Pre-Blissdom

We made it!! Mom and I are here in Nashville, in our hotel room. Such a relief to finally be here. If you only knew what we went through last night...ah. Everything was swell until the light rain turned into light snow. Then the light snow turned into heavier snow. This was about 4 hours away from our hotel, and it was getting dark. I was driving, but mom and I switched when the weather got crazy...although we both know my vision is better, haha. She has more driving experience. So, after a huge overdose of stress and snow, we finally made it here. We were drained, and went to sleep right away.

This morning, after sleeping in to our heart's desire, and a fabulous brunch at Cracker Barrel, we checked in at the Blissdom conference area. It feels oh-so-official. And, me being seventeen, it's kind of mind boggling. This is like hip-blogger-mom central! Haha. Looks like I'll have some mama friends by the end of this weekend. Anyway, when we checked in, we got goodie bags! So exciting. Inside of a Lands End tote bag (woohoo!), there were magazines, catalogues, Bliss white chocolate, an oh-so-cute waterbottle, deodorant (what are they trying to say?), a lunch box, and some super cute jewelry! What? I was impressed.

It's almost Blissdom time! The "kickoff party" is tonight at 7:00. I have no CLUE what to expect, but I'm excited. I know there will be food, and lots of ladies. Haha. I plan on blogging throughout this, so don't stop reading.

Oh, and Boring weekend...was far from boring. My brain is turning to mush, so I will save the details on that for another time. But it was a great weekend, and I learned so much. I loved it.

Any assignment I need to know about, Mr. Graham?

Well, bye blog world! I'm at a BLOGGING convention...I've never felt more official in my entire life. Don't...like...quote me on that.

-caylielane.

Hello To You.

Good morning! Yesterday was in fact, a lovely day. Eli returned home safe and sound, and our reunion was a joyous one. I stayed the night at her house, and we stayed up late talking about all that she did, saw, and bought in Italy and France. Oh, how I want to go...even more than I did yesterday. Which was a lot. I want to go to Europe, and I simply don't know how much longer I can wait.

Same goes for buying that Canon Rebel. The time is coming... I just need to find myself a job first. Oh, the day of purchase will be a glorious one.

Gracie will be here any minute- she will be with me from now until Sunday. Tonight, we leave with our youth group for Boring. Snow came, but it was more of a dusting, which was perfect. It brought me a smile, but interrupted no plans. Today, I'm going to try to get all of my homework done so that I don't have to worry about it during the retreat. I don't think I will (finish the work), considering I have a paper to write...and math to do...and Spanish...but I sure will try!

Eli brought me some lovely little things back from Europe-some precious bracelets and a puffy hair clip, both from from Florence, and a Eiffel tower keychain from under the tower itself. I wouldn't mind going there...sometime...soon. With lots and lots of spending money. Oh, job, how I need you.

It's cold in my house today.

Gracie has arrived! We are upstairs, laptops open, doing homework. Except for I'm not doing homework. Blogging is what I'm doing instead. And I'm listening to Lovely by that Sara girl. "Cause Iiiiiiiiii, I feel lovely the way I am....." Oh, how nice. Some songs, you love because of who sings it. Other songs, you love because of the beat. Other songs, you love because of the lyrics. And there are some songs that you just...don't love. I have found that Lovely is a lyric-love song.

Well...I guess its homework time for Caylie. Intense I shall be. All while listening to my Mat Kearny Pandora station.

I'm excited about Blissdom, and ready for Bored Weekend. And I'm still dreaming of Italy.

Oh wow...listen to Boyce Avenue's cover of Teenage Dream. I know...I know. You're surprised that I'm recommending a Katy Perry song, and frankly so am I. I will straight up tell you that I'm not a Katy Perry fan. I don't like the messages her songs convey, and it makes it even worse that she used to be a Christian singer. I don't like any of her songs, honestly. The reason why I like Boyce Avenue's cover so much is that they changed everything about the song...it was made into a simple almost-ballad, and they changed the lyrics to something much more beautiful and real. Please listen to this. My favorite lyric change...from Katy saying "let's go all the way tonight; no regrets, just love" to Boyce Avenue saying "let's just talk all through the night; there's no need to rush". Amen.

-caylielane.

-Caylielane.

Italia?

Today has the potential to be a crazy good day. First off, my dear Eli is getting back from EUROPE today. She's been gone for more than two weeks...what's a girl supposed to do without her sister for that long? I've missed her. She spent part of the time in Italy, with a school group, then after the school group headed back to America, she was off to France to visit her fabulous sister Rachel. Rachel is a foreign exchange student in a cute little French town. (Oh, what I would give to go to France. Or Italy. Or...anywhere in that general region of planet Earth.) Eli and Rachel had planned to go to Paris together...and talk...and shop...ah. Sister time! I'm so incredibly glad they got to see each other. It had been almost 5 months since Rachel left for France, so it was about time!

