This Is My Winter Song To You

Pretty good song, it’s by Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles, called Winter Song. You should search it, it’s a good ‘en.

I figured that it’s been a while since even my last post. I know you guys are probably wagging your fists and me and what not, but you keep hoping for a post. I know, I know, it’s addicting. Haha. Well, I mean, there isn’t really a LOT to talk about, but I figure that since I’m on break, have no homework, and (for today anyway) am home alone, I have no excuse to not tell you guys what’s been happening.

First of all, as I hope MANY of you know, Christmas is only a few days away – I could not be more excited. Ask any of my family members and they will tell you that Christmas is my season. Well, that and my birthday. That’s a big one too. But Christmas is really high up there. It’s not just the presents, it’s the snow, it’s the happy people, it’s the Christmas songs (except Mariah Carey’s), and it’s the Christmas services. I actually have a story to share with Christmas service related information. All right, here we go.

For the past few weeks, I’ve doubted myself. Not doubting myself in probably what most people think of as doubting yourself, but more like doubting my faith and what I’m doing here. I know that’s pretty natural for teenagers to be thinking while in high school, particularly ones who have some sort of faith. But I don’t know, I just felt really strange and not myself. What made this particularly strange was that it was around Christmas, and I love Christmas, so I didn’t understand why I doubted my faith during THIS season. I mentioned it to a couple of my friends, both of whom I really looked up with their faith and they encouraged me not to give up on my faith and to try and find anything that might help me rekindle it. I’m not going to say I didn’t try, because I did. But it consistently grew harder. It seemed like every time I went to church, I found my faith becoming harder and harder to reach. I’m not meaning to sound mean against our pastor because he is a good one, I know he is, I just was having trouble comprehending what he was saying. Even now, it’s difficult for me to understand. I’ll admit even, this past Sunday, one thing that this week’s pastor said made me think of Harry Potter, which I know sounds awful, but it popped into my head. He was talking about gifts we should give up to God and he mentioned how this was the time that the dark one would try and “get to us” most. When he said dark one, I have to say, I thought of Lord Voldemort, or “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.” For those of you who haven’t read Harry Potter books, Lord Voldemort is the bad guy in the novels. Like I said, I know that sounds horrible, comparing a very real religion to a very fictional story but I’m just trying to help you guys understand my thought process.

Anyway, it was also this Sunday that I think I may have found it again – my faith. I don’t know how it happened, but we started singing the worship songs and the first one we started with, I just sort of bobbed along, feeling out of place and awkward, but then we sand “Never Let Go” and I just felt something snap together. In fact, I think that now I would almost compare to like, a vacuum cleaner cord. If you push the vacuum too far, the cord will come out of the outlet. I don’t know about you, but for me when that happens, I get confused and I start thinking, “oh no! What did I do?” I flick the switch on and off, trying to get it started again, I hit it with my fists, sometimes I even talk to it, trying to get it going. “Come on, you can do it. Whatever I did, I didn’t mean it.” Then again, maybe that’s just me. But then eventually, something just clicks and you realize that you’re unplugged. So you follow the cord back to its origin, you retrace your steps and you plug it back in. That’s the best analogy I can think of to show what I was feeling.

When we sang “Never Let Go,” I almost started crying. I mean my eyes were definitely welling up with tears. I just realized a very important fact. God really does love me. Even if sometimes I doubt who he is, or don’t understand why he wants me, or even do things I shouldn’t, he still loves me; and that’s a great comfort to know. I know that in the future when I go to church, there will still be some things that I don’t understand, things that I wonder why Christians believe in them, but at least I’ll know that God doesn’t hate me for wondering. He’s not going to shun me. He wants me to figure him out, figure out Christianity itself. He’s encouraging me to dig deeper and learn about him. And that just blows my mind.

 

Never Let Go – Matt Redman

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

Your perfect love is casting out fear

And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life

I won’t turn back I know You are near

 

And I will fear no evil

For my God is with me

And if my God is with me

Whom then shall I fear? Whom then shall I fear?

