I had my last exam last Thursday and am on summer vacation for the next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This weekend was Obed and Anne's wedding. It was a wonderful wedding. Very joyful and very Congolese. :P The reception was great too. The only problem was that my camera is messed up and took horrible pics. :( If you get the chance to stream it, I know you'd love it. Just go to www.bibleway.org and go to Archived Services and it is there on Saturday, June 14. Quite memorable. :)

Apparently my brain is still missing though, because Meghan and I drove together to the reception and I had the business card they gave us that said "Days Inn" on it. I had the directions and we followed them with no problem until we got to the location. In the area where Days Inn should have been was some other hotel with some long fancy name. So, we drove a few block and the addresses were all wrong so we knew we had to turn around. So, after a few possibly illegal u-turns, we went back and lo and behold, nothing. So, I told Meghan to call them. Their greeting answered our question, apparently they had recently changed their name and neglected to tell anyone...

The reception was very nice and also memorable. :P I won't go into any details. :P Then, after the reception, we were leaving and needed to turn left. I asked Meghan if there was a median and neither of us could see one, so I saw a clear chance to go and I did...almost right into a pavement colored median with no distinguishing features to differentiate it from the road in anyway... Luckily I saw it right before I hit it and was able to turn quickly. So, we made another possibly illegal u-turn and were finally on our way home.

Twas a good day. :)

 Rachel :)

The wedding party


The "photographers" lol

Anna

My cup of maraschino cherries. :P No, I did not eat them all.
Tasty dessert
Tasty fruit
Cute little girl
Obed and ?
Dancing :P
The beautiful bride
Obed's trademark
Finally rushing away

Again, I apologize for the quality of these pictures, but I wanted to share them anyways. :)

Sunday night I went to some friend's house for some food and fellowship after service. Some of the younger boys decided to put on some skits for us, and we told them to try to do them without words. It was quite hilarious. :P I videoed them and they are pretty long. I tried to upload them to my videos but it was taking forever. So, later I'll get them up and if you have a few minutes and patience to watch them, feel free to do so when they are up. lol It was funnier if you were there of course, but still pretty funny. :)

The first one is the scene where Salome dances for King Herod and asks for John's head.

The second one is mostly the continuation of the first one.

The third one is a mix of stuff. Forgive some of the slightly sacrilegious parts, they were getting a little carried away and we stopped them. But it was an enjoyable evening. :P My stomach hurt afterwards. :P

Excuse the laughing and rude hand waving in front of the camera. lol The laughing is other people and the annoying hand is some special child. :P

Anyways, since they're not there, you can ignore the previous few lines and just imagine the funniness of them. :P

**Disclaimer**

Any similarity to persons living or dead is purely intentional and may be sufficient grounds for legal prosecution if names were mentioned. Luckily for the author, names were left out to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent.

Read on if you wish...   

      Once upon a time in a far off rainy land, there was a girl with curly hair. She was getting ready to graduate and was very excited to be done with high school and move onto college, but she was especially excited for this summer. She had recently gotten her license, had a decent car to drive and plans were made for a fun and eventful summer. She was a bit sad because one of her closest friends had stopped coming to church and they hadn’t talked in almost 6 months. It wasn’t that the curly-haired girl didn’t want to talk to her friend, but school and life were so busy that the chances were few that they could meet up.

            Finally, graduation rolled along. The curly-haired girl was excited because most of her family and quite a few friends were coming to see her. One friend in particular, one who hailed from a dry, flat place, she was excited to see because they hardly got to see each other. Graduation came and it was a fun time, a relief, and a bit sad. Then another graduation a few days later, one where everyone was all dressed up, looking beautiful and happy. All the curly-haired girl’s friends were there, except for the one who had stopped coming to church. This was sad, but the curly-haired girl and her friends had a wonderful time, making many memories.

            The curly-haired girl had another really good friend who was exceptionally tall. They had been friends for a long time and always had such fun together. The tall friend was having a graduation party, but had planned it last-minute, during the time when the curly-haired girl and a new friend were going to be visiting the girl who hailed from the dry, flat place, and so the curly-haired girl had to decline the invitation. She felt quite bad, but told the tall friend she would bring her a present from the dry, flat place and would see her soon.

