Just to say....

"A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

- Proverbs 18:24

   I love you, you crazy gal. ^_^

Supporting a Cause

      Yesterday, Chik-fil-A customers supported the business during a customer appreciation day all across the United States after Senator Huckabee asked for  support on Dan Kathy's bold decision take a stand on the Biblical view of marriage.
      Now... since the only Chik-fil-A we ever go to is in one direction and 1 1/2 hours away, we went to a different one up in Christiansburg, VA, and met some people from our church there.
     Though a little paranoid about the fact that protesters might be there, I was completely THRILLED to see such a crowd! We had to wait at the door, and Christopher, who had arrived I think about an hour earlier with his family, said that the person upfront mentioned that it had been that packed since around 6:30 that morning!
     I was so, so, SO happy at the turnout. It seemed so wonderful and exciting - God really worked to create a crowd, whether they realized it or not, to show that there ARE people out there who are willing to stand up and fight.
     The best part for me was seeing people I knew there. It comforted me and made me feel safe.
     Another highlight was standing in line, knowing that pretty much everyone there was in the building for the same reason you were, and having a guy lean over with his iPhone and show you a picture from facebook of another Chik-fil-A, cars backed up along the roads.
    "This is from a Chik-fil-A in Kentucky," he pointed out, obvious excitement in his voice. "This is great!"

    And the gays everywhere are screaming "HATERS! HATERS!" ... why? Aren't they supposed to be the tolerant ones?
  
   Tell me, why is is okay for StarBucks to come out and say, "we whole-heartedly support freedom of same-sex marriage," and they're applauded, their traffic picks up, they're praised; but when Chik-fil-A comes out and says, "we whole-heartedly support Biblical marriage", they're threatened with banishment from certain places, cursed at, yelled at, stomped at, and overall... hm. Hated?
    Who's hating now?

    Support Chik-fil-A and their utter boldness to stand up and say "no" to a world gone haywire. Support Dan Kathy and his faithfulness to God's word in most areas, and go enjoy one of the best chicken sandwiches out there. :)

Fighting!
- hannah

18th Birthday, 2012 (and FANTASTIC)!

      Hi everyone! WOW... what a weekend.
      As I'm sure I spazzed to you about in anticipation a few weeks ago, my absolute Best Friend, Mirriam, came up on Thursday.
      All that morning, I cleaned, sang, cleaned some more, and made sure everything was *perfect* (honestly, it was ridiculous - you should have seen me. I would eye the piece in in the middle of the table, step back, reach forward and move it over just a hair, step back again, and then nod satisfactorily, walking away...)
     I waited and waited for the call, and when they finally did, they were giving us a 30 minute notice. I waited 20 minutes, running around like a mad-man to make sure everything was in place, grabbed my camera, and went down to the little white house for rent where they stayed last time.
    Mom and Nathan also came down, and I've even got a video from when they first showed up. I was so THRILLED when I saw their green van approaching; it had been exactly three years since I last did this!
    Mirriam and I always find this rather amusing; the first time we see each other, we spaz, squeal, jump up and down, and five minutes later, we're acting like we do this all the time and it's a completely normal routine. It never fails to happen, and that's exactly how it went as we walked down the road to my house five minutes later.

      We got down to my house, relaxed, and started chatting and catching up... though there wasn't much to catch up on, 'cause we talk on the phone. The catching up went a little more like this:
     "Oh, you moved things around since last time!"
     "Yep. I think I'm comfortable with this set-up; it's been like this for the past couple of years, actually."
     "Ooooh lookit that!"
     ... stuff like that. ^_^ We had such a good time!
   
     That night, after eating dinner, we set up the mattresses in my room, got changed, talked some more, traded pictures, laughs, stories and journal entries, and then played rock, paper, scissors to decide if we should role-play or attempt truth or dare. We decided on role playing.
    That. Was. EPIC.
    We both decided that the other was absolutely fantastic and there was little improving to do, as far as we could tell. We also decided that if we spent any great amount of time together, we'd have six-packs from laughing so hard... she's constantly making me laugh!
   God gave us such an amazing time together! We stayed up that night until 5:00 am, Friday night until 3:00, and Saturday night until 2:00. We wanted as much time together as we could possibly get.
   Friday was nice, because we had pretty much a whole day to chill and just do funny things. We went for a walk that morning, conversation drifting from one thing to another; the weather was *beautiful* - He answered my prayer for a wonderful day!