 

Oh no, You never let go

Through the calm and through the storm

Oh no, You never let go

In every high and every low

Oh no, You never let go

Lord, You never let go of me”

 

 

And that’s basically the update. More to come after Christmas.

 

Katie <3

I Don’t Think Oops Covers This One

Or maybe it does. Haha, ooops? A month is a little bit long, isn’t it? I apologize from the depths of my heart that I haven’t been writing as often, but a lot has been going on since I last wrote. I know last time I wrote it was basically about Homecoming which was over a month ago. Since then, Term 2 has started, my grandfather passed away, it’s been getting steadily colder, my mom got a job, meaning that we have two incomes into the family now, and Thanksgiving is coming up.

Well, first of all, I’ll just mention a bit more about my grandpa. I found out about four weeks ago, on Halloween, that my grandpa had passed away suddenly in an operation I didn’t know he was having for his heart, I believe it was. We heard during dinner and for about a week I was just sort of in shock. Even now, I don’t really register that he’s gone because we didn’t have like, a daily contact or anything like that. We live in Minnesota, he lived in Virginia. We really only talked to him on Christmas and our shared birthday. I think that’s the hardest part about this whole thing. It’s knowing that while I may not really realize it now, in 5 1/2 months on my birthday, I’m going to think to myself, “We need to call Grandpa and wish him Happy Birthday too,” but then I’m going to realize I can’t, and that’s when it’s going to hit me. That’s what scares me. I’m not REALLY going to take in that my grandpa is dead for another 5 1/2 months. 

However, that’s a sad topic, and I don’t think you necessarily want to hear about my moping or anything like that right now. =)

My friend Greg just gave me the best candy cane ever. So awesome. Just thought I would throw that out there. Nothing else has really been going on, although my best friend from New York got in a car accident the other night. He told me that this stupid person ran a light…into his car. Luckily it was the passenger side, though he said he should have died but he didn’t. He got out with a concussion. Thank goodness, right? So that was scary, but he’s okay, so that’s good. Hmm, what else? Well, obviously it’s been a very long time since I’ve posted a post. OH did I cover Thanksgiving? Or our one year anniversary? Or our tree-putting-up? I don’t think I did. Well I will now.

Thanksgiving was rather boring actually. We didn’t do anything different, aside from eating turkey and all that Thanksgivingy stuff. It seemed just like another Thursday, but I didn’t mind because my mind set is just that once Thanksgiving is over, then we can look towards Christmas! WHICH, by the way, is (from today) only 12 days away! NICE! Our one year anniversary was nice though, we went to Noodles and Company because that’s where we went for our first “out” meal here in Minnesota and that was a blast. We had great conversation and laughs and whatnot. Most of the laughs caused by me of course. Ha. We set up our Christmas tree the Saturday after THANKSGIVING and that was awesome, although Mommy didn’t like the LED lights cos they were too bright and purple-tinted, so we took EVERYTHING off and put the old lights on – just the classic white yellow-tinted lights, you know? Anyway, I’m stoked because Christmas is my favorite holiday, so now I get to look forward to that. Haha. 

OH last piece of news. Last Sunday, my friend Savannah and I went shopping at Southdale with some Christmas money I had received from my Grandma (thanks again Grandma!). I hate to say it, but I sort of disobeyed her wishes just a little! She had told me not to spend it on anyone’s gifts, like gifts for my family, but first I saw a gift I wanted to get my sister, so I did, and it was very inexpensive and then I found this really nice gift for my mom and it wasn’t too bad either, so I bought that. BUT, then I made sure to get at least two things for myself, so I got myself one of those LOVELY old books – the ones with the leather binding, the gold pages, and the great smell. I got the Grimm’s Complete Work of Fairy Tales. I’m planning to go back and get the Seven Jane Austen Novels one possibly after Christmas to make sure about gifts, you know? =) I also bought a new charm for my phone, and this one has three penguins on it. So cute.

