It's the 14th...

Well, recently I have been on a site, where there is a rant page. Recently I have seen a lot of things about Valentine's Day and why people hate it and what-not, but I think that the reason some people might not like it is because the world has the wrong view of what it should be like.
When a lot of people hear "Valentine's Day" they think of a prefect romantic day with the one special person in their life, and this is awesome and true for those that have someone, but what about those going through life without that special someone? I think that we all need to change our view of Valentine's Day.
Instead of thinking of romantic things, think of things you can do for those you love in your life, that can be your friends, you family, and if you have one, your boyfriend/girlfriend, or spouse. Think of how much they mean to you, let them know it, write them a card, give them a hug, show them how much you appreciate them.
I'm the only kid at the house right now, so I decided to make cute cards and yummy treats for my parents. It may not be much, but it's fun!
So next time you think of Valentine's Day, think of what you can do for others, and how you can thank them for all they they do for you. And remember, it doesn't have to be a holiday for you to treat someone you love in a special way :) 
Love you guys!
Alicia <3

P.S. And always remember you have the greatest friend you could ever have in God, and don't forget that!

Flash Fiction Challage: Am I dreaming?

This is a story I wrote for a flash fiction challenge! It is exactly 1,000 words, I had to do some editing to cut back on the word count xD

Hope y'all enjoy it :)

            “Redirecting…redirecting…”

            “Why won’t this thing work!!!” the man behind the wheel said, clearly frustrated with the device. “Is there a town at the next exit or not?!? I need gas!”

            A teenage girl sat in the passenger’s seat, she watched her dad as he fiddled with the GPS. Sighing she looked out the window, the bleak Arizona desert flashed before her, dusty reds, and pale browns colored the landscape; a splash of blue painted the background. It was a truly beautiful sight, except for the heat; reaching over the girl turned the air conditioning up another notch.

            “Jenni, could you look for a map, this useless piece of machinery isn’t working,” the man said.

            “Sure dad…” the girl said, but she already knew it would be hopeless. Her dad’s car was full of junk, covering the floor and overflowing in all of the compartments; if there was a map in the car, it would be impossible to find. Despite the mess Jenni looked anyway. She dug through papers, and books, and some trash but it was no use, she couldn’t find a map anywhere. ‘Sorry, no map.”

            “Great…” her dad muttered, “I guess we will just have to get off the next exit and see if there is a town close by.” He turned on his blinker, and exited the highway, turning onto a road with a sign that read, ‘Next Town: Fredricksville.’

            Jenni looked at the sign doubtfully, the letters were worn out and faded, “Are you sure there is a town there?” she asked her dad.

            “Of course! Signs never lie…or at least, no usually,” her dad said, then he turned and smiled at her, “Don’t worry, we will be on our way again once we get a map and some gas.”

            Rolling her eyes Jenni turned up the staticy radio station and slumped back into her seat. After a few minutes Jenni looked out the window again. There wasn’t a road in sight; Jenni didn’t even know what her dad was driving on. “Uh, dad…where are we?”

            Her dad had a frown plastered on his face, “I think we are near Fredricksville…” he said.

            Jenni looked at the GPS, it was turned off, probably because it wasn’t working, “Maybe we should head back….”

            “Can’t, I don’t know where the road ended….I think I turned on autopilot, now we just have to hope for the best.”

            “Some vacation this turned out to be…” Jenni mumbled, “I doubt there is even a town out here, no one would be crazy enough to live in this desert.”

            “Now don’t be a glum bug, enjoy the scenery!” her dad said.

            “Oh, yeah sure…the sand and rocks look so interesting,” Jenni said sarcastically.

            “Can’t you at least try to be cheerful?”

            “I don’t know, it’s kind of hard to be cheerful when we are lost in a desert.”

            Jenni’s dad sighed, “Fine, you can choose to be miserable if you want to.”

            “It’s not like a town will magically appear if I’m happy…”

            “You never know…”

            Just then a song came in loud and clear over the fuzzy air waves.

            “Roll away your stone I’ll roll away mine, together we will see what we will find.”

            “I love this song!” Jenni said, then started signing along to the upbeat song.

            As if out of nowhere, Jenni spotted something in the distance, it looked almost like a pile of rocks, but as they got closer, she realized it was a town!

            “See, I told you if you were optimistic something good would happen,” her dad said, “And just in time, we are almost on E.”

            Jenni didn’t answer; instead she turned her attention to the town, which they were now entering. Immediately she knew they were in trouble. The streets were dusty and covered in sand, the houses and stores all looked run down, as if they hadn’t been open for a hundred years. Power lines stood on rotting beams and a few of them had toppled over. “Uh, we should probably head back the way we came….”

            “Why? We are already here, and there is the gas station!” her dad said, as if seeing the town as a metropolis instead of an un-populated ghost town. He turned the wheel and drove up to the only some-what modern looking building, which happened to be a gas station. “I’ll fill up here, you go in and give this money to the owner, and grab us a map while you are in there!”

