It's Monday...again.

So...let's see...

Last night was the Homecoming service for the NYC and Nicaragua people...It was extremely fun to watch, I must say. Ü

Anyway, mostly what I got out of last night. The guy who baptized was the Haitian pastor. Before he baptized someone he would say, "And I'm glad to do this" or he would say, "We're happy to have you." Now, we thought this was funny...why? Because people only say that if you've come to their house for a party--OHHHH.

Get it?

When you're baptized, you're showing the church that you've become a Christian. And that's a party. At our church, then it always seems like "how many" is the alpha question. But it's really not. It doesn't MATTER how many people got saved. It matters EVERY TIME someone gets saved. If it's just ONE person, then the missions trip was worth it. Cuz, "That's when the Angels Rejoice!!" (for all you Arch the Angel kiddos). Actually, even if you were NOT in Arch the Angel, this song is beneficial for your Christian walk.

When the light bulb first lit up the town, no the angels did not jump around and when the man stepped on the moon, they didn't sing a victory tune.

There's only one thing that we're sure about that can make those angels jump and shout! When a sinner makes the Lord his choice, that's when the angels rejoice!

When the United States became a nation, there was no angelic celebration. But when one lost sinner comes back home, they jump for joy around God's throne!

When the Model-T first hit the street, it didn't bring all Heaven to its feet, and when the first computer was born, they didn't blow on Gabriel's horn.

There's only one thing that we're sure about that can make those angels jump and shout! When a sinner makes the Lord his choice, that's when the angels rejoice!

See?? Now, that's not the full song, but you get the gist of it. It doesn't matter what we do if we're not doing our job. The Great Commission is for ALL of us. Not just for the "20% of the people that do 100% of the work".

Oh.My.Goodness.

Guys...today was...amazing. I caught THE best wave ever. (And no, I did NOT get knocked over today.)

The rain didn't fail us today, so we weren't out there for very long. We got Rita's (another Saturday tradition). Anyway...I've got a "World We Live In" AND a "Lost Art Form" for you today.

The World We Live In:
On the way to the beach, there was this giant truck that decided that it wanted to have both the exit and the right lane...so we honked so that we didn't crash into them, right? Well, they repay us by flipping us off. Thanks man. We saved your truck.

On the way home FROM the beach, we saw this dude in his car...SHAVING. No lie! He was actually shaving! How rushed do you need to be to be SHAVING in the car?!! I mean, really. O_O. I'll post the picture later.

Lost Art Form:
Old men in Speedos. Woooooooooooooooooooooow. Dude, Speedos aren't cool even when you HAVE an athletic body. When you're old and...uh...old, it should be a crime. No one wants to see that. I'm sorry. But have some shame!!

Alrighty....Catch you cats later.

Just Another Saturday...

In the Champagne House, we have a Saturday tradition. Mom works at Weight Watchers until about 1pm, and then we all go out to lunch(Vinny's Pizza, Sonny's, or CiCi's...basically any all you can eat food...after WEIGHT WATCHERS. Ha. Hahaha.), THEN we go to the beach and body board for about 3 hours. After that...we come back home and get in the pool. Once we've thoroughly exhausted our exercise quota for the day, we come inside and play the Wii or watch a B-Movie.

Congratulations. You now have enough information about my family to be stalking us!

Anyway...today's plan is that we're going to Sonny's. Nothing like all-you-can-eat meat to start off your Saturday. Seriously. I love that place. 2 words. Beef. Brisket. Yummm.

Last night, Kyra, Sarie and I had a camp out in my room. Kyra made a tent and everything. It was pretty great. We took pictures and stuff...SEE?? Yeah. We're insane. You love us anyway. Simply because we're gorgeous. Even at 11:30pm. Ü

My mom SHOULD be home by now, as my dad just pointed out. But yeah...I don't know what to blog about. I suppose that this is enough for an update. If you haven't met my friends Pon and Zi...'ere you go: Pon and Zi

Alrighty....I guess that's all. =]

On Boy Bands and Other Lost Art Forms...