Now I promise that that is basically caught up to speed. Hopefully I won’t leave you hanging for this long again because that was far too long. I’ll TRY and keep you more updated, especially around this holiday season.

Just on the off chance that it takes me another month to get to you:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Though I’m just going to say MERRY HAPPY CHRISTMAS! 

 

<3 Katie

Don’t Get Your Pants in a Knot

Based on the grand total of 2 emails I got regarding homecoming, I have decided to finally tell you what happened. Not that it was much, mind you, but since you have all been ASKING so nicely, why not? Here is what happened.

-I met my friends for pictures. If you are special, I’m sending you some. They are also on Facebook, in case you’re cool.

-We went for dinner to Q. Cumbers where I sort of accidentally got in free. Apparently the lady had forgotten that I hadn’t payed. Of course, I wasn’t planning on eating anything anyway because I had had a sandwich at home, but I ate some muffins and ice cream because they just looked SO good! 

-We went to Jamba Juice (my idea) and got ourselves a smoothie. Yumm.

-We went to the dance.

-We danced.

-Our feet hurt, we were sweaty, and our voices were getting louder with each sound.

-I went home.

There’s the night for you in shortened version. Wasn’t that nice? Yes, it was. Also, the day before the dance I went to the Homecoming Football game – Jefferson v. Chaska. We kicked their butts. 37-14 baby. That’s what I’m talking about.

Now then, I have a ginormous paper for English that tags along with a speech and this big load of stuff is due in almost exactly one week. If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to lose sleep.

 

<3 Katie

 

P.S. Short Collections of K.S. (>>>) will be updated again in about 10 minutes, I just have to type up the post immediately following this one. Check it.

Oh Em Jee, Are You Going to Homecoming?

I am SOO sick of this question, seriously, beyond belief. For the past week and a half, the only thing anyone in my cliché high school has been talking about is the stupid dance. “Forget the football game, I’m only worried about dressing like a tramp and dancing so that I look like I’ll be on the streets after it’s over.” For the past week and a half I’ve had a very simple answer: “No.” Of course, that’s not enough for most people, so they have to delve deeper. “Well, why not?” “Because I don’t want to?” “But, why?” “Well, let’s see, I can’t dance, I don’t know if I can handle four hours in a stuffy room with preppy people not to mention it’s insane to pay $12 for a dance.” “Oh. Well, have fun Saturday, then.” That’s how most of them ended. Have fun? What, was that supposed to be some sort of sarcastic attitude hidden in that statement? Are you really hoping I don’t have fun so that I’ll ask you all about the dance and secretly be wishing I was there? Well let me tell you all something: I’ve changed my mind. I’m even considering going now. Why this sudden change of heart, especially when I’ve just given three very good reasons why I shouldn’t go? Well, because I can keep an open mind. I know how to take other comments into consideration. And take them in, I did. I’ve realized that, while I can’t dance, nor do I think I look good in “formal” or even “semi-formal” wear (I’m more a jeans kind-a-gal anyway), I’ll probably be missing a good opportunity to have some fun with my friends outside of school or even, possibly, meet some new people. Also, I figured, as my last post said I believe, that since I went outside my comfort zone and went to the rivalry football game, I may as well go to a school dance. Why not try and boost up my school spirit? It couldn’t hurt right? It’s not like my high school is some sort of boyfriend that I pour my heart into and then get it broken. So, today I went browsing through dresses and actually found one that I kind of sort of liked, so we got it and now that’s that. Apparently, I’ll be seeing all these preppy people on Saturday. For four hours. Keep your fingers crossed that it will go smoothly. Oh and, could you all maybe cross an extra set in hopes that I’ll keep my dress clean? Yeah, thanks.

 

Also, Short Collections of K.S. has been updated with a new one!

 

<3 Katie

Oh Snap.

So, I may have sort of kind of disappeared for like, 3 weeks. Yeahhh, terribly sorry about that. I have good excuses though, for realz. First of all, school is hard. Very hard! Secondly, I got sick last weekend. Thirdly I haven’t had THAT much news to tell you, so there wasn’t momentum for me to lug myself to my blog and post. But now I do. What is it, you ask? I’ll tell you what it is. I went to a high school football game. 

