Check it out! Check it out-Check it out-Check it out!

^Inspired by the check-it-out girls sketch on Sonny With a Change. :D



Guess what? Something that I made is being sold online! Hurray! And you (yes you!) can buy it for a great price of $5.20-- and that includes shipping.



Here is the item: A cute red flowered headband. I love these, and they are so fashionable right now. Even if they weren't, I'd love them!





The awesomest part about this whole venture is that it doesn't profit ME: it profits an independent student film called The Shadow of the Bear.


See, they don't have enough money to buy an editing program, so we, the fans of the movie, aRE stepping up to make some money for the film!


How are we selling everything? They have an Artfire Site where you can purchase lots of cool crafty things like my headband! There's scarves, earrings, hair accessories, and even a bar of soap!


I totally encourage you to go there. It's for an awesome cause. If you even just bought something for $5.00, it would really help. So do it!


The page for my flower is right here.


Thanks, everyone!

-Tina

I'm the kind of girl...

who dances as she weed-whips her grandma's lawn.

who sings as loud as she possibly can while working.

who makes up new lyrics for songs if they don't fit what she wants to say.

who will burst out laughing about five minutes after someone tells a joke because she didn't get it until then.

who cries really easily because she's passionate about alot.

who tries to stand up for what she believes in.

who is struggling to love others and live well.

I'm just that girl who doesn't act like she cares about anything, but thinks about what people say to the 20th degree. The girl who doesn't think about what she's said until after she's said it. The girl that wants to be fulfilled-- and forgets that Jesus is the one who can do it.

Still struggling to live well and do what God wants. Not anywhere close to perfect. Hopefully getting better.

That's just me.

-Tina

Applause for the awesome chivalrous knight!

“Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry Is never past; so long as there is a wrong left underexposed on earth” -Charlies Kingsley

I LOVE IT WHEN GUYS ARE AWESOME!

It's so rare to have a guy open a door for you, or offer you his seat. It's even more rare to have a guy do it for you that you don't know.

I don't know about you, but I love chivalrous men. It rocks my world when they step up and decide to be selfless for a girl rather than selfish. There aren't many of these guys that exist anymore. I mean, the whole idea of the culture seems to shout "ME! ME!", and so people aren't letting others go first and all that.

I was waiting for the bus yesterday to get home from college classes. It was around three pm, and there were ALOT of people waiting. Everyone was crowded together, and we got even closer (literally) as the bus rounded the corner and came down the hill. With that many people, I'm sure that people were wondering if they would all fit on the bus. The next bus would take fifteen entire minutes to get there after this bus left, and no one wanted to be left behind. I'm positive that being unselfish was on very few of the minds there. It wasn't exactly on the forefront of MY mind.

As the bus slowed down and squealed to a stop, I began to wonder why the guys in the crowd didn't let the ladies go first. Why, on the bus, they let the ladies stand up and sat in the seats themselves. It made me very depressed about the quality of our men.

Anyhow, we jostled along in line, and RIGHT before I was going to get on the bus (I was literally the next person), the bus driver said, "That's enough. We're full now."

I was crestfallen. How lame was that? To get so far and then....

But I couldn't complete my thought because, right in front of me, the last person cleared to be on the bus (a guy), turned and said to me, "You can take my seat. I'll wait for the next bus."


Whoa. That was a big deal. I was so, so thankful to this awesome gentleman. He got off the bus, but just as I was about to get on, the bus driver shut the door.

Lame ending for my fairytale with a chivalrous knight? Not so much. Cause while the bus roared away and neither of us got to take it, I was really touched by the fact that the guy had offered his place to me. His heart and manners were in the right place.

I thanked him and, while we waited, struck up a conversation with him. His name is Joe, and he's a music student.

Applause for Joe and chivalry! He made my day! Plus we had a great talk on a bus ride that would usually be boring and anti-social. :)

-Tina

Hats and Cuties!

Don't you love littl'uns? I don't appreciate them enough. Then I have a sweet, fun moment with my niece or nephew and I feel all gooey and loving inside.

I know a girl who doesn't like kids. But can you see a sweet smile like that and not melt? I pity the person that can. Sure, they can be holy terrors, but my niece and nephew are my holy terrors! And sometimes they can be cute and fun. Sophia (2 and a half) and I had a jolly time with my hat yesterday.

Wyatt (Sophia's older brother) is five, and he can be capitally awful. But he can also be perfectly debonaire! He hates to see me cry. I was talking about some rough issues with my sister the other day and started crying cause I'm emotional. He was over to me in an instant, wondering what was wrong. Even though I reassured him that I was okay, he took it upon himself to cheer me up and would not stop singing and dancing until I stopped crying. Even then he was still worried! :)

Even though I don't like my nieces and nephew alot of the time, I always love them.

-Tina

I Can Feel I'm Fading

Right now I'm kind of sick. It's sad how often I'm sick when I actually post--not that I'm always sick, of course. It's just then that I only make time.

