Sleepover

After over 100 pictures, here are our favorites from our Super Happy Glitterly Pink Girly Sleepover. For obvious reasons, the older girls and I were waaaayyy too busy to snap any pictures of the meal times or bedtimes. Those were...a little crazy. But here's a few from the moments where we were able to actually grab a camera and shoot. These first few are some of the girls cuddled up watcing "Little Women." And some hair and nail pictures down at the bottom. Looks like everyone had fun!

**pictures are now labeled, for people like Kristen who ditched us....I mean moved away.**



Marisol and Charis watching the movie.

Montana. Beth and Emily decided they did not want their faces photographed.Um...Skye or Saige, not sure which one, with Rachel, one of the guests of honor. :)

To escape the madness, Cheyenne and Amy went upstairs to read and sew. Celeste quickly followed.

Aubrey and Allie, looking very warm.

Our other guest of honor, Elizabeth, Kora, Melody, and either Skye or Saige. Can anyone REALLY tell them apart??

Joahnen, happy to have the entire blanket to herself. :)

Some of the girls watching the movie. Emily and Beth are hiding their faces again. They told me this was my last picture or they were going to confiscate the camera.

Celeste, Beth, and Amy (one of our older helpers) getting their fill before the masses came in.

I somehow bribed Amy to sit at the table with me for 2 hours and paint everyone's nails. The nail polishes you see on the table are, I'm not kidding, exactly HALF of what we had available. These girls brought their weight in polish.

Emily, although she is my best friend, did not want to be stuck at a table painting nails with me for 2 hours. She elected to try her hand at hair, which as you can see, probably wasn't going like she'd planned. Poor Charis.

Montana was extremely happy to have dark blue nail polish. She was concerned about what her mother might think the next morning but I assured her that I had plenty of polish remover. :) Don't look at me, it was midnight. Montana is the cute one.Montana and Charis at their FIRST sleepover EVER! Looks like Emily was able to finish one of those braids in time for the Meeker sisters to pose.

Cheyenne was also one of our wonderful helpers that night and she sat beside Shelley to twist and braid hair for hours. Here they are braiding Kora and Elizabeth's hair. I'm pretty sure Kora had to go through 4 hair braiders to get her hair finished.

Marisol was patiently waiting for her turn in the hair slots, and while waiting decided that her doll should not miss out on the girly fun.

Um..Skye or Saige, Joahnen, and Aubrey. They're playing Apples to Apples while waiting for everyone else to get finished with hair and nails.

And no party at the Warrens would be complete without "Uncle John" coming in to terrorize a few people and sing songs about them.
Party poopers.

little girls

We currently have exactly 19 Covenant of Grace girls, ages 8-15, in our house for a Super Fun Happy Glittery Pink Girly Party Sleepover. Mom is in the hospital still, so the girls and I thought it would be fun to do this for the church girls before Mom gets back. Are we crazy? Probably. We thought about doing a live blogging thing during the event, but then the 19 girls showed up and we realized....yeah, that's not possible.

But really, we are having tons of fun and all the girls are SOOOOO excited to be here! They keep telling us it's the best sleepover ever, so I think that means they like it. We've already eaten pizza and fruit, brownie/ice cream sundaes with plenty of toppings, popcorn, cookies, and gummie savers. We are on our second girly movie and we have painted every girl's fingernails and toenails with about 92 different colors of paint, and we've braided and string beaded everyone's hair. We're not really sure if the girls will ever go to sleep, but they brought their sleeping bags and pillows just in case. :)

Oh, and, Aubrey and Dirk invited ALL the Covenant of Grace boys to their house for a sleepover tonight! I think they have 18 or 19 boys over there, too, so both houses are one big mass of kids. We're taking tons of pictures at both houses and we will follow up with a post containing all the stories, quotes, messes, and pictures later! ...when we're all alive again...

psych-o

Got my grades back for my paper(s)! And yes, he did talk about the fake papers. It went down like this:

He was a little late to class, so by the time he got there, all of us were already sitting down waiting. He walked in and didn't say a word (which is very unusual for him), went to the front and put his stuff down, crossed his arms and just starred at us. His eyes went from one person to the next and he didn't speak for a good 2 minutes. Everyone thought we were in trouble, but I knew what he was really thinking. :)

He got out the stack of graded papers and said, "Now, before I give these back to you, I want to say a few things. Overall, I thought the content of my presents [he calls all papers we hand in "his presents"] was decent. Most of you got Bs and Cs, a couple of As, and just a few Ds. There were, however, 2 papers that I was unable to grade. This is amazing to me because I was taught at this school for over 10 years now. I've been teaching this class for over 10 years. I've been using this same syllabus for over 10 years. And I've assigned this exact paper for over 10 years. And never....NEVER in over 10 years have I seen anything like this. This could be brilliant, or it could be tragic." He stopped right there and did the 2 minute staring thing again.

