I was way cooler than Holly in high school...

What? We weren't cool and popular in high school? I beg to differ. Holly always thought she was too cool for school, but she could never compare to my coolness. I mean-- I was in the band. How much cooler can you get?!

Anyways, Holly said I would be kicked off the blog, drawn & quartered, and have my toes nibbled on by man-eating ants if I didn't post again. I don't have too much to say, though. Nothing has changed in recent days. James and I are 5 days away from being married for 3 months (although it feels like 3 years already), I still haven't found a job, and we still have no tv, internet, or a Roomba to entertain us at home. I've got an interview today for a job with the large animal department of the vet school where I would most likely be knocked unconscious by an angry heifer, but I'm desperate! I don't think it would be as trying as working in a small animal clinic-- one time we had a dog named Princess Vincent who once whimpered while getting her temperature taken, and the owner banned all of the assistants from even touching the dog. It was a rectal thermometer, but c'mon! It's a DOG. And who names a female dog Princess VINCENT? Honestly.

In recent Dalton projects, we've almost finished building an entertainment center for our imaginary television. Only the staining and varnishing are left to do this week and then it will come home with us! James designed it a few months ago, and his uncles cut boards to make the frame and they knocked it together last week. Woodworking is painstakingly slow for my taste, though. Last Saturday while they were out in the woodshop, I used his uncle's friend's expertise in sewing to start a dress pattern that I'd bought months ago. I bought a pattern that said "easy" on it, but MAN-- it was awful! We couldn't understand the directions at all. The pictures were deceiving and a lot of the directions weren't written well. We had one heck of a time just getting the bodice of the dress done. I ripped out so many portions that I had already sewn that I thought we'd never get it together. I still have to add the zipper to the top half and sew on the skirt, which I think will be MUCH more straightforward.... and then I'll have a dress that I may only wear to a Christmas party, but at least I made one! Dannnng.

Now's time for a request to anyone who's still reading this: James is bent on training for triathalon season in January, and I think I can finally commit myself to trying this year. I can train with him, but I'm not exactly challenging to ride bikes with or run with since I'm not as fast as guys are. Soooo, I need some buddies who would like to swim, run, and/or bike with me! I don't have a membership to a pool, but I'll probably get one so I can practice swimming. Did I mention I can't swim? Yeah. I can't. I sink. Like a body with cinder blocks attached to it. You know the kind. A patient buddy to work out with would be good. So if there are some ladies who would like to get together to do this, give me a holla.

Well, I'm going to go back to job surfing in case the interview today doesn't work out... or if I get kicked by a cow in the near future... ouch.

Bring out the parkas...

I just wanted to encourage my brosephs and sistas in the Lord to keep fighting the good fight... swim upstream! I have been so aware lately of my tendency to lose my footing and begin floating with the current of our world. But, by God's grace, we can make Christ look GREAT.

"Come, let us return to the Lord... let us know; let us press on to know the Lord..." Hosea 6:1, 3

In weather news, BRRRRRRR!! I think we just skipped fall and moved straight into winter. Oh well, at this rate it'll be snowing in no time. And I'm a girl who loves her snow. I fondly remember one day in February in the year of 2002... the day when Memphis received a whopping 2 inches of snow (they closed the schools, too... then again, they also closed school once for just the threat of snow, which ended up just being drizzle). Gabby and I made this humongus snow caterpillar using every bit of snow in my front yard. We then spray-painted him all kinds of crazy colors and named him Snowy. Our local newspaper came and took our picture by it, and we were on the front page of the "Neighborhood" section the next day. Did I mention we were really cool and popular in high school? No? Well, good, because we weren't.

SNAKES ON A PLANE.

Okay, so there really weren't any snakes on this plane. I just couldn't think of a better title.

First of all, I'M ALIVE. And yes, skydiving was INCREDIBLE. Definitely ranks up there about second to my salvation. The ride up there was really fun... even though we got stuck in insane amounts of interstate traffic once we got to Georgia. We were supposed to get there arond 10am, but we rolled in at around 12:30pm. We then registered and basically signed our life away (one of the sections of the waiver literally said "You may be dismembered, decapitated, electrocuted, etc... but you can't sue. Sucks for you."). Then we waited around for a few hours... and FINALLY at around 4:30 they started calling our names and we got suited up. Katie Roach and Bonnie Japp went first, then on the next plane it was me, Ashley Adcock, John Douglass, Zach Varnell, Andrew Thornbury, and his friend from ROTC. The last guys to finish us out were Kevin Harris and Daniel Jinks. Even though we were sad we couldn't all go together, it worked out great for getting to watch everyone and take pictures.

In case you're wondering what skydiving feels like (mainly because you're too scared to go and you just want to live vicariously through me), let me tell you. It's cold. After I did my two backflips out of the plane and I started free falling, wow... all I could think of was how freezing it was and how it was hard to breathe. The air rushing in my nose and lungs was so cold and so forceful. It was insane. And you can move your arms around, which causes you to spin all crazy-like. I could feel my chipmunk cheeks doing some serious flapping in the wind. Once we deployed the chute, it was so peaceful and quiet. You could look out and see Atlanta and some mountains in the distance. I was in awe of all of God's creation. We got to go in the late afternoon, too... so the sun was casting these incredible shadows on everything. Then we steered the chute and did some spinning tricks before the tandem instructor took control to guide us down. The landing wasn't difficult at all (but of course I wasn't the one in control of it... if I'd been steering, we would have ate it... hard). We just stuck out our feet and slid on in. Nice and easy.

And then that was it. 145 bucks and 5 minutes later, I had backflipped out of a plane at 14,000 feet and lived to tell about it.

The ride home was also really fun, especially because we stopped by Zach's parents' house in Chattanooga for some home-cooked grub. It was delicious... my favorite part was the homemade chocolate ice cream. Mmmm.

And if that isn't enough, we might go skydiving again in the spring. Yesssssssss.

Check out John Douglass's video that he took himself. Crazy.