Where I left off.

 Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD. 

Psalm 25:6, 7

I decided I should start my blog posts with a Bible verse from now on, because I haven't really talked too much about my religious life. But if you haven't noticed, the pictures I've been posting with my blogs kind of portray my feelings.
Once I am all caught up with the recent events I will talk about some of my many realizations and discoveries in my faith. =)So, let me begin! I left off talking about my new job and I will begin thus the same way. The weekend I got my job, the 6th, was both exciting, exhausting and angering. Exciting in 2 ways. 1) I was scheduled to work at the Farmers Market from 7am to 4pm. Number 2) because my brother, James, who was in Ethiopia for a year, was coming home. It was exhausting because of how long I worked, 10 hours! That's the most I've ever worked for a paying job! It was angering in 2 ways also. 1) Because I had to work on the day my family was picking up my brother from the train station. I wanted to go so badly! And number 2) I rushed toward home as soon as I got off work, only to discover that Saturday mass started at 5, in less than 15 minutes. So(After seeing my family drive past me, frustrating!!) I turned the car around and headed to Church. Lucky for me I brought an extra shirt otherwise I'd be going to church feeling seriously dirty. Anyway, after that I got home and was really expecting a happy and lighthearted attitude, something refreshing from the work atmosphere(I found out my boss is a LOT like my dad...which isn't exactly a good thing...). I was wrong. For some reason my dad was in the worst mood. After we ate a quick dinner we sat around together and talked about everything. I was so tired I was falling asleep on the couch. All of a sudden my dad wanted us to do the dishes. Now we have(or had) a rule in the house that if you worked more than 8 hours at a PAYING job you got out of most chores. I reminded my dad of this but he dismissed it. Well...Let me just say I wasn't happy. I asked my mom who said I didn't have to, but than I got my mom yelled at by my dad, who in turn made me do dishes. Now you must be asking "Why didn't you just do the dishes and save the household the yelling?" I wish I could have, I really wish so. Looking back on the day I feel so foolish. But honestly, it is unfair when you have 4 other kids to do dishes for the easiest dinner in the world(Pizza) forcing the only working kid to do it as well. 
I gave up at first and did some of the dishes but my temper got the better of me(As you may have noticed this is my ultimate weakness. I am trying so hard to just let things go but lately it's been so hard!) and I stormed out of the kitchen, up to my room, got ready for bed and went to sleep. That was such a horrible night.
However, the next day was rather nice. August 7th was my mom's 50th birthday. Thankfully when I woke up my dad and two younger sisters were out shopping. I woke up to find my mom floating in our pool on one of two kayaks!
I went on the porch and talked with her a bit, enjoying her very delighted and happy attitude and then went down and talked with her. When my dad came home I just ignored his rude behavior and was obedient. The rest of the day was very nice, we went to the lake where we all got to try out my mom (and dad's) new kayak. It makes me very happy to see how happy she is when she is out on the water. =)
Later we had her open some gifts. A couple of the gifts were humorous, like the very large sunglasses, the tiara(AHH! I didn't like that one) and the jiggling-giggling baby doll...Haha!!
Over all it was a great and refreshing day. =)
The next day, August 8th, I had work which really occupied all of my day, and sadly it was a slow day so there isn't much to talk about. I didn't have work on August 9th until 6 to 9 so I really just used that day to relax.

On the 10th it was my friend Colin's birthday so I sent him a quick text...."So the other day I was walking down the road when I saw a frog sitting on a log and then the frog said Hi and started singing in an opera voice and then this crow comes because he's annoyed with the frog but he got shot down with an arrow by an indian who was hiding on the top of a powerline who was the frogs friend and then a llama walks down the road but it really wasnt a llama because it unzipped what appeared to be a llama and revealed a bunch of capuchin monkeys with machine guns who chased after the indian down the road and then I looked back and the frog was gone.............Oh yeah.....Happy Birthday too!"

 Apparently that made his day so it made mine as well. I noticed he seemed upset but I didn't want to comment on it unless he brought it up...which he didn't. So I ignored it and my mom convinced me to go to the lake with my her for kayaking at 12:30. 
That was very fun! We went all around the lake and then went on a walk around the lake as well. Walking was 1.5 miles, so I'm guessing kayaking was at least 1 mile. On the walk there were SO many huckleberries! I'm surprised people to sell them...*shrug*
On the way back we stopped by Safeway to grab lunch. As we were passing some sandwiches I remembered a very funny day that Colin and I experience after volunteering at Creation Fest. So I took a picture and sent it to him. Again, it brightened his day. We got to talking and I discovered his two siblings and mom were away in Colorado for a couple weeks and his dad was always at work. So, I kept him company by text. It gave me something to do as well since I had no work. =P
The rest of the day was pretty normal, fooled around during dishes and choked on some water, watched Batman: The Dark Night and then headed to bed.
On August 11th I worked from 12 to 8 which is closing, but I found out I was closing alone. At first I thought it'd be hard/kind of scary but I really enjoyed the silence.
August 12th was a bit crazy. I started work at 7:30 and opened the store with a couple of others as well as help unload a freight that was delivering our order for the weekend. I didn't get off until 2 then I headed home only to leave an hour or so later to go to Saint Andrew's church (A church about 20 minutes away) for my brother John's wedding rehearsal. 
As we rehearsed, reality set in. In only less than 24 hours my older brother, the goofball of the family, was getting married! Everyone in the wedding party was there, I could tell both he and his fiance Vannessa were seriously stressed and tired. We did our best and after two tries we had it down. After that we all headed to our house for the rehearsal dinner. We made a lot of food, but to my mom's disappointment only about half of the party came. Oh well...we had too much on our minds to really care. (Though I know that Vannessa was upset with her Maid of Honor for not coming.) Finally everyone left and we all got ready for the big day...............
Which will be coming in my next post! Thanks for the patience with me. ;)

God Bless!
~Katie

Nonreligious but very beautiful. I love the innocence of this picture.