Super Fun Times at the End of College!

I borrowed some of this post from an email to a friend (whom I adore, btw). I totally just typed "btw". Notice that I didn't change it though...that would disrupt the stream of consciousness theme that I am working on.

I finally did it. I emailed my professor yesterday with my final paper which I did about Christianity. What a cool way to end college! The last question on my last test was "What do Christians Believe?" Can we say A+++? It was just a great way to end school talking about how Jesus came to earth and died on the cross for the sins of the world and by accepting Him as a payment for your sins you can go to heaven when you die. Although, I said all of that in a much more scholarly way.

I finished up my paper with some information about the emergent church (I'll spare you my own personal thoughts on that topic) and then I put in some really cool facts about martyrdom.

Did you know that there have been more than 45,000 Christian martyrs in the 20th century alone? That is more than all previous 19 centuries combined. An interesting thought.

Josef Ton is an amazing Romanian man who has dealt with it head on. Because of his beliefs, in the early 70's he felt God telling him to go back home to Romania but he knew that there were people waiting there to kill him for his faith. He had this to say:

"I saw how God always conquers by a love that is self-giving and self-sacrificing. It was there that I understood God’s method of sending His lamb into the world, followed by many thousands of other lambs, to overcome the world by proclaiming the love of God and by
dying for the sake of their proclamation. This astonishing biblical principle that God always conquers through people who will preach the gospel and then die for it helped me immeasurably to be able to go back to Romania" (Ton, xi).

I am personally amazed by this truth.

Anyway, on a funnier note

We went to Chickasha again and this year, to step it up a notch, Jenny decided to bring this snowman costume that our friend Megan bought at a garage sale. It was hilarious! Jenny wore it first and then when she got too hot I took a turn. The kids loved it...well...not the little bitty ones. They just screamed and tried to crawl onto their parents backs but the 3-7 year olds all wanted hugs and pictures. I wore it and got in line for Santa Claus. While I was waiting for my turn a group of carollers came near and started singing "Frosty the Snowman" so I ran off to dance for them and almost tripped over some lights that were strung along the sidewalk. Somewhere behind me, muffled through my furry exterior I could hear Dan laughing histerically while trying to get out a "watch out!"

I only had two little eye holes that were way too far apart to see out of at the same time so you were lucky to get an inch of view of the outside world and use the other one as a vent.

Santa thought it was hilarious too. He made me sit on his lap and told me I was a great frosty. I kissed him on the cheek...which actually meant that I just knocked him upside the head with my wobbling monstrosity of a head and poked him with my carrot nose. He didn't mind and just thanked me.

I was waving goodbye to some snotty little preteen when he said, "Bye you big, dumb, ugly snowman!" I pretended to rub my eyes (which were about 8 inches above my real eyes) and then sulk off. Man, that kid was a brat! :)

Okay. This post was crazy long but I wanted to say Merry Christmas to my friends. I'll try to keep posting over the break! You should too! I want to know what you got for Christmas!

Bloggy, Bloggy Time is Here...Time for Joy and Time for Cheer!

I am thinking that I am the only person I know who still blogs. I went down my list the other day and everyone had deleted theirs or was severly past due. I want to bring blogging back like Justin Timberlake wants to bring Sexy back. Hmmm.

I have one paper standing between me and my college degree and it is on my favorite subject in the wide world: Christianity.

How hard can this be? I keep putting it off. I mean I am so close to being done. I could stay up for a few more hours and knock it out...yet...

I went to the laundromat tonight. We had a whole heckofalotta laudry. I used 7 washing machines and 8 dryers and a billion quarters. Then I came home and cleaned/organized all of my drawers, all of Dan's drawers and the whole closet. I am procrastinating but it is amazing how productive I can be when I have something really important looming.

Then (GULP) I did something really pathetic. I mean...brace yourselves people! I was here in the apartment all alone listening to christmas music on the only station that plays it non-stop- 104.1 which coincidentally is the station that Delilah is on.

I turned off all the lights. The only glow was from my color changing snowman and mini- multi-colored lighted tree in the bedroom and lied down on the bed and relaxed to the sounds of Delilah and almost cried at some sob story that came on.

Mocking season is now open.

Have a Merry Christmas people. And for the love. Update your blogs over the break so we can revel in your thoughts.

Amy Hay

P.S. Have you seen my new Moto Rzr? It is Fabu!

My Major Thing

Hello! You can check out my awesome story and find out MY MAJOR THING!

Turning into my MOTHER!

