It's Not a Party 'Til Someone Calls 911

"Charli, are you coming to church with us?" Alyx whispered, pressing her face close to the safety bar of the loft bed.
"Yeah," Charli mumbled. Then she tried to sit up. The nausea hit her like a heatwave. "No."

Yesterday we celebrated my sister's Sweet Sixteen with a 40's swing dance party. The event itself was fantastic. I pumped myself full of nose-spray and tylenol and set up the party with my family while Alyx and a few friends got ready at a house nearby. The party started at five. The first guest arrived at five-oh-three. We finally finished decorating around twenty after.

Despite only three of the forty-some-odd people there knowing how to swing dance, we had a blast stepping on each other's toes and twirling around. Alyx looked adorable. The rest of us looked okay, too. ;)

Out of the blue - or not really, considering DJ Josh had a special announcement for the birthday girl - instead of a 40's song, there came a favorite hip-hop song. The floor was vacated as we could barely swing dance, much less break dance. Alyx and a few friends eventually made their way back to dance in a little circle.

It was then that the party came to an abrupt halt - around quarter to eight - when our dear friend Katie collapsed with a dislocated knee. Since she's double-jointed pretty much everywhere, I honestly didn't see anything out of the ordinary until the paramedics arrived and stretched her out on her back. I have never seen a leg turned completely sideways at the knee.

She's not in much pain now (unless she's lying, which is possible, 'cause she's a trooper). She's got her brace and ice packs and crutches and her sister's wedding to walk down the aisle at on Saturday. I'd volunteer to carry her if I didn't think that would look funny. Oops.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

Christmas in Florida

Here's some carols that we sing around the house for fun. It's not very festive, and a bit of my dislike for Florida is tossed in there, but they're fun. Try 'em out and see. ;)


I'm Dreaming Of A Warm Christmas

I'm dreaming of a warm Christmas
Just like the ones I've always known
Where the treetops are green and children will sing
About how it's really not that cold
How I wish this wasn't the norm!
But alas, our Christmases are warm


Salt Water (to the tune of Jingle Bells)

Dashing through the waves on an old foam boogie board
Surfers point and laugh, but it's all I could afford
A big one's coming in, my friends yell "Here we go!"
I'm paddling out, what a big mistake! now there's water up my nose!

Oh, salt water, salt water, ruining my day
A gallon just went up my nose, why's the shore so far away? Hey!
Salt water, salt water, the sting won't go away
Whose bright idea was it to go to the beach on Christmas day?


All I Want For Christmas (chubby girl version)

I don't want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need
I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree
I just want to fill my plate, so much food I can hardly wait
Make my wish come true! All I want for Christmas is food
Fo-od, baby!


Hope you enjoyed the carols and had a very merry Christmas. :)

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

30 Superficial Things I'm Thankful For

I didn't post at all in November. Not once. Yet I still have the same average amount of page views, which lets me know you guys still checked and probably muttered a bit when there was nothing new. I'm sorry.

Here's a random, thrown-together, totally superficial list of things I'm thankful for on a day-to-day basis:

1. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (okay, this one's not at all superficial, just straight-forward) | 2. family & friends (also not superficial) | 3. cuddly overgrown puppies | 4. pencil stubs | 5. picture frames | 6. guitars | 7. firelogs & coffee mugs | 8. comfy clothes | 9. spiral-bound notebooks | 10. roadtrips | 11. scrivener | 12. sweet smells | 13. cowgirl boots | 14. medieval dresses | 15. cellphones & email | 16. country music | 17. rainstorms | 18. cold weather | 19. blue jeans | 20. sketchbooks | 21. marshmallows (because sugar) | 22. happy memories | 23. celtic music | 24. flipflops | 25. buttons | 26. conversations | 27. fleece blankets | 28. stained-glass windows | 29. clean sheets | 30. blog followers who keep reading despite long absences.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|
{ps - thanksgiving was weird without ben}
{pps - ben's coming home on friday!!!}
{ppps - frozen was a great movie}
{pppps - i dressed up as poison ivy for a youth group thing. boy, was that embarrassing.}

Stuff I Was Too Lazy to Post About

1| (way back in September) Aunt Jennifer came to visit.
We went to City Walk and Bubba Gump's Shrimp Shack, then wandered around IKEA, spent a good deal of time sitting on the couch laughing and chatting, and cried a lot when she left. (moveheremaybe?)

2| (two weeks ago) we celebrated Dad's 50th...
...as a family. Because we're bums and didn't feel like planning anything. Dad said he was okay with it. But we went to Disney (first time without Ben, really weird) and saw the new Fantasy Land and all that good stuff.

3| (yesterday) Church Fall Picnic.
Got a football to the gut and sweet tea all over my pants, but it was fun. Even when we played volleyball. (read as: everyone else played volleyball while I stood in the corner and prayed the ball would never come to me.)

4| assorted random things.
Ben's coming home in seven weeks. I plan on finishing my book before Christmas. There's a ton of sewing that I should be doing instead of messing around on my 'puter. Alyx is testing for her yellow belt in taikwando today. And I am totally lacking the creativity to make this interesting. (Sorry Aunt Jen, Dad, everyone else, for not doing you justice.)

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

Starting a New Chapter is Hard.

No, this isn't anything philosophical or thought-provoking; I meant it literally, as a writer. I'm not taking it so far as to apply it to life. I'm too tired for that right now.

I've always struggled with finishing things - stuff I mean to bless other people with, artsy projects, lesson assignments, stories. Every word that I write in A Maiden's Touch - the current work-in-progress - beats the record for most-words-Charli-has-written-in-a-single-story. I've never been this close to finishing, or even over half-way, really. So when the story arc finally reached the point where the major foreshadowing is done and I have to keep the ball rolling with some action, not just intriguing hints, I...

...did what I do best. Took a break.

Sometimes God uses breaks to rejuvenate people and get their gumption back. Sometimes He uses truth to combat the laziness and inspire them. And sometimes He lets them sit on their rears until they realize that they're not living according to His calling, waits while they kick themselves, and then none-too-gently pushes them off their rears and says, "Get moving!"

In the span of a few hours, I wrote what I call the EIKAMS (nicknamed 'eek'): Everything I Know About My Story. (Again, there could be real-life applications here that I'm too tired for.) Picking up from where I left off in the book, I typed out every single little detail that was foreshadowed and then some, finishing it on paper so that the ideas took residence somewhere other than my scatterbrained mind. I know exactly what to write now. I have no excuse.

But it's hard. I'm three chapters into fleshing out the eek and already I'm bored. Gah. But no more breaks!

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|