Just call me 'reserved'.

I was writing a message to a friend... and a random thought came to mind that I've been wanting to talk about - and who better to tell than everyone and no one at the same time?

I am shy. Terribly self-conscious. Totally introverted. Entirely withdrawn.
Well, that was 6 years ago. The only people I was comfortable with were my sisters - I'd even stop talking when my parents came in the room. I could get going, around relatives and friends - when I forgot myself. :-)

Over the last few years, I've gradually gotten much more outgoing. I can make conversation pretty well. I like it!

But during the process, I was so frustrated with myself. If I knew I was going to have to talk to someone - when I was about to answer the phone, seeing someone coming toward me, when I was about to pass someone I knew - I would figure out in my head what I was going to say, and mentally repeat it over and over until it was perfect. Especially preparing for being judged at the 4-H fair!

And this drove me crazy. I was a freak. How many people have to practice saying, "Hi! How are you?"

This was about two years ago. And recently, I realized that as I practiced, and practiced, and practiced, making conversation came easier and easier. I had a lot of trouble talking to girls I knew. Old friends, new friends, acquaintances. And boys - oh, merciful heavens! I didn't talk to them at all! I generally avoided people I recognized - I didn't know what to say. Awkward!

Having a job helped more than I can say - I got the old "Hi, how are you?" routine down pat ;-)
And I dare say, talking to people on messenger helped, too. I learned how a conversation started, kept going, and ended. And I started practicing it in real life.

Well, now you know how I came from hearing, "Hi, Shy!" every Sunday to being friends with the janitor at the mall. :-)

"Give me your eyes so I can see, give me your arms so I can reach..."

OOH! My first post on my new laptop!

I love this thing... I hope it stays with me for a long time.

The cousins on my dad's side were here this week! There are 3 other families with kids who aren't all out of college yet, and in each one there's somebody my age. The four of us haven't been together in at least eight years, so of course we took pictures!

Unfortunately, I look pretty dumpy. I had just changed to go swimming and taken off my jewelry and makeup - ugh!

And here is all the grandkids (who were there, anyway... 6 older grandkids and 3 great-grandkids are missing).

We spent lots of time at the dam...

I got buried up to my waist in wonderful, gooey, clayey MUD!

And then everybody came out to the farm for smores and Ghost in the Graveyard.

Pretty sunsets occur like, every night here! That's very likely the best thing about living in ND.

And then one last picture... of my little sweetie :-)

I am very sad. Today I was working on my quilt, and my cute new iron burnt out or something! Okay, I did get it for $10 at Walmart...

I also have a new song on my 'favorites' list. "Give" by Brandon Heath. He's put into words what's in my heart! I absolutely love it. God, please help me to reach out to people and help broken hearts!

I've decided to start a recipe collection. I've been going through stuff like crazy online, and I downloaded a whole bunch of programs and I'm going to try every one and see which is best!

While trying out recipes, of course. Last night I made a weeird dumpling soup. With an Asian stir-fry mix added - but without the sauce. I called it random soup, especially since the dumplings didn't really work and I ended up with not-so-good little lumps and bits.

BUT my zucchini cinnamon bread worked. Not gonna lie - it's AMAZING! I had it for supper, and breakfast, and lunch, and I'll probably have it again at supper tonight. But the next time I make it, I'm going to do apples instead! YUM!

Anyway... all this talk of food is making me ravenous. (Can you tell how well my diet is working? Well, at least my grandpa asked if I'd lost weight. It was weird.)

Speaking of my grandpa... we brought a friend along this weekend, and she spotted a sign in the yard that I'd never noticed, and burst out laughing. I did too. This pretty much sums up my grandpa:

I'm almost a college kid!

I'm getting really psyched about leaving for school now! Just seven weeks!
And tomorrow I get to go see it! (!!!!)
Somehow, buying my own little cereal bowls and pillows and fluffy towels helps me look forward to this more :-)

I just had my own little yoga workout in my room... I feel very... stretched. My plan is work on memorizing scripture while I'm *trying* to hold poses. Today, I was just getting the feel of all the poses... I couldn't think about anything but where my arms were supposed to be and not falling over!

We're on a dog-selling mission - 4 down, 3, I think, to go! It's really weird not having all the puppies, but it'll be nice to not get mobbed when we drive up to the farm...

Heh... heh... this is when you know you have too many dogs. And, um, it's also sideways. I don't know why.

I went into the garage earlier, and got some pictures of our last little one - Squirt. He's my favorite, and apparently now we're keeping him! I'm excited!



There were more pictures I wanted to put on, but my post is being all weird whenever I put a new one on. So forget that!

My stomach is rumbling now... time to leave my cave and maybe read outside :-D I've been working on Breaking Free by Beth Moore - it's a good book! My problem is that I go to the library and get a big stack of 'deeper' Christian nonfiction, and then I can only read a few chapters of one book at a time... so they sit on my shelf for weeks, until they're way overdue. Oops.

Videos!

WOW. Rachael Lampa was FIFTEEN in this video. If I could sound anything like her when I'm 25, I'd be thrilled.

Okay, snap. Does Blogger not allow you to embed videos? Phooey!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fUze7W14YJ0

Here's T-Bone's "Name Droppin'" I love it because it has Tobymac in it :-)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aiZVI7mRTkE

Here's the Cactus Cuties.... they have the most AMAZING voices!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QKCVS57j284

This video is hilarious... and has a good ending :-D
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oCd_i7wW87Q

One of my favorite movie scenes! (From Monty Python)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9V7zbWNznbs

The worst music video ever!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YPnGPIMUnus

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this! The song, the commercial... it's great. And the best soccer game(s) I've ever seen. Not that I've seen many... just Airbud, I guess.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dJStCJ2PFnM

This movie makes me cry... It's one of my favorite songs.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pn1ZIHgNImY

This one is the same song as the soccer movie, but it's another one of my favorite songs!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XzIK72iFDk4

Now Lexi needs to go get dressed and stuff before.. quilting time!

Ho-hum...

Well, because of random things happening, my 4th of July is not going as I planned... and my family is going to a rodeo and some kind of park or river or something. They'd like me to come along, but it sounds like torture to me! I hate rodeos (at least what I've seen on TV) and I don't like setting a weekend aside and driving for hours to look at pretty scenery - I can do that here!

Anyway, enough grumpiness. So my plan was to stay home and work on my albums... and then my wonderful mummy decided she wanted to stay home with me :-)

Earlier this week, I went to a quilt shop with Mom. I doooon't like craft shops, but she wanted company, and I like having her to myself. We wandered for awhile, and I saw a quilt pattern I liked, and told her that someday, I wanted to make a quilt. And you know what? She asked around and found the pattern, and told me to start picking out fabric. It took over an hour, but I had FUN!

So tomorrow, we're going to start it. I'm excited! It'll be for my new bed at college :-)
Speaking of college, we're leaving in five days or so to check it out. YAY!

Ooh, one more thing. I walked into a room at the quilt shop and was like...... HURRAY!
My favorite little pig in the world has become fabric!
http://www.fourthcornerquilts.com/QuiltPhotos/custDottieOlivia_Large.jpg
http://www.bunneyhutch.com/oliviathepig.jpg
http://www.baysidequilting.com/store/ProdImages/qkk22lg.jpg
http://www.shopfonsandporter.com/images/olivia_med.jpg