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely adore my mother. What is not to like? Her humor, her beauty, her drive, her support....her gigantic handbag??

My mom is fun but we have always bugged her about her ENORMOUS purse. I mean, she used to have this 12" by 12" blue, faux leather purse that we could put anything into. They should have named the movie "Eight Heads In My Mom's Purse." It was comical. One time we smuggled a popped bag of popcorn into a movie. One time we found a full sized dinner plate in her purse. I am not even lying.

So, yesterday at Wal-Mart I got a little frustrated with diggin in my sack purse for my phone and missing every call. I would also stab myself with earings and pens diving for my keys. So I decided to get a cool new purse with some pockets. I got this:
Look at its size compared to my computer monitor! HUGE!
Dan even asked me to carry around some Ibuprofen in it in case one of us gets a headeache. So, I am just going to let it happen. I love my mom. I don't mind so much carrying around a bunch of stuff.

After all, she always has what I need in that big purse.

Color Blind?

Are you color blind?

Diet Coke.

Just one calorie. Not Evil enough!

I have made a cataclysmic decision this past week that has affected me every day. I have given up Diet Coke. I know, I know...hundreds and hundreds of my hard earned dollars have been poured into Diet Coke drinking in the past 11 years but enough is enough! I need to break my caffeine addiction. I don't want anything in my life that rules me to such a degree that without it I have massive, migraine-like headaches.

The headaches are gone and so I think my addiction has gone with it. The hardest part of all of this is finding a replacement for my beloved drink. I made it go with everything! I have been sampling an assortment of juices but it just isn't the same. CURSE YOU COCA-COLA COMPANY! (Though I must admit the five free magazine subscriptions I got from them was nice)

Alas, I will reserve my Diet Coke drinking for special occasions and will try to drink water day to day.

I am just feeling naive. I thought I would feel monumentally different after overcoming this hurdle. I have heard so many people say, "I gave up caffeine and I feel so much better!"

Oh really? I just feel like my eyelids weigh four hundred pounds. I am getting cranky. Sorry if I snap at you...maybe Methadone will help.

Any reference to drugs is only in the spirit of jesting and not intended to offend heroine addicts or the late son of Anna Nicole. I am just cranky.

Office Season 2

I have been swimming in "The Office" season 2. It is pretty much hilarious. The whole Pam and Jim thing was a terrible cliffhanger.

This video is AMAZING!

Dan and I only get a few fuzzy channels right now so we have been catching up with TV shows by watching them all at once. It is a great destressor from our crazy days around here.

Of course if you have known me for long you know how I can obsess over things for a while and then be done.

Swing dancing
Movies, Movies, Movies
HP
blogging
geography
NPR
Scrubs
The Office
Alias
Horatio Hornblower (thank you Martha)
Homestarrunner.com
Myspace
YahooMusic!
Pride and Prejudice
Thai food
Etc, Etc

I am a mess but I have fun obsessing. Maybe I should buy a really nice pen... hmmmm

Crazy Theories Continue!

Ryan commented on how blogs are going out of style. I totally agree. Call me old fashioned if you will, however I have a theory on why they are out of style.

I believe the only reason blogs are going out of style is that they were the quintessential stalking device and now that has been replaced by the mini-feed. Plus, I know this will show up on Facebook. I continue to salute Mark Zuckerburg for continuing to make old internet obsessions obsolete by combining them.

Facebook allows you now to catch up on everything people are saying to each other...it is more conversational blogging. I dig it.

Don't count on me to give up this baby yet. I think blogs may be like the 80's...they just keep coming back!

Amy

P.s. I still think it is hilarious that the blogger spell checker thinks the word "blog" is a misspelled word. Odd?
p.p.s. that picture is just for fun...don't try to figure me out.

I still love Facebook!

There are over 500 new groups on Facebook centered around the premise that the new mini-feed= stalking.

Give me a break! It is somewhat tediously detailed but don't all you facebookers feel like stalkers already? I think this new mini-feed actually just highlights an already prevalent tendency of college students to learn little details about each other...and to spread gossip. It is like a facebook-wide rebuke. Relish it.

Don't lie- all of you use Facebook to see if that "so and so broke up" rumor is true and to see if one of your mentorees has been out partying over summer break. You may also use photo comments as a way to initiate some innocent internet flirting with your new crush.

The simple fact that you are on facebook and have the ability to look at all of these personal facts makes you a stalking candidate already. If you don't want people to see that you are in a "it's complicated" relationship then DON'T PUT IT ON THE INTERNET! If you don't want people to see whose group you just denied then let your request box fill up.

