year going, and every year I find myself feeling super-excited, but also kind of nervous. I know that the conditions in Chavies are pretty bad sometimes, and I never really know what to expect .

So we met at the church at 4:00, loaded up the cars got on the road. My car consisted of my dad, LFD, James, Grace, my sister Julia, and myself. We talked for a little bit, but then everybody sort of fell asleep/started to read or listen to their iPods. Lauren was reading this book that must've been 500 pages long, it was crazy. However, James read this one Sports Illustrated magazine over and over...and over, it was funny =). We stopped for dinner (though not at the desired Chipotle), and my dad went trooping up and down the highway, looking for it in vain, haha. So we finally settled for KFC. After a few more hours of driving (and some Hoho incidents involving my sister and Grace...the sugar from their dinner started to kick in. Grace stuffed and entire Hoho in her mouth, while Julia proceeded to take pictures). Finally, we arrived at the Chavies center around 10:00ish. We went to an orientation, where we learned that we were split into 2 crews, with codenames Meredith and McVet (from Grey's Anatomy, I was so excited, haha). McVet actually is my crew, I know I said Meredith, but it's not, haha. I must've just been having a brain cramp, it happens a lot to me =) Katie K informed me of my incorrectness this morning in gym class, lol. Anywhoo, my crew would be tiling, siding, flooring, painting, etc. Meredith got the lovely job of digging a 20 x 4 inch trench...that was 500 feet long...up a moutain. After this, we went to bed, because it was going to be an early morning.

Ok, so I could blog about every detail that I experienced while working at the house, but I really don't want to type all that, and I'm sure you don't want to read it all, so I'll just summarize briefly.

--We had at least 12 dogs at our worksite. They were absolutely adorable. Right when we got there, this tan dog with these huge amber eyes proceeded to pee right on the tire of my dad's car, haha. There was also a dog named Beauty, who became extremely attached to Katie. Another favorite was this dog that we nickenamed Roly, because whenever we came up to him, he would promptly fall on his back and beg us to stratch his stomach. Not to mention the 6+ chihuahuas that were there. So cute.
--There was also an adorable little 2 year old named Samantha. She had this super long hair and the cutest little voice. She liked to watch the siding crew nail boards to her house. She also informed us that she liked rocks. I absolutely adored her!
--We had a constant theme for cutting the wooden floorboards. Normally, it's measure twice, cut once. For us, it was measure seventeen times, cut twenty. I swear, this one piece took me and Mackenzie at least an hour to do. What can I say, we're not meant for careers of construction =).
--The mom, Sandy, was probably the nicest lady you'll ever meet. She showed us around, invited us to use the bathroom if we needed to, and constantly said thank you for the work we were doing. She even commented that our tiling job looked professional! When we were sticky from floor adhesive, she searched all over for turpentine.
--Speaking of floor adhesive...I personally hope you don't EVER have to deal with it. It sticks to absolutely everything. After multiple showers, I still have some on my arm and on my foot (we had to walk around the hall barefoot, our shoes were too muddy, and our socks got sticky after awhile). Thank goodness for turnpentine!
--Overall, I'm extremely proud of all that everyone accomplished. Meredith stayed 2 extra hours to finish our hallway, and McVet dug to their goal of the boat. I know that they were ultra sunburnt, sore, and tired, and yes, their work was probably more strenuous than ours. But all that matters is that both crews really helped someone out, and that's wonderful.

So, feeling very tired, we all got in our cars and drove back to Cincinnati. We got Chipotle on the way back, and seeing Drew and Sam jump out of their cars and run full speed up to Chipotle (only to find that it wasn't open yet), was absolutely hilarious =). I basically fell asleep for the vast majority of the car ride, and don't have any funny stories from our car to report. Overall, ASP was absolutely amazing, and I cannot WAIT for next year!

BTW, if any of you watched American Idol on Wednesday, they filmed Appalachia, interviewed some of the families, and told us that they were donating money to their schools. I was so excited!

Ok, this blog is soo long. I'll see all you dorks at small groups!

Love you lots and lots,
<3 Gaburraay

Little Kids

2007-04-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

I don't understand little kids.

They have this endless source of energy.

They just keep going and going and going.

