My Summer

Hey guys! So...it's been awhile. Like, my whole entire summer! And it's been a pretty crazy summer, which is why I haven't posted anything for a couple months. So I decided just to talk about camp and the beach a little, and then get right into what's happening in my life right now.

Mystic Mountain Training Center
Three whole weeks...a spiritually rich family of super close teens...this was one wild ride! There's no way to write about everything that happened at camp. There's simply too many funny moments and crazy experiences. But the way me and this group of teens bonded together in those three short weeks...I have never experienced that kind of friendship anywhere else. Although I already knew some of the counselors from many previous years of being a camper, there were a lot people I only met at the first training in January. And in it and the April training, we were all told several times by older staff, that they had never seen so many knew staff  "gel' together so quickly. And that"s pretty cool. I cannot wait to be a counselor again next year at a place I love so much. It was so cool to be ministering to campers for the first time, instead of the other way around, which is how it had been for the last seven years. I hope to be part of Mystic Mountain year round for many years to come.

Outer Banks, North Carolina
I love the ocean! I could stay there forever if I didn't have a life I had to get back to. This year was a little more laid back. We didn't visit a dozen light houses, we didn't drive all over the place. We chilled out at the house and the beach more instead of doing a bunch of sight-seeing. We've seen most of the attractions in our area anyway. We did go to the aquarium again though. I love just sitting by one of the floor to wall tanks and basking in the wavering blue light as the fish swim calmly over head. It's an extremely relaxing atmosphere and another place I could stay forever. All in all, it was an awesome week. Dad has talked about maybe in the future staying for two weeks, which means twice as much beach time! Someday I would love to live out there, but I shall have to content myself with once a year for now. :) 

Well as much as I want to talk more about my summer there's too much happening in the present to talk about the past. This fall is going to be (and already is) crazy!

                                                                That's all for now,
                                                                                  Torilinn

Youth Sunday

          Hey Everybody! This past weekend was Youth Sunday! Basically, it's the Sunday where our youth group takes over and does the whole service. We did a skit and a pantomime, and our youth pastor, Joe, gave the sermon.

Alli gives her testimony.

Alli, our friend Micah and I gave our testimonies, but when it was time for Alli to go on, she couldn't find her paper which she had typed her testimony out on. So she went up and did it for memory! It was pretty cool! The skit we did was called "That's not how you pray" and it was about a guy who had recently accepted Christ and was trying to figure out how to pray, Several comical characters try to teach him they're own unique (and silly) way to pray, but in the end the guy learns that he doesn't have to put on a show for God. He can just be himself and talk to God as if He were standing right in front him. I wasn't in the skit, I was off stage with a script in case anyone forgot they're lines. The reason for this is (1) Some people almost DID forget they're lines, and (2) I got the main part in the pantomime, so it makes sense that I wouldn't have a part in the skit. The pantomime is really hard to explain, so just go to our church's website (Firstmc.org/sermons)  and you can watch the whole service there, or just skip to the pantomime if you want (It's toward the end of the service.) I also played piano for the worship songs. I was a little nervous going into it, but everything went fine. Those stage lights are really hot though. I was just ready to crash by the end of the service. At Youth Group that night, we talked about maybe having more than one Youth Sunday a year, maybe having the Youth lead the worship quarterly, so that we're more involved with the church. I mean, what's the point of having a youth group if the rest of the church only gets to see what we're up to once a year? Anyway, this Youth Sunday went really well, and I'm glad I did it. Well, that's all I've got for today, have a great rest of the day!