Personally, I love the new Facebook for a few of these reasons:

-You can now see what exactly has been recently updated on your friends' profiles instead of hunting to see if they added one more band or quote to their lists...meaning you would have had to have memorized their last lists.
-Everything is streamlined so you don't have to click all over facebook to see which of your friends are coming to Paradigm.
-You can locate trends in your commenting (and if you find that you just keep saying "you're hot" over and over again on picture comments then you can spice it up a bit)
-You can hide any mini-feed story you don't want people reading!

Consider the rant through.

Two of My favorites: Harry Potter and Star Wars!

Crocodile Hunter

I am so sad! Steve Irwin has died!

Get the full story here.

Stuff on Walls

My addiction to "Stumble" continues. To those of you who work in Mozilla, you should consider downloading the extension called Stumble...it brings up the coolest sites ever and tailors to fit your wants. I dig it.

I was particularly inspired by a site dedicated to pictures of grafitti found on walls. Though some of it is vulgar, I enjoyed the rest.

Enjoy!































In other news, things are going well for me and Dan. Dan had 12 at Noonday yesterday at Seminole. That is a pretty big group for such a small campus. I get to go out there with him on Tuesdays.

We are playing some pretty cool songs at Paradigm tonight. The song by Weezer is one of my favorites. Hip Hip!

Update

Thank you all so much for your kind words about my family situation. Just as a bit of an update: my grandma is home and doing okay with assistance. My grandfather is at home and not doing okay with assistance. My uncle looks better than he has and I am feeling very very hopeful about his situation.

Dan is in Glorieta. I miss him a lot and school in bearing down hard. Intercession is neat because it goes so fast but you barely get hold of the material and then the class is over.

Jenny is looking for a couch for the dorm if anyone has one they are willing to give up. Let me (or her) know!

That's about it. Here is another fun website for you. This one goes out to Allison Powell and Susanne Scott.

Amazing Machines!

Okay, I admit I have watched this video like 10 times. I am just amazed. My mouth hangs open the whole time.


Hope you like it. Click here!

What else could happen?

Just when we think we have weathered most of the storm another round beats down. Many of you know that Dan's dad died 5 days before our wedding in May. The last few weeks of May we traveled around for the memorials and dealt with things as they came.

This week, we got some terrible news from my uncle. I'll keep it private but there are a lot of emotions involved and we have been dealing with all of that this past week.

Today my mom called and said my grandfather was in the hospital following a collapse. He has neglected his health for years and is not in renal failure, has a suspicious mass in his chest and just looks downright terrible. My mom drove up from Corpus and as we headed back from the hospital my dad called to tell us that his mom, my sweet, sweet grandma from Del City (whom many of you have met) is also in the hospital and has been for the past ten days! No one called us! To top it off she was only four doors down from my Granddad and we didn't see her!

So, tomorrow morning we'll be up there rotating between two rooms with two loved grandparents struggling for health.


Please pray. It doesn't look good for either of them but only time will tell.

Thanks

Hmmm.

Ten points to anyone but Debby, Rita or Dan who can tell me who these cats look like!

I want free stuff

Okay, I think I am turning cheap. I WANT FREE STUFF!

I am signing up for all kinds of contests and coupons.

You all can help and I'll share my prizes. If any of you drink Coke Products, I would like to have your caps! They have codes inside that get points towards prizes. Soooo...maybe you could save the codes for me and we can all watch the movies I get to rent for free.

Okay? Sounds like a plan!

Enormous Savings!

I am having a fantastic day! You know those days when you just get a lot of errands done and you feel free? I mean, I got paid on Friday, spent no money this weekend and am now broke because of my bill paying but I feel fabulous!


For those of you outside of Norman, it was 110 degrees yesterday. I felt my face literally melting off! Dan and I are housesitting at my Aunt Karen's and the pool water evaporated by 2 inches! That is huge! We still swim!


For other exciting news...since Monday I thought the wrought iron bars outside my office window were loose and clanging in the wind but in all actuality it was a skunk climbing up the window to try to escape the drain. He has been in there all week...who knows. Dan and I put a board down there to see if he would climb out of it. He sniffed the board and then went back to shimmy up the window and attempt to get on the ledge. What dumb, smelly animals.

We thought he was all alone but another skunk comes out from under the fence around the air conditioner to check on him every 20 minutes or so. Eww..I think Kels should take care of them old west style...if you know what I mean.