So as you can see, I've spent the last 4 or so hours with lots of little first and second graders. My cheerleading squad does this mini-camp for elementary aged kids. It goes from around 830-12ish. Now you might think...oh, hey, that's not that long! But trust me, it is. I had gotten 5 hours of sleep the night before, and you can imagine how excited I was to get up and go to cheer camp in the pouring rain. But it's so funny how a bunch of excited little girls can totally cheer you up. They look at you like you're some kind of god...this all-powerful and mighty high school cheerleader, squealing when anyone of us did a jump, backhandspring, or the splits. I must say, it really has a way of boosting your self-esteem =). They're all so tiny, when I was spotting them for jumps, I thought I was going to break them, haha. We taught them stretches, motions, and cheers, but the thing they wanted to do the best was play games...hahaha. Typical. The favorites were Duck-Duck Goose, cheerleader style (so instead of saying duck you said "cheer", and instead of goose you said "cheerleader". And if you get tagged, you have to go to the center of the circle and stretch as "punishment". Ok, it's lame, but they liked it), and another popular game was Cheerleaders & Minnows (like Sharks and Minnows, but with cheerleaders instead =D)

The thing I find so interesting about younger kids is their ability to latch on and make friends so fast. I mean, we were only together for a few hours, but near the end, all the girls were all talking and playing like they had known each other for years. Not to mention they were holding our hands, linking arms with us, and giving all of us hugs. I mean, personally, I don't hug someone when I've only known them for three hours. Maybe thats just me. I don't really know what happens as you grow up, but its just gets harder and harder to make friends in new situations as you get older. It's strange, when you think about it. You'd think that we'd be better at making friends and being outgoing, because we're older. But nope, little first graders are so much better at it. It's ironic, really. In my opinion, we should all try and be more like them. Imagine what the world would be like! Anywhoo, I just thought it was so adorable. I don't get to interact with little kids often, and I had so much fun =)

Ok this blog is uber long, and I don't really have anymore to say. Appalachia's in 5 days! WHOOO!

Comment por favor. Love you all tons.

<3 Hold-That-Line

Lots To Tell Everyone!

2007-04-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

Hey darlings! How is everybodyy?

Personally, I'm great. I just got back from Florida, and I must say, it's way too cold here. Oh well, I hope it gets warm soon.

Wellll, Florida was lovely. I went to my grandparents house, and basically slept through the whole break. Despite getting a cough and spending the majority of the vacation hacking up a lung, it was still so much fun. And I even managed to get a little tan!

On a different note, Guys and Dolls was basically amazingg! If you don't mind me saying it, the Hot Box Girls were AWESOME. The stripping part wasn't all that bad, by the time opening night came around, we had all practiced it so much that it wasn't even embarrassing anymore. I suppose that's a bad thing...oh well. And yes, I even got used to our horriffic costumes. In fact, the yellow leotards were even starting to grow on me. Again...I don't suppose that's good either, haha. Oh yeah, everyone else did great too, and I can't wait until next year =) I'm sad that it's over, because now I actually have free time until cheerleading starts up again in a few weeks. I like always having something to do, free time is boring to me.

Even though the date on the posting may be wrong, today is Easter. I started this blog on Saturday night and am finishing it now. I went to the 9:40 and 11:11, and both services were very good. The choir in the 9:40 service is absolutely amazing, some of the female singers hit these notes that were unthinkably high, it was so awesome =) While I do love the 9:40, I always can relate to the 11:11 service more. Maybe it's because it's more modern...I don't know. Anywhoo, they're introducing this new thing called Faith Infusion, and it's quite interesting. You can visit their website at www.faithinfusion.org , it's very cool=)

Allright, that's all I can think of to report. Oh yeah, Appalachia Service Project is less than two weeks away, and I'm SOO excited! If you haven't signed up, I'd do it soon. You definitely don't want to miss this experience, it's so much fun, and really life-changing. Okay that's it, I'm done. COMMENT PLEASEE. Love you all lotsss =)

<3 Annie

Update?

2007-03-08T16:57:00.000-08:00

Wellllll hello darlings =). I feel bad for not updating, but I honestly don't have anything to truly update about. Life has basically been school and the musical. Cheerleading is over (I must admit...I'm not sad at all, haha). Unfortunately, tryouts for football season are in three weeks. Lovely. Anywhoo...

I know you're all aware of this, but Mariemont is doing Guys and Dolls on March 22-24. Ask me about tickets. Baaasically, you're all going...because I know that you REALLY want to see Katie and I act like total sleazeballs in front of a whole auditorium full of people. Believe me, I'm super pumped.

