Some pics

The Madness Pertaining to.... The Chili Challenge...

Soooo...basically the title of this post pretty much epitomizes the madness encompassed in what I plan on saying. :) In any event, it all started about 2 weeks ago on a typical Sunday night in the 3rd grade class...

The kids were being crazy, as usual. We attempted to quiet them by tactfully and vaguely explaining how Zak was hiding a machete in his pocket. Of course then they wanted to know how he could fit a machete in the hip pocket of those tight pants of his, so we groped for an answer and finally came up with he was using his "mad ninja skills' to hide it in his pocket. Yet even with this foolproof answer, they didn't believe us. They turned to Anne and I to make sure Zak was telling the truth, and wanted to know if we had seen it. Of course we assured them that we had...but that anyone under the age of 14 was physically incapable of looking upon the awesomeness of Zak's machete. ;P Finally they were somewhat satisfied, and we were able to continue with the lesson.

A bit later, Anne called me to the door adjoining our classroom to 4th grade's. She said I needed to "help Zak". I wondered what in the world Zak would need my help for, as I walked over to the door. When I got there, (I'd had to detach myself of a few children on the way), Anne asked me to go help Zak in the 4th grade classroom. (They were out, playing dodgeball. They leave after the lesson every week--very predictable) I tentatively agreed and followed him, and finally he informed me that Anne wanted us to turn over the tables. Sooooo, we did. We turned over the tables (very neatly, mind you. We put all the papers and Bibles in a small stack on the counter) and we stacked the chairs upside down. Feeling our mission accomplished, we returned to our own classroom. Of course they suspected us, but we skillfully, and without lying, denied all charges pressed upon us.

The next week both Zak and I were home sick, so that Sunday passed uneventfully with Anne alone with the kids.

But the next week, we arrived back to our classroom from worship to find all of our tables and chairs tipped over. We quickly told the kids to act normal, to just stand up the tables and chairs, and act as if nothing had happened. They were successful. As soon as we had "normally" put our room back together, we called an emergency pow-wow, during which we invented our ingenious "tents". We all used our hands to make a little "tent" over our head, and no one was allowed to speak unless everyone's "tents" were "up". And as the saying goes, "What goes in the tent, stays in the tent." During this pow-wow, we discussed:

1: our loyalties to the 3rd grade class

2: our loyalties to our teachers (i.e., Annie, Zak and me)

3: REVENGE

Zak really wanted to t.p. their classroom but Anne and I rather outed that idea, as we would have to, technically, "steal" toilet paper from the janitor's closet, and there's not much to t.p. in a room with 4 walls and 4 tables and a white board. Then, one of our kids informed us that 4th grade is in the habit of keeping licorice in their classroom. :D :D :D Which opens up just worlds of new possibilities. Whether or not the rumor was true was out of mind at the time. Finally, we outed the idea of actually eating their licorice, and THEN Zak told us his idea, which was to stick paper clips through the ends of the licorice and hang it from the ceiling!!! Which everyone thought was brilliant. For a public schooler, anyway. ;D In any event, for some odd reason unknown to myself, 4th grade never left their classroom that night. So our revenge was left unsatisfied.

The next week Zak was gone, and Anne and I told the kids that we had to wait for Zak to actually carry out our revenge, since most of it was his idea. Then, we realized that the Chili Cook-Off was coming up, in 6 days! And a plot began to form in our minds...a challenge! We had to issue a challenge--a chili-cooking challenge! So while Anne taught the lesson, I drew up a very legit challenge, which we all signed, and we presented it to the 4th grade. Well, we slid it under their door anyway. Our beautifully legit challenge was slid back under our door with "It's so on!!!" scribbled in red crayon across it. We made a copy of the challenge for 4th grade, I drew up a reciept of conformation, and our challenge was born.

As the 6 days passed, I wasted none of them. They were spent trading insults with Simon, who was one of our competitors. Well, not spent, exactly, more like, well, I traded insults with him occasionally.

Anne and I planned to get together at Anne's house on Saturday before the Chili Cook-Off to concoct our chili. Zak was invited, but his "maybe" wasn't very promising and we didn't particularly expect him. I arrived at Anne's at around 11, with all the ingredients. Now I believe would be the appropriate time to note that Anne and I had never made chili before, AND had no clue what we were doing. NO clue. In fact, Anne took a pound of hamburger we brought to put in the chili, and began to put it into the pan frozen solid, insisting that she didn't need to thaw it, she would just "steam" it. Yeah, we had NO clue what we were doing. Well, my mom left, Aunt Laurie went into the other room, and we set to work.

