With the blink of an eye..

Summer is here, and already it's flying by. Just last week I had the delightful opportunity to participate in my church's Kid's Camp. Three blissful days full of laughter, sore arms and legs, sweet memories, and most importantly~ flag tag. During the week of camp, it felt like one moment we were only just beginning camp and then *boom* Saturday was already here and t-shirt signing along with farewells made an appearance as well. Each year at camp seems more and more special, and each year it seems like more memories to be treasured are made. I miss it you guys. It seems like time is like a thief in the wind, swooping down and making things go faster than they should. So often I catch myself wanting to pinch my arm when I think about how it's my Senior year this coming Fall. What?! Senior year...what happened to being that little 12 year old braces face girl who didn't have a care in the world and played in the woods, fighting battles against invisible forces until the street lights in the neighborhood came on? Now the battles of adulthood and responsibility are rising from the ground and slapping me in the face. It would be easy for me to lose myself to the memories of childhood and wishing that they would come back. I could easily sit in a corner, rocking to and fro, shaking my head "no" and crying, all the while saying : "I don't want to grow up" But then I think, I can make the most of my senior year, of growing up, of pursuing a job, applying for college, or making new friends. I think we all have those moments where we wish we could go back to being that little kid with no worries or responsibility. I realize now that this summer and this coming fall, it's a new chapter in life..a chapter that is waiting to be read and conquered. Before I know it my senior year will come and go, life will encounter it's uphill battles, friend's will come and go, all with the blink of an eye. Make the most of the time you have now and cherish those who surround you with love and kindness.

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" ~ Dr. Seuss

~Carmen 

16 random things at their finest....

December 8th, one day before it's officially my birthday. One more day of being 16, four hours before I turn the big one-seven. I can't say I'm going to feel any difference. Maybe I'll sprout wings or turn into a pumpkin at the strike of midnight. Who knows... but here's to ending the twelve month journey of being a sixteen year old. I thought I would do something completely random and maybe a little interesting for the rest of you. Since I'm sixteen for a few more hours, I thought I would post sixteen completely and utterly random things about me. Some of you, might already know these things, but..what the hay..let's have a little fun..and I'll live life to the fullest and enjoy being sixteen for a few more hours...Let's begin ...

1.)  I love basketball...I started playing right after I learned to walk.

2.) Math is my enemy.

3.) Daydreaming is my favorite past time.

4.) I'm shy..meeting new people and introducing myself is one of the hardest things for me

5.) I love to laugh and making others laugh.

6.) I'm a procrastinator.. pretty sure I both invented and defined the word

7.) Books are my best friends.

8.)  I'm adopted....from San Antonio, Texas

9.) Marrying a dude with a Cuban accent would be a dream come true for me.

10.)  I want to travel to Spain.

11.) I'm Mexican...and I hate Mexican food..well, I don't hate it..I just don't consider it my favorite.

12.)  Hallmark movies are my favorite.

13.) My favorite word is "peachy"

14.) I find people watching to be more entertaining than other things sometimes

15.) I have two birth sisters.

16.)  I like pie :3

Well, there you have it. Sixteen random..weird facts about me. I hope you enjoy it and maybe even learn something interesting. Now excuse me..while I go devour some cake and make myself sick on ice cream.

Bai.
Toodles.
Chow.
Adios.
Bonjour.
Bye Bye

PEACHY
PeAcHy


k bai...for now...

.....or not ...

>:)

ok seriously..bye

>:) >:) >:) >:)  >:)  >:)  >:)  >:)

~Carmen

I'm back....

You probably thought I walked off the face of the planet. It's been six months since I finally posted something on my blog. I have to admit, it's been a little bit  of a whirlwind of papers and homework. Literally, I feel like homework has swallowed me whole. But enough about homework..psshh who needs that stuff (; Bear with me, I stink at blogging, so I if I bore you to tears, I totally understand.

Fall has finally made an appearance, the leaves are changing and it's getting COLD. Seriously, my mother is happier than a dog with a new squeaky toy and I'm over here shivering in my sweatshirt and curling up in three blankets. Although I enjoy watching the leaves change from green to brilliant red, I don't like the cold weather. Ok, so maybe I enjoy it a little..but still..no one likes having icicles for feet when they're trying to go to sleep at night.

