God Has Done Amazing Things for Me

Hey, guys!! :)

So, I didn't tell you guys, but all of my posts from this last week were scheduled. (which makes sense why I haven't been commenting on your lovely blogs or answering your comments on this blog. And, by the way, thanks for all of your lovely comments, I had a blast answering them yesterday. :))

I was off the computer for the whole week, so I wasn't doing any designing or anything. What was I doing? Well, dear friends, I was fellowshiping, worshiping, and learning with fellow Christians. And, I'm just going to say, it was awesome. :) I got to see lots of my best friends that I barely ever get to see. It's so amazing because we're all Christians, so it's like we can talk about anything and it's not awkward. We can pray together, read the Bible together, and talk together endlessly. It's an amazing circle of friends that I have, and I love each and every one of them. And the best thing is, is that it's not just like two of us are great friends and then the other two friends are just friends with me or friends with my other friend. We're all great friends with each other. We all love spending time together, all love sitting together, walking places together... It's just such an amazing thing. We all love and care about the others. It's not just two of us and the rest are just half friends or something. We all matter, we all care. And the best thing? It's not like some kind of clique or something, where we never talk to anybody else and never invite anybody else in. We all make new friends and talk about them with the others. And it doesn't make any of us feel like outsiders. And we don't want to make anybody else feel like outsiders, either.

Well, yeah, that's what I've been doing. :) I also got to share my testimony about how God's been working in my life with my ACL being torn. It was so amazing. I thought I was going to puke because I was so scared, but I didn't. And it really is amazing, guys. God can work miracles. I can sprint now. I can run. I can jog. I can play volleyball. I can jump. I can be my crazy stuff and do "stupid" and "silly" stuff, and it doesn't hurt. I. Can. Be. Myself. And let me tell you, it's amazing.

God has done so much for me. He is the most amazing person to me. I love Him with all my heart, and I hope you do, too. I would be so sad if you died and I didn't get to see you later in heaven. Even though none of us have ever met, I still think I would know who you are when we met in heaven. Guys, I care about you. You are my friends. If you don't know Jesus, please talk to me. I can help you. If you don't talk to me, I encourage you to talk to somebody else--a Christian, a friend, a pastor, I don't care. But please, if you don't know Christ, please talk to somebody.

Thanks so much for listening. <3

The Storyteller of Weston County, signing off...

"God has called me"

her fingers touch over the globe. the one that her mother owned, took with her around the world. the one that had been found with her when... when... when she'd been found. dead. in Africa. her eyes fill with tears, but she pushes them back. her dark hair falls almost to her middle. she pushes it over her shoulder, memories of her mother flooding back.

"why must you leave, mommy?" she whispers.

her mother had only smiled at her. "i must go, sweetheart. i must preach God's word to the ends of the earth. God has placed me in Africa. i must go."

tears filled her big eyes. "mommy, i love you. i'm going to miss you."

she had kneeled so that their eyes were locking. "i love you too, darling." she wrapped her into a hug.

remembering this now, she remembered everything her mother had ever stood for. everything she'd ever done. the amazing ways that she'd reached the tribal people of Africa. something happened in her heart. as her grandmother called from the porch, she turned and walked up to her.

"grandma," she said, "i'm going to South America."

her grandmother gave her a look. "what?"

"God has called me to South America," she repeated.

her grandmother smiled and pulled her into a hug. "i'm glad that you're listening to God."

she smiled. "i am, too."

story inspired by the picture

Swimming

the boards are wet beneath my feet as i giggle, hurrying towards the steps down to the water. i've been wanting to come here for what seems like forever. i'm excited beyond belief. i wade through the freezing water, shivering crazily. but i don't care. i love the water. i dive underneath, getting my hair wet and soaking. it lays on my back, thick and heavy. i laugh and plunge underneath again, kicking strongly. water. i love it. swimming. it's too much fun.

I haven't been swimming in what seems like forever!! Pool, pond, lake, whatever. It seems like forever. I think the last time I went swimming, it was in a freezing cold lake (literally freezing) in a National Park somewhere. Yeah, it was fun. :) We played this ball game and were fighting each other for it. Something along the lines of Monkey in the Middle with lots of people throwing it and splashing around...

