The Destiny of One blog! Today marks two wonderful years of blogging. I want to take a moment and thank a few of my fellow bloggers who have kept me blogging.


Jessica and Rachel from Young Homemakers; If I had known I would make friends like you, I would have started blogging years ago. Thank you for the encouragement you have been in my life.

Arianna; I have been so blessed to know you. You have become a good friend to me even though you live on another continent. Thank you for your help in my writing and for all the times you have made me smile.

R. J. form Virtuous Girlhood; your comments, e-mails, and words of encouragement always seem to come at just the right time.

To all of my followers; Wow! Who would have thought I would ever read 51 followers? Not me. Thanks for reading my blog!

In celebration of my second year of blogging I am giving away the first two books in the series The Russians by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella. I have read all the books and I would highly recommend it for readers fourteen and up, up until the sixth book. At the sixth book they start getting into some things that are not the best and putting the characters into some situations that are not that great.

Anyone is welcome to enter! If you are under 18 it would be wise to ask your parents first. Just leave your name and blog address in a comment and I will announce the winner sometime next week. You can earn a second chance by posting about the giveaway on your blog and leaving a comment telling me you have done so.

Good Luck!

As all you authors know, there are times when you know that you should write, but you just don’t want to. We also all go through times when we could use some words of encouragement. Recently I was talking to two friends of mine via Facebook who were having the same problem. So, we decided to do something about it.


We formed a closed group that we get on every day (well, almost) and post something that we have written and our word count. I have written almost 10,000 words since we started the group about a month ago. I also think that the thought that I will be sharing some of my work has helped the quality of my writing.


So, what about you? Are you feeling bogged down? Is it hard for you just to sit down and write? Do you feel like you could just use someone to say that your work is good every once in a while? Well, here are some ideas.


1. Maybe get one or two good writing friends and start a group. Make the goal to post something on there every day.


2. If you have just one good friend who writes, talk to them about becoming writing buddies. E-mail each other things that you have written, and encourage each other to keep writing.


3. Set goals for yourself and ask someone in your family or church to ask you if you are meeting your goals on a regular basis.


4. Give a copy of what you have written to a good friend as ask them what they think about it.


Do you have any wonderful ideas on how to keep you and your fellow writers accountable and give them encouragement?

Hello everyone! I might not be posting for a few days. My family is trying to spend some extra time together right now, so web stuff is being moved to the back burner. I will only take about a week long break at the most.

Have a wonderful week!

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.



“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:26-28

Movie Rating: PG
My Rating (on a scale of 1-10): 8

If you are like my family, we got pretty disenchanted with Disney. The Disney of cute family friendly films that my mom grew up with started doing films that were lass then family friendly in more recent years. However, it seems that the old Disney is making a comeback. They have come out with several films in the past few years that are actually pretty good, much to our surprise.

We saw a preview for a movie called and thought it looked really cute, but of course, these days you can’t tell a lot from previews. One day, we just needed a break and so we rented the movie and sat down to watch it. We not only like it, we were stunned by the incredibly good messages and morals that this movie portrayed.

The basic promise of the movie is that a princess, Rosalinda, in a far off land is in trouble. An evil ruler from a nearby kingdom is trying to take over her kingdom. To keep Rosalinda safe, she is taken away from her county and must pretend to be an average American girl with a little help from her new family.

Carter Mason is not the popular kid in school, but she wants to make a difference with her life. When she decides to help Rosalinda learn to act like a normal American teenager, she gets more then she bargained for. The two girls have to pretty exciting and funny times together as they lea about each other’s worlds.

The only really thing about this movie that you might want to be aware of is that some of the clothing isn’t the greatest. There is a dance toward the end of the movie and there are a lot of bare shoulders and a few low tops but nothing that we even thought was really that bad. The style of dresses they wore, even though they didn’t cover as much as I would like, didn’t seem to me that they drew attention to the wrong areas.

There were a whole lot of good things about this movie, the first and thing being the relationship between Carter and her dad. Not only do they get along, they seem to be good friends and the Carter respects her dad. One of the main themes of the movie it what really makes someone worthy of honor and affection. The geeky guy ends up being the good guy and the handsome, popular guy ends up being the jerk. And get this; there is no kissing.

Another thing I really liked about this movie was that the two main girls thought of people other than themselves. Outer beauty is shown to be not the most important thing and character is valued.

Saturday, when I got up I was really tried but I needed to be at the convention by 6:45. I spent about an hour helping in the ticket booth. It was not anywhere near as busy as Friday, and for that I was very grateful.

After about an hour at the ticket booth, I was told that I was no longer needed. I decided walked around the exhibitors since I didn’t have anywhere I needed to be. I had a lot of fun looking at the different exhibitors and picking up a few freebies, which included a couple DVD’s.

