Laughter

I love to laugh
HAHAHAH
LOUD and LONG and CLEAR.

Mary Poppins. One of those movies that just stays with you. I mean who doesnt enjoy watching people float on the ceiling and jump through sidewalk-chalk drawings? Who, in all honesty, hasnt wanted to be the person floating on the ceiling and jumping through the drawings? That movie represents a beautiful, carefree side of life that most people, myself included, lose at about age 6. I think people should mourn that loss more than they do. I mean, i understand needing to grow up and have responsibility and get work done. This is not some very flimsy Peter Pan-like protest against hard work or highschool. Its just a plea for us to be able and willing to let loose and laugh. For no apparent reason. And to laugh so hard that we cant stop. Laughter that makes your stomach hurt and ends up making you just feel better, body, mind and spirit, when its over.

My family has a new tradition. Every sunday night we gather in my parent's room and 'debrief' i guess. We talk about what the Lord has taught each of us, we tell fun stories from the week, we tell frustrating stories from the week. we talk. we sit. we spend those 20 minutes completely undisturbed as a family. It is a precious time. And at the end, to the sound of my unfailing protest, we lie on the floor, each with our head on one other family member's stomach. And someone starts to laugh. It is one of those feelings that should change the world. Liberating, beautiful, joyful, innocent. We just laugh. And the literal feeling of each other's laughter sets off a chain reaction that has us all in happy tears by the end. I feel clean, renewed and joyful in every part of my body by the end. Its awesome.

I Love to LAUGH

HAHAHAHA

Its Getting Worse Every Year.

Come to Jesus meetin'

I discovered something the other day. Sometimes its not enough to be right. I like to think about things in black and white. If something is wrong then its wrong, period. If something is unjust, it should be rectified. As soon as possible in my world. And while all of this is ideally very good, my world just doesnt work sometimes. Black and white gets shaken up sometimes. There will always be grey areas.

I have a situation at school. There is a teacher there that i have trouble respecting sometimes. Ok, well most of the time. He isnt very good at bringing stuff down to a level that highschool students can understand. Saying that used to make me really mad and worked up. In my head, my argument was, this guy is not a good teacher, we're not learning anything so why is he still teaching here? And i felt perfectly justified. All of the students who had him or had experienced his teaching agreed with me, the test scores agreed with me, even the administration agreed with me, and the rest of my class when we went multiple times to complain. We were right. I dont mean to say that pridefully or with disdain but simply to show that in a black and white world, we should have seen our complaints taken care of and a bad situation fixed. In a black and white world.

Every time that i had this man's class i would come home with a new grievance (in my mind unacceptable atrocity) to lay at the feet of my poor parents(or tatum or whoever happened to be close enough to listen to me blow off steam). And finally my dad and i had what he likes to call a 'come to jesus meetin'. He heard my arguments. He listened while i tore this man's teaching abilities to shreds. And then he looked me in the eyes and said, "anna, you can cry injustice, wrong, and unfair, until youre hoarse. But clearly you cant change this situation. BUT you can change your attitude towards the situation. You cant change this man, but you can change you" Now, i had heard this before. Im sure all kids have at some point. But it really hit home this time. Sure, i was right. Sure, the school probably should have done something about this a long time ago. But i was making myself miserable, encouraging my classmates to make themselves miserable, and most incredibly unacceptable, I was hurting this teacher. I was crying injustice and no one was listening. So do i continue to cry simply because im right? by virtue of the fact that i have full justification? absolutely not. I lay this man at the feet of Jesus and i walk away. I dont ignore the wrong, but when screaming that wrong doesnt work, i whisper it to the One who knows black and white better than anyone else and i let Him take care of it. I thank the Lord that i have wise and wonderful parents who hear my frustrations and give me much needed perspective. They help me shift the blinders out a little further. Thanks daddy. I needed it desperately

Because I walked out of that teacher's class yesterday having really learned something for the first time all year.

My Dad Just Dropped It

Thank you Caroline Davidson. We are all just sitting innocently at the dinner table and somehow my dad decides he needs to get up and drop it. Michael Mozley:master of the unexpected and not normal. And i love it. it was funny.

Anyways, its officially been over a month since ive written. I am terrible. seriously, im so sorry annie. although the threat of you coming to Ghana was a great incentive to not write for a little longer. I want you in ghana!

So this past weekend, I went on an HFH(Habitat for Humanity) trip with four of my wonderful friends from Lincoln. We went by bus to a small village about an hour from accra. It was so nice cause its been way too long since ive gotten to hang out in a village. I was getting way spoiled and my twi is too rusty. So anyways, we got to the village around nine and were welcomed by the pastor of the village. Then we got right to work. Me and my friends Sophie, Sabine and Abbi moved and laid bricks for an outhouse. Thank you First Pres team, carrying bricks with yall more than prepared me. These bricks were mud and let me tell you, there is a huge weight difference. The brick-carrying was hard but fun, then we got to try brick-laying, which all of us agreed was our favorite. We worked on that till lunch at twelve. After lunch we went to the other work site and plastered for awhile.

THEN it started pouring down rain. If you havent experienced a West African rainstorm i would say a visit to ghana is necessary. They are wonderful. So we all stood out in the rain and got completely soaked. It was awesome. Then, after about 30 minutes the chaperones told us to go back to our room. But the girls and I decided to explore the village instead. Little rebels we are. We were walking through the village, that had turned into a river. And we passed these little boys cooking something over a fire. They called us over so we went to visit. And they were cooking a little duiker, which is like a tiny antelope. They took great pleasure in showing us its head. sick. but it was fun talking to them and they showed us the the groundnut soup they were making and i got to use some of my twi. So fun. We visited with them for awhile and then kept walking. Now, on our way home from the work site, we had seen these guys trying to push a big trotro out of the mud. And it wasnt going well. And they were still there while we were walking around. So they called us over to marry them and help push. We had to refuse the marriage offer(gotta keep our options open), but we agreed to help them push. And we pushed the trotro out the first time we tried! we're good, im just saying:). So that gave us our bragging rights for the trip.

More seriously though, i loved being in that village. The Lord really reminded me of why im in ghana. I feel like that had gotten a little lost in accra. Accra is a relatively easy place to live and there arent many chances to just hang out with kids and speak twi. It was so good. A hard trip, definitely, but overall, so good. And it was so much fun to watch my friends from Lincoln enjoy it. For one of them, it was her first time ever in a village and she just moved here from the States. They were all so good, we had a blast.

Ok, so there you go, that was my weekend. Before i go, i want to introduce one of the superlatives that tatum, amy and i chose for the First Pres team. Ill try and give one every time i blog. hah
MILES: Best dancer.
he's my hero.