Do you like swimming? Where's your favorite place to swim? Do you like swimming in a pool, ocean, pond, or lake the best? I probably... well... I don't really know what I like the best. :) What's your favorite water memory?

The Storyteller of Weston County, signing off...

Photography

her eyes watched the scene before her. ideas floated into her mind: ideas of shots, photographs, pictures. way to capture the light. ways to capture her friend's smile. ways to capture anything she wanted. her eyes searched the harbor. ways to catch the light filtering off the waves. she glanced at the post. a way to even make that look like something new, beautiful, even magical.

what is this? she wondered.

it's a photographer's mind, something inside of her replied.

she smiled.

I've been rather ignoring my "photographer's mind" for awhile, ever since I quite 4-H because of the stress. (no offense if you love 4-H, mine was just super stressful...) I had kind of associated those things together, you know? So I just rather avoided it. But, even though I haven't really noticed it, I've missed it.

When I decided to redo my design for this blog, I suddenly had the urge to take my own pictures. I grabbed the camera, slipped on some shoes, and headed outside. Suddenly ideas were popping into my head--what if I did it this way? What if I took a picture of that? What if I did that picture of the tree that way?

The ideas and thoughts and things were almost endless.

I started taking like crazy. Some I had to delete--they weren't that great--but others I've kept. And I have to admit it--I think they look pretty cool. I got the focus on one of them really well. I was pretty surprised. I've never really thought of myself as a photographer. But... I liked it. It was fun. And, maybe the most surprising of all... I want to do it again.

Are you a photographer? Have you ever had this happen to you? What kind of things to do like to photograph? What kind of pictures do you like to take? Do you like to take pictures better, or have pictures taken of you?

God bless...

The Storyteller of Weston County, signing off...

Dreams

dreams

they're all different

all special

all unique

all magical

dreams

hopes

wishes

ideas

dreams

you can have them

but do you have

the courage

to fulfill them?

dreams

have the courage

to pursue your dreams

and then you will never

ever

ever

feel like a failure

dreams

have courage

fulfill them

God will be your guide

dreams

daddy?

"daddy?" she glances out the window of the car. "daddy?"

"he'll be here," her mother promises.

"daddy?" the girl whispers.

"just wait," her mother urges.

the little girl purses her lips. it's the only thing that'll keep her from crying. where's daddy? why isn't he back yet? mommy said he was going to come. mommy said that he would be here. but then where was he? her eyes searched the parking lot. where was daddy? where was he?

the little girl glances across the parking lot. through the rain, it was hard to see anything. but then she saw it: a dark figure, dressed in a coat with a hat and a black umbrella. her breath catches in her throat. mommy's busy, twiddling with her long, beautiful brown hair. the little girl's eyes are on the man, walking towards the car.

"daddy?" she whispers.

then there he was.

"daddy!" she yells.

she jumps out of the car, and is swept up in a hug.

"i'm here," he whispers. "i'm here."

"daddy," she whispers back. "daddy."

story inspired by the picture

{i just feel inspired writing like this}

that one question

her hand reaches forward, towards the card on the table, sitting by the vase. her breath catches a little in her throat as she sees her own name on the cover: Marie. shakily, she opens it up, reading the card. her breath catches. her heart flutters. her hand flies to her mouth. the simple question on the card makes her feel faint. she drops the card and takes off running. running, running, running. she had to catch him. before he left, on the train. running, running, running. her feet pounding against the cobbles. the train whistles in the distance. she pushes, faster and faster. she runs into the station, eyes going through all of the young men dressed in army uniforms, heading off for the war. her eyes search. can she find him?

and then there he is. she runs up. she's out of breath. concerned, he frowns. her face can only hold a smile. he waits. she gasps, panting. and then, finally, she gets the only word that was needed out.

"yes."

he smiles. she smiles. she promises to write. he promises to write. then he boards the train. she waves. a smile's on her face.

back at the table, the card's lying out, beside the roses. there's just one question on the page. the most important question. the amazing question. the one that changed Marie's life.

"will you marry me?"

story based on the picture

The Sea

the grains push against my bare feet. the wind blows off the sea and rustles my long hair. my dress brushes along the ground behind me. my eyes stare up at the sky, my hands slowly raising up. and i smile. smile because i'm here. smile because i made to the ocean. smile because i'm alive, and God is so amazing. i smile.