And now for my enormous savings. Okay...maybe I am an idiot but I have never been too good at finding the books I need for school online but today, after seeing the money I would need to buy my books from the University Bookstore I wanted to cry.

$165.00??? Yikes. For 5 books? Yikes! So I went to Amazon.com and got them all for $63.00!!! Yay. I saved $102.00!

I should take myself on a shopping spree! Or pay more bills! So, children, if you believe in father Christmas like your uncle billy, buy your festering turd of a bookload from Amazon and stickittotheman!

Ewww?

Uh...this is cute or gross...or something odd. In Ohio there was a two faced kitten born with two noses and two mouths that meow at the same time. Weird.

Get the full story here.

More Stumbles

These are some of my favorite stumbles!

A Japanese Show with a bunch of complex Intros. My jaw dropped!

Napoleon Sound Board!

A very new kind of paint brush!

Virtual Bubblewrap!


Have fun!

A fun Game...75 bands!

Can you find 75 band names in this picture? Comment with your answers.

Click here for a bigger picture!

In love with Mozilla

Okay...so I am in love with Mozilla Firefox! You all should get it! You can have multiple pages as your home page and if you click on the "getting started" button you can download a bunch of add ons that make Mozilla even more fun.

I have colored tabs witch helps me see my pages more clearly and a thing called "Stumble Upon" which is basically a button you push to take you to some top rated sights according to what you tell it interests you. I found some really weird stuff and some really fun stuff.

Here ya go.

Mysterious Game

I played with this for an Hour.

Learn your world geography.


I got a bunch more cool ones at work but it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Happy Independence Day!

More Wedding Pics

If you're bored you can check out my bridal portraits.

Degree Check

Well, I got my degree check today and it looks like I have put together a perfect schedule to graduate by December. Yay! I will even complete a history minor!
It is about time! I am so ready to have my diploma like all the other people my age. Sigh.

Dan is taking me on a date tonight. He also does the dishes after dinner. Isn't he great?

HUGS!

Amy Hay

Searching for Kristin Eidemiller

I have become an internet stalker. Anyone with Google can become an expert on people they barely know. It is frightening really.

I mean, have you ever googled your name?

I have been looking for a friend I used to know in Seattle for months! I spend hours scrolling through Myspace browses for her or her siblings. For $24.95 I can look up her criminal history and see her credit rating along with her last four addresses but this, for me, is overstepping the bounds just a little bit.

Kristin, Where are you?

During this whole process though I have reconnected with a ton of friends from high school and some even from middle and elementary school. There is something therapeutic about forming a new mental image of people when they have been perpetually twelve in your mind.

I found a girl I used to know who became a swimmer in college and married a pro football player. Another of my friends, whom I adored at age 10, is an accomplished Ivy league graduate who has been published many times over. I am stunned! Some are married with kids already.

I just wonder if these new inventions like Myspace and Facebook will keep people interested enough in each other to actually have something to talk about at their 10 year reunions....Or even to show up at their 10 year reunions.

Okay...I think I am done. My new obsession is Myspace. You can find all sorts of people, blog, put up pictures and music and edit the html in any field. It is a thing of beauty.

I miss you friends. Please say hello.

Love from Amy Van Hizzle.

P.S. Irony of all ironies...I just spell checked this post and the checker didn't recognize the word "blog." Hello!

We're Home!

We made it home safe! Honeymoons are great! I just never ever ever ever want to get married again!

I thought I would add a few pics so you could live the vacation with us!








Dan and I saw a Houston Astros Game!















Dan spent a few hours in a hammock on a private beach. Ahhhh...vacation!







Dan on Stateroom Balcony...the most common sight! He was fascinated with how the ship worked and he loved the water!




















This was our dinner group. Meeting new people is fun! We ate every night in a formal dining room with fab food like steak, lobster, shrimp, etc. Coming home was very hard!















We met a pirate near Tortuga!

















And we weren't the only ship in port. Imagine an extra 10 thousand people coming ashore from just these four boats! Go economy go!

We got a chance to swim with the StingRays! This was soooo cool. They were super soft on the bottom.








I even got to hold one!













Dan was keeping it real!














I was trying to get a self portrait but saltwater/sunscreen was burning Dan's eyes out of their sockets...sooo...this is what came out. I am sure my goggles in his eyeball really helped the situation.

All in all we had a great time! I hope you thought these were a laugh. I should really take a picture of the apartment that awaited us when we got home. Man O Man I thought we had a tornado in there.

Anyway...more later.

Love from the Hays