And you all thought I was dead....

Well its been a long, long time and I am finally posting! :D

In the past three to four months lots has happened so I'll just sum it up: In September I started school. I am taking Apologetics, Physics, Algebra, Health, Greek Reading, and World History. They are quite interesting subjects, and for the most part I am enjoying them. :) Volleyball started and ended :) ...we had a pretty good season. We also finally finished the Great Wall of China:)..not really. Just the wall be bulit for my Grandma (i mentioned it last post I think)
Mom, Dad, and Jan went to Australia in November to visit my brother and his family. In December We had my Dad's extended family over for three days for Christmas. We had a great time!!! I also was able to go to a youth conference for four days which was great fun!!! (picutures below) :D Addie and I bought tickets to go to Australia in April. I am so excited!!!! :D We are planning to stay there for 7 weeks with Brandon and Megan and their three kids. I can't wait!!!

So there is all the big stuff going on in my life right now.

here are some pictures from the past few months.
Addie and Abby on the day before school started
The night before school started we went bowling :)

Bowling fun :D
At Winter Conferece for a game I had to be duct taped to a wall :)
At Winter Conferece on our way to the ropes course
My WONDERFUL roomates :D We had some great times!!!


There was a theme dinner one night at WC the theme was 70's
Addie went as 70's basketball player and Leah and I went as her cheerleaders
More pictures from the dinner. Here is Rachel, me, Abby, and Leah
Welp, Thats all for now folks :)

I promise that I will try to make sure that I post more regularily :)

Hope you all have a fabulous Day!!!

~RYa

My fantastic summer!!!

Boy, it has been a while since I was last on here! (I say that is every post don't I?)
Well, my summer has been lots of fun and quite full.

In April my family started to build a huge retaining wall on my Grandma's bank where she owns a lake cottage. (scroll down for a picture...)

May....hmmm I think I just finished up school :) And I cut my hair, here is a picture of Haley and I :

Then in June I started to train for a 300 mile bike trip. We rode from Indy to Grand Rapids Michigan in 4 days, but that wasn't until July.... I was able to lease (or "rent") a horse this summer so I could show in 4-H. So about three times a week I went and cleaned stalls, and worked with Ruby. Here is a picture of us at our show :) We won Reserve Grand in one of our classes :)

In July I did some doubley (mm, that may not be a word, but now it is :)) hard training with Dad, Addie and Haley, who went on the trip with me, for the bike trip and then on the 16th I was off. :) I had lots of fun and I was able to walk away with only a scraped knee and elbow and a bug gash out of my hand :) But at least nothing too bad. We were going up to Grand Rapids to attend our denominations International Conference which began the day we arrived and ended the following week. The conference was sooooo much fun!!!! I got to meet and get to know lots of other people. Including some from other countries. :) The conferees were divided into their age groups for class, which took place every morning. These were all focused around the theme of Meeting Christ in Life. I really enjoyed that part of the Conference. :)
This is a picture of the Kokomo Group before we left for the trip :)


And finally....August. This month has been a nice, slow month, which I am very thankful, seeing as though school starts in two weeks. ::A big sigh::
We are almost done with the retaining wall, ::huge smile:: of which I am very thankful as well :) Also this month Me, Abby, Emory, Sidney and Rachel became communicant members, which was really exciting. Tomorrow is our first communion, and next week I have to read my testimony in front of the Church...which is not the most exciting thing...:)
Here is a picture of the bank and one wall, we now have two walls on that side and two on the other, and we are working on finishing up the third one on that side.
Also in August we had YSSP (youth summer service project) at our church, where we spent three days doing odd jobs around the church. Pastor York led the days off with a devotion about serving which was really good, and then the rest of the day we worked. One day we were able to serve some widows by cleaning for them, I think that was the most fun, other than getting to go in a lift with Abby :) Here is a group picture:

And here is a picture of Abby and I on the lift:

Last night My friends and I had a goodbye party for Sidney, who is moving to Pennsylvania for the school year, cause her Dad is attending seminary there. We had lots of fun putting together photo albums and quoting movies.

(I'll try to get our group picture up here soon)

Well, thus ends my post.
Have a wonderful day all!!!

Until next time,

RYa

Hope For Eternity

This week our Church is going to have a conference on Hope For Eternity.
Ted Donnelly, A very gifted speaker from Ireland is coming and will be speaking.

Here is some more info. :

I encourage all of you to come! If you need more info go here
Hope to see you there!!!

~RYa

As the Days Go By..........

I am so excited I can finally really feel spring!! Yesterday I spent the whole day out side....and I didn't have to wear a jacket, it felt soo wonderful!!!! :) And, I mowed the lawn for the first time this year! Woop diddy doo :)

Today I spent half the day cleaning out Janae's toys....I can't believe some the of things that we have kept for all these years, I mean seriously, we have these two stuffed dogs that were Brandon and Jacob's from when they were like 5. :) No wonder Jan has so many toys. :)

It was actually kinda fun to go through the stuff that Addie and I used to play with like the Barbies and dress ups. I can remember playing for hours with those things........Those were the good old days!!!!! :)

Well, I guess instead of sitting here scratching my head, and trying to think of what it was that I was going to write I might as well just leave you all with a wish for a good day and one of my favorite verses:
I peter 1:8 "And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory."