Okay, so I may have been pretty young(pretty & young, thanks) when REAL boy bands(Not the Jonas Brothers) were popular. Before I get a bunch of JB fan-girls stoning me and egging my house, let's define a boy band.
Boy Band:a formulaically organized pop music group of good-looking young men who can sing and dance.

The Jonas Brothers do NOT dance. Not in the awesome "Bye, Bye, Bye" *NSYNC way. I remember learning that dance. I remember dancing with my MOM to that song.

Yeah. There really is no point to arguing this. I miss boy bands. O Town, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC...this is all pre-I-went-and-ruined-my-career-because-I-threw-a-girly-tantrum-and-broke-up-
the-band-so-now-I-write-sucky-music-that-no one-listens-to, of course. The sad thing is, people DO still listen to Justin Timberlake. I'd really like to see O Town again. I loved them. I remember breaking the tape that I had because I listened to it so much.



Anyway....
I guess another lost art form would be the GIANT ROAD ATLAS. No lie. I saw one in Sam's today...and thought, "Wow. I need one of these." I don't know WHY I need one of those, because we have our loving Mother Telenav. (If you haven't heard the Mother Telenav story, you will. Right now.)

Mother Telenav was born on our trip to Liberty University (class of '15!!). We were right down the road from Liberty when my mom stopped giving my dad the Mapquest directions and my dad decided to use the Telenav on his Blackberry. Well, that was when my dad said, "Dorothy. It's over. I want a divorce." and the Telenav pipes up, "Slight Right on Candlers Mountain Road". So my mom whips out her Pocket PC and starts playing Solitaire. So she shunned my dad and they both start conversations with their respective devices. Well, we never acknowledged the PC as our father. Just the Telenav as our mother(think PAT from "Smart House")...Thus, Mother Telenav was created. Well, dad ended up divorcing Mother Telenav because she told us the wrong way to go, and we ended up driving around campus for 20 minutes in a circle (same thing Mom had said to do). Mother Telenav HAS led us astray before though....

Just in case you wanted to know: the last time Mother Telenav was married to Dad, she ended up leading us down a very creepy street at night and in the middle of a main street she said, "Your destination is on your left." It was a graveyard. No lie. **Welcome to the Twilight Zone**

I guess that could be called a lost art form as well. Marrying technology.

The last lost art form for today would have to be the lack of sun in "Sunny Florida". Yeah. Every night this week it has rained. No lie. It starts around 4 and lasts (at LEAST) til I go to sleep (10:30-11-ish).

I'll bet you anything that the sky is crying.

So Boy Bands, Giant Atlases, Rainy Florida and Marriage to Technology. What more could you ask for??

Happy Friday, everyone.

Nothing to Fear...

but "Fear Itself"....Have you guys ever seen that show?? It's actually pretty good. (If you like scary shows, that is.)

Anyway, this is definitely a spoiler, so MOM, STOP. READING. NOW. (She didn't watch it last night...)

Okay, so, this chick is getting married, right? And right before the wedding, she gets this note that says, "The person you are marrying is a serial killer." What the heck!! So, before the wedding, she's all stressing out and stuff debating whether to tell the guy about the note. The bridesmaids knew that there was a note, but they didn't know what it said. They just knew that it was making the chick upset. So the whole time, they were making faces at the groom, and the groom didn't know why.

So now, it's after the wedding and the girl was getting ready for the reception. All the lights go out, and she's alone, of course. Someone starts banging on her door, and she, guess. GOES TO OPEN IT!! (You never go and open a door when you're alone in the dark. It's just not done.) She opens it, and no one is there. There's a light on in the hallway, and suddenly it's knocked over, and she's in the dark again. Then, out of nowhere, the priest shows up. She asks the priest about the note, because he'd received it and gave it to the Maid of Honor to give to the bride. (He was old, and couldn't hear very well, so keep that in mind.)

The groom blows up at the bride in front of everyone at the reception, and then runs back to the chapel. The bride follows and they have one of those super cryptic conversations where she runs away and he follows...Anyway, she ends up in a locked closet, and he's banging on the door saying, "SAM!! OPEN THE DOOR!!" She didn't. Well, anyway, he ends up telling her that the note meant nothing. And she's all confused. Apparently, he'd taken some chick out to dinner while she was on a "business trip" or something and she'd been stalking him since then. He gave the whole, "She means nothing to me, I didn't cheat on you because I looooooove you" speech.