I don't remember much of the sea. I remember walking by the shore, scared that if I touched the ocean, a shark would come and eat my legs off. I remember staring into the waves, watching people being swept off, riding on inter-tubes and just swimming. I remember seeing things and creatures on the beach. I remember the grains of sand in my shoes.

But I don't remember what it's really like.

We have shells from the beach. Lots of shells. You can take a shell, hold it up to your ear, and you can hear the murmur of the sea. That has always fascinated me. I've always gone through the shells. My favorites were the white ones with the pink. Or just the pink. Mostly because that used to be my favorite color.

I rather wish I could go back to the ocean. I hope by then that I have a laptop. I would love to sit by the sea, hear the waves crashing on the shore, and imagine something that flows through my fingers and onto the page. I could close my eyes and imagine that I was right in my book. I can just imagine it. It would be awesome.

Have you ever been to the sea? To the ocean? By sand? What was it like? What was your experience? What was your favorite part? Did you collect shells? What was it like to hear the waves crashing against the shore? I can always imagine it, but it's not quite the same.

waves crashing against the shore

just wishing; wishing for more

hand on a shell, whispers in my ears

feeling courage taking care of my fears

Splash!

splash!

oops.

I don't know if I've told you about this, but I am scarily clumsy, almost. No joke. I'm always running into the sides of doors as I walk out and stubbing my toes and hitting my hips against counters and spilling cups and dropped glass things... It's rather embarrassing, really. Especially if you scream like a little girl when you hit yourself. Especially.

Well, I'm not as bad as I used to be, I suppose. I think it's mostly because of my therapy. It's made me have to be more aware of myself. And I think it's also as I get older I'm getting better. (Like, "I DON'T WANT TO DROP THIS CUP BECAUSE THIS JUICE IS THE BEST I'VE EVER HAD." OK, not quite, but you understand. ;))

But I still find myself running into things sometime.

That reminds me of a funny story...

My friend and I were doing dishes, and we were talking about something, and it was one of those, "They're going to come and tickle you!" moments, so I started backing up (giggling like a weirdo, mind you...) and... I backed right into the open trash can. (It was one of those pull out ones from underneath the cabinet.) I howled like a dog and started jumping up and down. My friend thought it was pretty much hilarious.

Then I go to therapy like the next day, and they're all like, "Gee, where'd you get that bruise?" And I was thinking, "What? A bruise? What bruise? What're you talking about?" And then I looked down at the trash can-inflicted little scrape, and there was this huge bruise covering it. Lovely.

Yeah, anyway, as I said, I'm pretty clumsy...

But it's getting better. ;)

The Storyteller of Weston County, signing off...

Cooking with a Capital C-O-O... wait a sec...

Oh, wow. If I ever have a kitchen that turns out that pretty, I think I'm going to start thinking that my friend came in and did it for me... =P

I'm not really the "cooking" type (cooking type: likes to cook all the time... always volunteers... makes most of the meals in their house because they're so amazing... loves trying new recipes...), or the baker type, for that matter, but I wouldn't exactly consider myself helpless in the kitchen. (I mean, I can make most anything... even spaghetti... wait, that's not that hard, is it?...)

I mean, some people really seem to love cooking, and that's OK, you know? I just... um... well, I'd rather have you make it for me. =D (As horrible as that sounds...) Nope, I'm definitely not the cooker type. But if you tell me to go and make some supper, hey, I'm going to go and try my best. (At least I've never mad mashed potatoes like soppy from the milk and hard from the potato before...)

But there is a part of me that likes making food things. I like to experiment with food. OK, whoa, that sounded a little wrong. (I know somebody who "experiments" with food sometimes, and it doesn't always taste, or look, the best...) What I meant is, I like to look at things in the fridge (or... pantry) and see things I like, and then my brain kind of connects them with something else that I see in there. It's kind of fun, really. And then you get to put it all together and... mmmm. It always tastes good.

(OK, except for that one time when it didn't taste so hot, and I kept on adding stuff to try and make it taste better, but instead it just kept on making it taste even worse until I'd eaten the whole thing and wished I'd just had a plain sandwich...)

But that was only one time. Give me a break. ;)

Do you like cooking? What's your favorite thing to cook? What's your least favorite? (Come on, I gotta ask... ;D)

The Storyteller of Weston County, signing off...

