Sometimes I forget how quickly my life changes.

I'm completely aware that I haven't posted on here in nearly 3 months. I kinda feel like I've let this whole summer pass by, but then I realized that the only problem was that I didn't stop and notice the things that really made a difference.
I was talking to a good friend of mine this week about how entering high school as a freshmen really tests your maturity. What matters, and what doesn't? When should I and shouldn't speak? When is it okay to be loud and social(and sometimes obnoxious). What's really worthy to be upset about? When do I say "no"?. What are my highest priorities? .. and what is the foundation of my life and everything in which I believe?
To a middle schooler, these things are "subconsciously" important, but aren't really applied. My church's middle school group seems to become less and less mature every year, but then I realized it's just me growing up.

I'm entering my senior year. I read status updates on facebook today from 2009 seniors. They talked about how awesome their new colleges are and how cool their dorms and apartments look. I thought to myself "They're college students?? Really??"... then I realized I'm not too far behind them. I'm graduating in just over 9 months.
Truth me told, I have a lot of very large decisions to make in the next two or three years... decisions that, a year ago, I never even thought would cross my mind as a serious consideration. I'm finally facing the time in my life when I really have to think as an adult. What's best for me, and the rest of my life? These things were always "subconsciously" important to me, but they simply weren't applied yet. Now I see.

Pray for me as I set off into my senior year. I'm not dreading the return of school for once in my life. I think I'm fairly well prepared. The summer was fun and I learned a lot, but I'm ready to turn to the next page. I'm anxious to see what happens.


Pray for me. This is probably going to be most challenging year of my life. I'm going to need some strength and wisdom.

btw, does anyone want to be my accountability leader?

Whoops...

I coulda sworn I posted a more recent blog..
I guess not.

Here are some random updates I'll fill you in on.


1). College decisions still quite undecided, if not more complicated. I'm not really sure what to even think about all these possibilities anymore, nor do I know if I should go after what I want with full force, especially if it's going to fail. How do I try to achieve a goal and guard my heart at the same time?
Btw, college possibilities as of this week are TWU(Denton), UTA(Arlington), and Hallmark(Mass.).
Let me know if you want more details on these. I'll gladly explain.

2). Started some summer classes at TCC last week. My computers class is a drag.. and my English class is actually not as bad as I thought it would be. My teacher is entertaining enough the homework isn't terribly heavy. We watched Shawshank Redemption in class this week. Once you get past all the language, it's a great movie. :-D (we watched it for our next paper).

3). For those of you who didn't know, I got a car nearly a month ago... my own car, that's not the cruddy oldsmobile we've had for ages. That car has had it's days. :-D
Unfortunately, my radio didn't work, so my dad fixed that today.. but then we found out five of the six speakers don't work. *sigh*
One will do for now. :-P

4) It's impossible to get a job in the summer. Oh.. my.. gosh. Being a teenager sucks because all the entry level jobs are taken by all the *other* teenagers. Bah...

5). I decided I'm going to go to New York someday.. maybe several times.
I'm incredibly jealous of Trint and Tammy for going there for their 10 year anniversary.
:-P

6) It seems as if every year of my life has a theme to it. 8th grade was fear and faith, 11th grade was strength and forgiveness, and now it's like I've being constantly encouraged to try my best in everything and setting goals for myself. I know I've gotten this type of encouragement all my life, but it's way more emphasized now. I don't have any doubts that God is trying to tell me something through all these sporadic messages, but I'll be completely honest, I still have no idea what goals to set.
Maybe this is also a year of patience...

Urgent!

Pray pray pray!!

I swear, I couldn't need it any more than now.
God has complete control over this... and it's beating me to the freaking core because of the mere thought of how incredible POWERFUL God is...
I need strength and guidance, I need a divine intervention!
I CAN NOT tolerate Satan getting in the way of this. I JUST CAN'T!

This is God you're dealing with.. powerful stuff.



Gah, I can't properly express what I'm thinking right now, not even in words on a blog.
JUST PRAY!
Pray for me!
Pray that Satan will stay away, so God can do his work.
Pray that ears and hearts will be opened...
PLEASE..
This is a radical mission field I've never experienced before... at least, not at this level.
This is such a huge deal to me, I can't even sit still... it shivers my spine.


God, send me!!

