Love story meets Viva la vida

I love this song. It is so beautiful. Let me know what you think.

Chelsey bridal shower game

I found this today, it is from my Sister-in-Law's bridal shower that Sarah and I hosted. Before people entered the romm we had them fill out a small card asking for an adjective, number, occupation, ect. I thought I would share this with you all because we found this to be so funny, and a lot of you were asking for a copy of it.



"Once upon a time in a land far, far away, a customer service representative met a lovely maiden in a rocketship. It was peace at first sight. Suddenly his nose was drawn to a beautifull woman too dangerous for mere words. He was overcome with sillyness and was sure that he had found the women he was destined to share his pink rose with. It didn't seem like long- it only 17 years before Aaron got down on one arm and proposed by smirking her with his chello, and Chelsey readily said sweet!!
In just a few short centuries they will be heading to the ship for the honeymoon of a life time. While there, they will likely be attacked by a charging spatula, which Aaron will fend off with a baby. After they return they will live in a red igloo in zimbabwe where they will raise their 21 kids, including 9 sets of twins, which will transport to various activities in their blue purple elephant. And so the shall live happily ever after."

If you didn't get it already, it was a mad libs game. So anything that sounds out of place was added by a guest. Fun random fact about the the 3rd sentance, the day Aaron and Chelsey met, Aaron broke his nose playing frisbee. I guess she is dangerous. Jk. Hope you enjoyed this. Also the picture is from the bachelorette party, because I couldn't find the bridal shower pictures.

ASL to "Party in the USA"

This is so funny. It totally made my day.

Nationals Part 2: D.C.

Part 2: After landing in Virginia, we drove to D.C. First thing we saw was Washington's monument from the highway. We parked and went to find a garbage can and a bathroom. Well garbage cans/bathroom are a rare commodity is D.C. It took us forever to find one. We went to Vietnam Memorial first. We were amazed at the number of names written on two walls. It was so sad to think that each name represented a person that was loved. We went to Lincoln memorial next. This was one of my favorite stops. His statue was HUGE. For all you speech peoples, Gettysburg Address was written on the wall, how cool it that? Very cool. It was awesome to look through the pillars and see the reflecting pool and Washingtons monument. We walked around the National mall, seeing the Korean, WWII, FDR memorial. It was really neat at Korean, I was taking pictures and over heard the people next to me. It was a family with their grandfather. The grandfather was telling them his stories from Korean. He had tears in his eyes as he told them of how cold it was, of how he lost friends, the pain. That image will remain with me for a very long time. We were at the WWII memorial on the 66th anniversary of D-day. We went to Washingtons monument after that. It was so tall. The tickets were sold out to go up in it. We took pictures by it. It was so windy, it was crazy. We had lunch after that. It was really nice to just sit down, eat, and talk about what we had seeing. The outside of the building, where we had lunch, was pretty awesome. It started to rain, which felt so good. Ryan, Sarah, and I sang and danced in the rain. The weather was so hot and humid. It was 86 degrees with 53% humid, when we left Idaho it was in the 50. So the rain felt good to cool off. We went to the Air and Space museum to get out of the rain. (My mom doesn't like rain) It was really neat to see all the original planes. We saw Writes brothers plane, Apolo 13, and the spirit of St. Louis among others. We then went to the capitol. It was pretty awesome. We ended up falling asleep on the bench out side of the capitol. After walking all of D.C. And being up for 37 hours we were pretty tired. Went back to our hotel to have some dinner. Sarah, Ryan, and I were going to get into the hot tub. So we went the stairs into the pool room, to find out they didn't have a hot tub. They had this small little pool that a bunch of little kids in it, with a life guard watching. It was so awkward. The life guard kept staring at us. Yeah we felt pretty retarded. So we went back upstairs, after dipping our feet in the cold water. I finish A Walk to Remember then went to bed. So that was our crazy awesome day in D.C.
If I went back again I would go to Lincoln and Jefferson memorial. I really wanted to go to the Spy museum and Holocaust museum. We didn't go to the spy museum because was expansive and we didn't have time. We didn't go to the Holocaust museum because I wasn't sure how I would react to it. My speech is on the Holocaust, so if it was to much I wouldn't have been able to compete or at least finish the speech. But the next chance I get to go back that is where I am going.

P.S. I am in the airport right now about to board. So I will add more pictures when I have time.

