And that's all my phone has to say about that...

 

planted some grass seed in our back yard. it is amazing for the amount it rains out here how dry stuff can get. and how moss can choke out the existence of all things. also, how bird would rather peck at my grass seeds than eat from their feeder.

 

flash back to JoJo circa 2009. I think this was his favorite shirt.

the back says "chain saw brutality, tornado strength"

 Back in the day of hardcore bands, size small, skin tight shirts, long hair and skinny pants.

(good lord...) (and no, those weren't not his sunglasses, thank you Jesus.)

now its my shirt. strangely, it seems to fit pretty well.

 this both fascinates and disturbs me. so I wear it because it is laughable.

 

there isn't much that the kitty boy loves more than popcorn. it is second only to milk.

every night we munch some while we watch TV and Trink begs until we throw him some little kernelless pieces.if we aren't quick enough he tries to steal from us.

We throw it, and he catches them between his front paws.

 It is adorable. So we keep allowing it.

(we don't feed him people food...save for milk, popcorn and pretzels...)

 

what is this weird thing, you ask?

 a washing machine drum. purchased on craigslist for $25. Why? Because my cool welding husband is going to transform it into a super backyard fire pit. quite excited about that project! (note: its upside down in the picture)

 

there are few things more curious and suspicious than feet under the covers. cats are so silly.

 

you know those people on facebook who seem to constantly be getting free samples in the mail? I'm one of them now.

 

my mother in law just had kittens!!! 4 little itty bitty black ones! 

 well, her cat did...obviously. next time we are home visiting we are taking one (or two or all of them, according to JoJo) back home with us. Trink needs a baby sister. Just think, then you can all endure constant pictures of ALL our cats! Yup. We're crazy cat people. Deal with it.

 

Giant garlic clove. Next to an average sized mushroom. This intrigued me for unknown reasons.

 

this weekend we are attending a birthday party for our friend's fabulous baby girl. she is turning one. and i wanted to buy here every outfit in the store, but settled on this one as she like to play in dirt and garden.

 

my cat has an eyebrow nibbling fetish. it is weird. as you can tell, we own Mr. Kitty Personality, over here.

 

Pearls! Real ones!

 Anniversary gift from my love for me to be fancy and fabulous in Hawaii.

According to the anniversary chart thing, your 1st anniversary is paper and your 30th is pearls. I don't understand any of that stuff one bit, but lets just pretend JoJo is prophesying into our marriage with these. Besides...who wants paper?

Unless its plane tickets to Hawaii. Those were good too :P

 

most importantly, this week I finished school and began packing (and forming detailed lists of attractions, activities, stores and restaurants) for OAHU!!! We leave Tuesday. We never had an actual honeymoon, as he deployed shortly after our wedding, so this is our honeymoon and one year anniversary and first vacation all rolled into one. We are excited out of our minds over here. Don't worry, thousands of (quality, not phone) pictures to come!

I'm Back: Military Wife, Military Life and What Have You

Well.

I'm back. Sort of fell off the posting schedule, I suppose. My last post was in November and I figured I was due time to update you, seeing as most major aspects of my life have changed since we last talked.

Quick recap:
Married an Airman on May 26th, 2012.
That Airman Deployed June 4th-December 12th to Qatar while I stayed at home on the East Coast.
He came back and I joined him on McChord Air Force Base, in Washington state December 18th.
We've been married nearly ten months now and have been living happily ever after in the Evergreen State now for 4 months.

I haven't the slightest idea how to bring you up to speed on our lives, and I feel horribly awkward jumping back into posting, but here I go anyway...


We moved to McChord and got ourselves a nice little baby house on base.

 

 

 

We got ourselves a sweet and rascally furbaby. (He actually came 3 weeks before the move across the country and got the pleasure of sharing a 11 hour plane trip with me.) His name is Trinkilo. Not to brag, but he is the best kitten ever.

 

With a bit of church hoping, we successfully found a new church: Puyallup Foursquare! You can check out their website and stream their services live here! We like it a lot there. We have joined a young couples small group and can't wait to get more involved.

 

My new job is finding a job. I spend a large portion of every day on job boards looking for someone to hire me. I've applied to an absurd amount of places in the area, everything from nannying, to retail, to restaurants, to libraries. I am now a pro at submitting applications and resumes. However, I am still without a job... Ultimately, I would like an office assistant/receptionist type position, but for now I would settle with just about everything. We aren't desperate for the income, but I am so very desperate to have some responsiblity outside of the walls of my home.

 

In the meantime, besides job hunting and trying to get my Associates finished through online classes (online, by the way, is agonizing) I have taken up various hobbies and wife-ish responsibilities and I am loving my life!