Making time is an interesting concept. I'm notoriously bad at prioritizing according to importance. For example, I'll go to hang out with my friend when I should be practicing piano for another hour. Now, I'm not saying that hanging out with friends is unimportant; just that piano is more important. Why? Well, my parents pay something like $50 for every piano lesson I take, (I could be overestimating slightly) and if I'm not working at my piano, I'm selling them short. Besides that, I promised my teacher that I would practice faithfully. So I've been selling her short by bumping practice down the priorities list, too.

Anyhow, making time fits in because I complain to myself at the end of the day that I didn't have time to practice piano--but that's not true. I didn't make time. I did fun things instead of what I really had to do, which was kind of incredibly lame. Fun things are awesome, don't get me wrong! It's just that I'll still have time to do them later on, and some things are more important right NOW.

The thing I'm really, super bad at making time for is prayer! I'm so, so lazy about it. I take a little prayer time in the morning, but mostly I'm half-asleep and I can't concentrate. And prayer is extremely necessary to my relationship with God. It's funny that I don't think about it more, but prayer is the equivalent of spending time with a really good friend and talking with them about things that bother you, or are important to you.

I've been selling God himself short. I've said, "Hey, yeah! I love you alot! Thanks for all the stuff! See ya!" I don't really talk to him. Isn't that LAME? What kind of a relationship is it with your friends if you never hang out or talk to them? To nurture a friendship, you HAVE to make time. If it's gonna stay alive, you sure as anyhing have to work at it. It's the same with God.

So I'm trying harder. Whenever I focus on God and love him with my whole heart and soul, everything clicks into place. With God, when you love him, through him you're able to love everyone you meet in the best way possible--cause you're doing it with and through God. Cool, huh?

All of the distractions in the world tear my heart away from God, and from prayer time. Right now, I'm ashamed to say that I would rather read a good book or hang out with friends than talk to God. Sure, it's only natural--but we're not called to be natural. We're called to be Supernatural.

BUT: I'm going to work at prayer time. I'm scheduling it in the day. I'm trying to kneel at my bedside in the morning. This relationship with God has my eternal fate resting on it, so I'm not going to push it aside. Even though all of the pretty things all around me are really distracting, I'm going to do my best to stay strong and not get distracted. At least, not permanently.

-Tina

Beautiful, beautiful books!

I love fairytales forever and ever and always.

Aren't they the marvelous-est? I just read a conglomeration of fairytale stories all smashed into one book: Out of the Wild. It was great. It gave me that lovely, happy, sweet-but-not-too-sugary ending that made me all the more pleased because of all the side-trips we had to take to get there.

I'm now getting back into a happy mood. I was in a very happy mood because I finished the book in one sitting and felt like bouncing off the walls for glee! But then I remembered that my government is an idiot and cut off the power to my library system. Not exactly, actually, but pretty close.

See, I live in one county with a certain library system. Five minutes away from me is another library that uses another system. Until four months ago, the systems worked together in harmony. Holds were interchanged from library to library, and all was well. Then BAM! The stupid government had to cut library founding and discourage hold companionship and now I'm all screwed over because the two systems are no longer working together.

Isn't that stupid? It makes me mad, especially because "my" system (HA!) that I've never used before is not as big as the old system and doesn't have Merlin Season 1! It makes me so angry! I'm so angry with the stupid library cutting funding idiot government legislation. Man, I'm glad we're getting a new governor. I hope he/she fixes it.

Anyhow, I'm partially consoled by my marvelous book. Do read it! I met a poor unfortunate girl at the library tonight who complained of having nothing to read, so we chatted. Her tastes are vampires, werewolves, and romance. Sound familiar? Poor, disillusioned Twilight junkie. I directed her towards some cool books that have a similar, fantasy/science fictiony/weird-y feel but are so much better. I really hope that she tries them! She recommended James Patterson to me.

Have any of you read his teen lit? Give me a shout if you have!

Lost in books and marvelous fairytales, forgetting the terrors of government legislation for a moment or two,

Tina

I need your hurt, I need your pain,

It's not love any other way.

This post is to explain my new blog title and show you something that has really struck me lately.

God died for us.

Yes, you know this. But think about it. He was God. He could have redeemed us from our sins by twitching his little finger. Yes, yes, I know, all of the covenant and sacrifice stuff was how God related with his people. But he didn't have to do it so painfully. He could have just twitched, you know? He didn't, though.

I mentioned about how God related with his people. Suffering, both in penance by men and through sacrifice of animals, was how one drew closer to God. It still is. When we're stripped away from all of our earthly pleasures and loves, we draw closer to God. Not to say that we can't love anyone, but it makes you think.

What also makes you think is the statement that God chose to make by dying on the cross. He showed us suffering to the umpteenth level. He DIED for us. Died. In dying, he redeemed us from our sins. This shows me that God loves me to a level that I can't even comprehend. It also shows me that he was telling us that in our great loves, we were going to hurt.

Every great love involves hurt. I'm still learning about this, but think about it. Even if you find "the one", you'll get your heart wrung some. Break-ups happen to the best of people. Even in simply loving someone, you can get hurt when they eventually die. Pain is a fact of life and a fact of love. Does this mean we cage up and keep from loving? Of course not!

Check out the cross, ladies and gentlemen. Christ died for us. He endured the hurt. He gave us his pain. It wouldn't have been love any other way.

-Tina