Second Semester

two years ago

Happy New Year!

My Year in Review

Us

Christmas Time!!!

The week in review . . .

a trip down memory lane -- part 2

- For captions, place cursor over the pictures. To speed up the slide show, click the plus sign in the left-hand corner. -

Today I'm writing about my memories from New York City. My church took missions trips to NYC two years in a row. Each day we would have a permit for a different park or city location. After taking the metro to our destination, we would set up a big sound system and hook our violins and viola up to bottle-cap microphones. My sisters and I would start playing sacred or classical pieces while the rest of our team handed out tracts and talked to people. Sacred string music over a loud speaker in the middle of New York City was quite an oddity, so people would actually stop and listen! Some brought their babies down to rock them to sleep, others held their phones out for the person on the other end of the line to hear because they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Some people cried. And best of all, some got saved!

When we weren't on outreaches, we did some sight seeing. The first year was less than a year after 9-11. We went to Ground Zero and saw all of the rubble and destruction that had yet to be cleaned up. We saw the fire station at the foot of the towers that lost every single fire fighter on call that day. We saw the church that survived without a single scratch, and we saw the cross formed from the main support beams that workers discovered in the wreckage. Our team visited the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Liberty Island, Central Park, and many other places.

One of my favorite aspects of NYC was the night life. We'd go see Time Square and do some shopping after 11pm. After midnight if we got hungry, we'd walk to a pizza place and then get smoothies with giant tapioca balls in them. Word of advice -- never give a guy a smoothie with giant tapioca balls and a big straw. You're putting your life in a dangerous place! :-)

I have so many more detailed, wonderful memories from NYC, but this will have to suffice for now. More stories to come later on this week.

a trip down memory lane -- part 1

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This is my birthday week. Every time my birthday rolls around and I add another digit to my age, I spend more time reminiscing. So this will be the first of several posts recalling favorite memories throughout my almost nineteen years.

In most of the pictures that I have posted in my slide show us playing dress up. Some good friends of ours once gave us several huge bags of old clothing, costumes, hats, and shoes. A little girl's dreamland!!! Especially when she has a sister to play with. My grandma also gave each of us wedding dresses that we wore until they only reached our knees and the zipper wouldn't shut anymore. One of my absolute favorite costumes was my Cinderella dress that grandma made. I even had little plastic high heels to wear with it, a tiara, and jewelry! Whitney had a fairy godmother dress with wings and a wand. If we didn't feel like playing with our real dress-up clothes, we would go raid the upstairs hall closet. With a few knots and several safety pins, we would turn my mom's collection of scarves into magnificent gypsy dresses. After Nanny and Papa gave us stick horses, jeans, cowgirl boots, a white t-shirt, a red bandanna, and a cowboy hat became the rage. We held rodeos in our backyard, and if that got boring, we'd proceeded to follow the Oregon trail around our house. Rodeo clothes would be cast along the wayside in exchange for prairie girl dresses (and a dog costume for Boo!), bonnets, boots, and shawls. Our horses would be hitched to the wagon, and off we'd go into the wonderful world of imagination. My favorite toys in my younger years were never Barbies, Polly Pockets, or Cabbage Patch Dolls. I had more fun rigging a tent with all our garden tools (shovels, hoes, rakes), twine, and an old quilt. We loved to take an old box and turn it into a club house. Oh, and the water parks that we would set up in our backyard during the summer! Old shower curtains morphed into Slip-N-Slides, and a sprinkler on top of the playhouse cooled us off while we were swinging. Those summer memories will stay with me forever. My mom gave me the best childhood she possibly could. Instead of letting me watch a movie or cartoons, she'd kick me outside, or to our playroom in the basement, or to my room with a book. She nurtured within me that special gift of imagination.

During the school year, my grandma (teacher) had us put on special holiday programs for my parents and other set of grandparents. We'd learn applicable poems and songs and then perform them. Sometimes we dressed up especially for our part. Other times we'd turn the lights off and only let the nativity glow while we quoted Luke 2. During the lunch period during school, Nanny always read to us. Some of my favorites were "The Trumpet of the Swan," "Charlotte's Web," "Little House on the Prairie," and "Hinds Feet in High Places." I remember never wanting lunch break to end so that Nanny could just go on reading to us forever!

Starting in third grade I played softball. My team was horrible every year, and I know that I did absolutely nothing to help them. My only claims to fame were the two grand slams that I hit one year. One was the result of errors on the part of the opposing team. I love playing third base, short stop, or left field. One year, and only one, my town had a good team. We placed third in our county and third in the tournament. The other years, well, we weren't good, but we did have an awful lot of fun.