Anyways, I'm excited about Thanksgiving coming up soon. Ah!!! There's turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie..and let's not forget about finishing up the evening watching football. I always have to tell myself that there's more to Thanksgiving than eating and watching football. It's a day where I think, that you should sit back and think about all that the Lord has blessed me with. Sometimes it's hard not to get caught up with the holiday rush and forget about the real meaning of the holiday.

In case you haven't noticed, this a totally and completely random blog post. You better enjoy it while it last. Just kidding, like I said, I'm probably boring you to tears. I'm trying to get back into the groove of blogging. I've never been good at it. But, as my readers, hit me up with some ideas about what you want me to write about. Ask me anything..and I will try my best to write about it. I'm totally game with my readers asking questions.. So please, feel free (:

Valley of Humiliation.

I've been blessed with the oppertunity to read a book called Humility  by Wayne Mack. Can I just say, that this book is totally and completely convicting. When a friend recommended this book to me, I'm ashamed to say that I automatically turned my nose up at the thought of even reading a book discussing the topic of humility. I even went so far as to say "I don't need to read about humility, I'm already so humble."  It wasn't until later that I realized that that was one of the most prideful things I think  could ever say.  It wasn't until I started to read this book that I've realized how unhumble I really am.

You know that term, "a piece of humble pie", this book...it doesn't give you one piece of humble pie. It literally gives you like a panful of three humble pies and more. There are so many important points that I can relate to in this book. But the one that has really caught my eye, is where Mack writes about how God uses the Valley of Humiliation.  When I first read this section, I was like, "Wait, why is humility so important, and why would God want to take someone into the valley of humiliation?" But when I read the reasons, it was then that my eyes were opened.

God takes us into the valley of humiliation because :

1.)  He highly values humility and despises pride.

2.) We are so prone to pride and so averse to humility. 

3.) He wants to test and increase our faith.

4.) He wants to use the trials in our lives to produce enduracne so that we can become "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" ( James 1:2-4)

~Wayne Mack~

Eye opening isn't it? Trust me after reading this section, I literally cried. In truth, whenever I'm placed in the valley of humiliation, I often find myself questioning God. So often, my faith slips instead of growing stronger. It's hard not to toss my hands up in utter defeat whenver I'm placed in a difficult situation.

  "Ultimately, as we grow in humility, we are becoming more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is a great privalage."

~Wayne Mack.

You know you're a basketball player when....

I have absoloutely nothing to blog about so...I'm going to do this random list
  

  You know you're a basketball player when...

1. You find yourself randomly drawing basketballs all over your homework papers

2. When you're in class and you daydream about one day dunking

3. While you're watching a football game and the referee makes a call and uses hand gestures that look exactly like the ones a basketball referee makes and you ask yourself why the reff is calling a foul when it's really a offside pass in football.

