Tragedy.

In theatre, there are tragedies and there are comedies.  In life, it is the same.  About five years ago, I baptized a girl named Bradlee Edwards.  She was twelve at the time but had already read through half of The Bible.  She said in her testimony that she looked up to me, but now she'll never know that it was HER that I looked up to.  Bradlee, named for her father, was seventeen years old and a triplet.  Other than her two identical sisters, she had a mother, a father, and an eight year old little sister.  Last night there was a tragic fire at their house in Oklahoma.  Bradlee went inside to go to the bathroom when she realized that the house was on fire.  Her two sisters made it out into the yard along with their father, but he quickly realized that the eight year old was missing.  Their father ran inside to save the eight year old.  The house was completely consumed by flames and in the process of rescuing the little one, his feet caught fire.  Bradlee never made it out... neither did her mother.  The father's feet had to be amputated due to the burns and the eight year old was burnt past recognition.  She passed late this afternoon.  Now the father is going through surgeries and the two girls are staying with their older sister who did not live with them.  I pray that God will give their father the strength to comfort and lead a family, practically cut in half, while also dealing with a new disability.  Bradlee Edwards was the godliest young woman I've ever met.  She was on fire for the Lord and never put him out of her sight.  On her Facebook, the final post she had written stated lyrics from a song called "Something Beautiful" by Need to Breathe.  It said, "this is my desire, consume me like a fire..."

Build-A-Bear Workshop

I have the best job ever!  I get to do birthday parties and play with kids.  I get to be the one in the videos and pictures of first birthdays, anniversaries, first proms, first broken bones, and even deaths.  What I do sticks with people for the rest of their lives.  Being a theatre person, it's easy for me to be comfortable and confident in taking people through the experience that is Build-A-Bear.  I love getting shy kids out of their shells and showing them how much fun they can have building their own special bear.  I get to help a lot of special people as well.  Just today I helped an autistic boy build his first Build-A-Bear!  I've had deaf children make bears with me before and knowing sign language comes in handy with those situations.  People travel from all over the world to come to Build-A-Bear.  I've spoken german many-a-time to families from Germany.  It's just great to hear all of the stories that are out there.  Every Build-A-Bear has a story behind it.  That's what makes them so special! :)

My Life

My life is pretty great right now.  I'm engaged, I have awesome friends, and I have the best job ever!  The funniest thing that happened to me recently was my friends hacking my Facebook.  I left my facebook up on my friend's computer and she and her roommate changed a bunch of my stuff.  They put my interests as things like; Justin Bieber, Hannah Montana, and books titled "how to poop".  They changed my sex to male and put my profile picture as a picture of them being silly.  The best part, however, was receiving multiple comments on my wall wishing me a "Happy Birthday" because they changed my birthday to today.  It woke me up and it was a bit depressing to see that people didn't know when my actual birthday was, but it was still funny!  I love my friends!  It definitely could've been a lot worse.  There were a couple of things that they changed that I actually kept.  Twas all in good fun! :)

PURPLE

Purple is my all-time, favorite color.  I don't own many purple outfits, but my toe nails are always painted purple and I have many hats and scarves that are purple as well.  Most things that I use on a daily basis are purple.  I have purple shampoo and conditioner, purple face wash, a purple toothbrush, my mouthwash is purple, and my toothpaste itself is not purple but it's blue and red so when I spit, the foam is purple.  My bed sheets are purple, my computer is purple, and my phone is purple with a purple case.  I think that it's pretty obvious that I love purple.  I must say that colors greatly influences my choices when it comes to purchasing what I need.  I think that purple candy or food usually tastes the best.  Sometimes purple can be flavored like liquorish (which I hate) and it always throws me off.  But I can't stay mad at purple for long.  There's just no such thing as an ugly shade of PURPLE.

"YES!"

I got engaged Saturday night!!! It was the most perfect day I could have ever imagined! Spring break was simply amazing for me.  Not just the break from school but Ohio, eating tons of indian food and sushi, snow, the Cincinnati Zoo, and finishing it off with a proposal!  I was so happy that the proposal was a sweet moment between just the two of us because (even though I'm a theatre person) I don't like to make a scene.  My mom and dad are REALLY excited. (Especially my mom.) And my boyfriend (now: Fiance) did it on a whim so his parents didn't know until monday.  But all of our parents are happy for us so I'm SUPER happy!  After four years, when Randy looked me in the eyes and asked if I would marry him... of course, I said, "YES!"