Violin has been a part of me for as long as I remember. I do not really remember learning how to play it. I have just always been able to. My first recital was when I was four, and I have no clue what I played! :-) Starting later that year, I began studying with a different teacher and continued working with him until I was in eighth grade. He was a technique dictator, but that hard work and the push to hold/move/play my instrument correctly has become invaluable. In eighth grade, I switched teachers for a new approach to my lessons in hope that it would inspire me on. She did. And today, I'm working towards an undergraduate degree in music all thanks to my wonderful teacher and my parents.

Stay posted. More to come!

Family Christmas

Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa

grandma and grandpa's new home

Home for the Holidays

Decorating for Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving!

First Artist Series!

I am home for Thanksgiving Break!!! It feels so nice to not have to worry about having a paper due or a test to take tomorrow. I can sleep in and eat real food!!! :-)

Friday, November 17, Nikki and I experienced our first BJ Artist Series! The Classic Players were performing The Taming of the Shrew, and some creative genius came up with the idea to set the play in the Old West of the 1880s. The play was second only to Wait Until Dark that I saw in Performance Hall several weeks ago. Part of the fun of Artist Series is getting all dressed up! So here are some pictures of Nikki and my wonderful evening!

college life

I'm home for the weekend and am posting a brief update on my new life!!! I've been at school now for over two months! Everything is going very well, and I'm staying SUPER busy. Below is a brief, narrated :-) documentary of my two months at school.

Nikki and me waiting to go into Perf Hall to see Shakespeare's Loves Labors Lost.

Nikki, Jason, and me right before society induction!

We choose the best girl's society ever! Yay Theta Sigma Chi Colts!!!

Nikki threw a surprise birthday party for Blake. (Pictured L-R, Blake, Curt, Adam, Nikki, Tyler, Emily, Mark, Hanna, me, and Ben.)

This is Nikki and me in a very cold bus on a very cold morning. We were headed to Farmfest!
I was so excited to be back in the country where there were no buildings, you could see the sky and wear pants, and best of all, we could walk on the grass!!!

This is our Farmfest group. (L-R Zach, Clayton, Nikki, me, and Adam.)

On Saturday, October 28, a group of us went to see the play "Wait Until Dark." I LOVED LOVED LOVED it!!! I think it is one of the best plays that I have been to in my life! (L-R Caleb, Katherine, Tyler, Jenny, Clayton, me, Adam and Nikki.)

It's hard to believe that Christmas break is a little over five weeks away! I think that I'm having WAY too much fun at school. Even though I'm having a ton of fun, I'm still learning a lot. God has been teaching me some incredible lessons about relying on Him for EVERYTHING, not just the big things. I wish I could tell more, but I have to do a lot more revising on my English 102 research paper that is due in my 8am Monday class!

Kayty...THE BEST BIG SISTER IN THE WORLD (posted by a sister)

Kayty I wanted to be able to tell you somehow how much you mean to me. This seems like one of the best ways.
Let's start with a you as a little kid. You were always there to play with me and be the big mean stepmother :D, or be the best rider in the rodeo shows we put on, or be the wagon train leader for our Oregon Trail expeditions in our back yard. You were so much fun to play with and had a great imagination.















Once we got to our teenage years we got even closer.


















Through these years you became one of my role models. Your godly outlook and fearless witness were two of the things I really admired in you. I can always count on you to be there to comfort, laugh, or tease me.





















You've become one of the biggest inspirations for my music. Always encouraging me and telling me that I can do what I think is impossible. Somehow you never lose faith.

















One of the coolest things about you is your attitude of "no one should be left out". No matter who the person is you're always including them and making them feel wanted.
All this to say " Kayty keep on loving and serving God. Don't let the burdens of life get you down. God has something soooooooooooooooo amazing planned for you. Luv ya! and I'll miss you"


P.S. I was going to add more pix of the four of us but they wouldn't upload :D.

my heart's home

I took all of these pictures before I left and wanted to post some final memories as I move on in my new church. My dad was called to this church in 1990. My mom, as a pastor's wife, had never dreamed of returning "home" to minister as "that just doesn't happen;" this church had very strong ties for my mom as her parents had been one of five families who had planted the church some 40 years ago. Growing up this has been the only church I've known, and I had the same awesome youth pastor my entire teen years. I've seen so many miracles take place under this roof. It was because of a temper tantrum on the mat inside the front door that I realized I needed to be saved, and numerous friends have been saved at Bible school or AWANA or teen activities hosted by my church.

- Home -

- My first view every Sunday morning. -

- The auditorium is not usually decorated like a circus tent, but I took this picture the week before Vacation Bible School was kicked off.

- The back side of the church. I have lots of memories of hanging out with friends or playing games back here.

- Our teen room ! Just last summer, headed up by Jodi O., we revamped our teen room. People have donated couches, chairs, and a pool table to make it a much more welcoming place.

- This statement is very true! -

- Memory board of Junior-Senior -

- Our sand volleyball court. I have wonderful memories of many games of normal and hillbilly (northern style) volleyball played here.