 

I've taken up gardening. Or I am trying. As of yet, there is nothing growing, but things have been planted! My handy husband helped me build a  raised bed in our little back yard and we've planted bush beans and sugar peas so far, with herbs, mesculine lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and tomatoes to come. I'm sure I'll be posting plenty about the garden's progress as time goes on! We also made our own composting bin out of a trash can, a post on that to come. And as you can see, joblessness leads to increased craftiness: I have been painting garden markers on rocks (another post in the works!).

 

I've been doing a whole lot of cooking and baking. I've always enjoyed cooking, but it was never a necessity before when I was still living at home. Now, if I don't cook, we won't eat (or we will eat one of three things with my husband specializes in: grilled cheese, scrambled eggs, or ramen). Having to come up with three healthy meals a day has become a fun challenge for me. There will be a lot of posting in the future about my cooking adventure, I assure you.

I've made it my goal to make as much from scratch as possible. For example, I've taken up making all of our bread instead of purchasing it weekly. I am also trying to avoid paying for convenience. That means I avoid purchasing mixes and whatnot. McCormick taco seasoning and I broke up after one way-too-salty taco session. The dough boy, Betty and I aren't on speaking terms, as I am not making my own brownies and cakes without their help. However, me and the instant mash potatoes are still buddies. Those I won't part with as I simply loathe making mashed potatoes. Microwave popcorn remains a favorite too.
Hopefully I can get some practical "how to" posts on making your own mixes up for you shortly!

I've been couponing. Is that a hobby? No, not like those people on that show that causes all of our jaws to drop. Not extreme. Just couponing to the extent that I am able to save about $30 off of our grocery bill every month. Maybe that doesn't seem like a lot, but I like the idea of an extra $360 in out pockets at the end of the year. (And for the record, I am only buying healthy things which we would normally purchase anyway, not stockpiling 8,000 deodorants and 60 sugared cereals).

Besides couponing, we are trying to be as frugal as possible. Growing up in a home of 10 people with the thrifting queen as my mother I learned a lot about frugality and homemaking. I am pleased to say that, thanks to God, we have furnished our entire home completely free of debt and are well on our way to saving for our futures. Being responsible with our finances is our goal!

I'm still knitting and crocheting. That goes without saying...

In my mind, I've been painting. I love the idea of painting and my home needs some art on the walls very badly, but I've never been much of a painter. I went out and bought canvases, brushes and paints and so far no art save for the garden rocks has been produced. Let us hope that soon I will be posting some fantastically artful thing.

I've been doing laundry. Lots of it. It is not a hobby I chose: it chose me when I married an Airman. I thought I, as a female, had a lot of laundry. Apparently I had nothing on his at least 3 required (ad thoroughly dirty) outfits a day. The frugality has extended to the point of making my own laundry detergent and fabric softeners though! Thank you, Pinterest!

With the addition of talking to the cat, that is pretty much the extent of what I do as of currently. I am planning to get back into blogging and post a couple times a week so stay tuned for more!


 

Wanna help me out with a school assignment? SURVEY TIME!

Hey all, this is probably like the most random post I will ever be posting upon My Name is Not King but...humour me.

The short of what is more of a long story is this: I have a survey project due for my math class on Wednesday (involving surveying like 60 people, the survey results, a pamphlet I create based on them, and a presentation to the class) This survey involved 26 campus students (completed that part!), but now I need responses from 26 non-campus people. And I though perhaps some of you would like to participate (/I am desperate and don't want to spend all weekend hunting down people to survey).

The survey, which I am doing on people's view of the existence of God, is directly related to my World Religions class. (and yes, I did have the most complicated survey question of the class. The others involved cars, ice cream and Lebron James. Of course mine took the longest for people to answer...typical sneaky Bella move...)

QUESTION 1:

DO YOU PERSONALLY BELIEVE THAT THERE IS A GOD?

QUESTION 2:

IF SO, DOES THAT BELIEF, OR INDICATED LACK THEREOF, HAVE A DIRECT EFFECT ON THE WAY YOU LIVE AND THE DECISIONS THAT YOU MAKE?

IF you would like to help me out, leave a comment *AND PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR INITIALS.* I understand many of you go by cutesy blog names, but first and last initials are required if I am going to be able to use your response in my project.

It would be helpful if you formatted your comments sort of like this:

Q1: Yes      
Q2: Yes  
-IKC

(or whatever your yes or no answers may be).

I have gotten quite intriguing answers so far (I am baffled by the number of campus students who answered both yes and no to their belief in the existence of God...?). Obviously, the answers are all a little vague (What do they mean when they say "God"? Which one? Why? Etc...), but I think this survey will be really interesting nonetheless.

If you could help me out with this it would be wonderful! Perhaps I will share the final results on here next week! THANKS!