            The trip was fun and the curly-haired girl came back with a small present for her tall friend. She forgot to bring it to her tall friend the next time she saw her, so she told her she’d bring it the next time they met. This would never happen, for before they could meet again, the tall friend roller-bladed into Heaven, leaving grieving family and friends behind her. The curly-haired girl and her close friends, ones who were close with the tall friend as well, all took it extremely hard and had a lot of trouble coping. They banded together, but times were tough and God seemed very far away.

            The curly-haired girl took another trip to the dry, flat place with her new friend and another new friend to visit the girl who hailed from that land. It was a very fun trip and it helped take the curly-haired girl’s mind off her sorrow. Her friends were there for her and it helped her immensely. Soon, her birthday came up and her not-so-new friend had a surprise party for her, with the surprise arrival of her friend who hailed from the dry, flat place. The curly-haired girl was greatly surprised and touched by her friend’s love and care for her.

            Life seemed pretty ok for a while, but the curly-haired girl and her close friends were still grieving the death of their tall friend. Then came a phone call from her friend from the dry, flat place that she was entering a relationship with an older guy. She was very sweet about it, but the shock was a lot for the curly-haired girl. She didn’t know how to take it or handle it. Her world was just starting to feel calmed down and then came this phone call. It wasn’t that she was unhappy for her friend, she was just shocked and startled at yet another change she had no choice in accepting.

            Then, she discovered that her friend who had stopped coming to church was pregnant and unmarried. Things began to weigh heavily on the curly-haired girl, including many other things that must remain unmentioned. Life at home became tough, as well as life in general. The curly-haired girl was glad to be done with school for the year when that school year had ended. She took a trip with her not-so-new friend sometime to visit her friend from the dry, flat place. It was fun, but a weird trip, the reality sinking in that her friend was slipping quite quickly away from her.

            That summer was not the best for the curly-haired girl. It seemed like all her friends were busy with other things, and she felt quite alone. Then, one day after she had finally come to terms with her friend’s relationship with the older man, she was online and another friend asked her how she felt about the engagement of the older man to her friend from the dry, flat place. The curly-haired girl had no knowledge of this occurrence and was quite upset that her friend hadn’t cared to tell her before she had told the world online, but hid that down and pretended she knew what was going on.

            Life became complicated with wedding plans, and the curly-haired girl was left out of everyone’s lives once again. Then, her not-so-new friend went away and came back in a relationship with a guy. The curly-haired girl had no idea what to say or do. It seemed like there would be no end to the shocks forced upon her. The curly-haired girl was in the wedding of the friend from the dry, flat place and was happy, although she still had a hard time believing her friend was married. She wasn’t too distressed, because the friend was moving close to her. She could now see her a lot more. But this didn’t happen.

            After that, the friend from the dry, flat place rarely talked to her. She said hi a couple times online and a couple times in person, but that was it. The curly-haired girl was greatly confused, wondering if she had done something wrong or said something wrong, but could think of nothing. The not-so-new friend was practically engaged to the guy from away and was leaving for a long time.

            In a few short months, some of her closest friends had been ripped away from her, some seemingly not to care. Her other close friends had plans and other things to do and the curly-haired girl was busy with work and school. She had never felt so alone. God was a comfort, but the girl was confused on what to do and how to handle life.

            Everything she once cared about and was comfortable with was now gone. It seemed at times that maybe it was God, taking away the things the girl held most dear to her in order to get her attention back on Him. The curly-haired girl wanted to please Him and was willing to accept this, but needed strength to keep on without sinking deep into a dark hole like she had many times before. So, she turned away from her sad feelings, threw herself into work, school, and most importantly, put her hand in God’s hand and went on with life, feeling it was just her and God, and though greatly saddened by all her losses, very grateful that she had one true friend who had never left her or forsaken her, and never would, and for that, she could never be thankful enough for.

The Beginning

I miss my mind the most...