4. You want to be on a basketball court twenty-four seven.

5. You prefer basketball shoes to high heels

6. When construction workers next door are pounding on something and it sounds like a basketball bouncing.

7. You see someone with a basketball and you want to snatch it away and run (mwahaha)

8. The swish of ball through a net is music to your ears

9. When someone runs into you by accident and you think "Charge" in your mind

10. Basketball shorts are you're best friend.

11. You have more tournament and basketball camp shirts then nice ones

12. You use your jersey number for almost everything

13. Bruises and scrapes from a tough game are medals of honor to you

14. You almost always have jammed fingers

15. Boys in your class are seriously terrified of playing basketball with you.

16. You want to spend you're entire Saturday watching ESPN.

17. Your mom has to tell you to wear a skirt not basketball shorts and a t-shirt when you go out with friends.

18. You spend more time working on your shooting skills then putting on make-up

19. Everyone is shocked when you wear anything but a pony tail in your hair.

20. You want to meet your Prince Charming on the court.

Shark Killer Hoo Ha Ha

Okay, so maybe, just maybe the title is a bit of a exaggeration. I didn't kill a shark...but I certainly mutilated and dismembered it. Yes, my dear readers, I, Carmen Elaine Parker, dissected a shark. There is a catch though, it wasn't a vicious Great White (sadly) it was just a measely dogfish shark. But that still is something right? I wasn't planning on participating in digging into the flesh of a already dead creature of phylum chordata. In the end though, I helped mutilated a shark that was in bad need of some febreeze. Anyways, it was totally gross, and what made matters worse is that the boys in my Biology class had complete and total pleasure in destroying the poor fellow. We named our shark Johnny Deep in honor of Johnny Depp, the other shark was named Orlando Bloom. Scaples flying, scissors snipping, flesh ripping, bones crunching. Yes, makes your skin crawl doesn't it? This is what I suffered for an hour and a half in Biology this past Tuesday. The boys of my class did most of the dissecting and I sat idly by taking notes and trying to hold on to my recently consumed lunch. What's worse is one boy, who thrives off of teasing me enjoyed every moment of seeing me cringe at every snip of the scissors and every scrape of the scaple against the shark's flesh. He even went so far as to make the shark talk to me. Literally, he picked up our shark and said in a honey sweet sing song voice " Carmen, kiss me Carmen, kiss me good bye". It was completely and totally revolting. For someone who wants to be an animal doctor one day, I won't be able to do the surgeries. I'm serious, I cry every time I see an animal suffering and cringe at bones crunching. No joke..I'm a wimp. Back to the lovely topic of dissecting and dismembering a creature of class chondrichthytes. Not only did this fellow who was enjoying my complete horror of watching a shark being torn apart make the creature talk, he also made a show of scraping the scaple against the shark's flesh. The noise was like nails on a chalkboard to me. Here's the funniest thing that happened though, during the dissection, Mrs. Parker, our Biology teacher, was spouting out shark facts as we worked. One thing caught my attention, the dogfish shark, has oil in his liver which helps him stay a float in the ocean. Mrs. Parker warned us to be extra careful when cutting into the shark's liver since it's full of oil. Michael, my lab "buddy" was so busy goofing off  around me that he completely and totally missed the warning of being "extra careful". So off he went, cutting recklessly into the exposed liver, and the best part of it was, his face was directly in front of the liver, mouth and everything. Oil spouted directly into his face, reaching into his mouth and everthing. I know I sound like a jerk for finding amusement in this, but hey, it was hysterical. I literally fell out of my chair, rolling on the ground laughing, tears were seriously streaming out of my eyes from laughing so hard. That honestly made my day. In the end, I cut the head off of the dogfish shark. Yes, you read right, I cut the head off this poor shark's head. I exposed his brain to the world, believe me, there wasn't much brain to show. Poor Michael, I still can't get his facial expression out of my head, poor fellow, probably is still rinsing oil out of his mouth. Good times in Biology, gotta love them.

~Carmen ...Sandiego...

Random Shananigans

So apparently I was tagged by my lovely companion Natalie Dettaman. So, let's begin...

Eleven random things about me~

1.  My favorite food is bread, believe me, if I could, I would live off of French bread

2. Litature and Biology are my two favorite subjects

3. Basketball is my absoloute favorite thing in the world. I adore playing it and I so wish I could spend all my time playing it.

4. I desperately want to go to Rio.

5. I want a horse. Or two...or three

6. I have a lame excuse for a dog...her name is Lucy..and she is ancient and bloated. Sorry Lucy, but it's true

7. I am in love with Finnick Odair, and Peeta Mellark

8. Books, are another thing I can't live without. Seriously, I fly through books quicker than the normal human being

9. I'm mexican <------ that was so random..haha

10. I love to laugh and I love people who like to laugh as well

11. I want to live in Spain when I grow up..



And now for Robin's questions:

1.What's your favorite color?

Blue

 

 

2.Waffles or pancakes?

Waffles :)

 

3. Which do you prefer, books or movies?

 

I like both. But I like to read more than watch movies.

 

 

4. What's your favorite subject in school?

Litature

 

5. Pepsi or Coke?

Coke over Pepsi, but neither I like in general.

 

6. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

 

Spain :)

 

7. What's your favorite book of the Bible?

Revelation

 

8. What do you want to do when you grow up?

 

It changes every day, but I've always want to be a vetinarian

 

9. How many kids do you want to have?

 

A lot. I really don't know how many I want. But I love having a full house so..I want a ton of kids.

 

10. What's something you've done once, and never want to do again?

 

One time in youth group, my foot fell asleep and when I went to stand up on it, my foot gave out and I fell down in front of everybody. It's quite commical now that I think about it.

 

11. What's the highest number of times you've read any one book or series?

 

5.