Passionately Curious: Quote-ables from Albert Einstein...

SOURCE1, SOURCE 2.

I think I am going to begin a new series on this blog. Sort of a remake of my old Quote-ables  posts.

Everyone knows who Albert Einstein is. The fellow with the wild hair and the previously- impossible- to-solve math problems. E=mcsquared...whatever that means...

He is basically the first person to come to everyone's mind upon mention of the word "genius."  But he was also horribly witty and said ever so many highly intelligent, well phrases, and dry-humoured things. Which makes ME really like him.

He (up there with Churchill and Rev. MLK) is one of my favorite people to quote. So, without further ado, I give you my first "Passionately Curious" quote post from dear old Al...

As my first quote (not counting the one above), I wanted to post this. Someone said it at my youth group (MERGE AHEAD!) this past Sunday and I really liked it.

 SOURCE 1, SOURCE 2.

In other news, and also having to do with education and intelligence, I FINALLY WENT BACK TO SCHOOL! I only had one class so far, American Literature II, but it seems like it will be a good one. My one complaint thus far is that the Prof is going to make us study The Great Gatsby. I really hope that it is better the second time around, cause I sure didn't like that book in high school.  But other than that, seems like it will be a fun and challenging class! Hopefully my other 3 (Digital Photography, World Religions and Math for Liberal Arts...whatever that is?)  turn out as well. I was just so happy to be back on campus again. I do complain about college sometimes, but secretly I LOVE it. I thrive on structure and challenges. Really excited about this semester!

Christians only...sinners need not apply...

Today it was "club day" on my college campus. All of the clubs (outdoors club, art club, anime club, PRIDE club, etc) had set up little tables in the main foyer and were trying to get new members.

Smack dab in the doorway, separated from the masses, was one table that caught my eye.

"CATHOLIC CLUB."

On the table were some archaic looking pictures of Jesus with one of those orbs of utter holiness coming from his head.  A little box with a slit in the top was labeled "prayer requests." The only person at or around the table was the woman behind it. I couldn't help myself. I had to talk to her and try and figure this out.

"So...are only Catholics welcomed in your club?"

"The majority of the attendees and members are Catholics."

"Why do you have a club?"

"It is nice to have a group of people who share the same beliefs as you on campus. It is a good way for us (Catholics) to get to know each other. It is always nice to gather together, pray and spend time with other believers. If you would really like to check us out you could though."

"Oh, I'm a Bible-believing Christian. I was just curious, that's all." and I walked away.

The woman seemed nice enough. But something bothered me. I was bothered by the location of her table. She was so separate from the rest. The gays, lesbians, Hispanics, African American, culinary arts people, outdoorsy people, artists, military, writers, science majors and everyone else were grouped together, tables forming lines or semi circles. But the Catholics had their own table, off by themselves. I felt like they needed a sign that read "SINNERS NEED NOT ATTEND."

Now, I am not saying bad things about Catholics here. Really. I am also not against gathering with believers and praying. Not all at. It's Biblical. It is good and wonderful to build up each other and share in one another's lives. In fact, I am about to go attend a small group meeting with girls within my church. This is more me feeling let down by the "religiosity" we pin onto Christianity, though it shouldn't be that way.

People stereotype Christians. The horrible thing is that people are usually right. So many Christians come across as religious, "Holier Than Thou," and too good and clean for sinners. Instead of loving people, they judge them. Church gets portrayed as a place for the holiest of holy people who can manage to follow all the heavenly regulations without fail and filthy, rotten sinners need not attend.

Hold up. Maybe your church is fully of saintly perfect people, but I know mine is full of sinners. Lots of them. About 900. *GASSSP* As my pastor would say "there is no such thing as a perfect church and if there was, you'd it up when you start coming."

Church is practically a sinner club. Sounds awful? Not really. We are all sinners. Yes, I am saved and made clean by the blood of Jesus, but I do not live a spotless perfect life. Only Jesus did that. Church isn't supposed to be a place to protect Bible-believers from the big bad world. In fact, the Bible says BE IN THE WORLD, but not of it. Not hide from the world in your clubs and churches until Christ comes back to rescue you.

Jesus loved sinners. He hung out with them and liked it! He didn't do it to condemn them to eternal damnation in hell, but to show them the love of His Kingdom. He hung out with them far more than he did with the "holy" religious leaders of the time. Jesus hung out with the unlovely. The rejects of society. The people no one liked. And he loved them.

Jesus didn't attend community college, obviously, but if he had I don't think he would have joined a group promoting religious beliefs alike only to His. He wouldn't have joined the Jewish/Pharisee/Holy People Only club. But he probably would have gladly joined all the others.

