My first crush was Elijah Wood. And still to this day, my Elijah Wood fandom hasn't died down. I may have outgrown the crush I have had on him, which came and went for about ten years, but he is still one of my favorite people. And maybe a part of the little girl crush is still there, who knows. :)

 
(The movie that started it all: Flipper.)

   

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One year ago today, exactly 366 days ago, God completely rocked my world.

It was a Wednesday morning, and my Erin was coming over to visit for a while. I had been thinking about being  a missionary since June, and so I told her that. Her reaction was so different from everyone else's: she said "You'd be good at it." Everyone else just said something like "That's cool," or "That's neat." I was surprised by what she said. It was so encouraging. Also, she had just gotten back from a summer trip to London, Paris, and Munich so we talked about what she saw. I was just dying while she told me about London. She turned to me and said "I could totally see you living in London." That was flattering too. It made me feel like, "I am so moving out of the US." I didn't just want to visit Europe anymore, I wanted to live there.

So I brooded over what she had said the rest of the morning all through the early afternoon. I went about my day normally, feeling like I really needed to be out of the US. And then, God intervened, in a way I would have never expected. I didn't even realize what was going on until later.

I was surfing YouTube, like I normally do. I opened the main page and looked at the featured videos. A video called "Tin Whistle Duet" was featured, and I clicked on it, mildly curious as to what a tin whistle was. (I had an idea, but I wanted to know.) This is the video:

Nothing special, right? Wrong. My entire being was just flooded with this desire to go to Ireland. I was so overwhelmed. This feeling came out of nowhere and just overpowered me.

There is a lyric from a song called Begin, by The Send that completely sums up what happened that day:

You called my name. I heard it echo days and days...

I could not get this tiny little country off my mind. Nothing had ever weighed so heavily upon my heart before, and for the next few days I just brooded deeply upon the matter, praying and just wondering with expectation and joy. Later that same day I realized that God was calling me to be a missionary to Ireland. Who would have known that God would speak to me in such a profound way through YouTube?

I felt more comfortable with this new calling after I learned I was to go to Ireland. I was still uneasy though, because I had wanted to be a musician for six years! I freaked out when I realized last June that God was calling me to missions. I didn't know what to do, but when He said "Ireland," I said "Okay," and I didn't struggle with it one bit.

Three weeks later, September 8th, I believe, God just completely confirmed that calling over and over, during that entire weekend. This call has been confirmed over and over again in so many ways. I see Ireland all the time now, whether it's something that has the word "Ireland" on it, or it's something that reminds me. I won't forget it. I doubt that there has been one day that I haven't thought about Ireland.

And where am I now? My life has been seemingly infiltrated by this: I'm wearing a sweatshirt that says Ireland. I'm listening to an Irish rockstar. I have three painted rocks on my desk: one with the tricolour painted on it, another with a shamrock, and the third with a big gaudy rainbow on it. I'm learning how to speak Irish. I'm reading a historical novel about Ireland's history and a biography of St. Patrick. I have a book of Irish folk tunes arranged for piano on my desk and beneath it on the small shelf is a book discussing Irish folk music. I'm wearing a claddagh with Connemara marble that was shipped to me from Dublin. A ring on my other hand has a celtic knot on it.

Infiltrated. My life has been penetrated and changed by what happened a year ago.

I'm so honored that I get to go to Ireland and tell them about the God that I love so much. Whether it's to rekindle the love of Christ in the hearts of Catholics or to ignite a new fire in unbelievers, I am so excited for the day that I will finally be able to live in the country where my heart is.

I'm reading Oliver Twist today since I'm done reading the second Harry Potter book. Oliver Twist is due back on Saturday and I can't renew it anymore, so I'm going to read as much of it as I can in two days, return it, and then wait until they shelve it again to check it out. I'll have to do the same thing with Princes of Ireland too, since that one is due soon also.

The quote in the title is from Mr. Bumble, the beadle. I thought it was funny, because it's true. My dad's a pastor and I've been involved in the church my whole life.

Although one could argue that "the parochial life" is a bed of roses. There are going to be thorns, but there are also fragrant roses. I guess that the roses are worth all the thorns you have to put up with.

Watched Olympic fencing today. I realized that I know nothing about fencing. I just know you're supposed to touch your opponent with your little whippy sword/rapier thingy. It was still fun to watch, because it was so different from fencing in movies. In the movies, it's all orchestrated to look beautiful, just like a song or a painting. What was also strange to me was that when the girls would "touche" each other, they'd scream. Almost like a banshee. Beansidhe. I don't know, it was just odd....

Anyway. Back to my book.

I'm listening to Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh again. This CD is less than a half-hour long, so it's a good way to time myself on the computer. It's the perfect length. The only problem is that now it has lessened my attention span for other CD's. My brain is wired in half-hour increments, and so once I reach that half hour mark on a CD I feel like it's taking way too long and I'm just ready to be done with whatever album I'm listening to.

I'll get over it.

Today was the last Sunday for our senior pastors. They're resigning, so now we only have one pastor. Before June we had 3 pastors: senior, associate, and youth pastors. When June came, our youth pastors left, and last month our senior pastors said they'd be resigning. It's pretty crazy. Our associate pastor has his hands full now. Our church is going to be very different, it's going to be hard for everyone. That's hard stuff. I can be sympathetic, since my dad's a pastor himself. (We're on a sabbatical currently, and we're attending this church for a while.)