Wellll...VI this week was pretty much beast. I'm so excited to be able to go again, because cheerleading prevented me from going for 5 weeks in a row =(. There were a ton of people there, and it was quite exciting. The game at the beginning was....eventful to say the least. I figured out that it's a lot harder than you think to blow a party blower in order to move a ping-pong ball, while crawling on all fours. My knees are all bruised up, haha. Oh, and just as a clarification, if you saw me with two different shoes on last night, it wasn't because I got dressed in the dark, it was because I got surgery on my toe, and it couldn't fit into a shoe, so I resorted to a slipper =).

Oh, I know you don't care, but I'm done with my bio paper. WHOOOO! Sorry, but I've been working on this thing since January, and I'm ecstatic that it's over and done with. Hahaaa.

Ok I seriously have nothing else to blog about, and I have to go ice the brownies that I made for someone's birthday tomorrow (coughKatieKeisercough). I beg you, PLEASE COMMENT. I like knowing that someone reads my blogs other than Acheson and my sister, though don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate the comments you both gave me. Okayyy that's it, I love every single one of you very very muchhhh!

<3 GABURRRRAAAYYYYYYY

30 Hour Famine

2007-02-24T16:49:00.000-08:00

Okayy, so basically the 30 Hour Famine was sweeeeeet. For those of you that didn't go, a group of around thirty VIers stopped eating on Friday at 1:00 pm. We gathered at the church at 7:00 pm for some hanging out, worship, and a lesson from Annie M. Around 10:00 we went to St. Paul's gym and goofed around. By midnight we were back at the church. Some people watched House in the youth lounge, others played video games in the family room. I fell asleep on a couch around one in the morning and was out cold til ten =)

I woke up on Saturday really excited to eat breakfast. Then I remembered...no eating until six that evening. Grrreat. After getting up and dressed for the day, we all gathered in the fellowship hall and were split up into groups that we would be going around with to collect cans. My group consisted of Acheson, Slon, and Olivia. We gathered several huge cardboard boxes and shoved them in the back of Chris's car, then set out to Madeira. We had three hours, and covered two streets. Now, you have to understand that these two streets were the longest I've ever seen in my entire life...no joke. But the three of us worked diligently while Ach sat in his warm toasty car and watched a movie on his iPod (coughslackercough). Haha, just kidding =). We got to meet some preeetty interesting folks, just ask Olivia about the huge dog that she encountered, or question Slon about the creeper who begged her to babysit. But overall it was really fun and rewarding. All the residents were really generous, and we only got one "no" from the many people we asked to donate food. I think the hardest part was getting the two big boxes stuffed to the brim with cans out of Acheson's car. The first one got in the church successfully, but the second box broke, and despite a desperate attempt to save the food, the cans all ended up falling on the ground...but thankfully none broke. My group came in 5th in the can/cash competition, with 128 cans and 5 dollars. The money was given to me at the last house I went to, by this adorable little old man, who insisted that I buy the cans for him, because he was afraid his wife would get angry if he gave any to me. Overall, the entire group collected 1,400 cans, which is pretty good if you ask me.

When I told my family and others about the famine, the first thing they asked was: "Geeez, weren't you hungry? Wasn't it hard?" I'm not gonna lie, around five on Saturday evening, after 28 hours of not eating, I got a little grumpy and really wanted something other than juice and hot cocoa. Collecting cans was sort of hard, because some people gave us food that looked really good, and obviously I couldn't eat it. But I found that if you just stopped thinking about food and focused your attention elsewhere, you forgot that you were hungry. However, I could not live like that all the time. As Lee mentioned, we knew that after the 30 hour famine there was going to be a nice, filling meal for us to eat. People in Africa don't have that comfort. They don't always know when or how they're going to get their next meal.

I know that part of this famine was to help relate to the starving citizens of Africa. And yes, I felt what it was like to be really hungry. But I didn't know what it was like to walk six miles to get water, because all I had to do was walk to the drinking fountain outside the youth lounge. And as Katie K mentioned to me, it's not like all of us survived solely on water. There was juice, Fanta, and hot cocoa. You think kids in Africa get that? Most likely not. And none of us that went to this event experienced the fear that those children live with daily. We slept in a warm church, in an extremely safe community. None of us had to worry about getting abducted by rebels and forced to become children soldiers. So, while this famine did give me a small idea of what some Africans go through, it mainly showed me how incredibly blessed I am. I have lots of food in my pantry, clean water, a safe, warm house, and my community isn't unsafe or frightening. It allowed me to truly put my life in perspective, because when I get angry and might think that my life sucks, I'll just think of those kids on those cards that we read, who don't know where their families are, who have to walk five miles just so that they can sleep in a safe place, who are blind or paralyzed...and then see how truly lucky I am.