Pandas

My boyfriend LOVES pandas.  I think that being around him for so long has made me love the furry, little guys too!  I've bought about twelve stuffed pandas for Randy and they (along with five others) sit on a shelf at his house.  The shelf is a little small so all of them are completely squished together and look like a panda collage. You can never go wrong if you buy Randy a panda.  It makes it a lot easier to get him gifts for special occasions. I wouldn't be surprised if he got a panda tattoo.  Actually, I'm pretty sure that he is planning on getting a panda tattoo.  Everyone calls Randy "Panda".  They say that it is his "spirit name".  It's pretty cute.  I think the goal is to own a real, live panda someday.  That would be awesome!

Cincinnati

I'm in Cincinnati, Ohio for spring break.  Everything is amazing here!  I went walking with my boyfriend down the main street from his school and it was BEAUTIFUL!  There are tons and tons of amazing, unique houses that were built between the 1920's and the 1930's.  I basically picked out all of the things that I liked from the houses and put together my dream house in my head.  It feels really great to be somewhere outside of South Carolina for once.  The six-and-a-half hour drive to Cincinnati is the worst part of the visit but I say that it's totally worth it!  Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (where my boyfriend goes) is just filled with beautiful architecture and tons of great places to eat!  They have two Starbucks ON CAMPUS! (Not to mention the one that's off campus as well) There are tons of parks connected to the campus, and this weekend we're going to the Cincinnati Zoo!  I can't wait!  So much Skyline Chili, Graeter's Ice Cream, and Penn Station subs, so little time... :)

Scrawberry Milk

In my scenic design class, we had to do a copy project.  That means that we had to take a normal-sized picture and paint a replica onto a 4 foot by 4 foot piece flat.  I knew that I wanted something with color but I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to do.  So I found this picture of a cow that has a bright, pink background!  I loved it right away!  The head is the focal point but his body is in the picture.  My teacher wanted me to add texture so I did a spatter of white over the pink and pink over the white.  I was really proud of how it turned out.  I spent 3 nights in the scene shop until midnight working and a total of about 25 hours all together.  First I had to base the flat white.  Then I had to grid out the picture by measuring the size of the picture and applying the same system on a larger scale to the flat.  (I didn't do a very good job because some of my proportions were off, but I'm still proud of it!)  After putting the grid on the flat, I had to paint layer after layer after layer until I matched the colors perfectly.  I had to examine every little line and make it match with the picture.  This was a very challenging project, but I made it through and I'm proud.  I can't wait until I get to hang it on my wall!

There she is!!! :D

E.D.S

I have a joint disorder called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.  I was born with a little, extra piece on my 23rd chromosome which hinders the protein in my body that produces connective tissue.  Basically, I was born with ligaments and connective tissue, but once I hit puberty my ligaments stretched and I didn't reproduce any more.  It's an interesting disorder to have.  My clavicle (collar bone) isn't connected to my sternum, my shoulders sit about an inch away from where they're supposed to be in the socket, and I get pinched nerves and dislocate a lot.  It takes a lot of caution to do what I want to do.  Being in scene design and carpentry, I have to be extra careful with heavy-lifting and how I hold my drills, how long I hold my drills, and how I use my arms in general.  I remember my freshman year in high school, I was playing indoor soccer when I rolled my ankle over the ball stepping on it at a 90 degree angle.  Because my ankle dislocated, I only sprained it.  I had to get a cast for it because I can't use crutches due to my dislocated shoulders, but then my collarbone started popping while I was brushing my hair.  I knew that this wasn't normal, so I told my mom and we saw an orthopedist right away.  The doctor told me that he'd never seen anything like it and put me in a sling.  So there I was, a freshman, with a cast on one leg and a sling on one arm.  It was so embarrassing!  I was officially diagnosed that year and given the name of my disorder.  Up until then, I just thought I was weird... okay... so maybe I am.