            “Uh…ok,” Jenni stuttered, confused about why her dad couldn’t see how old and deserted this town was! Opening the car door she stepped onto the dusty gravel and into the simmering heat. She walked up to the building and opened the door.

That was the first surprise, the door actually opened, the other odd thing was that the shelves were stocked full of candy, snacks and any other necessity. No one stood behind the cash register, but that wasn’t a surprise, because anyone would be crazy to stay in this town!

Something about the place created Jenni out, so she quickly looked around until she saw a map, grabbing it she slapped the money down on the counter and ran out of the store.

“Just in time, I filled up the car! We are ready to go, the GPS even started working!” her dad said as he jumped into the car.

“Great!” Jenny said sarcastically hopping into the car herself, “Here is the map… incase the GPS goes out again.”

“Thanks,” her dad said then grabbed the map and put it into one of the pull out compartments, “Let’s go!”

****

 “Jenni! Wake up! We are here!”

Jenni  opened her eye and saw her dad, “What….?”

“We are at the hotel, you slept the whole way here!” her dad said.

“Oh,” Jenni muttered.

“You ok Squirt?” her dad asked, concern covering his face.

“Yeah…I just had a weird dream…”

“What was it about?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you….trust me…”

A Yummy Treat

So, a few days ago, Sunday to be exact, was my sister's half-birthday, and my brother's last full day home from college. They both went out to a popular evening church service. My mom and I started talking about making something to celebrate, she wanted to make cookie cake, and I suggested making an Oreo pie. We ended up making both, and we all thoroughly enjoyed eating them (I am currently eating the last slice of pie as I type). The Oreo pie was so good, I thought I would share the recipe. It is quite simple, you only need a few things.

-Oreos
-A large package of Oreo instant pudding (Notice I said a large package, the 4.2 ounce one)
-Milk (for the pudding mix)
-Cream Cheese
-Cool Whip
The first thing you do it crush up some Oreos, maybe around 20 or so. Then you can put them in a bowl or the pie pan you are going to use. After that, you add some cream cheese (about a tablespoon or so), then you mix together the cream cheese and Oreos until they can stick together at the bottom of a pie pan. Press the mixture at the bottom of your pan (It doesn't have to go up the sides, just covering the bottom works). When you finish it's time to make the instant Oreo pudding mix (All you have to do is put two cups of milk and the mix in a bowl and whisk it for two minutes), then you pour it into the pie pan over the crust. Put it into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (We had ours in there for about and hour or so). If your Cool Whip is not thawed, put it in the refrigerator while your pie is becoming firm.
After your pie is firm, put the thawed Cool Whip on top and sprinkle with one crushed Oreo. Then your pie is finished and ready to eat! It is a really yummy treat (I might put a pic up later :) )
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Alicia

My fist year of NaNoWriMo....Sucess!!!!

Well, my NaNo journey started when I was on a website, I was just playing around as usual, when I saw a post one of my friends had. I read it and was quite intrigued, the post was about NaNoWriMo, the challenge to write 50,000 words in the month of November.
I quickly looked it up and made an account, I wasn't really sure if I was going to do it at that point, but a few days before November 1st, I made up my mind. This was going to be my first year of NaNoWriMo.
I started off great, reaching the first 1,667 words in one day, then I procrastinated a bit, then I caught up again. At one point (from Nov 7-16) I was ahead! Then I lost my lead. It was getting harder to write and I would go days without writing. occasionally I would have a really good day in which I would get another 1,000 words or so.
Then it came, Thanksgiving break. My siblings came home on Tuesday and from then until Sunday I didn't write much at all. I was too engrossed in Uncharted 3 and hanging out with my sibling to much writing. By the time they had left I was behind. I was discouraged and I didn't think I could make it to 50,000 words by the 30th, it was already the 27th and I only had 38,000 words.
But I really wanted to try, and try I did. I wrote 3,000 words on the 27th, that was great. Then the next day I wrote almost 5,000 words! The 29th was there and I had less than 7,000 words to go. I knew I could do it, and then I surprised myself, by 10-11 P.M. that night I was only about 1,000 words away from 50,000. Taking a deep breath I got some word sprint buddies and wrote...and long behold, a few minutes before midnight I reached 50,040 words! I validated it, then ran and told my parents. I had won NaNoWriMo, and with a day to spare!!!
Today, I wrote even more, and I am happy to say that at 1:07 on December 1st I have written 51,459 words.
My first year of NaNo was defiantly a success. Now onward to finish my novel!!!
Until next time,
A very happy Alicia

It's been a while...

It's been a long time since I last posted here, and that's probably because life has been hard these past two months. Things didn't go as I thought they would (but they almost never go as you think they would), and old fears came back. A post about this may come along, but we shall see.
I will try to post every once and a while, but we will see how it goes. Also, I might be writing more about NaNoWriMo, since it is an awesome event.
So until my next post,
Alicia

Lets do something...