P.s. Thanks to Leah, who was the first to show me that verse :)

Of Toilet Paper, and Laundry..............

Hello All!!!

I am so excited I can actually feel spring coming!!! Yay!!!

I am posting cause I actually have something to post. :o)

I have decided to share with you all a story........... It is (sadly) a true story that took place in my home just yesterday, but lets start in the beginning.

It was a sunny March day and Moriah was doing some chores for her sweet Mother, when one of her chores took her to the laundry room cabinet (which is located just above the washer and dryer) her task was to put something away in this cabinet. And so, as she is opening the door something rolls out and falls into the washer, and not really noticing, she continues her job in the cabinet. Once the task has been completed and she is leaving the room, she glances at what ever fell and finds out that it was a roll of toilet paper (why it was is that cabinet still boggles her) that fell into the washer. "Well" thought Moriah, "I had better get that out of there! Wouldn't that be a disaster if that got washed!" Well, later that afternoon Addie was checking on a load of darks she had put in the washer earlier, and she noticed that the clothes still had suds on them, so she rinsed them again. Later that night as she was checking them again she realized that, that it was not suds on the clothes, but lent, and LOTS of it!!! So she called her dear sister Moriah in to see if she happened to have put something in one of the pockets of her clothes that may have gotten over everything else. When Moriah came into the room and saw the shirt that Addie was holding up she just sat there and stared.........The shirt that at one time was black, now looked almost white because of the lent. Then Moriah just started laughing, which in turn made Addie laugh which drew the attention of Beth and Haley and they had to come over and look at the item that was causing such laughter, and then they started to laugh. Why they were laughing, other than the fact that the shirt looked completely ridiculous, they had no idea. Well, after she caught her breath, Moriah told them the story of the toilet paper falling into the washer, just then realizing that she must have forgotten to take the roll out of the washer. This caused even more laughter, which continued as each item, completely covered in wet shredded toilet paper, was taken out of the washer and placed in the dryer. (they were hoping that the dryer would take some of the lent off) Well, the dryer did help, but sadly, when the clothes were taken out they still had lent on them.
I wish that I could give this story a happy ending. But as of now the story is not done yet, the clothes are still sitting in the basket, waiting until Mother dear gets home to give directions on what to do next.
:o)
In the meantime, I think that I am going to leave all jobs that have to do with the laundry room cabinet to one of my sisters :)

Well, I better go, Chemistry is calling me........

Have a great Weekend!!!!

Tootaloo!!!
RYa

Can you believe it I am actually updating and it hasn't been a month since my last post......I think that I just might die!! On the other hand.....maybe not.

Anyway, I really should be studying for finals this coming week, but right now that does not sounds in the least bit appealing, so I am putting it off.......which is not a good thing and yet right now....I don't care!!!

The problem is that i have no idea what to post about so I am just considering leaving this as it is right now and just not care........

so in light of that I am going to leave you with a wonderful quote from a great movie...

"Lord Arthur Goring: [to statue] It is a great nuisance. I can't find anyone else to talk to. I'm so full of interesting information, I feel like the latest edition of something or other. Well, after some consideration... so much to do, there's only one thing to be done. There comes a time in every son's life when he must, indeed, follow his father's advice: I shall go to bed at once." - okay so there I am now going to leave and never look at this post again cause it will just drive me crazy looking at it

Oh Bother..........

I can never seem to keep up with posting can I? Sorry once again about the great delay.

Anyway, I have decided to dedicate this post to all of my wonderful friends, you are all very much like sisters to me (some of you are even sisters. :)

Thank you for.....

first of all being faithful readers of my very boring blog :)

sharing with me many memories of the great times we have had together

being willing to look dorky in front of everyone with me

being willing to dance with me when there was no one else........even being willing to do the guys part :)

always being there for me

always being willing to listen, even if it is boring to you

sharing with me many great movies :)

the little posts and comments you leave.......they are all so encouraging and fun to read :)

being willing to let me vent over my stupid homework problems

encouraging me to accept your compliments...........Leah, even though I may have done it grudgingly I really am thankful...you have made me feel better about myself :)

not getting mad at me for falling asleep in the middle of a conversation during a sleepover....I really am sorry about that....

sharing with me the pains of braces :)

helping me with my homework

sharing blankets with me on cold SCA days

playing beautiful music on the piano...it brightens my day

talking with me about certain teachers.......

not making fun of me for liking or disliking certain people

being forgiving

sharing with me good books

sharing with me your favorite verses

And most importantly sharing with me your faith

The list goes on and on.....

I love you all very much and I want to let you know that you all mean so much to me. I thank the Lord that he has blessed me with such friends. I only hope and pray that as the years go by we will become closer to each other as we grow in the Lord.

Once again thank you so much you all are wonderful people and I love you.

RYa