Overall, the thirty hour famine was awesome. I really encourage everyone to do it next year, because it's not only rewarding, it's also extremely fun. Congrats to everyone who did it, great job =). Wellll, this blog is already really long, and I have to do my homework now, so I'll see you all at small groups tonight!

Love you all very much,
<3 Hold-That-Line

Snow Day...again!

2007-02-13T16:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, this is officially a miracle. Mariemont has had THREE snow days within ONE week. I honestly don't know how that happened, but I'm SOO glad it did!

Welllll I really don't have that much to blog about, because my Tuesday was spent inside writing my bio paper (biology is continually keeping me inside on these lovely days). But I did get to sleep in, which was awesome, but was woken up by texts from Katie Keiser and Maddie Barnhill excitedly informing me that we had a snow day and no school. Thanks guys =)

Did anyone else think that the ice on the trees was insanely cool? I took some pictures, which I might just post, if I ever figure out how to do this little picture thing (as previously mentioned, I am a computer dummy). So anywhoo, I was outside yesterday in the freezing rain taking pictures, dressed in my mom's coat and my dad's enormous boots (shut up, you know I'm cool), when the wind blew. Because of all the ice, the tree branches were all cracking and crinkling when the wind pushed them together. And if you stood really still, you could hear the ice/freezing rain falling. My mom and sister Katie heard three trees fall down, and apparently they were as loud as gunshots. I love all this weather, it's so pretty and exciting!

I hope everyone had a lovely snow day, please comment to tell how yours went (I really love getting comments, but so far the only one has been from my sister Julia, which is fine, but also sort of sad, considering I was sitting right next to her when she commented). The process isn't that hard, just type your comment, and make yourself a username and password, it's just like the message board.

Stay safe in all this slushy and icy weather, guys! I won't see you all until next Wednesday (the 21st...man this month is going by quickly), because I can't come to VI today because I'm babysitting, and Thursday afternoon the Mariemont band leaves to go to Disneyworld until Monday (SOO PUMPED). Have a spectacular week everybodyy.

Much much love,

<3 Gaburray

Snow Day!

2007-02-07T18:34:00.000-08:00

AHHHH! Does anyone else think that this new blogging thing is INSANELY cool?? Personally, I'm ecstatic. This website is really easy to work, so you'll be seeing a lot more of these blogs of mine! Yes, I know you're extremely excited =)

Ok...so yesterday was a SNOW DAY for Mariemont, Madeira, Indian Hill, CCD, and pretty much every school in Cincinnati. I must say, when I was watching House (ski retreat got me addicted) and saw on the bottom of the screen that "Mariemont City Schools are closed", I jumped up and down and screamed. Yes, I'm being serious here. I didn't get to go sledding because I had a game that was an hour away and I had to be at the bus at 3:30 and do my bio outline (grr...I'm still mad. I mean, if both Taylor and Mariemont are closed, shouldn't there not be a game?? Oh, the injustice).

Anywhooo, I just got home from play practice. The musical we're doing is Guys and Dolls, and Katie Keiser and I are pretty much sleazy bar dancers. We perfrom from March 22-24, and you all should definitely come because it's going to be beast.

Allright...so here's the funny story of the day. Soo I'm a freshman, right? And freshman and sophmores at Mariemont take gym. And our gym consists of a 6 week swimming unit. Yes, our school has a pool, and every tuesday and thursday, at 8:40ish (second bell), I swim. If you know me, you know that I basically do not function until at least 9:30 in the morning. Seeing as this is way before the time where I actually become alert, I'm usually not a happy camper. Katie Keiser, Laura Martin and I are all in the same gym class. Katie Keiser + Laura Martin + Annie Gaburo + Cold water + Early hour of the day = Trouble. I guess you could say we get slightly delirious...or hyperactive, whichever you prefer. Something about seeing Laura flailing in the water trying to do elementary backstroke...running into Katie while trying to swim freestyle, or having Laura cut me off while she cheats while doing 50s just cracks me up. Just picture me laughing hysterically in the water, trying to swim, inevitably inhaling the water and only laughing harder. That's basically our whole class in a nutshell.