He continued, "Well, I really don't know how to explain this, but I think a couple of you might have misunderstood the assignment. See, there were a few people who didn't turn in a paper with their name on it. The thing is, I received two papers with no names of anybody in this class. One was from a dog, and the other from a mermaid. " At this point, everyone busted out laughing and I was careful to do the same. He went on, "Yeah, yeah, I know that it's kind of funny. In fact, I was laughing so hard I almost cried while reading them. But then I thought about the people that didn't turn in any papers. I mean, if these papers are meant to be jokes, that's great. Props to you, man, because you are hysterical. BUT... If these papers are NOT jokes, and if one of you in this class really truly believes that you are a....a dog, or a...mermaid, please, please PLEASE come talk to me after class. You know, I got my PhD in this and we can talk through some of these issues and really get to the bottom of this. I want you all to be functioning members of society, but thinking you're a mermaid won't get you very far, I promise. So, if you have any sort of identity issues, please come see me and I'll help get you through this."

The entire class was laughing like crazy and asking all sorts of questions about the papers. He refused to answer any questions about the content of the weird papers "in case they were true." Of course, the speculation was also hilarious to listen to. Everyone was asking everyone else if "they were the one" and I made sure to say and do the same things that everyone else was doing. Anyway, everyone got a good laugh out of it and, for the rest of the class, the papers remain a mystery.

It was difficult for me to pull the two papers, plus my real paper, out of the stack without anyone noticing. I eventually got all three, but I have no idea if anyone saw me or not. While looking through the stack of papers, though, I noticed something. First of all, this is the 5th or 6th paper we've written for this class so far. Every single paper has to have a standard APA title page, which the professor give us the format for. It's not very hard to make a title page with a template. In fact, after 5 or 6 times, you'd think the title pages would be flawless. So...looking through the stack of papers that day, every single paper had some sort of red mark on the title page. Most of them had alot of red marks and notes on them. Only three papers were completely clear of red marks. So...if he was paying any attention, he probably could have figured out that they were mine. I'm hoping he didn't notice...

Today I started the first wave of the epidemic that I want to start. I convinced about 8 students to write one fake paper each for the next introspection, without letting them even suspect that I was the original person. Yes, I am that good. My goal (and theirs too, now) is to, by the last introspection, to get all 40 students to write a fake paper each. Hopefully, the professor will have twice as many papers to go through by the end of the semester and maybe the creepy stalker-man won't ask for papers with so much personal info in them. Maybe that's why he calls them "presents"....

psych-o

Excepts from the Fake Psychology Papers:

This is me with Claire, the sweet fluffy dog who inspired Shelley's paper...My name is Claire, although most people call me Clairebear. I don't
mind, because they say it
because they love me. I am a registered therapist. I have brown eyes
and white, curly hair. Everyone
says I am very soft—whether in texture or spirit, I am not sure.
Almost everyone likes me. I can't say the
same for almost everyone. I enjoy being held by my mother, food
(biscuits in particular), Sue, and the
vibrations in the floor when my mother plays piano. I will try to let
loose what I feel in this paper.
I don't know how I got everyone to like me so much, I consider myself
fairly normal, plus, I
sometimes have very mean thoughts about certain people, or just people
in general. It was probably my
mother's doing, she tends to talk me up as much as possible around
people. But I love her more than
anything in the world. I hate when she leaves me all alone every day.
But then I am so happy when she
comes home in the evening. I know she loves me just as much as I love her.
My mother is a music teacher. Why, she is quite the best musician I
know of, but then, I don't
get out much. I love to look up at her while she plays the piano. I
never could play more than one key at
a time, not having any proper digits. Still, I love to hear her play.
Sometimes she'll let me sit on top of
the piano while she plays.
Probably the most tragic aspect of my life is the fact that I am
colorblind. People think it doesn't
bother me, but it truly does. But what I lack in eyesight, I make up
for with my keen sense of smell. It has
served me well in protecting my house, as does my acute hearing. I
have been able to guard my family
from strangers my whole life (and when I say "strangers," I mean everyone).
I think I might have a disorder of some sort: I love to lick things.
Anything, really, people, shoes,
furniture, anything I can get my tongue on. I can't help it. There are
just so many things to taste! I also
have severe allergies which keep me in the house primarily.
As I mentioned, I work with therapy patients. I like them because I
know they can't hurt me. But
when I go, my mother usually makes me wear one of my ridiculous
sweaters. I only really like to wear
clothes in the wintertime.
Since I'm home most of the time, I don't get a lot of physical
activity, so I pant a lot. My tongue
hangs out in a very unattractive way, but no one seems to care.
I love to sleep, preferably in the window, where I can watch the
door. Sleeping makes me happy.
Sometimes I dream that I can walk with my back straight up. When I
walk, I'm very close to the ground,
which makes my neck hurt because I have to look up all of the time.
My favorite movie is Balto. I watch it every day. Balto is so dreamy!
My favorite scene is when
Balto shows Jenna the replica of the Northern Lights. That movie has
always inspired me—I always
wanted to be a hero, like Balto.
I love when my brother and sister are home. They always bring me
treats. They are just as gifted
as Mother is. They are my best friends, except for Sue. Sue lives in
the kitchen, and I only see him when I
walk by the oven. Sue is very awkward, he won't talk until I start
talking, then there's an uncomfortable
silence, but he's still my best friend. I love how I can look at Sue
and his face conveys everything I am
feeling at that moment. His behaviors perfectly mimic mine, like we
are long lost twins. He's the only
one who understands me.
So this is my life. I have many feelings, and have tried to convey as
many of them as I could in
this paper. My name is Claire, and I am a dog.




