http://alijoy.wordpress.com/- Yes, I've switched. I just really, really like some of the features at Wordpress. All of my older posts have been imported to the new blog and all following posts will appear there and not here.

So with that being said, goodbye Blogger.

*Sigh*

No camera. I'm going crazy without a camera. I've searched high and low in this house for Mandy's camera and I can't find it anywhere. I could use our other one, but it's older so it doesn't take very nice pictures. Oh well, I'll just have to use words and describe what I want to take pictures of.

I want to take a picture of a large jar sitting next to our kitchen window. Inside the jar are two of the most beautiful chrysalises that I've ever seen. Jenny and I collected the large Monarch butterfly caterpillars last week in the midst of a botany lesson. They were sitting on our Butterfly Weed bush. Dozens of them. It just so happens that Butterfly Weed is closely related to Milk Weed which is the only thing that monarch caterpillars eat. So, let's just say our bushes were being devoured. Anyways, Jenny and I selected two of the biggest and stuck them in a huge recycled pickle jar that had been sitting in our garage. Add a little Butterfly Weed, some plastic wrap with holes in it as a lid and some solid sticks going horizontally across the jar, and Voila! You have the perfect area for raising monarchs. Unfortunately they both turned from caterpillar into chrysalis while I was away from home so I didn't get to see that step. Hopefully we will be around when they began to emerge.

I would really like to take a picture of the chrysalises, but I doubt our camera could really capture exactly how beautiful it is anyways. They are the most beautiful green with stripes of metallic gold across the top. Only God could design something so beautiful.

Live for Him Alone

Since I'm not exactly a morning person, and I have trouble getting up with a cheerful attitude, I always keep my alarm set to the local Christian radio station. I wake up more cheerfully when I do it to the sound of Christian music rather than an obnoxious, "BEEP-BEEP" However, because of the time that I set my alarm, it usually goes off to the sound of the morning show instead of music. It's still better than beeping. But, last night I set my alarm half an hour later than I usually do. Actually, it was set later because of the weekend and I was too lazy to set it back. So, at 7:30 this is what I woke up to:

(chorus) Lord, I give You my Heart,
I give You my soul,
I live for You alone,
Every breath that I take,
Every moment I’m awake,
Lord Have Your way in me.

By the time I was clearing my mind of sleep and actually realizing what was being sung it was on the line, "I Live for You Alone". Wow, that hit me like the glass of cold water that Dad used to use in desperation to get me out of bed, except in this case my response was a lot less negative. How often is your very first awakening thought, "God, I live for You alone today."? That really convicted me. I don't think that has ever been my first thought in the day. Usually it's something like, "I hope Mandy isn't in the shower already 'cause I really want to use the bathroom." or, "Oh, I hope Mom didn't make oatmeal today, I hate oatmeal." or, "I really need to get this yucky retainer out of my mouth and brush my teeth PRONTO!". Always, the first things to pop into my head are my needs, or even more often my desires. You can even see them reflected in my dreams! I dreamed of Chicken Cacciatore. If it hadn't been for the song on the radio, I probably would have woken up thinking about breakfast.

Oh, how different my morning would be if I would awaken every morning thinking, "God, I live for You alone." My day would be so much fuller. Many times I go to bed thinking, "Wow, I got some stuff done, but I just don't feel like I've accomplished anything." And that leads to a fear that my life is meaningless- that I'm a lazy slob because I don't feel like my day has been meaningful. The way that that fear drives me might seem humorous to you. I'm driven to clean -hard. Yesterday I took all of the furniture off of our porch and scrubbed it down with soapy water. I then swept the porch and mopped it with soapy water. Then I got a sponge and scrubbed down the railing. Last week it was the bathroom- Oh, how our shower shone! Now, is there anything wrong with cleaning a porch or a bathroom. Absolutely not, but I was doing it to ease my guilt. To ease the feeling at the end of the day telling me, "You did nothing meaningful. You did nothing to make this day worth while.", and I could retort to this feeling that yes, I had done something. Had I not spent half of the day sweating as I mopped the porch. Was that not worth while.