 

Yeah, I gave you time to gasp because it was worthy of one. If you didn’t, you probably didn’t understand the severity of the situation. I don’t go to high school gatherings, situations, parties, dances, games, etc… It’s just not how I roll, y’digg? Well, tonight I did. It was a Jefferson v. Kennedy (our rivals) and it was a tight game. Jefferson started out ahead with a pretty nice lead and then in like, the third quarter Kennedy started pulling ahead and we were down by about 10 points. But THEN towards the end of the fourth quarter, Jefferson scored a touchdown! And so what happened? Yeah, that’s right, we WONNNNN. 31-27. That’s what I’m talking about. My hands hurt. OH by the way, the half time show was pretty cool, that was originally what I was just going to watch, but the football part actually got interesting. I had a few friends in the marching band and they played pretty well I think. Yay!!

Other than that, there hasn’t been a lot going on except for school and all that. Really, I promise. There’s this huge paper in English that’s killing me, but other than that, it’s just boring and hard and all that stuff. So, that’s about it, I’m going to head off to bed. And just so you know, no, it’s not 4:10 AM, the time thing keeps changing on me, it’s really about 11:10, so it’s okay. =D Anyway, off I go. Nice talking to you all again. Adieu.

<3 Katie

The Past Wasn’t Made For Regrets

So. It’s 9/11. That’s pretty rough. Personally, I didn’t know anyone that was in the Twin Towers, or anyone who was near them, or anyone who was even in NYC I don’t think, so it’s a little bit harder for me to understand the grief people feel even 7 years later. Basically, I just wanted to say that to all those families of people who died in the towers that you are still thought of and kept in prayers and not to think that you have been forgotten. I don’t remember where I was when I found out what had happened, but I know that I was confused. I was in 3rd grade, 8 years old, and couldn’t exactly comprehend what had happened, or, even when I had, why someone would fly a plane into two towers, much less just one. It seemed like a pretty stupid thing to do. It was only a few years later that I realized the seriousness and reality of situation and that it was still being taken so hard. However, today, I realized that it’s not regarded in that sense much anymore. Our school barely acknowledged the presence of the day. I was severely disappointed. I thought that they would do a small history story about it on our school’s news show, maybe have a moment of silence on the announcements, but there was a short line about it at the end of the show, and a small segment at the very very end about where people were when “it” happened – not exactly honoring the day. I can definitely say my hopes were damaged. Very damaged. It’s really sad when an event happens not even a decade ago and already people are forgetting about the importance and significance about it. 

However, aside from the negativity of the response to this day, I haven’t told you about what my family did last weekend that was super fun. We walked along part of the Mississippi River! Let me quickly explain the awesome importance of that. The day or two before Saturday (the day we went) my English teacher, Mr. Hupton, had given us this paper with 38 verbs like “Write, Learn, Invent, Make, Live” things like that, and we had to fill in stuff after them. One of the things I wanted to do was “Walk – the Mississippi River, or at least part of it.” I had hung the list on the fridge and my parents happened to think that maybe that WOULD be a fun thing to do as a family. I got some great pictures of it, if you want any emailed to you, let me know. I’ve got a folder on my desktop with my favorites, not to mention my desktop background is a picture of three ducks I got WITHOUT zooming in that’s SOOO cool. YES Daddy, better than yours. 

That’s basically the news I have for now. Though, I’m sure my friends would like me to inform you that Homecoming is coming up next month. Whoopie. Gah, I hate school dances and the “joy” they bring.

Holla’.

<3 Katie

Happy Trails To You!

Multiple days since my last informative post. Whoops? I guess all that’s happened in those past multiple days is me going to the state fair and starting school right? Sigh. That means I have a lot to talk about. Unfortunately, I’m not feeling like “story-telling” today, so you’ll have to do with highlights.