In his book the The Irresistible Revolution, author Shane Claiborne (He is amazing, btw) says this:

What would twenty-year-old Jesus have said if they asked him "What are you going to do when you grow up?" I don't know, maybe something like "I am going to turn the world upside-down. I am going to hang out with prostitutes and tax collectors until people kill me."

I think this view of Jesus loving the unlovely is wonderfully portrayed in the Relient K (a band I once loved, but no longer would recommend) "Failure to Excommunicate." The chorus contains these lines...

"Jesus loved the outcasts. He loved the ones the world just loves to hate. And as long as there's a heaven, there will be a failure to excommunicate."

 I want to love the one the world just loves to hate too. Because Jesus is the one I want to model my life after.

Maybe this is all an unnecessary rant. Maybe there is nothing at all wrong with Christian clubs. But I would feel a whole lot better if Christians as a whole stopped segregating themselves from the world and just got out there and did some loving. Real, Jesus-style.

What really happened last week...

I told you I was going to school. But that was a lie.

Sort of.

I was supposed to begin my college course load on Monday. My family was supposed to be at a Rhode Island beach and I was going to pop back and forth and visit between class times. But that isn't what really happened. Because Saturday destruction came to town. And by Sunday, Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene was creating a full blown power outage in most areas of our state.

700,000 homes in our state had no power. We were one of them.

My family was supposed to head out Saturday, but held off on the drive because of the heavy wind and rain. By Sunday we were waking up in a dark house. After some consideration (and a lot of whining and talk of apocalypses from me) my family packed up and went to my grandparents farm. They live an hour away but they had a generator. We stayed with them, in their well lit, complete with running water house from Sunday to Tuesday.

Classes were canceled Monday and Tuesday. My family couldn't go to the beach even if they wanted to because of flooding, loss of power and evacuation of the beach area they had planned to go to.And back at our house we still had no power.

FINALLY by Wednesday they were able to get down to the beach and settle in. The beach house was safe and sound, save for some driftwood in the lawn and sticks in the yard. I was able to go to classes (I was getting antsy!). Power came back on at our house. I drove back and forth from the beach all week going to classes, going to beach, coming back. We had a really nice time. Even with the chaos, it all worked out in the end.

This is the point where you must be thinking that the storm must have taken away my camera, because WHY would I not have photos of this?

Well...Chaos never sleeps, my friends. I returned home to a computer horrifically infected by a rogue antispyware disease. Not sure how it got there, but it is so bad that we don't know what else to do to remove the horrificality from it, so it is going to see a doctor for a little while until it is healed up all nice and proper. Until then I am on my dad's laptop, sans photoshop. I think it will only be a couple days, so be patient with me. I will share my hurricane damage and beach fun shots with you as soon as possible.

Until then... I have a lot of homework to do to recover from those canceled days. Delicious.

Back2School4Me

Classes started today. I'm super excited to go back (yes, I like college!) but I don't so much like that it eats all of my free time and gas money.

I'll be in school full time, as well as working and all so that probably means you will be seeing a bit less of me. But fear not, I'm just off gettin' me some education.

*those are not my glasses, just heads up. They are just those trendy fake no lens type things, useful only for photos where I want to look fabulously geeky.

Maxi Dresses for Teapots...

Whats a maxi dress? One of those long,  typically jersey fabric, spaghetti strapped summer dresses.
What's a teapot, other than the obvious? I am. Well...no, not really. But remember the nursery rhyme? "I'm a little teapot, short and stout?" Yes. I am short. (barely five three!) Not truly stout, but I have incredibly stubby, not so long and model like legs.True fact: I'd be be like 4 feet tall if I didn't have a long torso. (This is fine, unless I want to wear something long. Then it's a problem.)

Anyway. Maxi dresses. I thought they were cute, but I had been avoiding them for the last couple years, due to the fact I am not 6 feet tall, even with my tallest heels on, and I figured I would just look horrendous in one. But today after school, in celebration of finishing my math final and being done with mathematics for the summer, I stopped at a store I like that was having a 50% off sale. And I came out with this dress for $4.

Apparently I don't look that short in it. I was skeptical of the horizontal stripes (notorious for making you look broader than you are, no matter what size).With heels, a belt, and my hair up I actually look ...like...TALL. Or ...Close enough.

It's a miracle, I tell you what.

A little story for you...

Once upon a time an overachiever, whose name we shall change to Allebasi Ssik to protect her (still obvious) identity, decided to take 3 college classes over the summer- an 8 am math class and 2 late evening English classes. It all seemed like a good idea at the time of registration. She would get ahead and knock some of the more boring, general and required classes out of the way. Yes, she would have more or less no social life, and no summer fun but... life's not fair anyway. Gotta have priorities, right?