It's amazing I can be so blind. All of you reading this probably know what I was doing wrong, yet I didn't realize it until this morning after hearing, "I Live for You Alone". I'm not fulfilling God's plan for my days. Since the beginning of school I have not been diligent enough in setting aside part of my day as a time spent one on one with God. I haven't been diligent in following a reading plan for my Bible. Now, isn't it sad that I tried to find my worth in cleaning and getting 'stuff ' done. That is a shame. I am ashamed.

If you are like me, here is what I suggest. Get off of your computer right now(well, finish reading my post first;), go to your room or another quiet place, and pray that God would change you into a person who finds their self-worth in Him. A person who wakes up wondering what God's will is for their day. If you don't struggle with this, than pray for me. I have not the strength to change on my own. I need His help.

Hounds and Terriers and Shepherds, Oh My!

Guess what I did today! No, you'll never guess. I'll just have to tell you.

I went to a dog show!!!!!!!! A real AKC Dog show in Atlanta.

A lady from our church shows her American Eskimo Dog and needed help at a show today. She showed the dog, and I watched her young son(I also watched the show). It was the neatest thing. I saw every breed of dog imaginable. I was like a kid in a candy shop. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I started squealing. Dogs everywhere. Tons of Whippets, Afghans, St. Bernards, an Alaskan Malamute(so adorable) and even a Great Pyrenees. Actually, there was one breed I didn't see, much to my disappointment. No German Shepherd. I just don't think the breed is as popular as it used to be. I did get to see an Irish Wolfhound compete in an obedience show which was AMAZING! Oh, how I want an Irish Wolfhound someday.....

So that's the news for the day. I also just want to apologize for a phrase I used in my last post. I said, "Everyone who was anyone was out walking their dog." After reading it, my dad mentioned to me that the phrase could be offensive to anyone who was not walking their dog that morning in NYC. Anyways, I just want to make it clear that I did not mean to offend. What I meant was that it seemed as though a lot of people were walking their dogs. I'm truly sorry if I offended you in any way.

Also, my sister's camera(the one I use) is temporarily lost, and until it is found there will be no pictures on this blog. I know what you are thinking. So, NO, I did not lose her camera;)

New York City; Part The Last

Let's see if we can wrap this up shall we;)

So, after St. Johns, we took the opportunity to walk around the surrounding neighborhood. It was truly lovely. I could definitely stand to live in that part of New York someday. It was all residential with really nice brick apartment buildings and clean sidewalks. Everyone that was anyone was out walking their dog around Central Park, located seconds away from St. Johns. I enjoyed watching how the dogs matched their owners. Not unlike a scene from

"101 Dalmatians". The Marine looking guy had a boxer, and the classy lady in a tailored suit had a little toy dog that was probably also wearing a suit. Then the blond haired athletic lady went buy with a Golden Retriever and so on and so forth. In Central Park I saw A whole crowd of people jogging along the shady paths and asked my dad if a race was going on. Apparently, they were just citizens out for their morning jog. I could of sworn they were all in a race;)

Random New York Observation #1: New Yorkers are generally very physically fit people. This is probably due to the large amounts of walking that they all do, and the exciting forms of exercise at their fingertips.

I still wanted to go to Macy's and see the wooden escalator. So we did. We rode up all 9 stories of Macy's on the wooden escalator. It's pretty cool to think of Victorian ladies riding up the same escalator that I rode up. I'll bet it was the height of technology back then. We take too many things for granted these days.

We were really pooped after exerting all that energy to go up nine stories and then back down nine stories, so we decided to stop at the Starbucks located on the 4th level and get some iced coffee. It worked miracles. I was literally running down the subway steps after that. Nothing like some iced coffee to put a bounce in ones step:)

Since I was didn't take pictures of the outside of our theater the day before, we went back tot the theater and took some pictures.