Once we got our hamburger cooked, we tasted it, because my mamma told us to taste lots. I don't really like hamburger particularly in the first place, so I was kinda like well maybe it's just cause I hate hamburger that I don't like it. So I asked Annie to taste it and check, and she didn't like it either. It was pretty much disgusting. But we put it in anyway. Well we seasoned it till Auntie and Uncle Dave both said it was good and they'd eat a whole bowl of it.

Finally we got it all signed in at church. As we were leaving, Lucas, our rival, brought his chili, in this shiny, big, new crockpot. We looked at Aunt Laurie's old green flowered one, and insisted to ourselves that it looked as if it had actually been used. While our spirits sank, as we remembered that Lucas was the guy who had in the past claimed he wanted to go to culinary school and become a chef. :( We knew we didn't stand a chance.

Once at the Chili Cook-Off, much later, we had tuned in to the announcements as we had heard Bailey's name announced, she had placed 2nd of 3 pies in the Junior competition. As we were listening, we were laughing and joking about how we knew we would never place, but we really just hoped that Lucas didn't, since then we would look like real dummies, having issued the challenge in the first place, and then bragged like we knew what we were doing, when in reality, we didn't. Which is when we heard our names. "Annie and Caitie Kee." We both kinda sat up, and Dave called our names again, as Mandy said, "Did they just call you???" We walked up there, and to our surprise, we hadn't even gotten 3rd! We'd placed 2nd out of 20-some traditional mild chili's. We were SOOOOOO STOKED!!!

And thus ended the chili challenge. Basically we owned 4th grade, and they know it. And have admitted it. In public forums. And we've pretty much earned ourselves bragging rights to the end of the century.

Some Random Pictures (In Random Order [With Random Comments])

Here's a post I did a long time ago and never posted. But I don't have time to write a new post tonight, so here is this new, fresh, old post. lol... Enjoy, guitar girl!!!!

These first 3 are of the Superchic[k] concert I went to on my 15th birthday 2 months ago. My mamma took Paige and me, and Becca and Darylyn, but I don't have any pics of us specifically.

me with my favorite little brother on my 15th birthday


Janell, me, Becca and Darylyn

Darylyn, Becca, Janell, me

Darylyn & Janelly

(These last 3 were taken during the photo shoot we had during this year's ladies' retreat at church. It was very spontaneous and I won't bother trying to explain the story behind it, but it was fun. It was in the hallway between the Jr. High and HS rooms. We dragged the fooseball table out into the middle of the hallway [a strenuous task, by the way] and set my camera in the slot for the balls to fall in, and put on a timer, and...well, we took lots of pictures)

Paige, me and Becca playing Rock Band. Becca and I wanted to dress up in our 80's dresses.

So we did. It was fun...I love my 80's dress, don't you? =)



Me and Becca at this year's formal. It was a 20's theme this year.

Emily, Kelsey & Becca...this is in the women's restroom...lol.

In the waiting area, hence the mirrors. We were all fixing our hair and decided to take pics...

(Oh, also the formal)

Me at home afterwards.

me, Darylyn and Tawnee

Danae, me, Tawnee, and Libby


me at home before I got rained on...

oh yeah, did I mention it rained that night of the formal. It was great...I love rain!!!

BarlowGirl in concert. Paige and I got to go see them with Sarah on Memorial Day at the Stand Out for Christ Christian music festival in Ripon. They were amazing.

Although Sarah and I are going to be scarred for life since we didn't get their signature even though they were only 10 feet away...so close! (Ask me later, lol)

First Love

Hey,

So, since I've been back on here, I was, I don't know, for some reason not entirely connecting with my title, "Still Growin'". I still liked it, but I wasn't quite in that place anymore where it was me. I mean, obviously, I'm still growing--in Christ, anyway, but...that's beside the point.