The state fair was really super fun. I was so happy – I got my deep-fried Snickers bar. Yes, you read me right. It was the best thing I’ve ever tasted in the world. No yolk. My feet, of course, ached afterwards, because it was all walking, but we saw some cool stuff and what. If you don’t have access to my Facebook to see the pictures I have there of the fair, email me and let me know about me sending you a few or whatever. 

School isn’t terrible I suppose. Turns out, I don’t have any of my close friends in any of my classes, but in gym class I made a new friend, Sara(h?) so I hang out with her. We were doing fitness testing in gym this week – sit-ups, push-ups, wall-sits, pull-ups, stretch-and-reach and the mile. Wow, almost all of those involved this button: “-” Insanity. Anyway, English is pretty good, except this week we’re already starting an essay. Boo. We read (an apparently shortened version of) The Glass Menagerie this past week and I didn’t think it was too bad. Algebra 2 isn’t any better than Algebra 1, have no fear. Intro to Photo is actually really cool, I’ve already made like, 6 little things on “test strips,” which is basically just us having ten different mini-projects to work on and experiment with on lighting and developing and stuff. It’s pretty cool.

I’m sorry that wasn’t much longer, but like I said, not feeling descriptive today. PLEASE please please, check out my other blog over there >> or there << I don’t remember which direction it’s in, but click on it and read some stuff. In fact, comments would be lovely? ;] Talk to you all soon. Or later. Whichever comes first.

<3 Katie

Just So You Know…

I DO have a draft saved that I’m trying to work on, and I know I have to tell you about school AND the state fair, but I haven’t been feeling up to writing here lately, but don’t panic. I’ll get to it eventually, hopefully within the next week or so. I’m really sorry if you’ve been waiting for a post but hang in there!!

<3 Katie

New Blog

No, I’m not moving this entire blog somewhere. Yes, this is going to be a short post. But basically, I wanted you all to look to your right on this page. You see those links to other blogs? Click on the one that says “Short Collections Of K.S.” if you would please. But WAIT before you do, let me tell you about it. I just made it today, basically because I’d like to be able to show all of you my writing pieces without posting them on here and getting you all excited to see news only to be disappointed when it’s just random stuff, y’know? So click on there every few days or so, and hopefully you’ll see some new stuffs.

P.S. We had a campfire in our fire pitt last night. First one. I’m planning on putting some pictures up of it on my Facebook soon if you have that. If you don’t, email me and I’ll send you some.

Thanks for reading this and sticking with me. You all are basically awesome. Oh wait, P.S. is supposed to be last. Dangit.

<3 Katie

P.P.S. I almost forgot. There’s a link on my new blog that links back to this one. So if you find a new one here, but you want to read there first, don’t panic. You can get to both sites very easily. That is all.

Zip A Dee Do Da

You ever had that feeling where the entire day you feel incredibly lazy and so anti-social that you fear you’ll lose all your friends in five minutes? Yeah, well, that’s my day today. And I don’t even know why. I woke up this morning and I all of a sudden felt like, “Wow. This will be so unproductive that I may actually make something further from being accomplished, that’s how unproductive it will be.” And so far, I’ve been right. I’ve spent my day so far checking my Facebook at least ten times (just in case anything new happened) playing Crash Nitrokart for at least an hour, if not two (though at least one of those was spent with Robyn…bonding time perhaps?) and now I’m back on the computer … in my pajamas … feeling more bored than ever. So why am I posting a blog? I have no idea. I guess because I had nothing better to do. I don’t feel like writing, it looks kind of gross outside – like it feels like storming, but can’t because it’s too hot – and it’s not Saturday, so I can’t go out driving and Mommy and Robyn are out shopping PLUS there is nothing on our Tivo for me to watch. Does this sound whiny to you? It sounds whiny to me. Hmm. It’s really unfortunate that there is nothing good to do today. I mean, if my creativity was buzzing around even the slightest bit, I would take that and run with it but … nope, nothing. It’s dead.

I feel dead.

Wow this sucks.

<3 Katie