PLOT TWIST! She says, "Wow...I believe you. But there's still a problem with the note. The problem is that the note exists at all."

Flashes to the "tall, red-scarfed lady's" house(who'd given the priest the note). During all this the bride had called her brother to tell her that she was scared, etc. The "red-scarfed lady" turned on the answering machine and checked "her" messages. It was the brother's house!! He took off the wig and the scarf, and he turned on the light to reveal a bunch of dead people all in the room.

Flashes back to the chapel. The bride says, "The note wasn't meant for me. It was meant for YOU."
Then the groom says, "I don't care about the note!!" and she says, "You don't even wanna know what it says?" And he says, "You'll show me when you're ready...you promise??" To which she replies, "...I promise..." all creepily...BOM BOM BOMMMMMMM.

So yeah. That was my excitement for last night. This morning/noon I'm running errands...Hopefully, I'll have another great story to post later. Ü

Peace, Love and Happiness! ((The Calling-Phil. 3:14))

P.S. The purpose of this was for me to tell you that if you're a serial killer, you BETTER tell me. I'll extend the same courtesy to you.

A Day in the Life of a Teenage...person.

So, recently, I posted about the World We Live In and the stupidity thereof. This one takes the cake over Wal-Mart employees, I think.

At the Dentist today, before I had my "revelation"....I was listening to "Check Yes, Juliet" on my iPod and rocking out(in my head) and my mom was writing her blog. She looked up suddenly and looked like she was trying to stifle a laugh. So I took out an earphone in time to hear the nurse call back a brother and sister for the second time...Wanna take a crack at their names? Yeah. Well, their names were Gabriel and Gabrielle. No lie. What kind of a person is SO uncreative as to pick [essentially] the SAME NAME for BOTH of their children?!! Too bad they weren't twins...

In other news, my iPod decided to go spastic on me. The menu button wasn't working...Dano fixed it. Rina was happy.

Guess what?!! My fish died yesterday. You didn't know that I had a fish?? Well, now you do. And he's dead. Thanks a lot. I don't believe he died of natural causes. It was a series of murderous things (that have NOTHING to do with Meredith). Some goofball unplugged the heater for the fish tank. The other fish were always jealous of...my fish...and they shoved him into the filter. As if that wasn't enough, Sarie decided that she wanted to take the tank cleaner and play with my fish's DEAD BODY!! Not cool, man.



That's my today....later gators.

What Time is It??

SUMMER TIME!!

(It's our vacation!)


My lovely readers...I must say that summer has brought an absence of free blogging time! That is no excuse for my blatant disregard for the Golden Rule of Blogging. (Thou Must Update Frequently). I ask for your forgiveness. Ü

Upon receiving your forgiveness, I have written a very long blog for your enjoyment! My pledge is to try to update at least once a week...ish. Ü ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?!! (*cue music*)


A description of Rina's Summer so far!

Vacation in the Mountains: Part 1
Vacation in the Mountains: Part 2
Vacation in the Mountains: Part 3
Friend-ish Stuff

Yes, I have been quite busy-ish. The pictures tell the story of each event, and I hope that you enjoy the insanity of my family. Ü

My Summer oH EIGHT Movies to Watch list is as follows:

Get Smart
I saw this on Monday and I enjoyed it. Really anything with Steve Carrell in it is something that I end up enjoying. (With the exception of "Dan in Real Life". blehh.) There were a few negative elements. Check out Plugged In Online for their review.

Kung Fu Panda
This movie was very cute. Jack Black plays Po, a panda who is chosen as the Dragon Warrior. You see his journey from a Noodle Soup Maker to a Kung Fu Mastaahh. It's very funny, and a good movie to go see with your family! The only "bad" (notice quote/unquote) part is that they say that there is no "good" or "bad", there is only what you choose. The whole movie doesn't revolve around that phrase. It says it once, and they never really reference it again. Overall, a very good family movie.