What really matters in life? We go through it so fast, doing this or that, making sure we have this type of medicine, worrying about how we will do in a class or a job, and so on. But does all of that really matter? Aren't there more important things in life than just day to day things? In a regular day, we can come in contact with so many people, and we don't even smile or say hi, it's just rush rush, rush, I need to do this, I need to finish that. We can get so caught up int the whirlwind of earthly life, that we forget what we were made to do, we were made to live for God, to praise Him, to glorify Him. We were also made to serve others, and to help others. It's not about us, it's about God and living like Christ, for others.
We all get caught in the world's mindset, "I do what I do, so that I can get what I want." Just these past few days I have been so lazy, just playing on the computer, and barely getting any work done. I got sucked into the world, and to tell you the truth, it's not very fulfilling at all. I feel so much better, happier, and maybe even healthier after I have served someone, done something for someone else. How about you?
I think we need to go out and do what Christ would do. This past week there were tons of fires in Texas, and over 1,000 families have been effected. You can do something for them, even if that is just praying. There are tons of organizations out there that are having food, clothing, and other necessity 'drives' to help out the victims of the fires. All it takes is some canned food you have, a left over blanket, or 5 dollars. It doesn't have to be big to make a difference in someone's life. Even after the fires are contained, there are things you can do. Tons of other countries need food, clean water, medical supplies and more. There are lots of organizations that help with this. You don't even have to go far to help, you could volunteer at a food bank, buy a homeless person a meal, or talk to elders in a nursing home. You can make a difference, and it is so much more rewarding, then sitting on the computer for hours upon hours, or getting consumed in work or school. We all mess up, but God forgives us. We should learn from our mistakes, and go out and do what Christ would do,  and let God change our lives and the lives of others around us.
Go out and do something, it doesn't have to be big, God can use anyone to change the world. Why don't you let him use you.
You can Make a Difference, but you need God, you can't do it alone. Remember to give God the glory and praise, because He is the one that does it all. He can do anything, and we have the privilege to come along side him and reach out to the world.
Alicia

Lets start this thing off with a story...

Well, it's my first post, and I thought it would be cool to start it off with a story. No, I'm not talking about a made up story about cats (Warriors anyone?), or medieval creatures, I'm talking about a true, down to earth story about real people. Or really a real person, Alicia, aka, me the writer of this blog.
So anyway, if you read the little about the thingy on my blog you will see that I recently picked up the guitar.
This happened not that long ago, Friday to be exact (for those you you who a reading this months after this was posted, that is Friday, August  26th...2011). I had just spoken to my aunt and cousin about an English class I am taking. Long story short, what we talked about made me doubt this class, and I got stressed. I ranted to my parents a little bit, and when they left, I was sad. I felt alone, and somewhat depressed, you could say. I sat on my brother's bed (he just left for college, so I didn't have to worry about him walking in on me) and I cried, not for too long though. Then I got up and flipped though some of my brother's art from when he took a design class. When I had looked though all of them, I still felt sad, then I saw his guitar, and some guitar books he had left at the house. (Just as little background story, my brother had started learning guitar when he was in Jr. high...I think...He learned some song and chords, but when he didn't go very far with it. Then this past year, me and him joined a Praise and Worship class, and he started learning the bass. It ended up that he got decent at it and got a bass guitar for Christmas. That meant that his old acoustic guitar was left in the dust...until I saw it, now on with the story). Now, I had always wanted to play the guitar (if you looked, you would see that some of my favorite music it country music, and the guitar is the main instrument in country music) so I grabbed my brother's chord and music book and started teaching myself the chords and what not (I remembered a little bit from the Praise and Worship class I took with my brother, but not enough to just pick it up and start playing). After playing a few of the chords, I tried playing "Open the Eyes of My Heart." It didn't sound the best, and it was very choppy (I had to find the chord, get my fingers holding the string down correctly, and making sure it sounded good before I could continue with the song), but I played it, and it helped me relax. I also played "By Your Side" by Tenth Avenue North, which is one of my favorite songs. After playing those songs a few times (and attempting playing a few other songs) I felt relaxed, calm, happy, and ready to praise God. I had a skip in my step (literally) and I wasn't worried about my class anymore. My mom even came in and I played her "Open the Eyes of My Heart" I was so happy, she even said I played the chords really well (even though i didn't have a pick to strum with). I was so glad I started learning the guitar that night, and I still am.
Yesterday my mom went out and got all of the strings replaced (I broke one of them while trying to tune my guitar...tuning is one of the things I still need to work on) and she even got me some picks (I actually prefer strumming with my fingers, but I know it's good to strum with a pick too). I also came up with a name for my guitar. When my mom went to get the broken string replaced, the guy that fixed it said the other strings were rusty, so he replaced them all with new, easier to play strings. When my mom came home and told me this I thought of a name for my guitar, Rusty. I like the name, that might be partially because the main cat in the Warriors series was named Rusty, but that's beside the point.
Now I can play Rusty when I'm sad, or happy. It's just fun to do!
Thanks for reading!
Alicia