P.S. Sorry for the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang title. (wait a sec... you do know about that song, right? You know... "...with a capital P-O-S-H... POSH!")

I Can Actually Do It...

courage

i feel it drain out of me

faster then light

how can i catch it?

keep it close?

courage

it escapes me

it runs away

leaving only fear

courage

i feel it flying away

and down falls

the fear of failure

courage

how do you keep it?

how do you use it?

how do you have courage?

'Ello, duckie. (Yes, sometimes I have a rather hard time not doing English accents just for fun... ;D) Have you ever felt like you've lacked courage? I have. Man, I sometimes can just feel it disappearing. It stinks, right? And it holds you back. Oh, how it holds you back.

Yeah, um, well, I just found out something that I hadn't been able to do before because of my fear before. I've always enjoyed singing, you know? I have a pretty loud alto voice. (Not loud as in obnoxious and horrible, loud as in "it's a good loud so that everyone can hear you" loud.) But I could never sing in it, really, because whenever we had to go higher, my voice would crack, or I'd just switch over to soprano. 

(PAUSE:

alto: medium singing voice. Example: Britt Nicole

soprano: high singing voice. Example: Kari Jobe

PLAY)

Well, guess what I just found out?

I can actually sing alto.

Maybe not like Mandisa, going up so high that it's kind of crazy, but still. I can sing it. I can sing songs in it. Even sometimes songs with higher notes. For goodness sakes, I can sing "Colors of the Wind" (from Pocahontas) in alto!! For me, that's like... whoa.

It happen mostly because I was out in the barn with my cat and singing, and since nobody hears me out there, I was just being kind of crazy and whatever, and I was singing, and I got done and I was like, "Oh my gosh, did I really just do that?" That, of course, sent me off on the Can-I-Sing-This-In-Alto? crusade, where I started trying out all of these songs.

I could sing most of them.

YEEK!!!!!!

Let's just say I was excited. Am excited. I'm still more comfortable around other people singing soprano, but at least I actually can sing alto. And I'm just going to say it right now... singing alto is way more fun then singing soprano. :) Well, for me, at least. :)

The Storyteller of Weston County, signing off...

Twilight's Last Night--Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Ding! Farren's basketball scraped the inside of the metal hoop, still making it in, but barely. The basketball fell on the pavement of the driveway out of the garage and started rolling towards the street. Farren ran after it.

"Wow..." I flipped through the pages of Romeo's script for the play Romeo and Juliet. "I seriously have a lot of lines, Farren."

My best friend snorted, dribbling the basketball back up the driveway to where I was sitting on the grass in front of her house. "You'll do fine. You're like the whiz at memorizing stuff. And I should know." She went up for a shot and made it again, grabbing the ball before it hit the ground and almost fell into the road again. Tucking the ball under her arm, she walked over towards me and flopped down on the grass beside me. "Oh, man, I can't believe we're freshman."

I laughed, laying back in the grass, too. "Better face it."

Farren sat up suddenly. "You know what really annoys me about Evan and Sabrina?"

That I have to be leads with them in the play? I thought. That would be one of my reasons why they annoyed me. They were so good at stuff. And now I was stuck with them, Evan being a... what was it? A cat? And Sabrina was Juliet. Ugh.

"What?" I played along, sighing.

Farren got to her feet, dribbled the basketball for a few steps, and then jumped, making a three-pointer. It was more perfect then any of her other shots today. "It's just how they think they can do everything. How they think they're so much better then anybody, and that nobody is really... I don't know... human or something."

I sighed. "I'd have to agree with you there."

Farren shot again, making it. "And you know what else annoys me? They act like we should all be fine like that. Like we're loyal subjects or something and should just bow at their feet and kiss their toes." She rolled her eyes.

I laughed at the thought of Farren kissing Sabrina Marks's toes.

"Well, it's true!" she cried.

"I wasn't laughing at you," I told her. "I was laughing at the thought of you kissing their toes."

"Oh." She scratched her head. "Yeah, you're right. I'd rather punch their noses then kiss their toes."

At just that moment a big truck pulled up in front.

"I wonder who on earth that is," muttered Farren, tucking her ball under her arm and starting towards it.

Gripping my script, I followed her. As we got closer to the truck, the passenger window, that was facing us, slowly came down. And suddenly we were staring into the face of Evan Jackson.