Nationals Part 1: Seattle

Part 1: On the road again, first stop to Nationals was Seattle Wa. The five hour car ride was pretty boring, nothing exciting. I was able to read several chapters in: Rifles for Wattie. I am only half way done with it, but I already love it. I ended up bawling in the car. Such a good book. When we arrived we were 5(ish) hours before our flight to VA. So we went down to Pikes Market. I love it there. We split up, my parents and Sarah went to Sur la Table. Ryan and I went down to the park over looking the ocean. It was so beautiful. A Mariners game had just got out, so there were tons of people there. After walking the packed market, we went to dinner at Ivars. It was fun to have dinner on the pier. I took up enough courage to try Ryan's oysters. It wasn't to bad... as long as I didn't look at what I was eating. After that we fed the birds. Surprisingly I did it without flinching. We walked by all the piers, staring at the gorgeous ocean. One of the high schools had prom out on one of the ferries. Everybody was so dressed up. For once in my life I felt under dresses. I really wish I had gone to the prom. We went to the airport next. We took a shuttle from our parking lot. For the first time that day I heard “real” music that actually had a beat. But that was short lived. We took an overnight flight to Dullas. I didn't sleep a bit of it. :( The played Alice in Wonderland as the feature movie. After the first 20 min. I decided this wasn't the movie for me. So I pulled out “Walk to Remember” and started to read. I ended up reading it in a day, most of it in the airport then the rest at night in the hotel. I really liked it. It was very different then the movie, but I loved it. The last 3 chapters I read at our hotel. I ended up having to read it in the bathroom because I was crying so hard. In the Dullas airport we had a layover. My parents didn't want to buy food because it was expensive and we were going to land in VA in 3 hours. But Sarah and I were really hungry so we went for food. We came across a coffee stand where they couldn't read or speak English well. Sarah wanted to use a coupon for buy one get one free. So he looked at it for a moment saw the logo he said “yes.” We didn't know till later that he had no clue what it said. So he said “one coffee” so Sarah said “Yes! I want to buy one and get one free.” so he said “one coffee”. Sarah went on to try and explain the coupon to him. That went on for 10ish minutes till a line accumilated behind us. Sarah finally gave up and paid for one coffee and a muffin. By the time we came back with food, my family was now hungry. Needless to say Sarah and I didn't really get any of the food. We got on our last flight of the day, that only last 20 minutes.
Yeah, so that was day 1.
Keep me in your prayers, God bless!

National Prepartion

As I was preparing for Nationals,I was going over all the ways I could make my duo more "real". Thinking about how I could get people to see me not as an average teenage American girl, but a Czechoslovakian Jew that had to face sorrow, pain, hatred, death. Holocaust was horrible, something that none of us want to hear, read,or even acknowledge that humans could be so heartless. Living in North Idaho I haven't experience, seen, or understood the holocaust like the people near the Holocaust museum in Washington, or people who lived in Germany. So when I was preparing I had to realize that these two teenagers were real. To think that a girl of 12 lost everyone she loved. Her mother, father, brothers, and sisters all of them gone. The Prodject Judaica Foundation said "Of the vast majority of Czech Jews who were taken to Terezin, 97,297 died among whom were 15,000 children. Olny 132 of those children were known to have survived." Raja was one of those 132. She feel in love at the camp. When she did, she found hope and reason to live. Honza was her everything. He ends up dying in the end. I can imagine how much pain she suffered. She lost her family, forced to work in painful conditions, lost everything she knew, and ultimately lost the only man she loved. For the speech to become "real" I have to capture that desperation. I definitely have my work cut out for me, but I can't do it justice. This story has to be shared. So we will never forget what the world would look like if we had no God. I wanted to share a poem that Raja wrote. (the girl that I am playing.) This is the full poem, if you saw our duo I only read half of it due to time. Also, I wanted to share her ending lines, she says them as an older woman sharing her past story.

So here is her poem:
"I never saw another butterfly
The last, the very last
so richly, brightly, dazzling yellow.
perhaps if the sun's tears sing
against a white stone.
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it
wished to kiss the world goodbye.
For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto,
But I have found my people here.
The dandelions call to me,
And the white chestnut candles in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live here in the ghetto."

Raja ended up living in the camp till she was 19.
Here is what she said looking back at that time in her life:

"Goodbye. It was the motto of Terezin. It should have been written over the entrance instead of the lie that greeted newcomers: "Work makes us free" It was goodbye, not work, that made us free. It was the only thing we knew would never change. Goodbye... goodbye... goodbye. It freed us all. What was there to fear when you had said goodbye to everone you ever loved?
... My name is Raja. I am a Jew. I survived Terezin, not alone, and not afraid"

That paragraph is so powerful, send chills up my spin everytime. After Nationals I will post a video of Sam and I doing the duo, so you can all see. But I would strongly encourage you to read the play. It is so sad and powerful. It is "I never saw another butterfly" by Celeste Raspanti.

P.S. The writer is really cheesy.

Rainy days

For the last several months, all we have had was rain and clouds. Yesterday was the first sunny day in a long time. In North Idaho people are sick and tired of rain. I haven't really appreciated rain until this year. Today as I was doing my personal devotional, I stared out into they gray sky and the rain. I was captivated by its beauty. As much as I love the sun and warmth, nothing can compare to the beauty of rain. Most people, especially the ones in my family, hate rain. Because we haven't taken a moment to stop and take in how wonderful it is. Take a moment to see all the beauty God created for us. Weather it be rain, sun, snow, grass, flowers, it was created to be enjoyed by us. Stop and delight in the glorious world the God created. It is amazing. Yeah, this was a very random post, but I was so captivated by the rain that I just had to share it.