All may seem well in EducationLand, but like all good tales, this story has an antagonist to go alone with the protagonist. This story actually has 3 antagonists. Prof G, Prof C and Prof L (The triplets of educational doom we shall call them. Or the triple torturers, if you'd rather).

Those three fiends decided to schedule all of Allebasi's large term papers and major tests on three consecutive days. Probably because they hate Allebasi with all of their highly academical hearts and souls, but more likely that they just didn't take her personal school, life (and sleep) schedule into account when they planned the assignment/test dates. On top of that Prof C decided to make her analyze a (near, but heighly exaggerated) ream of poetry, which she greatly dislikes unless it is Edgar Allen POEtry, but this is all besides the point. The point that is this: what selfish, evil triplets of education, torture and doom bestowance!!!!! The world of young adulthood is an unsafe, or at least very overloaded on assignments, place while people such as those still roam it.

Anyhow, also upon the time that was once (a time very much like this one) Allebasi wondered why she decided to take these classes and sell her summer-soul to the life sucking goblins of education that are her professors.

One day she showed up to school and they had shut it temporarily due to a teeny tiny mini-fire going on inside. She secretly hoped that the building would burst into flames, thereby preventing her from taking classes ever again. Or at least that math class would be cancelled for the day.  But alas, it was not. Apparently firefighters take sides with the wicked professors/oppressors and they saved the school and Allebasi's morning math class. Oh huzzah.

So then upon returning home to face her Kilimanjaro of homework, poor, whiny Allebasi sat down at her computer and wrote a totally pointless, altogether unacademic blog post to make herself feel better.

The end.



...now if you'll excuse me, Isabella (who really does like school, but also likes dramatized venting), I need to help my dear, summerless friend Allebasi write some papers...

Blarg.

Idolatry, Adultery and Me...

*trust me, the title WILL make sense eventually. No one panic yet.*

Oh here there blog that I don't write on anymore because of many reasons. What's up? I haven't posted in a long while, so this post will be a sort of conglomerate of things stirring inside my brain. Things that relate to the above title.

I've been thinking a lot lately.  I've been thinking about my life, my priorities, and my relationship with others as well as with God. It's a complicated situation, I tell you what. Most of this thinking was prompted by something one of my small group leaders say a few weeks ago. She was giving a workshop and said something that really hit hard with me: "YOU WILL NEVER LIVE A GODLY LIFE WITH A CLOSED BIBLE."

Wow. True, but heavy. Particularly heavy at my time of hearing it as my bible had been closed more so than it should have been. My excuse? I've been busy (...worst...excuse...ever... when talking about the God of the universe and the time I spend with him.). Too busy for God apparently. That is a scary place to be in.

After hearing that I began thinking about why I was letting busyness get in the way. What was so important? Simple conclusion: IDOLS.

No, I'm not talking about spending my free time with shiny golden figurines. I'm talking about the things that I was given my attention to instead of God. What you focus on, you worship, I've heard it said.Anything that takes you attention from God is an idol. And I realized I had quite a few of them hoggin' up my focus. Some of them bear resemblance to people in my life. One has green and gold eyes. Sometimes one looks like 52 white keys and 36 black.One is branded with the letters EOS60D. One's name is fourpointoh. One of them is called ME.

Idols can be sneaky little buggers. All the stuff I was letting take my attention away from God were (are) good things. Like school. School is a very good thing and doing well in school is good stuff too. But being so absorbed in school and reading assigned textbooks that I cannot open up my Bible and read that? Well...that is a problem. A stinkin huge problem.

Which brings me to my second point. ADULTERY.

Yes, I confess. I have a problem with that too.

(What whoa? Stick with me people while I explain).

God is my first love. He is supposed to be the center to all of my life. Anything else is supposed to be below him. He loves me desperately and is jealous for my attention. Which, as aforementioned, I am too busy giving to idols. In essence, I am a dirty, rotten adulterer again my God. And I'm a repeat offender. Daily I give other things the attention that should be His. Every day I find some way to tell Him He isn't important enough. At least not important enough to make time for. Over and over again I cheat on Him with stuff which is so much less important than He is-awesome stuff, great people, good grades...but all things that fall short of being the one true God. But still He loves me and is waiting for me to run back into His arms and spend time with Him. That to me is...amazing. Somehow despite my failings, my cheating, my short comings and all my mess my God loves me. Jealously. Always.

Thinking on this topic brings to mind the book of Hosea (in which God has a prophet go and marry a prostitute to prove a point about Israels relationship to their God.), the story of the Prodigal Son, and also a song by Derek Webb (the guy who used to be in Caedmon's Call, if that rings a bell...). It is called Wedding Dress.