"Wanna ride?" he asked.

i laugh. she laughs.

i laugh. she laughs. i dip my brush into the paint, bringing it over the blank, white canvas. it makes a line of purple, my favorite color. she grabs her own brush and dips it into the red, bringing along the other side to meet with my purple line in the middle. i laugh. she laughs. i smile. she smiles. we wash our brushes and start again. by the time we're done, it's just one crazy mess of colors. but we don't care. it's not there for someone to admire, to criticize. it's there because we made it, together, and we had fun; because we wanted it to be there. it wasn't put there for anyone else to judge. it was put there so that we could make it. it feels good, knowing that we don't have to make it for anyone else. that nobody's going to judge us. that we can just be ourselves: crazy, funny, and sometimes rather weird. but it doesn't matter, because who's there to judge? i laugh. she laughs. i smile. she smiles. we flip the page, dip in our paintbrushes, and start all over again. we don't have a plan. we don't have an outline. we don't even have an idea about what it's going to look like. but it doesn't matter. who cares? there's no one here who does. it's just me and my best friend. and the two of us will keep on painting, forever, just the two of us, unjudged, forever in freedom in ourselves.

A Story of Coughs (wha...?)

i'm done. the excitement of the thought races through me. i glance down at my pages [cough cough computer screen cough cough] and can't believe that it's finally finished. i turn to the front page [cough cough scroll up to the top of the word doc cough cough] and think to myself, "it's ready." and it is. and it's perfect. all that i could've ever hoped for.

It's fun finishing books, isn't it? :) It's got it's own special kind of charm. ;) But there's something that every young author dreams about--not only finishing their novel, having it done, feeling that satisfaction, but sharing it with others. It's fun to share stories with you guys. You always seem to excited. It makes me excited, makes me smile. But what if you want to reach more people?

Well then you just should... ;)

(cough cough publish your book cough cough)

Yeah, yeah, everybody says it, everybody stalls, everybody's scared of sending their story in and getting it rejected. (cough cough me included cough cough) But I've finally taken a big step forward. A.k.a. people, I have started my first query letter.

Whoa, pause.

What on earth's a query letter?!

(don't worry,  I didn't know what one was until a few weeks ago =P)

OK, I'll be simple--it's that letter that you send to the publisher saying "I'm so and so and you should publish this book because it's amazing". Pretty much. ;) There's lots of ways to write a query letter (like everybody and their brother has a different way), but the way I'm doing it is the way that the publishers that I picked out told me to do. It's kind of confusing, and needs lots of polishing. (no joke...)

And what's this story?

Um... cough cough...

Well, you know how I said I was getting Rubberboot Girl published in that magazine? Well, it hasn't come out yet, so I was like, "Whatev! I'm going to get it published!" So hopefully Rubberboot Girl will be here. In front of me. In book form. In... um... how long does it take to get a book published? (or accepted, for that matter...?) Just to say, I haven't sent in my query letter yet (*polishing*^), but I'm hoping that somewhere, somehow, for God's glory, I'll get it published.

(by the way... I'm sending it into a Christian publisher's, so... yeah... hopefully they like it. :))

I'm just going to say, I think the hardest part of the query letter was coming up with the synopsis.

Take that back. The table of contents was the hardest.

Mostly because I hadn't made one yet, so I had to go back through the whole thing, name all of the chapters (starting to feel bad for me yet? lol), and write them down. PHEW! It took forever. But it was worth it to see a table of contents of Rubberboot Girl staring back at me. :)

What steps have you taken towards writing a book of yours? Have you? What kind of books do you like reading? And (nervous cough cough...) do you think it will get published?

The Storyteller of Weston County, signing off...

June

dear june,

how could you have come so fast? it used to be january. and now suddenly it's june. and already, dear june, you are coming to an end. how can my year go by this fast? before i know it, i will be bouncing my grandchildren on my knee. my life seems to be sweeping past like a whisper of a wind, washing away like the trickle of a wave. and now, june, it's almost time to say goodbye. i will miss you, with your days of green grass, rainstorms, fresh air, beautiful starry skies, and big, clear, blue skies.

goodbye june.

i will always love you.

i will miss you.

love,
me

p.s. i'll say hi to july for you...

Some Updates and Promises that I Intend to Keep...