By this time it was getting on towards lunchtime and we needed to go back to our hotel and began to pack up. That didn't take us long at all, so we checked out of our room and asked the clerk at the desk to hold our bags for and hour when our shuttle would be picking us up.

Now, we had an hour on our hands no plan for how to spend it. But, on our way back to the hotel, we had seen some kind of festival on the block over from our hotel, so we decided to go check it out. And boy am I glad that we did. It was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. I wish I could have taken pictures, but my camera was shut up at the hotel with my luggage. It was the perfect ending to our trip. We strolled around the four streets that had been blocked off and did some window shopping. Vendors(mostly immigrants) were selling anything imaginable. Tons of Chinese people selling cheap silk dresses, skirts and shirts in fantastic colors. Indian people selling Indian garb. Tons of purse vendors, Jewelry, beads. You name it, and they had it. Too much to see. It was really crowded too, but that just added to the experience. When we got hungry, we bought a couple of Gyros from some vendors who were making them right there in front of us and they were so good!

Random New York Observation #2: New Yorkers enjoy a much lighter diet than the people where I live. They don't eat much greasy fried stuff at all. Instead, the usually opt for very fresh often sandwichy type things. Of course, pizza is the exception.

So there is was in my I Love NY tee shirt, munching on a yummy Gyro and trying to communicate with the Chinese people what I wanted to buy. It was a blast! I got a pretty skirt for a good price and some cheap t-shirts, but the real find was a 100% real cashmere scarf that my dad got for 5$ from a really sweet Indian couple. Bargains everywhere. I was truly sad that we had to leave it, but it was time to go back to South.

Not much to tell after that. We went back to the hotel, got on our shuttle, got to the airport, flew home, and lost my voice telling my siblings everything that I just spent weeks relating to you.

So, I hope you enjoyed these NYC posts. Normal posting will resume shortly;)

The sidewalk along Central Park.

Dad thinks this is silly, but I really like the pigeons in New York City. I like how street wise they are. They can completely duck in and out of traffic without getting hit. This is a big rock in Central Park that the pigeons were gathering on. It looked like they were having a meeting. The blur in the middle is a pigeon in flight.

The apartment buildings on the upper west side.

The residential area. I think that the reflection is caused by a really shiny building.

Me in front of the hotel. Note the shopping bags in my hand:)

The door to our theater.

The theater.

New York City; Part IV

On Saturday morning, we got up before the city was even beginning to stir- about 7:30. The streets were deserted and trash from the night before littered the sidewalks. The air was cool and the only noise was the sound of sweepers cleaning up the trash and taxi cabs lining up in front of the hotels to await passengers. We didn't have to stroll far to find a little cafe that sold bagels, pastries, and fresh squeezed orange juice. I had an everything bagel with cream cheese for the second time on the trip:) I could probably live off of those things. NY style bagels are so huge, that I could only eat 3/4 of the thing. And that's pretty incredible considering my appetite.


After our refreshing breakfast, we decided that since it was so nice out, we would walk all the way down to 28th street to look for the flower district- a collection of wholesale flower vendors marketing to hotels and restaurants. It was very cool. Flowers everywhere. They also had whole cut branches of figs, berries, pussy willow, anything you can imagine. Much of it I couldn't even identify. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't turn out well at all. Something about the lighting and not using a flash.


After the flower district, we headed up to Macy's but it didn't open for a couple hours. What I was really amazed at was the crowd of people waiting outside of Macy's waiting for them to open. They must have been waiting for a couple of hours. We opted not to wait. Instead, we hopped on a subway, zipped up to the upper west side and took a self-guided tour of St. Johns cathedral. The cathedral was built in the 1800 and is the third largest Christian church in the world(largest in the US). I also took some pictures of that, but I was really unable to capture how truly immense this structure is. A very large portion of the cathedral is under construction from a destructive fire in 2001, but what I was able to see of it was awesome. Very beautiful and medieval looking. The walls are built of huge blocks of stone and mortared between the cracks like a castle. The layout consists of one giganto cathedral (of which half was under construction) with large but small in comparison chapels coming of of the side. The chapels were pretty amazing. They were all named after some kind of saint and decorated with gold and stained glass. Because of the construction, many of the stained glass windows were covered making the whole building very dark. I tried my best to get pictures of it, but some of them are just really hard to see.