I was seated as a delegate during the last part of the convention and our caucus (or county) meeting went very well and without any real arguments. We finished our meeting in record time and made our way to the main hall. After over two hours of waiting for the other caucus meetings to get there, word came that it would be a while.

One caucus had more people vote than were eligible and they had to redo everything. Yap, you read that right. I never said that this party was perfect. The final meeting got underway at 4:00, and I had to leave not long after that. I later heard that they didn’t get out of there until 7:45.

I had a great time at my third RPT convention. I met a lot of neat and interesting people, I get to spend some time with some friends, and I got to spend three days doing something I love to do.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this week in my life. After today I will assume a normal blogging schedule. Have a great day.

Well, as you may have guessed, Friday and Saturday of the convention where very busy. On Friday, I arrived at 7:00 over an hour before I needed to be at the convention. Even though I wasn’t supposed to do any volunteer work until later in the day, I decided to see if I could help. They set me to making sure all the registration booths were ready for 9:00. Since I was the only one behind the booths at this time, my work was interrupted constantly by people needing directions and information. This didn’t bother me at all but it did take me almost an hour to get the booths ready.

At around 8:00 the booth to buy and pick up tickets opened and a long line quickly formed. Keep in mind that almost 10,000 people come to this convention, most of which come on Friday. There were four cashiers trying to process all these people (Hey, I never said that the Republicans got it all right).

One of the cashiers asked if there was any way I would help them make guest and replacement badges. They taught me how to use the computer that they had set up for it real quick. It was pretty simple, especially since I do a lot on the computer. For the next few hours, except for a break to get myself lunch, I made badges.

I used a lot of my training from elections on how to deal with people in a bad mood since many of the people started getting a little testy after standing in line for so long. I felt really sorry for the cashiers as most people vented their frustrations on them. I didn’t leave my post until 3:30 and by then I was exhausted.

I had a great time on Friday, even if it was a lot of hard work. I will tell you all about Saturday tomorrow.

First time on the freeway.
(Correction: it was my first time to drive on the freeway. I am not such a country person that I had never been on a freeway.)

Took Training.

Met up with some people I knew.

I'm having a blast!

Today I have been busy picking up my room and packing. There is something so exciting about putting things into bags finally. I guess that that is when a trip starts to become less of an idea and more of a reality. When you are putting the clothes in your bag that is when it really hits you that you are really going.


I still have a skirt that I need to mend for tomorrow; that is what I will probably do after I finish this post. I also have a few last things that I need to collect and put into my bags, and I need to finish cleaning my room.

One of the things that my mom has managed to pass on to all of us is the ability to pack light. Other than my purse and lunch box, I will only be taking two bags, and one of those is my small blue toiletry bag. If I had been packing in a suitcase instead) of my carpet bag, I probably would have been able to put the blue bag in with my clothes.

Well, I will post tomorrow from Dallas!

Today, I am continuing to wrap op some projects as well as figure out what I will be wearing.

You know, it is funny what a hard time it is to figure out what I’m going to wear for only three days. I think, for Thursday, I will wear my 2008 page convention T-shirt with my blue skirt. For Saturday, I think I will wear my Blessed Nation T-shirt. For Friday I am thinking or wearing either a local campaign T-shirt or one of my Texas T-shirts. As you guessed, I like my T-shirts.

Well, got to go. Lots to do.

This week I would like to take you along with me. You see, some of my family is going to head to Dallas for the Republican State convention. I am going as a volunteer and an alternate and my brother is going as a page. I have gone to the past two state conventions as a page. I have always had a blast.

Now, before you un-bookmark my blog because of my political views, please wait. I do not believe that the Republicans are the answer to everything, nor am I overly passionate when it comes to politics. I enjoy working political conventions and such with the understanding that true change will come not through a political party, but through the winning of the hearts and minds of people to Christ.

Today begins the preparation the leave on Thursday for Dallas. Today, I will work hard to finish up several projects so that they won’t be lying around all weekend. I also am making up some of our lunches for while we are there. I will give you an update on what I’m doing each day. See you tomorrow.

You have a great idea for a story, unfortunately you don’t know how to get it started. You have these characters dancing around in your head and a great ending. However, what still eludes you is the perfect way to start off your book.

Does this sound like you? Well, today we are tackling some ways to figure out the beginning of your story. So get ready to write!

The beginning of your book sets the stage for the rest. You are introducing the characters and the plot to your reader. You need an opening that is introduction to the main players and the concepts of the book. So, go to the end of your book. What has the main character learned? How has he/she changed? Write the beginning of the book to display the character before he/she has changed/learned their lesson.