Caleb's "Rose the Mermaid" paper to come!

fake homework

And I'd been thinking how wonderful it was that we have made it to March without anyone getting the flu...
Maybe the flu missed us after being away for so long. We are pretty famous, you know. Usually the flu comes between Thanksgiving and Christmas (Trish's favorite time of year...) but it's been busy with everyone else this year and didn't come till this weekend.
Dad hasn't moved in 3 days, a few of the Russell kids have it, and the grandKrugs have it too. I'm trying to clean alot and get some laundry done because it's only a matter of time before the rest of us can't move. The kids are eating fruit as fast as they can to try and protect themselves. I, unfortunately, can't eat anything.

I went to my orthodontist on Friday for what I thought was my final appointment before getting my braces off. Not so fast, he says, and sadly tells me that his people put the wrong wires on my teeth last time which has evidently given me an overbite. So to fix it, he put these horrible springs in that remind me of the Stone Age because of how ridiculously large they are and said to come back in 2 months. Oh, and, by the way, you can only eat mashed potatoes, jello, and pudding until then. And he was right. I can't chew anything. So if you have any leftover mashed potatoes, be sure to let me know.

A few days ago I went in to see my super cool anesthesiologists, who are my favorite doctors. I told them right away that there was no way I would ever take another dose of oxycontin and that it was the worst drug ever invented. (It is, in case you didn't know.) They were actually very nice about it and switched me to something else which is probably the best drug ever invented. The OC was fine with controlling pain, but the side effects were awful. Now, I've gotten fairly used to drug side effects and I'm not much of a complainer. I know that with every good drug comes 5 bad side effects and for the most part, I'm willing to pay the price for pain management and symptom relief. I stayed on the OC for almost 2 years before saying anything but when school started, I just couldn't handle it anymore. It made me so foggy and I completely had to give up control of my mind and body to the drug. I could not pay attention in class and was very mentally detached from whatever I was doing. Not good for school. So they understood my whining and put me on something else that is wonderful at knocking out pain while still letting me drive, take notes in class, have a conversation, and play my piano. So I'm pretty happy.

School is...alot. That's all I can say about it. I really wish that I could have eased back into school instead of going from nothing for 3 years, to 15 hours all at once. It has been making my symptoms worse but I don't think they're as bad as when I was working. I still have not missed a class yet and I thought I would have missed several by now. So that's good I guess. The people in my classes either think I'm a freak for being so conservative and not cheating on tests, or they think I'm the smartest person they've ever met. So I tell them I'm the dumbest person I've ever met to make them feel better.

On Wednesday of last week, we had to turn in papers for Psychology that explained who we are on the inside. Our professor wanted us to detail all of our thoughts, emotions, behaviors and habits, and feelings to him in a 5 page paper. Doesn't he know I don't have any feelings??! "Hearts are organs." I was so upset by this and disgusted by the thought that this guy is going to know more about me than he should, I decided to protest. I enlisted Shelley and Caleb to write 2 fake papers for me. Of course, I actually wrote my real paper and turned it in, so don't think I'm skipping out on the assignment. But, in addition to my real paper, Caleb and Shelley wrote papers detailing the emotions, behaviors, and thoughts of a dog named Claire and a mermaid named Rose. Yes, they made these characters have very screwed up emotions, real thoughts, and weird habits. It was great. We typed them out so they looked official, with the appropriate title pages and all. Of course, my name is nowhere on the papers so he probably won't know who wrote them. I turned them in on Wednesday and will hopefully learn something about their "grades" tomorrow. And the cool thing is, we have 2 more "introspections" this semester and we're going to write Claire and Rose papers for each of them. Trish said if I was her student, she would fail me. I say that if I were her student, I would tell her that she's creepy for making me explain my deepest thoughts and feelings (of which I have none) to her. So anyway...I should find out tomorrow the fate of the dog and the mermaid and I will definitely post the results and any comments made by my professor.