                                                                                                 
                                                                                             Torilinn

YPF and MMTC Camp

            Hey guys. I don't really know what to talk about today. I just felt like writing on my blog so here I am. I do have a movie I want to review, but it's only been two posts since the last review so I think I'll wait a bit. Anyway, last weekend went well. I went to see the Young Playwrights Festival plays on Friday and Saturday (Which included my play. I won this year!). All the plays were pretty good, and I got to see a friend of mine who I don't see very often (his brother was in a few of the plays). It was really nice to get to catch up and I got his e-mail so we could stay in touch. Since my play won, I got a big bag of goodies and a copy of my play's script. Some of the things in the bag included some high-quality gel pens, a giant book about how to be a good writer, several other books (A wrinkle in time, the secret garden, and others), and a T-shirt that said "On a bad day there is always writing". I'm pretty excited to write a play for next year and I think I'll write some other plays too. Not necessarily  for YPF, just because its fun to write plays and then I can do longer plays than just fifteen pages (One of the guidelines for the competition). I have several ideas, although I'm not sure how you'd do some of them onstage. Maybe I'll write a book or a movie script instead :)                                To change the subject, I can't wait for MMTC Camp (Mystic Mountain Training Center!) There was weekend long over night training a couple of weeks ago, and since I had so much fun in only two days, I just know the other three weeks are going to be awesome! I've already made some pretty close friends with some of the new counslers, and I can't wait to see them all again! I know a lot of the counelers who don't go down the water slide at the end of the day, but I think I'll probably be one of those counselers who go down everyday! (Or most of them at least). The theme this year is the wild west with cowboys and such, so I have to have a costume for the first day of each week of camp, but talk about the kind of work that's fun! I love costumes! Well anyway, that's all I've really got for now, but keep an eye for the movie review and other posts coming soon!

                                                                    Torilinn 

Board of Memories

              So, we've had this board since before I was born, and recently, I was looking at it and realized how many memories it held. So, naturally, I thought "I should write a blog post about that, because, why not?'. The board is not very big, and we've used it for lots of things like something to do our nails on, build lego sets on, be a hard back for a piece of paper so we can draw, etc. There are lots of imperfections, including dried drops of dark red and light blue nail polish, countless crayon scribbles, dents, nicks and circular indentations. These are what trigger the memories.
              To start, the nail polish. When I was probably seven or eight (it's a rather blurred memory), my friend Audi (full name Audriana) were out on my back deck, painting our toenails. Mom hadn't wanted us to get nail polish on the deck, so we sat on the board to do it. As you can imagine, we were not the most careful, dripping several drops on the board. I remember it being warm and very sunny outside, probably sometime during the summer. It's a nice memory.
              As I mentioned before, there are crayon and marker scribbles all over the board. Although I cannot remember any specific times, I do remember how much I used it when drawing on loose leaf paper. Nowadays, most of the drawing I do is in my sketchbook, so there's no need for the board. The thick sketchbook provides enough back to draw on.
              Now the circular indentations and other nicks in the board. The indentations are from Mom hammering grommets into some cards, and needing something sturdy, to work on. Not really a memory I guess, but I thought I should include why they're there anyway.
              Lastly, there are several small nicks all over the board, these being from my young self playing carpenter or some sort of inventor game involving wood and my toolbox. I had several real tools, including a real hammer, which I liked to turn over and bang the claw side into the board, pretending to be building some amazing masterpiece.
              While none of these are really very important memories, I think it's cool that the board reminds me of them all the same. And who knows what memories the board will help create in the future? :)

                                                                                                         Torilinn

The Weekend

Hey ya'll! How's everybody doing? Life has been crazy for me, but hey, crazy is the new normal right?  :) Take this past Friday for example. My Dad woke me up at 7:30 so I was awake when he left for work (Mom and siblings were out of town Thurs.-Sun.) I ate breakfast and packed my lunch, then my BFF Rachael's Mom, Mrs.Stacey, picked me up to take us both to Fire and Light Academy (my theater group) rehearsal. After practice ended at two, I went home with Rachael because Dad didn't get off work until 5:15 (I am allowed to be home alone, but had been so all day the day before, so Dad preferred I hang out at Rachael's.) After a nice talk with Rachael about boys and things that creep us out in movies (She saw Jurassic Park when she was ten, I'm really not a blood and gore kind of person.) Dad picked me up and we stopped at home so Dad could change his clothes. Then we went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. I got a large chocolate milkshake! Then we ran to Menard's to get light bulbs, then we came home and watched POTC #3 (we watched #2 Thursday night. More on that in upcoming posts.) I then had to take a shower before finally going to bed. And this was ONE Friday! Of course normally they're not THAT crazy but still! But I like things crazy, it's great that I get to see my friends often. That isn't to say that there aren't days where I just wanna stay in my room with my headphones on all day. There are. I know there are Extroverts and Introverts, but I must be somewhere in the middle because it really just depends on the day and how I'm feeling (and also whether it's warm and sunny or rainy and cold outside. That often adds to my mood that day.) Anyway, that's really all I've got for now but keep a lookout for upcoming posts! I love writing on here and I hope to start writing a little a more often. That's all for now,
                                                                                                         