Oh, one more thing. I mentioned that my cheerleading squad went to the Gator Bowl over Christmas Break. Like I said, our outfits are preeeetty sketchy. To lighten up your day, I'm going to try and post 2 pictures of us in our lovely uniforms.

Don't forget...Thirty hour famine is coming up on February 23-24. It's going to be really fun, so don't forget to get your sponsors!

I'll post another blog later, once I figure out how to post a picture (I'm computer-challenged)

Have a fantastic week everyone, I love you!

Blog #3

2007-01-18T19:02:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody!! Again, it’s been WAY too long since I’ve actually written one of these, and I’m terribly sorry. School has been basically insane. But hey, exams are over for Mariemont, so it’s all good now =) . I hope everybody’s Christmas and New Years were awesome!

Anywhoo, just three days ago Vertical Impact returned from the greatly-anticipated ski retreat. I had never been to one before, so I was super-excited, but also a little nervous, considering I had basically never skied before. Katie Keiser and I signed up for lessons, and I feel horrible for our poor instructor, Lynn, because we were basically yelping, whimpering, and falling down the whole time. But Lynn never lost patience with us, which I find amazing. And by the end of the weekend, Katie and I could actually ski. And neither of us got hurt. That, in itself, was a miracle.

However, Coleman (David), Peggy, and Stefan did take us on this hill, called the Easy Mile (and let me tell you, it’s poorly named, that baby is so steep). See, they got us up there by twisting the truth a bit, and convincing us that it was this little easy run leading down to the bunny hill. True, it did lead down the bunny hill, but it definitely wasn’t easy. I rode up with Stefan and Keller, and basically was, to put it mildly, terrified, gripping the chair as we traveled higher and higher. The chairlift kept going up and up and up, and it dawned on me…How can an “easy” hill be this high up? After we got off the lift and I saw David’s grin, I knew I was in trouble. Originally, they were going to take us down this really hard hill, but Katie and I started screaming (surprise surprise) and Peggy convinced them to take us on the Easy Mile. I relaxed a bit, and then saw the hill. It didn’t look bad near the bottom, but the top was insanely steep. I decide to just side step down the hill (brave and creative, I know). Then Stefan convinced me to just try to ski down. So I tried. But once I started to move…I couldn’t really stop. So I go hurtling down this hill, listening to Katie’s wails of “ANNIEEE COME BACK!” and losing my balance too many times to count. But, by some miracle of God, I didn’t fall down. There was a flat part in the hill, and Stefan, Keller, and I stopped to wait for Katie, David, and Peggy. So we waited…and waited…and waited. Keller got bored and skied down after five minutes, and Stefan and I followed ten minutes later. See Katie’s blog to figure out what she was doing that took her ages to get down the hill. But overall, we both got down the Easy Mile in one piece. The next day, we did the hill again…and again…and again =) .

As you can see, Ski Retreat ’07 was amazing (overused and cliché, but so true). If you didn’t go this year, that’s okay, but I would definitely encourage, no, beg, you to go next year. The games were hilarious (Ooga Booga and The Motorcycle…classic), and I strengthened so many friendships and even made some new ones =). Obviously, the worship was awesome, and it was acoustic, which was even better. I know for a fact that everyone else loved it just as much as me. That’s all I have time for now, but I hope you all have a wonderful week, hope to see you at VI or SGM. Love you guys! <3

Blog #2

2006-11-20T19:01:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody! I haven’t updated in a super long time, and I’m sorry. The reason I haven’t written a blog since October 22 is that in the past few weeks, life has been crazy. School has really gotten into full swing, and my homework amount, as I’m sure all of yours is, is insane. We had a huge research paper due last Friday, and I have an interesting story to go along with it. See, I had it all written out on the computer (unfortunately, I failed to write it on something tangible…big mistake) on Monday night. I was really proud of myself for getting it done a day early, because I’m a horrible procrastinator. So I go to my computer on Tuesday night (keep in mind, the whole rough draft is due Wednesday) to edit my paper a little bit. I open the folder, and my paper is gone. I had written seven pages, and only two of them remained. You should feel very, very lucky that you weren’t there to see my reaction. After I screamed at my computer for a good five minutes, I characteristically started bawling. Long story short, it wasn’t pretty. Coincidentally, my sister had also lost her essay on the same day. After calling my friend’s dad (who is a computer genius), and getting on this fancy website that allows you to access files you opened days ago, we still couldn’t find my paper or her essay. Thus, we both ended staying up very late…retyping our papers. Thankfully, my mom kept her cool the entire time. She was the one who thought of calling Mr. Neal (the computer guru) to try and get back the paper, and she was the one who made me and my sister hot chocolate and encouraged us the entire time while we rewrote our assignments. Had it not been for her, Julia and I would have most likely been ripping out our hair and punching holes on our computers. Luckily, everything worked out just fine, and I handed in my research paper on time.