Example; In my book The Destiny of One, One of the main characters main struggles is what God wants to do with her life. So I introduce that struggle in the very first chapter.

“I don’t think I want to go to the university, but I have been thinking of the community college. Still…” Maria’s shoulders slumped; the question had been hounding her for almost a year now. What did she want to do with her life? Did she want to go to college or not? Did she want to get a job? What did Maria Morris want to do?


“It’s okay, you still have three months to decide if you want to start college this semester or not,” her mother encouraged.


“I know, Mom, but I just… I just feel like I should be doing something, that God has something for me that I’m missing. How do I find out what God wants me to do?”


“Here, this is for the cheese,” her mother said handing her a platter. “Maria, the question you ask is one that people have been asking from the beginning of time. I personally don’t think that you have to stress about it. God will show you his plan for your life when he thinks you’re ready.”


“I just hope that that’s soon, because this waiting is driving me nuts,” Maria said, placing the last slice of cheese of the platter.


Sometimes we have a great plot idea but just aren’t sure how to get it off the ground. The best thing to do is work it backwards, like you used to do those really tough mazes.

Example;

The Ending; The Indian that has always seemed mean sacrifices his life so that Johnny can live.


Climax; Johnny and the mean Indian are captured by another tribe


Middle; Johnny is living with a tribe of Indians learning their ways and making friends, except with one mean Indian.


Near the Beginning; Johnny is taken to live with the Indians after his family is killed


The Beginning; Johnny’s family is killed and he is all alone.

See how you can build a neat story by working backward?

Do you have any tips on what to do if you are stuck at the end of your story?

Movie Rating PG


My Rating (on a scale of 1-10) 6

Okay, for the first time since probably Prince Caspian came out, I really wanted to see a recently released movie. For the most part, I have no trouble waiting until all my friends have seen a movie and can tell me what they thought of it. I find that if I hear a lot of people tell me about a movie, I can get a pretty good idea if it is a good one for our family.

Well one day, someone told be about this movie that had just come out on to DVD called Ice Castles. So, to be nice to them, I went and watched the trailer. After watching the trailer I wanted to see the movie as soon as I could. It just looked so sweet and was only PG (a rarity these days).

The other day, I rented from a local Redbox. The basic story is that a young girl, Alexis, who has grown up skating on a pond behind her home, finds that she can be more. A couch sees her in a local competition and sees potential in her and takes her to Boston to train. Alexis is quickly caught up in a world that is very new to her. She finds herself losing control of her life and losing touch with the people that mean the most to her, her dad and boyfriend.

While skating one time, Alexis falls and hits her head and goes blind. She suddenly finds herself back home unable to skate, and doesn’t feel like she has a lot to live for. With the help of her dad and her boyfriend she learns to not only skate again but well enough to compete.

There were a couple things about this movie you should know before you watch it. There is a lot of kissing between Alexis and her boyfriend especially at the first part of the movie. There is also one time when her boyfriend pulls her down onto the snow to kiss on her that definitely wasn’t the most appropriate. As for wardrobe Alexis wears some sleeveless cloths although her skating outfits are modest, even though one is a little strange, and in one scene her boyfriend is shirtless. Another thing this is a skating movie, there is a lot of skating. If you don’t just love watching figure skating, you will be board at times.

Now, for the good things about this movie: The dad and his daughter get along really well, if fact, Alexis is very reluctant to leave him. Dad knows about the boyfriend and even calls on him to help him with Alexis when she goes blind. Another thing I really like about this movie is that when Alexis is in the spotlight and being treated like a star, is when she is the unhappy.

If you just need a nice girl movie one day, I would definitely say this fits the bill.

1. Post the logo on your blog and/or within the post.

2. Pass it on to 12 other bloggers.

3. Add links to these 12 bloggers within your blog.

4. Let them know they are receiving the award.

5. Share the link of the person from whom you received the award.

I would like to give the award to…

1. Virtues Girlhood

2. Rose H.

3. Rechelle

4. Rebecca

5. Lauren Lee

6. Abigail 

7. Melinda

8. Tessa

9. Shannon 

10. Mia

11. Shannon 

12. Kaylene

I really didn’t want to get out of bed this morning, I wanted to stay in and sleep the morning away. However, there are lots of thing that I need to get done, not the least of which is write this blog post.


My family had yet another wonderful Sunday. We spent over an hour discussing stories from the book of Matthew and how they applied to our lives. I learned a lot, and have a lot of things to mull over. I love it when our family spends time in deep discussions; I learn so much.


As for this coming week, we have a lot on the schedule. A local thrift store that we work at sometimes is finally getting the makeover it so desperately needs. We will be spending a good part of this week helping them. I am also gearing up to go to a political convention later next week.


Do you have any plans for your week?