Honestly, Webb isn't my favorite and musically the song is not that great, but LYRICALLY it is one of the most powerful songs I know. The lyrics tell of how we chase other things and in doing so, whore against God. Repeatedly. But His jealous love still never fails. The song is a bold, but true, statement. Every time I hear it I get pretty messed up. 

Listen.
Read...

If you could love me as a wife
and for my wedding gift, your life
should that be all i’ll ever need
or is there more i’m looking for

and should i read between the lines
and look for blessings in disguise
to make me handsome, rich, and wise
is that really what you want

(chorus)
i am a whore i do confess
but i put you on just like a wedding dress
and i run down the aisle
i’m a prodigal with no way home
but i put you on just like a ring of gold
and i run down the aisle to you

so could you love this bastard child
though i don’t trust you to provide
with one hand in a pot of gold
and with the other in your side
i am so easily satisfied
by the call of lovers less wild
that i would take a little cash
over your very flesh and blood

(chorus)

because money cannot buy
a husband’s jealous eye
when you have knowingly deceived his wife

That chorus has been ringing through my head for weeks. I look at my Bible as I absorb myself in other things and I hear my God say, though I am a adulterous idol worshiper,  "Bella...I miss you."

My new stance of priorities? I am NOT too busy for God. Because out of all the things, places and people in my life, only God can satisfy. Then and only then everything else falls into its place.

Creativity (part 1)- Do you Know What is Inside of You?

*Alternative title; "NORMAL IS ONLY A SETTING ON A WASHING MACHINE"

I'm done with school now, at least for a week, and I finally have time to write on here. This will be a long post as it has been a long time coming, brewing in my head for weeks.

This post will be about creativity.

Isn't almost every post on this blog about creativity in one way or another? Probably yes. If my middle name wasn't already Kiss, it probably be Creativity. I am a very creative person. Anyone who has known me for more than 5 minutes knows that (dang, anyone who looks at me for more that 5 seconds knows it!). Without artsyness I go crazy. Truly. My constant rebellion against normal is a huge part of who I am.

But I have been thinking about creativity more so than normal lately. A couple weeks back we were talking about it in my psyc class and I had to give a presentation on people who display amazing amounts of creativity. The presentation could only be 5 minutes long, but in creating it I did a great deal of thinking about creative people.

Who are the creative people in the world? YOU are. That's who.

This is where you will begin the mental argument with me that not every one is creative. Blah blah Blah. I disagree. I didn't say ARTISTIC. I said CREATIVE. I believe that very human being has some amount of creativity in them because we were created by and in the image of a creative God. He who created me created the whole world from scratch (ever thought about that? Whenever I make something I have to start with something else. Some supply or material. When God created everything He started with absolutely nothing. That amazes me! If I had been charged with creating the world with nothing to start with and nothing to base my ideas on I would have not come up with much. Or anything. ) He is my Father and THE CREATOR; I am His daughter, so I create. Creativity is in my spiritual DNA.

You're arguing with me again, aren't you? You are. I just know it. Stop it. Just stop.

I'm not talking about creativity and everyone having it in the sense that we all can paint, draw, and had an A in high school art class. I'm not sure what the actual definition of creativity, but I don't think it is synonymous with artistic. Creativity, at least to me, is the ability to think outside of the box. Better yet, to refuse to acknowledge there is a box.  Creativity is not acknowledging the "normal" as acceptable. Creativity is that which does not fit in. Creativity is looking at something that anyone can look at, and seeing it differently.

If you give me a blank page of paper, I am likely to write something, because that is what I do. Might not be good, but I will write anyway.  If I give my little brother a piece of paper he will fold it into an elaborate paper air plane. If I give my friend S.L a piece of paper she would likely draw on it. Some of my friends would be more likely to write song lyrics on the page. What would you do with it?

I have several friends who are passionate about painting, and find their artistic expression on canvas. (Me? The only painting I do is that which involves splattering). Anyone can look at a canvas. Anyone can pop into an art store and buy one. The creativity is what a person DOES with the canvas.  If I gave a canvas to my friends T, L, A, or S (initials) they would take some paint and make something beautiful, because their creative minds see not a blank canvas but a potential piece of art.

But if I gave the same canvases to a group of mathematical, analytical, entrepreneurial, business people they probably wouldn't have the same vision to create something with paints upon it. So are they just not creative?

No.They are creative. They just are not painters.

Scientists are creative. Science wouldn't be useful if people weren't constantly coming up with new things. That is called history.

Mathematicians are creative (I know... I know...). But the use of math within science, or something like engineering requires creativity. 

Any entrepreneur is creative. They have vision. They see a problem, or a potential-holding business venture that no one else see, and they make it happen. They think outside of the box.