I decided to change my title, to "First Love". I've always loved to say, "Jesus is my first Love", it's always been one of the titles for Him that's been really close to my heart personally. Because, He is. I mean, basically, He invented love. And He loved us FIRST. Our love for God is simply a response to His love for us, which is perfect and amazing and completely unfathomable to our small and simple minds. His love for us is SO great, we cannot even imagine how MUCH and how COMPLETELY He loves us.

And yet, so many people have turned away from Him, from their first Love. Even in the fullness and perfection of His great love for us, we turn away, in search of something better. When, in reality, we have the best that there is, right in front of us. What modern humanity brushes off as a fairy tale is really the only True Love in existence. He IS our first, and only, and true Lover.

Everybody always says, "Someday my prince will come." But what they don't realize is that our Prince has already arrived. He is there, waiting for us to open our eyes and see Him, and to accept Him, when He has been sitting there watching us the whole time. He hasn't come...He has been. He has always been. And He was. And He IS. He is a relentless Lover...my Relentless Lover. He came for the world, but He came for the individual. He came for me.

SOOOO, anywho...that turned out significantly longer than was my original intent, but...I basically just mean that it was kind of a reminder for me...that Jesus, and only Jesus, is my first Love. And that I never need to leave Him, because there is no one else on earth that is better than Him. I guess sometimes I get caught up in the material...because His love is so great, it's seems almost unreal. But really it's the most real thing I know, and I need to remember that.

♥♥♥Caitie

Update, sort of

So, I'm back, finally. I won't even attempt to cover everything that's happened in the past 3 months.

A couple weeks ago, our cousins were here from Missouri. We took them to Monterey and Yosemite, and geocaching around Turlock. I'll put up some pics from when they were here.

Steven with my daddy--Dad was showing Steven how to use the GPS

Sarah and Paigie

This is us eating Thrifty's ice cream cones in front of Rite Aid.

Here's Fish playing with some chain mail--Steven made it.

Now here's pics of us in Sand City and Monterey on Thursday.

All of us except Mamma, in Sand City. We stopped at this beach, and spent several hours here. From left (vaguely) is: Steve, Steven, me, Bailey, Libby, Sam, Sarah, Paige, Erin, Ainsley, Donna, Laine, Fish and Daddy

Most of us kids getting into the ocean. It was FREEZING!!!

Mamma told us to do this...everyone was slightly squished under other people's arms...lol! So much for posing...it's a cute picture, though, I thought.

From left: Sam, Paige, Libby, Bailey, Sarah, me, Steven, Erin

Us...still in Sand City...we buried Steven almost up to his waist in sand. (ok, it was about a foot from his waist, but...)You can't really see it but you can see how tall every one is compared to him, because we dug about a 2 or 3 foot hole that he was standing in.

All of us in Monterey...right after lunch. We were getting ready to go down to a small beach with really calm, shallow water and a bunch of rock and tidepool areas.

Steven & I looking at a hermit crab we found in a tidepool. We were trying to get it to come out of its shell and walk around but it was a little shy...lol. =]

Steven, Donna and me...we had found this really cute little purple sea urchin. We decided on not touching it, lol...we weren't sure if it would stick us. I don't think we have a pic of it cuz none of us had a camera handy. My dad yelled so we would look up for the pic. =] I believe at this time we were also trying to see if an anenemone would eat a small fish. It didn't. Apparently the anenemones are cool with all the small animals (fish, hermit crabs, etc) that chill in the tidepools because they were letting them walk all over them.

My daddy's cousin Calvin was with us, taking pics. He told us not to look directly at him, so we're looking in a multitude of different directions. Still, I think everyone at least has their eyes open and their head up, which is a feat considering the number of people and small children involved.

The 3 littlest girls: Erin, Lainee + Ainsley

I don't have any pics of it, but Thursday night after we got home from Monterey, Anne, Hayden and their parents came over. (Were Granny and Grandad there too? my mind is going blank) Anyway, they came over, it was right after Hayden's graduation, so they hadn't eaten dinner. They wanted to stay awhile, so Anne, Hayden, Steven and I took off to go get some food. Hayden wanted KFC, and Anne was trying to talk him out of it, since she didn't want to go over there. She was trying to convince him that he really wanted In-N-Out. Hayden wasn't convinced, but all the sudden I had an epiffany...we hadn't taken Steven to In-N-Out yet!!! He's been to Cali once or twice before and got away without having In-N-Out, so of course Anne, Hayden and I took it upon ourselves to remedy this situation. We speedily made for In-N-Out, Hayden telling Steven jokes the whole time. Annie and I tried to stop him, but as the oldness of his jokes can't be helped, we made the most of them. One of his jokes triggered a long trail of movie quotes, and Annie and I sat in the In-N-Out drive-thru quoting movies like crazy, one leading to another. It was hilarious! I think we might have scared Steven...jk, of course. It was fun though....oh, and we did get Hayden his KFC. And, (oops) forgot entirely to get anything for poor Uncle Dave to eat...