Also, I want to thank everyone who showed up for my cheerleading competition last Saturday. Even though we couldn’t technically win because we were the hosting school and hosting schools can’t participate, we still made up a routine and performed it. Pardon my pride, but we were awesome. But just because we couldn’t compete in the routine section, we could still win in the jumping and tumbling sections…in both of which we took first place :D . So if you came, I hoped you liked us!

Another thing, if you saw randomly placed J’s and L’s in my previous blog, it’s not because I was referencing to my sister Julia (who I’ve called J ever since I was little), it’s because I put smiley faces in my blog, and in the process of going on the website, they turned into J’s and L’s. Luckily, Phil fixed that for me :D

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. I love you all and hope everyone is doing great. Have a fantastic week at school!

Blog #1

2006-10-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

Hey there guys, what’s up? In case you are clueless as to who I am, my name is Annie Gaburo. I am a freshman at Mariemont High School, and I’ve been coming to VI since I was a little seventh grader. Also, I’ve never had a blog before, so you will have to put up with me for a little bit until I get the hang of this.

Well…let’s see, what went on at VI this past week? Wednesday night was another packed house, we had tons of people attend, and I even saw some new faces! I love to meet new people, so don’t be surprised or alarmed if I randomly introduce myself to you. I don’t bite, I promise.

On Saturday night, a group of VIers went down to Newport to go to USS Nightmare. After having to call and wait for another driver to come and drive (we had an unexpectedly large amount of people that wanted to go, so we needed another car in order to fit everybody), we finally got on the road at 9:00. I drove in Acheson’s car, and we blasted Jack Johnson the entire way (yes, I know, you’re jealous). After we hopelessly traversed the streets surrounding Newport for a good fifteen minutes trying to find the parking lot, we finally reached our destination around 9:30. It took every bit of convincing in order to get Katie Keiser to even get out of the car, much less get on the boat. But finally, after much anticipations, and lots of: “I’m SO SCARED!”, we got to get on the USS Nightmare.

The only person who had ever been on this haunted boat before was Sam Franer. Everyone else, including me, was clueless as to what to expect. So as we climbed up a ramp into a dimly lit room with strobe lights flashing, I must admit, I was absolutely terrified. We formed a line as we went into the haunted house, and Lanie Frayer (whose shoulder I buried my head whenever strobe lights appeared) was in front of me, and Katie K was behind (She clutched my elbow and three of Acheson’s fingers for the whole entire ride, and didn’t let go). At first, I was scared of every little thing that popped out at me, and I pretty much screamed at anything and everything. But as the attraction went on, it became less frightening and more funny. Katie K and I said “HEY THERE!” to all the scary people that were planted periodically throughout the boat in order to spook and creep you out, and instead of screaming so much, I tried to laugh. Because when you think about it, it wasn’t real. The people that worked there couldn’t touch you, and it’s not like anything bad was actually going to happen to you, so why not enjoy yourself? Though I must admit, when we had to climb through a pit of plastic balls with these two scary people dressed up as clowns, grinning at us, I still got very creeped out.

After a long thirty minutes, we were done with the terror and walked off of the boat. I, for one, was very proud that I actually went to USS Nightmare and went through it without totally losing it. Because if you know me, you’ll know that I am a really big sissy, and EVERYTHING scares me (I screamed in the PG rated movie, “Flicka”…that says a lot). But I did it, and so did everyone else. And you know what? It was actually really fun! It all goes to show that if you try something that you are really scared of, you could actually end up liking it!

So I hope to see everyone this Wednesday, because there is no SGM this week. Laura Gardner, Katie Keiser, Maddie Barnhill, Laura Martin and I invited our fellow floutist named Taylor to come this week, so if you see him this week, be sure to say hi!

I hope everyone has a good week at school! Love you guys!