Pastor Wood gave his last sermon and he touched on the most important subject: eternity. I was very glad he talked about that. I've mentioned this before, and Pastor Wood said it too: this world is about the kingdom of heaven. We need to be concerned about eternity.

I had a great afternoon, too. It started out with AWESOME spaghetti! We've been eating spaghetti every Sunday for lunch for I think 12 years now! It's quick and easy and very good. Today my mom didn't have a lot of sauce, so she put a bit of salsa in the regular spaghetti sauce! It made such a difference in the flavor, gave it a little kick. I loved it. I hoovered it right up.

Then around 1:30 my best friend Erin knocked on my door. We were planning to hang out, but I was surprised because she said she'd be here around 2 and she was early. We stayed in my room and talked for a while, asked each other what we should do, talked some more, and then decided to go out for ice cream. Like we even had to think about it! We are ice cream fanatics. I think when we're old and retired, she'll come over to Ireland and we'll sit and eat ice cream on our porches in the Irish rain. While wearing some nice wool sweaters. Haha! Ice cream and Ireland don't seem to go that well together. Anyway, we went to a park by the lake and sat out there eating our ice cream. She told me more about her Catholic boyfriend and I didn't feel so intimidated about that anymore. I know next to nothing about Catholicism so I was nervous when she said that he was Catholic. It's all good now though, he knows the truth.

After that we headed back to my house so we could follow my parents up to the chuch picnic, which was also a goodbye picnic for the Woods. It was at a church member's house, and behind their house they have a HUGE landscaped area. They have trees and a big pond with ducks and koi fish! It's really beautiful, and there are lights in the trees. People take portraits there and have weddings there. I tasted honeysuckle today. It was really weird, tasting this sugar water coming from a flower. They have a couple small foot bridges, and one of them has honeysuckle all along the railings. And I petted a duck while it scampered away from me. I just tapped his tail really. There were baby ducks there, all fuzzy and following their mummy everywhere. (Mummy!) It's really funny to see the ducks waggle their tails! It's cute! Oh, and I saw a koi fish that was huge! It was big enough to eat, about the size of a salmon you'd get in a fish market. Yuck. There is also a huge sturgeon there that I didn't get to see. I guess it's like four feet long.

It was really good getting to spend time with Erin. I swear we were separated at birth. I told her that I hope my husband is exactly like her, because we just fit together like puzzle pieces, we're so alike. She's leaving for college on the 20th and I'm going to miss her more just because I know she's further away. But we're going to start sort of a scrapbook together, like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. (Oh, my Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh CD just ended. I've been here blogging for about 20 minutes now.) Her and I were sitting up where the "stream" starts on their property (The pond and small stream is just irrigation that's kind of been re-routed.) looking at all of the rocks there. I'd take a rock that looked interesting and dip it into the water and see it's true colors. I've always loved rocks. I guess Erin did too. She said she has jars of rocks all around her room or maybe even the whole house! She said she actually considered being a geologist. (I like geology, but it's a different story when you study historical geology based on the bible! There is so much to learn!)

I should finish up here. I've been here for almost a half hour. I came in here after being bored with watching the US Olympic team in gymnastics.

Okay, I'm done. Gesundheit. (That means good health in German. In Irish, it's sláinte! Funny how you say the German one after somebody sneezes, but the Irish one is only a parting phrase. And in English... it doesn't exist.)

Sláinte. Gesundheit. Health. Tomorrow I'm going to a little Bavarian themed town for the day! It's the trip we've been meaning to take to celebrate my graduation! Haha!

(AH! I'm back to the song I started at! Three Legged Dog!)

I woke up this morning with the Olympics theme song stuck in my head! I'm excited for the Olympics! Last time the Olympics happened I watched hardly any of it. I remember in 2000 we had the TV on a lot watching the Olympics. This time, I want to see more of the events.

Yesterday my dad went on a trip to the other side of the state for the day, so my mom came home early for work. It was hot and muggy outside, so we couldn't go outside on a walk or downtown to just look around. The only indoor activities we could do were going to the movies, sitting in a cafe somewhere, or looking around at stores. All of them--except going to the library, which we did earlier in the week--involved spending money, which we didn't want to do because we're taking a trip to a Bavarian tourist town next week, and we want to spend money there. So yesterday afternoon my mom and I were sitting on the couch utterly bored. I've never been so bored. I wanted to go out and do something, but when you live in a small town, there is nothing to do!

I've never complained about nothing to do in this town. I usually am fine reading a book or playing my sister's keyboard (that's what I'm referring to when I say "playing piano;" we don't have a real piano) or whatever. I don't need to leave the house to entertain myself. Yesterday was just one of those days though. So, after sitting there, painfully bored, we exhausted all of our options of what to do. And finally, I had the idea of playing a board game. It was totally a lightbulb moment!

In the end, me, my mom, and my two younger sisters played Boggle, Slap Jack, and Apples to Apples for around two and a half hours. (Actually, none of those games involves a board, but they're still board games.) We listened to Leeland's new album, Thousand Foot Krutch's second newest, and Switchfoot's second newest. And, because my dad wasn't going to work and we were eating dinner later, I was very happy to have a snack around 3:00. I like afternoon snacks!