So today I think I went almost completely crazy...

I went all the wrong ways to get to the places I needed to go to including...

I got on the freeway going South instead of North, while talking to Leah telling her how crazy I was going today. I hung up with her and started to turn, suddenly realizing that I was turning onto the wrong freeway entrance...

So, I had to get on and took the next exit and took a long detour...

*Sigh...*

We went out for a snack after church on Sunday night and my brother took the keys to get something out of the car, and an hour or so went by while he goofed off outside with some friends.

About 9 at night or so, we all went outside to go to the car and leave when we discovered my brother had locked the keys in the car an hour ago, not bothering to tell anyone, claiming to have thought I had a spare key. In fact, I do not, much to my dismay, especially at the time.

So, there we were, after 9pm in the parking lot, cold and locked out of our car. I immediately called my dad at home to bring us the spare key, luckily we live only about 15 min. away, but it was still a pain.

I decided to try my car keys in the door. My Honda key didn't fit at all, not surprisingly. I randomly decided to try my house key. It's not even close to the same as the van key, but it fit, and I turned it to the left, and it almost turned. I turned it to the right, thinking no way it would turn, and it popped up the lock!

I tried it 3 or 4 more times, and it still worked.

We were quite happy, although a little nervous, knowing someone's house key could have opened our door.

All in all, everyone went home safe and happy, without an extra trip by my dad. :)

Dear Mim,

 You would have been 20 today. It seems really weird, because I still think of you as 18 and beautiful and even the rest of us girls, I still think of as 18. We were having the time of our lives. Enjoying our new freedom and living life to the fullest, at least for a short time after grad. I don’t know how it is up there, are you 18 or 19 or 20 or 21? Do you still think of us? What do you do up there? I still miss you a lot. It feels weird, writing you a letter, especially since it feels like I don’t really know you. Were you ever in my life? Looking back now, you were just a sweet vapor in my life, that just whispered in and whispered out. We’ve all made a lot of changes. We don’t really talk about you much, and it makes me feel bad. It’s like we’ve forgotten you, but whenever we get together, we feel that hole. Every time Meghan or Mel or Rose plans something with us all, they go through the list, and there’s always one more that we can’t think of, that we’ve forgotten, and then we each silently remember, it’s you. We’ve been taking good care of Rachel. She hasn’t taken your place, but she’s gotten her own special place in our hearts. We love her like a friend and like a sister. It’s not easy for her or your mom, but we all try hard to do our best to fill in. Naomi’s done a good job. And her and Dave are finally getting married! J On May 24. Rachel’s gonna be the maid of honor. We’re all excited. We’ve changed a lot. We’ve gotten more serious, more appreciative of what we have. None of us have forgotten you, but sometimes you feel like a story. I forget too much of what we did, what we talked about, how you sounded, how we had fun everywhere. The adventures we had each Sunday afternoon and evening. It’s hard. We all notice the hole, but we do our best to fill it or just get by. A lot has changed. Too much. There have been a lot of good changes though. Some bad ones, but God’s in control. I don’t know if it’s weird to write you a letter, but I thought it might help. I haven’t forgotten your birthday. It’s ingrained in my memory. Every April I think, there’s Dad’s birthday, Uncle Gerry’s birthday, Connor’s birthday, and Miriam’s birthday. Oh, wait…sigh… It’s been close to 2 years, and the pain is slightly less. I didn’t believe it would get less, but it has. Although it’s mostly because the memories are decreasing and that hurts in it’s own way. Well, maybe I’ll write more later. I know you probably won’t ever see this, you don’t need to, you’re having a wonderful celebration up there, and I’m happy for you, I just miss you so much. Anyways, don’t worry, we’ll take care of your mom and Rachy and if you could read this, I’d wish you a happy birthday, just to make me feel better. Oh, and say hi to Stephen and Silas and the others for us. We miss them too.

Love Your Friend,

Ruth

P.S. Remember all those letters we wrote in high school? :P I found some a while ago. They made me laugh. We were so silly. J

P.P.S. Remember this pic? I remember showing it to you for your 18th.