I need a lot of prayer... mostly for strength to accomplish small things, as well as large things, like college and a job.
I'm so swamped with stuff to take care of.
I may grow weak, unless of course I continue to find my strength in Christ constantly.

But this is why I need prayer. I'm only human, but I wanna try...



I'll try to be more specific in my blogs later on.. but it's late. I'm going to bed.
Goodnight, faithful readers.

Hello, strangers

Haven't updated in nearly a month.
Sorry, I forgot!
Nothing personal. :-)


Galveston mission trip was phenomenal. God blessed me by making a way for me to go, and blessed me even more by working through me on the mission field in Galveston. The most interesting thing about my experience was that my purpose was not wholly to serve the people in Galveston, but also minister to and encourage other team members from Glenview. I returned home with a new good friend, who is now a follower of Christ as of two weeks ago. Not only is God blessing me with a good friend, but He is also giving me the opportunity to disciple a new believer.
God has been building me up lately, for a leadership role... now I'm pretty sure I know why.
As my faithful readers, I ask that you pray for me.. that I keep up with my devotions with God and continue to grow in him as I face the challenges of teaching.
Also pray that I can get a "Paul" to help disciple me also.


I may post more often, depending if I can remember. I've had a lot on my mind lately that I want to post or update on.
I guess we'll see.


Blessings,
Katie

I'm going to Galveston.
God blessed me.


:-)




InOtherNews:


I've been thinking about what I'm going to do after high school. I'm going to be a senior pretty soon, so I suppose it's about time to think about it.
I spoke with my painting teacher on Monday about the school her granddaughter is going to (whom is one of my friends also).
She's going to the Hallmark Institute of Photography in Massachusetts. Obviously, it's a school strictly for photography.
This is like... my dream, to say the least.

Unfortunately, it's in Massachusetts, where it's expensive to live.. plus the tuition in $60,000.
But, it's an 11 month school.. not four year, so I'd be done pretty quick and won't even have to deal with taking all those English classes and such in college. Heck, SAT scores don't even matter, which is a bonus because I already know I'm going to suck at SATs.
I would have to wait a year after graduation to go(possibly even two) to save the money with a full time job. After talking to my teacher and looking at the website, the money that is spent on the year attending the school will be easily earned back in sales the next year, which is pretty kick-butt if you ask me. The training in fantastic, which included photoshop, lighting, and running your own business. Not only that, but the tuition comes with a camera.. the best one being made at the time, which alone is a several thousand dollar value.

*drool*

Man, would I love to go there. So many pros and cons though...
This is something to pray about.

No complaints.

Not this time...

I remember on several occasions, I would be dramatically worried about money for mission trips, prom, and other various events in spring.
Glenview is leaving this Saturday morning on the family mission trip to Galveston. Unfortunately, I was an idiot and forgot to apply for a scholarship early-on considering I couldn't pay for it, but it turns out my parents could have paid if they wanted to, but I had to *earn* the money myself to go. I didn't get that memo until yesterday...
So, with that said, I kicked into gear to earn some money. I offered to work for my grandmother yesterday with any household chores(she always needs that kinda help), so she sent me over to her house and had me do some fairly small stuff for her. She paid me a generous amount, which included birthday money as well.
That helped a whole lot..
but I still have a little more to go. I plan to work around the neighborhood tomorrow to earn the rest, which hopefully won't be too stressful. It's not that much to get, but I have no clue how stubborn my neighbors are.
Hmm..

But this is what I'm posting this blog for!
I need prayers that I'll get what I need, and also for peace in my family. A lot is going on and everything is very hectic around the house right now, so prayers for that would be nice.
I can't complain though, God has blessed me a lot already. I didn't have a hard time at all finding a dress, date, and ticket for prom this year. No dress stresses for once, which helps a whole lot. I've also managed to find time to work on my school, which is an abnormally light load this semester. Only thing I can say about that is that I'm sucking at Computers Class at TCC because the Word and Excel software I have to use to do homework and labs are not on my home computers, so I can only do homework in class, which leads to a LOT of undone homework and horrible grades. I think half my current grades are F's, which really stresses me out because my mom will be ticked if I fail. I may end of spending the day at the TCC library on Tuesdays and Thursdays to work on those while Holly is in her class.
I guess we'll see...