The idea of being a foreign exchange student is very intriguing to me. Just a thought... Italy, maybe? Far Away, by Ingrid Michaelson.

Another reason why today has incredible potential for goodness? Snow. It may snow later today. I love snow. Did you know that? Because...its true. Here in Arkansas, snow is special. Some schools weren't even open today because the weather "could" get bad later. Wow, you know you live in the south when that happens. Alaskans, you have permission to turn your nose up and laugh. BUT, I am excited about the snow, because here, it's not the norm. The only thing I'm worried about is the possibility of it interfering with Eli's flight home tonight. The plan is for me to go with her mom to the airport to pick her up...I hope it all works out. I miss my Eli!

Tomorrow night, I'm leaving with my youth group for a retreat. The retreat is called Boring Weekend. Nope, not kidding. There will be no games, no fun, no activities...just "boring into God's word" (clever, Mike.) Basically, it's going to be a weekend of reading the Bible, talking about what it means, journaling, and just...being. I always love it when I get an hour or two to set aside reading the Bible, thinking, and journaling...so the thought of having a whole weekend set aside for that...ah. I'm fond of that thought. It should be a good weekend. Nothing fancy, not many people (fifteenish.)...just...us and God. I'm praying that God will teach me this weekend, and that he will allow me to just relax in the opportunity to completely focus on him, rather than letting my attention drift off to other things that have no significance in the Big Scheme of things.

I've decided to save up for a Canon EOS Rebel. I've been wanting one for...I don't know how long. A while. A long time. It's time that I officially begin the journey towards one! I say journey because financially, I am terribly limited. It's time for me to get a job. I'm in the process of making that happen. I am. I will get a job, and I will purchase a beautiful, black, Canon EOS Rebel, and she will be my best friend forever.

I'm off.

...I want to go to Italy.

-caylielane.

Guess what.

Hey, blog. You've been good and faithful to me throughout the years, and I can't say I've been the same. Sure, I've never completely deserted you, but I've definitely had some dry spells. I can't promise I will never do that again, but I will say I wish I never had.

Guess what? My dad got my mom a birthday present. A really great one. You want to know what it was? A trip. But not just any trip. A trip for my mom and I to go to the Blissdom Blogging Conference in Nashville, TN! What? Who knew there were such things as blogging conferences? I definitely didn't. It's a pretty funny thought, actually. But it sounds like it's going to be really great! There are lots of different class options- I think I will take the classes that mainly focus on making your writing better. Have I mentioned that I love writing?

The conference is next weekend. I absolutely cannot wait! Neither can Mom. She's...ecstatic. This is SO her kind of thing, it's not even funny. Wow. I'm excited myself, but I'm almost MORE excited for her. I know she's wanted to go to this for a while, but didn't push it because of the cost and all the complications of school/getting kids taken care of and such. So, when Dad presented her with a certificate saying that all of that was taking care of, it was like someone took all words out of my mom's mouth and hid them away, leaving her with nothing-incapable of forming a full sentence-literally. She was in shock. Haha. I'm excited for both of us- girls weekend! And, I get to write a report about it for extra credit in my Persuasive Writing class. Hey, thanks, Mr. Graham.

Gracie and Tim will be here soon. We are going to get some homework done before heading out to a surprise party for two lovely twin girls by the names of Catherine and Abigail. Homework shall not be particularly fun, but better than it usually is because it will be with Gracie and Tim. I'm a big fan of both of those people, in case you didn't know that. And the party...it shall be great. I love surprise parties. And those girls. So this should work out just fine.

I have Hey Soul Sister by Train stuck in my head. Christian and I have been working on playing that on the guitar, so that would explain it. I like Balloon by Sara Haze a lot- it's dreamy. But not quite as much as Lovely. You and I by Ingrid Michaelson is a fun song. Ingrid Michaelson is just fabulous in general. Ah. Ingrid, will you be my friend?

-caylielane.

I Say, Good Day.

I'm on a roll today. (A gluten free one, that is.) I was just telling Gracie about it. I'm just getting things knocked out today. It was a particularly good day at co-op, and I can't put my finger on the reason. It just was unusually great. Now I'm home. For the night. No plans whatsoever. That's a bit unusual, which I'm okay with. But I enjoy a night just being at home sometimes.

Tonight, I plan on...

*Getting my room spotlessly clean. Yeah, I know I always say that. But I mean it this time.

*Doing my math homework, even though it's not due until Wednesday. Yeah. Never happens.