Now here's pics from Yosemite on Friday.

I normally can't stand pics without people in them but this one is amazing. My mum took it.

I believe this is Bridalveil Falls from a distance. But I could be wrong. We have so many pictures of waterfalls that I'm not entirely positive which is which. They all look the same to me. =)

Sam, Sarah, Paige, Lib and Bailey at the top of the trail leading up to Bridalveil. It was sooo wet, at first Steven and I didn't want to go up. We did a couple minutes later though.

Me, Steven + Steve at the top of the trail.

Me and Steven. We were soaked!!! I think we got even more wet because we ran all the way up to the top. It was fun! (but so much for having straight hair the rest of the day, lol... =D...)

This is right before they were leaving, so no one looks too happy or joyous or any of that sort of thing. We were all close to crying, so...you know. Anyways...

We had so much fun while they were here though! I'll post again with some other stuff too, on other stuff we've done the past few weeks.

Oh! Here's another pic...I just found it and it made me laugh at my own silliness...

We had waded out to this little outcropping of rocks to see if there was anything cool out there (starfish, etc). There weren't any starfish but there were other things. In any event, in this picture, we were on our way back to the beach, and the rocks where we had left our things, and I spotted some strange "plant". I was really proud of myself for finding it, and I was like, "Hey, Steven come look at this!...I'm not sure what it is..." So he comes over, looks at it for a second...picks it up...(it was a big flat orange thing, with little serrated teeth all around the edges, sort of ovalish...) anyway, Steven picks it up, and it's a piece of a crab. Oh...hahaha! I felt so dumb. =] (We had been finding pieces of crab all day...for clarity. It was nothing unusual.) Anyway, thought I'd share that... =) It made me laugh, anyway, even though it probly wasn't really that funny. Ok, I'm done for now.

I'm Back!!!!

SOOOOOOO, I'm finally back on here! It's been a while.
Tip of the Week: don't do stupid things online without asking your daddy first and you won't get grounded from the computer! I learned that the harder way of the two. Trust me. That's why I haven't been on here for 3+ months...But now I'm back, so I have some catching up to do, I guess. I'll do that in another post.

...Raindrops...

I love the rain!!! It is pretty much the bombest, most gorgeous-est thing ever in the world!!! It sounds amazing, for one thing, and also it smells amazing afterwards, and it feels amazing when you stand in it, and it's so much fun to sing and dance in...how much better can it get? Plus it looks amazing outside with the sky all cloudy and dark and the sheets of rain pouring down, and the raindrops splashing off the cement and the roofs, and running down the windowpanes...and it's even better if there's thunder and lightning cuz that looks even amazing-er!

And God like speaks to me so much through the rain, it is like the ultimate display of His power and serenity, but also of refreshment and renewal and peace. During a storm is like the best times for me with God because I can just feel His presence... Is that wierd? Well who cares if it is, it's my thing so whatever... Anyway, so those are my thoughts today.

Daisy

Daisy, give yourself away
look up at the rain

a beautiful display of power and surrender
giving us today

as she gives herself away

rain

another rainy day comes up from the ocean

give herself away

she comes down easy on rich and debt the same

and she gives herself away

let it go

Daisy let it go

open up your fist

this fallen world doesn't hold your interest

it doesn't hold your soul

Daisy let it go

pain give yourself a name

call yourself contrition avarice or blame

giving isn't easy

neither is the rain

when she gives herself away

Daisy why another day?

why another sunrise?

who will take the blame for all redemptive motion?

and every rainy day

when he gives himself away

let it go

Daisy let it go

open up your fist

this fallen world doesn't hold your interest

doesn't hold your soul

Daisy let it go

let it go

let it go

let it go

and you let it go, go

let it go

let it go

let it go, go

let it go

by Switchfoot