OnADifferentNote:

I entered (at least) two of my photos into a photography exhibition at TCC that will be displayed in a couple weeks. I've also entered a painting I did last semester into the Watauga Public Library art competition, also in the next couple weeks. I submitted my work last week, and the clerk at the desk asked if I had any other artistic sisters, and continued to ask about a drawing entered last year of Jesus. Turns out she was talking about mine, which I was excited about, because I didn't think people would remember my stuff that much.
My mom went to the Library today to see what other people had entered. She also talked to the desk clerk and asked about why they didn't have a photography section. The lady said that many people have asked, and they considered doing a separate competition for photography. She followed my suggesting just a show instead of a competition. She then asked my mom if I had enough photography to put up my own show there at the Library and if I'd be interested.
"Of course!"
So my mom came home and told me about it and asked if I wanted to put up a display show at the Library. It's not a solid plan yet, but it could potentially happen in early May.
:-D







I think that's all the news I have so far.
:-)

Leaders

.
What makes a leader?
What makes a person capable of being a mentor?
What makes a person trustworthy?
What makes a person admirable?

I'm puzzled.


I've gotten several comments and references lately that Kason and I are "good examples" or "good mentors"... Some comments even toward me, saying I am a good role model.
Someone told me today that I was officially their big sister, and that came from a guy significantly taller than me.
This is strange to me, because I've never considered myself to be a wonderful leader, nor have I ever been told straight forward that I was a good role model.
Is this just my lack of self-esteem or is this true?

I really don't understand, and I really don't feel like I diverse this.
And what is it that makes my relationship with Kason worth following? Most people would look down upon teen relationships with hopeless expectations. What makes our relationship different?

I'm seriously very curious.. I'm hoping for some kind of reply here.
Could you let me know, perhaps?

Compilation Update:

.
I love How God can restore anybody from anything.
I made an effort to write down the verses I've been reading and what I'm learning from them. It helps me remember what I read about 3 days ago rather than forgetting by the next morning. Plus, the sermon on Wednesday night fit exactly to what I read the night before in Romans 6, and today's Sunday school lesson fit exactly to what I studied about three months ago in 1 Corinthians 13. Staying in the word has given me more strength lately, and I praise God for that. I'm also thankful for how much God has been confirming things to me through scripture and the church.
It's exciting.
I must say, though, that there are still a lot of uncertainties floating around right now which can be scary sometimes. I just hope I don't get discouraged.


--------------------------------

School started on Wednesday. Considering I did most of my core classes last semester, this semester is going to be significantly lighter. Two are wholly spiritual growth classes(which I love very much already), and another is painting. That leaves Government and World History, which are only tough if I don't put any time into them.
I'm thankful for my load this semester.. at least, so far.


-------------------------------

My family went out to take pictures today. I had a use up a current role of film before Tuesday, so my mom suggested going somewhere pretty. She decided on the Great Wolf Lodge. I'd never been before, but it turned out to be fairly nice. Looks like an insanely fun place to stay, but not a whole lot of really good pictures ideas came to mind. I filled up a role and half though, so nothing really to complain about.
oh!
and my parents have been talking to me lately and they've decided that they're going to save up to get me a nicer camera. I'll probably look around to find some deals within $500 or so.
It might be a while, considering our income is slow, but I certainly appreciate the change of mind on their part. :-)
In the mean time, my dad might help me build a website and my mom's looking to help me find an internship with a local photographer. I'm not sure how that will go, considering that takes a little more time and "experience". I may end up having to find any job right now, regardless of what it is, just because I need a better income, especially considering my expenses this spring.
I don't know.. I guess I'll see what happens.

--------------------------------

Prayers would be appreciated(in any area)













Ohh! One more thing!!
Happy three month, Kason!
Ahaha
:-D

I've let myself slip.

Pride, anger, and reliving my past.
Nobody else really had anything to do with it, I kinda brought it all on by myself.
I've said and done things I shouldn't have.
I've hurt some people, and I've hurt myself.
I've become a mess..
I've caused problems. A family member told me this evening that I just caused permanent damage between several people.
I wasn't trying to hurt anyone, but it happened.
I wasn't trying to get in trouble, but I did.
I wasn't trying to relive bad memories, but my carelessness caused them to be relived.


I don't want to be negative...
I'd much rather not be upset, but how do I learn if I don't experience humility first?


I'm sorry.
The example I've given has been sucky lately.



I'm going to go talk to God now.