And, I think I'll finish narrating the trip tomorrow- just to see how far I can stretch this thing out;) Actually, this post took me several days to complete. Uploading pictures takes way to much time.


Enjoy the pictures!

The cabs outside of the Marriott hotel waiting for people to wake up and resume sightseeing.

A very blurred photo of some of the flowers.

More blurry flowers.

Stunning Dahlias.

Sunflowers and Snap Dragons.

Orchids.

I don't know what this is, but they were selling it.

Delphinium and TWO baby pineapples. Beat that, Katie;)

More orchids.

Ah. And here is the Cathedral. Nope. Just kidding. This was the tiny little(ha) chapel right next to the cathedral. I'm not sure, but I think it serves as a church office.

This is our first glimpse of the cathedral. Note the scaffolding.

The front of the chapel. This is from a city block away and I still can't get it to fit in to my camera screen.

I know it's sideways. But this is the best way I could find of capturing how big it was.

Here's a size comparison. See that little brown door on the far left? Notice how it looks like there is a big beam going across it halfway down. Well, everything beneath that beam is a door. A huge solid wood door that is probably too heavy for me to open. That's how big it is.

Upper view of the exterior.

Inside the cathedral.

These wooden structures are where the choir sits.

Windows.

The upper part of the main cathedral.

An engraving that I thought was really interesting considering it was in a Christian church. Buddhists monks on the left and George Washington on the second to the right. I'm not sure who the others are.



More beautiful windows.

One of the side chapels. Probably used fro Sunday school.

Another side chapel. I'm kind of afraid that there is a dead body in the casket thing.

A tiled ceiling.

This is actually where the priest stands. They had an immense stage with several levels, but the priest doesn't even stand on it. On the left, you can see part of an art exhibit that was right there in the main cathedral. I though that was really weird, but the whole church was like that. A blend of religion with art and history.

I was expecting to see a lot more of this(Mary shrines), but I think this is the only one. Probably because the church is actually Episcopalian not Catholic.

Goodbye St. John!

New York City; Part III

Okay, here is the end of Day 1. If this is boring for y'all, you certainly don't have to read all of these NYC posts I'm making. The biggest reason I'm doing this is to help me remember;)

____________________________

After the ferry, we decided to visit Grand Central Terminal which was nice to see again(we used to go there a lot when we lived in CT). I'm not really sure what it is about Grand Central Terminal, but it feels kind of homey(for lack of a better word) inside.We then went back to our hotel to rest for an hour and reaffirm our belief that there is absolutely nothing to watch in TV. With that done, we walked the very short distance to the Broadhurst theater to confirm our ticket numbers. We then walked around Time Square a bit and grabbed a light dinner in a very cool NY style Deli. We then walked back to the theater and watched the show.

I don't even know how to write about Les Miserables. It was beautiful. It was amazing. And my memory is just a little bit fuzzy. Looking back, it all kind of seems like a dream. I do remember that during the intermission I needed to use the restrooms, so I slowly made my way through the huge crowd downstairs to where the bathrooms were. Dad and I took one look at the room full of ladies waiting to get into the restroom and decided to hold it until after we got back to the hotel. The line for the bathrooms was so long that halfway through the second half of the play, the last of the waiting ladies wasn't even back yet. I can't imagine paying for a ticket to see a Broadway show, and then spending a quarter of the show in the basement waiting for the bathroom!

Originally, we had planned to walk around Time Square at night because that's when the city is really awake and beautiful, but we were just too tired and stuffed up. The cold was beginning to catch up to us. We had a very relaxing nights sleep at the hotel and got up bright and early in the morning ready for a new day in New York City.

Grand Central Terminal. Too immense and beautiful to capture in a picture.

GCT

Time Square