The most successful business people are those who think outside of what has already been thought; who dream bigger dreams and think greater thoughts than the less successful people. Their success has come because they did something different. Those who aren't willing to think creatively and instead keep doing what everyone else is doing are very likely to get the same result that everyone else did.

I think each of us has the ability to be incredibly creative, but in different ways. (I write and make stuff. What about you?). I think each person, Christian or not, is creative. Look at some of the people in the media living like hell. They are sure creative, just to their own glory and not God's (more on that later). Personally, I think Christians should be the world's MOST CREATIVE people, because we know who are Creator is and we know that we are made to be like Him!

Each of us has such potential. There is so much creativity inside everyone that is never being released! People are so caught up in the "normal" that often they don't think broadly enough about what is possible if "normal" is challenged. I'm not just talking about uses for paint and paper (which are fantastic), but how long are things like cancer going to be "normal?" Are gas prices climbing towards $5 "normal"; oil crisis, what about that? Are children homeless and starving in other countries "normal"? What about sex trafficking, is that just "normal" too? How about how perverted and filthy (secular) music is? Movie content? I don't think the books being written for young adults are "normal" at all!

So many pieces of art, so many inventions, new business ideas, solutions to worldwide problems, things that have never been done or made before are INSIDE OF YOU!

I don't know about you, but that gets me fired up and inspired to make something. Do something. Be something.And in doing that and releasing that creative potential we are glorifying God! We are being who He made us to be and becoming more like Him!

To keep this post from being 19 miles long I'll stop here. But I've got more coming. In the next part of this rant on creativity I want to talk about it specifically in relation to the Kingdom of God. How we can use it...or how we aren't. That post coming soon!



*phew. It felt so good to write something that wasn't academic, didn't need MLA citations, and wasn't going to be graded!

So this is what it feels like to have free time?

I have nothing to do.


I haven't had anything to do, or at least needed to do, since 9:00 am.


I don't even know who I am anymore. Bella doesn't typically have free time.


I am more or less done with my first semester of college (yes, I started in the spring, and yes I am 20 but a freshman. Don't bother yourself with the minor details of my life.) Today, at 8:00 am, I took my final exam for psychology. All I have left to do is an in-class write evaluation of myself paper for English on Friday. Then I am done, done, done! I have to say, I ended up liking college more than I thought I would. The...environment...is a little iffy at times but I like to learn and I love to excel in all that I do. So this was a good semester.


But now I am done. I now longer have homework to do. I don't need to study pages and pages of psyc notes. It is a freeing feeling.


I got home today after my exam (and ate nachos. I ate cereal @ 6:30 am, but by 10  I was hungry again and nachos are good at all hours) and went into super productive mode, since I had nothing else to do. My bedroom and laundry hamper have been suffering from about 3 weeks of neglect (projects, papers, presentations and studying leading up to finals, plus a couple conferences had my full attention) so I went on a cleaning spree. Now that my 4 loads of laundry are done (obviously I put good grades as a higher priority than clean clothes), my entire closet is reorganized, my room is dusted and vacuumed, and I can again see the surface of my desk I feel much better about myself and my life. I love order.


Now this is the point where you ask me about my summer plans? And to that I will say "ha", if given half a chance or maybe even less. I pretty much do not have summer. And if I do it is this week, and then 3 weeks in August. What is that about? Well, in a week and a half I started *SUMMER CLASSES.*


Yes. I am crazy. And yes, I did do this to myself. Thank you.


Long story short I only took 2 classes this semester due to registration issues. So now I am trying to make up lost time and get ahead before the fall. So I will be spending my summer doing the math class I missed getting into this last semester, as well as 2 English classes (because I love English). Good times. Or potentially really not good times, but let's be optimistic...


Hopefully you will all see more of me in the next week or so. Sorry I have been a little lax about posting. Again, grades are a priority of the most highest. And hopefully I will not completely disappear after that until August. But no promises.

Quoteables.

I'm currently writing a paper on Just Causes and Justice for English class. This involved a lot of research reading and that reading appropriately included Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience."

Now, some of Thoreau I like. Some of him I don't. He and I have very mixed feelings in our relationship towards each other. But this quote I LOVE. This quote is a great summation of how I feel about rebelling against normal and refusing to accept the commonly accepted just because it is common to do so. This quote is about knowing what you stand for and then standing. This is what I aim for.


 "LET YOUR LIFE BE A COUNTER FRICTION TO STOP THE MACHINE."- h. d. thoreau


I can't get it out of my head.

I liked it so much it even got stuck to my computer monitor via yellow sticky note. As far as quotations and my treatment of them go that is a high honor.

This is your brain on college home work...

This Mercedes Benz ad is sort of a good depiction of how I feel right now.
It's my new desktop.