Camp Rock
Stop trying to stone me. It has the JONAS BROTHERS in it. You can predict the plot from the first scene in the movie! No one can act!! What more could you possibly want in a movie?!!

High School Musical 2
No, not High School Musical. Who are you?! That's SO last year. This is another movie that you can predict the plot. It has some catchy songs, and like Camp Rock, no one can act. So, go ahead! Give in to your inner Wildcat!!
Another great way to watch a movie without having to spend money is to check out the Sci-Fi channel. Yes. I know. I'm a nerd. It's okay. Ü Anyway, one night, while surfing channels, my family started a tradition. B-Movie night! It's a fun way to spend time together as a family. We can (guess.) predict the plot, the acting sucks and it's just a really good time. Most recently we watched "Shark Swarm" and "Earthstorm". Great movies. Ü

Boredom Busters!! Try these:
Crazy Monkey Games
Kyle introduced me to this last year. Lots and lots of games for seemingly endless fun!
Funbrain
This is a kiddie site, but I found it fun. Ü You get to go around the board. The best game is the one with the cicadas. Have you ever seen a cicada? They're TERRIFYING!! No lie! I saw one in the mountains. It was scary.
Miniclip
This one is slightly LESS of a kiddie site, but I still like it. Brain games!! Flatbread Express is pretty fun...in case you were wondering. ;)
Postopia
Shut up. I like kiddie sites. And this one is fun.

If you're the outdoorsy type...(*ahem* not me.)...then try this. Go swimming! It's good exercise and you people need to work on your tans. Ü If you don't have immediate access to a pool, try this! Put your iPod on shuffle. The first song that comes up is your theme song. Learn the lyrics. Make up a dance. THEN, perform it for your neighborhood kids. Yes, we're 15. That doesn't mean we can't still play with the neighborhood kids!! If you really feel THAT uncomfortable with it, then do it for your family, you wussy. No, it doesn't matter if you can't dance. I can't either, and yet...I'm in a dance troupe. It's amazing fun. We rock the world. Stop being boring and DO SOMETHING! (And no, that does NOT mean hunting me down at church and telling me that I need to update my blog. ;) ) Kidding. Ü

It's summer time, and yeah, that usually means church attendance is down. Most people are on vacation...if you're not...you should do something to serve! During the summer, churches have a variety of different summer activities like Vacation Bible School, Upward Camp and even Epic Surf Camp. They're ALWAYS in need of volunteers. Here's the VBS information for FBC: Outrigger Island
This isn't JUST a way for you to serve God, it's a way to have fun doing it. If THAT'S not enough incentive for you, it's another good way to store up community service hours for your college application!! (Liberty all the way, baby. Ü )

Welcome to the World We Live In. In this segment, we'll view the incompetence of your average American. I take you now to the Wal-Mart on Monument(when did it become the ghetto, by the way?? Seriously!! Three people got arrested the last time I was there). Now, it's a Saturday night in SUMMER. How many check out lanes are open?? Four. No lie. There were FOUR check out lines open. There were literally FIFTY people waiting in line. Finally, we were next in line. Bear in mind that it is 9:15pm, and we were in the EXPRESS check out line (for you non-shoppers, that means we have 10 items or less), and if that wasn't enough, it was also a SELF check out (again, you non-shoppers, that means we have to ring stuff up ourselves...we should get paid). The dude in front of us had 11 items, so we were like "yeah, okay. Whatever. It's one more item then ten." Well, he got about half way through, and he proceeded to BREAK the machine. Thanks, dude. The Queen of the Checkout Lanes came and tried(using the term very loosely) to fix it. After she couldn't, she decided that she was going to try out her foreign language on us(French, if you know what I mean). Well, we moved to a different check out, and SUCCESS. We were out. After 20 minutes and a slew of people who lack common sense, we finally made it out of Wal-Mart. O_O Applause the customer service, everyone. Ü

Alrighty, kiddos. Thanks for reading!! Before you go...check out this blog!
Always Be Prepared...
Okeedokee! Love you guys!

Rina