*Making pizza! With gluten-free crust. I'm particularly excited about this adventure.

One day, I will have a laptop that lets me load pictures. This one, the Dell...the black beauty... just makes me wait forever, and then says "Oh, sorry, I'm not in the mood to do that right now. Tough luck."...Basically. It's a bit annoying. But, other than that, this laptop has been good to me. I'm not to the point of needing a new one yet, most definitely. But...when I DO get a new one...being able to load pictures will be a plus. My blog will have pictures! That's only happened once, I do believe. Last March, after the half marathon, my laptop decided to work with me. Oh well. Words are good. Sure, it may take a thousand words to do a picture justice, but a lack of words is rarely a problem for me. What can I say? I'm a babbler.

*Oh, and I'm going to practice guitar for a while tonight.

It's time for me to get going on that math homework. I feel like such an overachiever right now...this is rare. Me...doing math homework...early? Hah. Hah.

I need to find a good book to get into.

Oh! Check out Lovely by Sara Haze. I love this song. Thanks for the recommendation, Evan- you're lovely yourself!

-caylielane.

New Design!

I redesigned my blog! I'm very happy. Little things like that change my whole mood. Yes...happy I am.

I suppose I should update you on how homecoming went. It was really wonderful in my opinion. Getting ready with all of the girls was fun- lots of laughter, curling irons, and makeup. Then, meeting up with Scott and Tim and some parents for dinner was great. Everyone was all dressed up, and it was just splendid. From there, we all headed to the dance! It was great. I got pretty hyper. Dances tend to have that effect on me. I jumped around and goofed off with my friends, and it was just great. Scott and Tim weren't huge fans of the hyper dancing, but I didn't really even mind. Gracie and I would dance for a while, then talk to them for a while, and so on. It was great fun.

Today is a cold, rainy day. I was planning on leaving three minutes ago to go to the athletic club-I need to run 5 miles for half marathon training- but it looks as though I'm writing this instead, doesn't it? Well, as soon as I finish this post, I'm off to run and swim! I've been swimming laps lately. I really love it. It makes me miss the ole swim team days.

Tim and I worked in the nursery at church today. It was an unusually calm day in there- not as many kids showed up as usual. It sounded like lots of them were sick. Including Carson- he had fever last night. Poor kid. One little girl, Maddie, felt really sick all day in the nursery. She didn't talk hardly at all, and just sat and stared blankly at absolutely nothing. I asked her if she wanted to sit in my lap, and after a slow nod, her eyes not moving, she crawled into my lap and fell right asleep. I think she may have had some fever; I could tell something wasn't right. She's so precious.

It's kind of a dreary day today. It's all cloudy outside, and I feel lazy. I'm sure I will perk up after a good run and swim. I hope. Tonight is community group at church. Our community group hasn't gotten together since before Christmas, so I'm excited! I love the girls in my group.

I guess I'm gonna wind this post up. Goodbye, blog world. Thanks for reading. I shall return.

...I sure do use the word "great" a lot.

-Caylielane.

Just a Little Bit Excited.

Boredom makes anticipation stronger. I am sitting in my room, being bored. I'm contemplating going on a run. Maybe a walk. It's an excuse to listen to good music for extended amounts of time.

What am I anticipating, you may ask? Or, maybe you're not asking. Maybe you aren't curious in the least bit. Well, no matter how curious you are or aren't, I'm gonna tell you. Homecoming. I'm very, very excited about homecoming!

It's tomorrow. It all begins around 2:00. I will go watch the Homecoming Court girls, and hug lots of people. It will be great fun, and the girls will look gorgeous. After that, I am heading back to my house, along with lots of my girl friends, to get all ready for the homecoming dance! Oh, what great fun. We will make our hair and face all prettified, and put on some fancy schmancy dresses. After the primping has come to an end, we will meet up with some parents and some spiffy-looking guys for a yummy dinner at Carinos. I will be doing some serious gluten-dodging, but I'm up for the challenge. That will be lovely. After dinner, it's time for the actual dance! I shall be going with Mr. Timothy Joel. Hooray! We will all dance the night away, and it will be fabulous.

So, yeah. I'm pretty excited. My excitement has been hightened by the current boredom. But I believe I'm about to fix that! I am going to put on some tennis shoes, grab some music, and go outside for a nice, long, brisk walk. That will be great. Hopefully there will be people out on this not-as-cold-as-normal day, because people watching enhances the experience.

I think I'm going to eat a nutella covered rice cake first. You know, rice cakes are gluten free. I never ate rice cakes before my gluten issue came about. Now, those things are a frequent companion of mine.

Red. My homecoming dress is red.

-caylielane.