negative zero

I was thinking today about how much my life has changed in a relatively short time. Actually, I think about that alot so it's really no surprise. But today, instead of focusing on the last 3 years, I was really only thinking about the last 6 months. 6 months ago I was working more than fulltime, was never home, stressed beyond belief, fighting pain every minute of every day and usually losing, and just felt like I was going nowhere. Since I quit my job, I've had way more time at home, plenty of time with my family and church family, started school again which was a major feat, started playing my piano again which was just a matter of confidence, I get to help alot of the families in our church who need me, my sisters and I are directing another church musical, still fight pain every minute of every day but I'm winning more often, oh, and I turned 21. Even though my busy-ness level hasn't really changed since the fall, I am not stressed out anymore and actually feel like I have more time. Maybe because I'm actually in control of my schedule and the things I decide to do. And, my blood pressure has decreased by 35% since I quit working. Yeah. Stress has just fallen off.

We leave on Friday for WholeHearted Mother in Dallas! Why, you ask, and I going to a mother's conference? Hm...I guess you haven't been reading my blog for very long. I go *every* year to watch the tiny babies so the moms who are still nursing can attend. This year I have 6 babies and will have 2 or 3 other girls to help me this time. I love babies and it's always nice to get away and spend a weekend in a hotel. It's a good time to get homework done too, when the babies are napping. This year I'm rooming with Stephanie and Tiffany which means our room is going to be the FUN room! Everyone will be jealous of how cool we are.

Funny story from school today: In my algebra class, the prof wrote a problem up on the board that looked pretty complex because of how many numbers were involved. It was something about multiplying around 17 numbers together and dividing it by another 13 numbers multiplied. Hidden in the first set was a zero, so I automatically knew that I didn't have to work out the problem. No one else seemed to catch on and it took everyone about 8 minutes to frantically figure out the answer. So as I'm sitting there waiting, the girl next to me leans over and says, "Did you get zero for part of your first answer?" I told her that it was my whole answer. She said, "Yeah, I know it's zero, but is that negative zero or positive zero?" All I could say was, "Ummm..." which I guess she interpreted as confusion. She confidently whispered, "Just put negative zero, I'm sure that's the answer." I could not respond.

I am currently trying to write a paper for my psychology class on "hope." It's supposed to be 10 pages and I'm just not very happy about it. He said to make it personal, but because that topic is SO personal to me, I don't think I can make it personal without it being TMI. Our friend Trish gave me some good ideas which I've already started working on, but still...I wish I could have gotten a neutral topic like...I don't know.
Well, I guess I'll go start writing instead of complaining about writing.

out of place

At Bible study last night, several people asked me to blog more crazy stories about school. I tried to do it when I got home, but nothing came to me. Either people have calmed down or I'm just tuning them out. The thing that bothers me the most right now is that I seem to be the only one out of 10,000 students who will not vote for Obama or Clinton in the general election. Seriously, I have yet to meet or even overhear one other person who will vote even semi-conservatively. I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut when issues come up in class, but knowing that I have not one person to back me up and knowing that my opinions will do nothing to change the situation, I have to stay quiet.

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday so naturally, everyone but Beth and me came to school with ashes all over their foreheads. Of course, I looked like the unpious, sacrilegious, going-straight-to-hell girl because of my ashless face. Even my professors left class for 30 minutes each to get ashed...or whatever you call it. More than a few people asked me if I was leaving class anytime to soon to go to the nearest St. Something. When I politely replied that I was not going, some girl with a cigarette (standing next to the sign that says "Smoke Free Campus!") and an obsene tshirt explained the importance of the ashes and how if I didn't follow the diet and get ashed, I couldn't know for sure where I would go when I die. I said something about not needing ashes to give my soul peace and I absolutely knew where I would be when I die. She looked at me with a very confused face and said, "But....you don't have the f-ing ashes..." I'm not sure she understood.

Actually, it was sad to have a visual reminder of just how many people don't understand. The poor girls can say and do whatever they want, but as long as they get their ashes and get an HIV test every year, they're safe. (This is literally what one of the girls in A&P said.) I walked around staring at ashen heads all day and was overcome with joy and thankfulness that my eyes have been opened to the Truth of the Gospel and that I don't need a priest from St. Something to assure me of my salvation. Christ is THE priest and has made our salvation sure. Beth's and my clean foreheads served as a visual reminder, at least for us, that we do indeed walk the narrow path.