Parks and Recreation (and Cupcakes)

A few things have happened this week which I have particularly enjoyed. First of all, yesterday my class went to the Denver Zoo for Biology and we had lots of fun. Unfortunately, we were on such a tight schedule that we didn't really get to look at anything for a very long time. I didn't see any gazelles, saw only one ostrich and just one giant elephant shrew, and the flamingos had disappeared. Was I disappointed? Hoh, yeah. We didn't even get to see the baby elephant shrews which were in the animal nursery! However, overall, the trip itself was pretty fun.

Yesterday, Hannah, Rachel, Bekah, and Alyssa spent the night at my house. After our perch dissection in seventh period Biology (gross, gross gross), everyone, all the boys, too, went and hung out at the park which is a few blocks away from our school. The boys played football, and us girls sat around and chatted. We also made a circle and prayed together, which was pretty cool. After a bit, the guys joined us to play in the kids equipment not far from the field. I feel like whenever the boys are involved with anything, the class gets divided into sub-cliques. Rachel and Jake; Bekah with Alyssa, Aiden, and Nathan; Kaleb with Brice and the others; and Hannah floated easily between all of them; but then there was me. I didn't know where I fit. It was like when you put together a jig-saw, but somehow there's one extra piece. After a bit, I just kind of gave up and stood on the edges of the circles. I hate it when that happens.

Then my mom came and picked us up to get us five girls to go over to my house. I had to ride shot-gun (notice the "had to" in there?) on the way home, and the other sifted through my iPod which was plugged into the tape adapter.

The remainder of the night consisted of decorating cupcakes like monsters using various candies, having a little worship session with guitar and vocals, long walks around the property, and watching a movie. I think it's funny that God worked it out that I learned guitar just in time for my new group of friends.  Bekah's a fantastic vocalist who can lead, and so the five of us just...decided to worship God together. It was really cool.

Then after that, we decided to go out and take walk, which ended up taking two hours due to our pit-stop in a ditch to lay in the damp grass and look at the stars above. The night was lit with a full moon, and so we didn't really have to be afraid of what we couldn't see. In that pit, we continued to sing and discuss how awesome our God really is. How he makes everything work out for good. Like how their friend, Holly, left the group just in time for me to come in and be embraced. It probably sucked for the other girls to see their sister leave, but God knew that at this specific time, I was in need of such a group. Holly and I even have the same personality! And high fives, apparently. How cool is God?

We laid out on the trampoline and looked at the sky, side by side for a few hours, and I finally shared my entire story of last year. I even told them about my being suicidal and how I was going to, you know, do it. But I felt it was necessary for them to hear it so that they knew how much they mean to me. I couldn't even express it in words how greatful I was for all four of them! My eyes started watering some, and because I'd been using The Colossal mascara, my eyes stung and watered more. (Hence, do not buy non-waterproof Colossal!) But they all enveloped me into a sandwich hug/dog pile and told me how much they all loved me. I thought my heart was going to burst.

Afterwards, we went downstairs to watch a movie. Alyssa had brought A Cinderella Story (the one in the nineties with Hilary Duff - gotta' love it :), which brought back so many memories because I used to watch it all the time when I was in sixth grade. Rachel feel asleep about half way through, and after it was over, the four of us barely hanging onto consciousness crashed on the basement couches and floor.

Notice we didn't talk about boys, we didn't play M.A.S.H., and didn't even think about playing Truth or Dare. One more reason I love these kids. (Actually, that's a lie; we did talk about boys the next morning, but that was only because I'm insanely good at reading people and they all wanted to know what I had observed.)

But, yeah, the sleepover was great!