I found this image in a google search (for psychology class) looking for images of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. I saved it to mu computer, because I thought it was really artful, though it had nothing to do with what I was searching for.

You can click the above link to see it enlarged but the captions on either side say this:

"LEFT BRAIN:
I am a scientist. A mathematician
I love the familiar. I categorize. I am accurate. Linear
Analytical. Strategic. I am practical. 
Always in control. A master of words and language.
Realistic. I calculate equations and play with numbers.
I am order. I am logic.
I know exactly who I am."

"RIGHT BRAIN:

I am the right brain.

I am creativity. A free spirit. I am passion.

Yearning. Sensuality. I am the sound of roaring laughter.

I am taste. The feeling of sand beneath bare feet.

I am movement. Vivid colors.

I am the urge to paint on an empty canvas.

I am boundless imagination. Art. Poetry. I sense. I feel.

I am everything I wanted to be."

My summation?

LEFT BRAIN:

this is my brain on college courses.

this is the smart half.

RIGHT BRAIN:

this is who my brain is the rest of the time.

this is me.

Neither dead nor dying...

Hey people of my blog, 

Just a heads up, I am not dead, nor am I dying.

My life is a little bit crazy right now and I sort of feel like there is more stuff to get done then there are hours for me to do it. Just a lot a lot of stuff going on. Not at all like a crisis or anything, don't worry! I'm totally fine! Just lots of school and other important aspects of my life that need to be focused on. 

One day I will post again with some consistency, I promise!

I have so many things I would like to write about and SO many things I want to take pictures of with my new camera.

Right now I just can't focus too much time on blogging. Gotta prioritize. Hurray for adulthood and real life situations requiring my attention!

One day I will live again here on this blog. But for now I have another essay to write and a lot of reading to do. And 46.2 billion other things. 

*sigh.

peace, love, and chaos;

3ella

This, that, and other things...

Today was supposed to be a big, at least minorly exciting day but instead it is another snow day. And by "another" I mean like probably the 6th in the last month?

This morning my alarm went off earlier than normal.6:20. Today was SUPPOSED to be my first day at "real life college" (aka not in the computer. I did an online career school for a year, finished, and declared I was done with online learning por siempre). I was supposed to have English class at 8:00. English class in and of itself if not a big deal at all (especially Basic Composition. Been there, done that, but still have to take the class.) but the experience was new. May I remind you the last time I was in a formal classroom was more or less kindergarten. Yes, I was homeschooled (which I liked as I struggle to focus amongst other people and do better by myself). Anyway, here I am, almost 20 years old, and pretty unfamiliar with classrooms. So I was excited (/nervous) to get started.

But...when I woke up snow was falling from the sky. Again. In mass quantity. We knew yesterday that we would getting six inches. School knew. I knew. But yet that selfishsmelfish school didn't want to cancel morning classes last night. So I got up this morning at dawn's buttcrack, saw that they finally had decided to cancel, and went back to bed. No English class for me today. Bummer.

Instead of class today I am going to work on my never-ending synopsis project, clean my room, do some laundry, blare music on repeat (Current song: Shekinah, off the IHOP Joy worship album. SO GOOD!) and pack up my life in a suitcase and move out.

Move out? Well, not really. Just for a week. I have a habit of making extra money by sitting in people's houses, babysitting their pets and furniture while they go on vacation. This week I am house sitting for some friends headed to FL. Imma chill in their house with their bouncy black dog Madison and 2 cats Tigger and Digger.

(Sorry this post is all over the place. Trying to cover a lot as I don't know how much I will be posting next week.)

In other news, I have a lot of new yarn in my life. My gma is the biggest encourager enabler of my yarn addiction. Last week she gave me a white trash bag full of yarn. Only thing is that I had no place to put it other than in a big, ugly blue storage bin. Unacceptable. So I went out to my barn (which is a magical place), hoping to find an old suitcase or something to store my goods in. But I found something better. It had my name all over it- literally!

 My vintage toy chest from when I was a wee person, hand painted by my mom (yeah, I'm not the only ridiculously artsy one around here).

 I put it on a medal pedestal from another chest/trunk thing I had. Doubles as a couch side table!

 Are you ready to see this?

 Yup. I put it all in rainbow order. Maybe I am insane, but it makes me incredibly happy.

Now I am all organized and ready to make as many wee squares and animal hats (There are more coming! Customs! You just wait!) as I can stand! Right after I do all that other productive, educational stuff I mentioned...

Sigh. Overall today is not going anything like I thought it would. I wish it would just be spring already. Snow is really inconvenient...

Psychology class on Monday, if the snow doesn't ruin it!

Until then, I will be cleaning, writing and babysitting couches.