Hey, guys!! :)

How do you like the new design? (I actually took my header and "The Authoress" pictures... how do you like them? :)) I know it's kind of grey and black (um... it IS grey and black... anyway...), but I really liked it, and I like the look of it. It's just simple. And yet, in its own way, it's beautiful. :)

Anyway, I'm going to be getting some lots better posts up there, it's just right now I'm super duper crazy busy.... (and getting ready for some awesome stuff that's going to be happening in a couple of days) I might not be able to reply to your comments for awhile, but please know that I'll be checking them and that I'm here. ;)

Those who contacted me about being sponsors? I'll get you guys up soon. I'm just super busy. =P And please keep on praying for my dad. It means so much to me. <3

I'll also be doing an update on my torn ACL therapy.

And some other fun stuff. :)

Also, before I forget, I decided to take off reactions and the quick share button at the bottom of the post in the footer, to take off some clutter. (this blog has seemed clutter for FOREVER...) So, if you want to let me know that you're reading and enjoying what I'm writing, there's two ways to do that: 1. Comment. 2. Share the post. How do you share the post still? Just click on the post, and hover over the navbar. Instead of having how many times this blog has been shared, it will now let you share that post. I'd love to have you do that!! Thanks!! :)

God bless!! :)

The Storyteller of Weston County, signing off...

I have decided...

I have finally decided. On a blog name, you see. For this blog. And I have decided...

Let's face it. I always feel guilty when I think about changing my blog name. Every time I think I want to change it, I back out. And then I just found those really two awesome names that I love--Ten Thousand Wishes and Dance in the Rain. So what am I supposed to pick? It's so hard for me. Thanks to those who gave me feedback. It helped me come to my final decision.

I asked God what I should do, because last night I was in a turmoil about this. (Yes, about a blog name. I'm telling you, this is serious to me...) I asked Him what I should do, which name I should pick. And then this morning, while I was out picking weeds, I finally came down to my decision. The one that I want to stay by for the rest of my blogging career.

Guys, this blog is Storyteller of Weston County, and it's always going to stay that way.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I felt this blog name didn't... wasn't me anymore. That's where I realized I was wrong. I'm a writer. I'm a storyteller. I'm the storyteller of Weston County. That's who I am. That's who I want to be. And that's how I want to stay. And I realized it was "me". It was what I wanted.

So... yeah. Hope you're not dreadfully disappointed. :) I'm rather excited... I've got an awesome blog design idea for this blog, the name set, and lots of posts on the way. Thanks so much to my guest posters, by the way. I think I can handle it from here. Thanks so much for getting me here!! :) I'll be leaving my guest posters on Dragonmaster and Rubberboot Girl for another day, though, so if you're posting on there, don't fret, there's still time to say goodbye. :)

Several of you have already heard the news, or seen it on my prayer requests on the sidebar. If you haven't, I'm here to tell you. Just a few days ago, my dad was diagnosed with cancer. They caught it early, and the hopes are high, but still. This is serious. This is cancer. I would be honored if you would pray for me and my family to get through this. Thanks. <3

I can't wait until tomorrow... so many post opportunities... so many new people to interact with...

The Storyteller of Weston County, signing off...

Favorite LOTR characters!

Just thought I'd share some of my favorite Lord of the Rings characters with you all today! :)

Aragorn!

Arwen

Gimli

Gandalf the Grey

Legolas

Sam

And those are just some of them! :)

Who are some of your favorite LOTR characters??

xoxo

Sarah

A Name Change...?

Hey, guys, this is Storyteller!!

First off, you might have noticed a few changes to the design... (font wise) This is the start of my total redo of the Storyteller look. (well, not total... but you get the idea... ;))

So, I'm wondering if I should change the blog name. First off, I picked it almost a year ago, when I couldn't think of anything else. Second off, it doesn't really seem like... me. I wouldn't pick something like that now. I'm a slightly different person then I was then. Hopefully a different person for the better. Anyway...

I thought I would see what you guys thought about a name change and what to change it to.

Here are the choices:

1. War Cry.
2. Ten Thousand Wishes.
3. Dance in the Rain.
4. ARE YOU KIDDING?! DON'T CHANGE THE NAME, YOU NUT!!!

OK, thanks so much. :)

God bless,
~Storyteller