                                                                                                       Torilinn

Movies and Pirates of the Caribbean

 Hello friends! As you may know, I'm a total movie fanatic and recently watched "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl" or (POTC) for the second time. Although I have only seen the first movie in the POTC series, it has quickly become one of my favorite movies of all time! But that's only in the general sense of course. I'd probably have different favorites in different catergories. For example, I'm also a huge Marvel fanatic, and if asked what my favorite Marvel movie was, obviously it wouldn't be POTC because that's not a Marvel movie! (My favorite Marvel movie is "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" in case you were wondering.)
                 
                 I think I'm going to start my own movie review. Every few blog posts, I'll choose a movie I like and review all the things I like about it and things I wish were better or were different. I've already mentioned POTC. I love the big sword fights, and, being someone who likes to be snarky and sarcastic, naturally, I'm absolutely taken with Jack Sparrow! He has so many great one-liners!

"You cheated!"
"Pirate"

"If you were waiting for the opportune moment......that was it"

"You've got to be the worst pirate I've ever heard of"
"Yes, but you have heard of me"

Just to name a few! There's really only one thing I can complain about in this movie and that is the CGI on the skeletons. It's not the best, but I also need to take into account that this movie came out in 2003. CGI wasn't as good as it is now, so I guess there really is nothing I can complain about. The script was written very cleverly, and everyone loves a story about cursed Aztec gold and big cannon battles in the middle of the ocean!  Although I haven't seen any of the other POTC movies, I've been told they get progressively more bizzare as they go along. I'll probably still watch them anyway, just so I can form my own opinion of them, but I'm fully prepared for none them to come even close to being as good as the first movie.
          Well that's all I've got for now,

                                                 Torilinn
                                                     

New season, new year

       Hey Ya'll! So I realize it's been awhile since I've been on here. My last post was from 2012! But in light of that, it's a new year and what better time then now, at the beginning of 2017, to start writing again? This blog is for me to have fun and share my thoughts with others. I'm going to try to post as frequently as possible (Which translates into whenever my mom lets me) about anything and everything!
           I  think the biggest thing that happened recently is the play. The homeschool theater group I am a part of  did "Peter Pan" and "The Three Musketeers"a couple weeks ago. I'm was in "Peter Pan" as a lost boy and it was a really good show! This is the first year we used  a fly system and while I didn't  get to fly, it was still really cool!  While Tech week  is always super hectic, it's still my favorite part of the whole thing. There's something about wearing my costume for the first time and the bright lights that fills me with exhilaration! This was also my first show in the high school, so I think that is probably adding to the excitement too. We are now currently practicing for our next shows, "Oliver Twist" and "Anne of Green Gables". I'm in "Anne" as Mrs. Blewitt (Read the book to find out who that is). So far practices have gone well and I think this is going to be a great show!
          To change the topic entirely, my birthday was Jan.14! I'm officially fourteen! I didn't have a party on my birthday because I was in Pennsylvania for a counselor training. I'm going to be a counselor at Mystic Mountain Training center, a camp I've been going to since I was six and I'm really looking forward to it!So I'm going to have a party  some time in the upcoming months. I've had a sleepover the last couple years, but this year, I'm going to shake things up. While I don't have a boyfriend (WAY too young for that!) I do have boy friends (Observe the space in between) and I want to be able to celebrate my birthday with them too. I'm thinking the guys and girls all go out and laser tag or skyzone, something like that, and then go out for pizza. Or maybe we'll skip going some where and just have a cookout at my house.I'm leaning towards that first idea though because there's not a whole lot of stuff you can do at my house with such a big group (Especially not indoors). That's all I've got for now, but look forward to more posts coming very soon! 

                                                                             

                                                                                                           Torilinn