      That night, we role-played AGAIN, and were once again fascinated by our skills. We giggled, died of embarrassment, and eventually fell asleep on that little mattress, buried in pillows and comforters, sleeping it off for the next few hours.
      I had been hoping to wake up in time to watch the clock send me into 18, but I was way too tired, and slept right through, though I'm fine with that, because instead of Mirriam calling me at 6:00 to wish me a happy birthday like she did last year, she was sleeping soundly next to my desk; we weren't eight hours away.
     That morning, we got showered, got dressed, tried to keep ourselves awake on Pocky, and went about preparing for my party. THAT was fun... except I felt terrible that day. It was weird - I was fine the day before that, but then I had a pain in my stomach all day and felt light-headed and sick. I mean, it wasn't so bad that I didn't have a good time... I just wasn't my normal self.
   The rest of the gang arrived at 11:30; AH! I was so nervous and excited.
   Caroline and Megan helped us to cook the Korean food, and though a little stressful in my mind, I suppose, it turned out really well - here's the result and party pictures!

This is what we ate - bulgogi, japchae, fried rice and kimchee - it was SOOO good!

The "fire beef" (bulgogi) cooking.

 

Maknae (youngest) Caroline - she's so CUTE!

Japchae! DAEBAK!

 

Now, before the japchae looked that good... we were trying to figure out why it looked so strange... >.>

 

Japanese Sponge cake - it actually TURNED OUT! 

 

D'aaaww... love you, mom and dad!

 

The guys being their manly selves... Nathan looks like he's too good for this group. *sniffs*

 

This is the Ramune and Pocky that we got for everyone to have - excellent stuff!

We're not a codfish, Mirriam. Don't look so surprised at the book you got me...

 

D'aaaw! Thanks to Megan for taking this picture! I *love* this one; it's so sweeet!

Mirriam got me the Princess Bride! AAAH! I *love* that movie! ... obviously. ^_^

 

 

And Dad got me an ESPRESSO MAKER! EEK! 

See if you can spot something funny in this picture... look carefully. >.<

 

Watching the video that Elliot took...

      After the party and hanging out for a few minutes, myself, Caroline and Mirriam were going to do a medieval/fantasy photoshoot, so Mirriam did our make-up, and we went outside, taking the curtains in my room with us. They turned out pretty good! We were going to then do a more down-to-earth one by removing almost all the make-up and going simple, but we ran out of day light and time, sadly. Maybe next time! 

And yes... those are my eyes, and they aren't photo-shopped. I bought silver mirrored lenses for the occasion, and I LOVE 'EM. They made me look sooo weird and creepy. 

 The theme for me was that I was a "dead" or abandoned princess. We were going for a lonely, hurt look.

Mirriam's theme was that she was my guardian, and had "died" with me as a result of swearing her loyalty.

 

Caroline's theme was close to the same, though she was more of a fairy in search of... maybe the key to unlocking us from our ghostly prison. ^_^

But first she has to free herself - she's locked in a prison of twigs!

 

Too bad we didn't have time to finish the story. ^_^

 But this photo made it worth it. :)

       Sadly, it all passed by way too fast. Sunday morning came, and we had to part ways. We had such a wonderful time, and the Lord blessed what we had together. I'm always thankful to Him for His wonderful plans for us!

Mirriam, I love you, girl. You're FANTASTIC, dear. And to everyone else that came - THANK YOU SO MUCH! The time we spent was AWESOME! We named our time together "FANTASTIC", which INDEED... it was. >:)
Thanks to my family for loving me for 18 years, and making me laugh and cry all at the same time. ^_^ You guys are amazing.
I'm looking forward to this year with all of my heart!

Saranghae! FIGHTING!!!!!!!!!!
- hannah