The Lion King

Eager anticipation rose Wednesday night as I slipped into my new navy blue lace dress. My thoughts fluttered to all of the amazing things that I was going to experience in the night ahead of me. I walked out of the locker room, the smell of sweat was gone as well as the mud on my neck from practice, and as I walked to my car I saw all of the band/choir kids anticipating the same thing I was, The Lion King. After dumping my back pack and gym bag in my car I headed back into the school to congregate with the rest of the students. I found John amidst the mass of people. As he smiled at me, I gave him a disgusted frown. "John, puh-lease let me fix your tie. It's driving me crazy." I handed him my glorified fanny pack, my phone, and my keys that were occupying my hands, and quickly pulled on his tie. I fixed it, and then stepped back to admire my work. "Excellent job with matching your shirt and tie, my friend, I am quite impressed." "You know, Stazia, I am perfectly capable of matching my clothes without your approval." A angered frown made it's way across my face, "That's what they all say." Soon after, all 100ish of us were shuffled onto three different buses, and we left, Omaha bound! On the bus ride, Ally and I were jamming out to a ton of songs. Everything from "You Don't Know You're Beautiful" by One Direction to "Smile" by Uncle Kracker, throw in a little Fun and you have a pretty awesome bus ride. As we pulled up to the Orphium Theater, the noise level rose about 50 notches. Everyone was so excited. Ms. Poe had been raving about this show since September.

We waited in the Lobby for a while, and then were finally instructed to find our seats. There were a little over 100 of us, so it took forever for everyone to find their correct seats, and almost everyone was throwing fits about who they wanted to sit by. It was a mess. Some people really need to grow up. When the show started, all of the drama seemed to subside. I was crying within the first 5 minutes. It was so amazing. The voices. The costumes. The instruments. The set. It was all spectacular. I was in shock. My absolute most favorite part was the song "He Lives in You" when the face of the lion slowly showed up in the back behind the black curtain. It was so awesome. Plus, grown-up Symba's voice was flat out yummy. I was crying as we were walking out of the Theater and I just couldn't calm myself down.

My happy sobs quickly turned into fear when I saw some of the shady characters on the streets of Omaha. It was around 10:30 pm. We had to walk a couple of blocks, and then wait on a corner for about 15 minutes for our buses. I was scared. There were creepy people everywhere, and I was freezing cold. I swear the chilly breeze was blowing right through my dress. I tried sleeping on the bus, but every time I was about to drift to sleep the bus would hit a bump and my head would bang against the window, so I gave up. We pulled into the parking lot around 11:35. I was so tired. I thought about having my parents come get me because I didn't think I was going to be able to drive all the way home without falling asleep. I arrived at home at a little before midnight, thanks to an entertaining conversation that kept me awake the last 10 minutes of my drive. I think my family kind of forgot about me becuase the spotlights had been shut off, so I had to walk through the yard in the dark, and all of the doors were locked. I stood there beating on the door until Rudy finally heard me. I could have gotten the spare key out of the Machine Shed, but I was worried that I would roll my ankle by making the muddy trek across the yard.

Needless to say, when I finally got to bed, it was around 1:00. It was completely worth it. Everything. The Lion King was amazing. I want to go again. Ms. Poe said that she might take us to Wicked when it comes next year. I really hope she stays true to that statement!

Hablar por Telefono

Last night at Girls of Grace, our bible lesson was about Eve and how she sinned by disobeying God. We also talked with the girls about the punishment that Adam and Eve received.  During music Mr. Boehr had me working the over-head thing, but then as he was singing, he voice cracked and he started coughing. So, he unclipped his mic and clipped it to my shirt, handing me the little receiver thing. He asked me if I would sing instead of him because he was sick. He also said that it would be more beneficial for the kids to hear the songs in the octave that they would be singing them. Little did he know, I was sick as well. My voice cracked a couple of times, but other than that, it went fine. (Speaking of my voice... I had Girls Choir solo song auditions on Saturday. I did terrible. My voice cracked when I tried to sing the high Eb, which is a note that I usually reach with ease, and I sang the third verse of my song in place of the second verse which caused Jayne, my lovely accompanist, to get completely lost. Despite my terrible audition, Teresa is still letting me sing my solo song at our spring concert as well as when we go on tour in June.) Our "Pleasant Home" lesson in Girls of Grace was about telephone manners. I remember learning about this when I was in Girls of Grace, but I think it's funny how I don't ever use such proper telephone etiquette. From now on, I am going to answer the phone like I was taught in Girls of Grace. For a cell phone "Hello, this is Ms. Annastazia Stofer speaking."  For a land-line "Hello, Stofer residence, this is Ms. Annastazia Stofer speaking." I answered like that when Kara called me today. We both laughed and laughed because we remember thinking our leaders where crazy when they said we should answer like that.

P.S. Hablar por telefono is Spanish for "to talk on the phone". See, I'm actually learning something in Spanish class!

Enough is Enough

I don't know what to do. You have broken my limits. You pushed too far. Enough is enough. I don't know how to deal with situations like this. I see the look in your eyes. The strange words you say. The way you talk to me. It's strange. You're strange. What changed? Why can't we just be friends? I wrote your behavior off as friendly teasing, but I can't write it off anymore. I guess I should have expected this. No one can leave for a year and a half and come back expecting everything to be the same. That's the thing. Everything changes. In seventh grade, the tables were turned. Everything changed. Honestly, I gave you your chance to be my friend, and you blew it. Clearly you can't control yourself. I'm tired of hearing every one's excuses for your actions. I'm done. Unfortunately, I am too nice to tell you to back off. I try, but I just can't. I've seen what you have been through, but that is no excuse. If you really wanted to be my friend, you wouldn't push my limits and make me feel uncomfortable. I'm so done with you, my emotions can't take it anymore. So goodbye, I guess. Please, please just leave me alone.

Carpe Diem

This is our theme statement for track this year. (Despite the throwers' heavy begging to have it be "Why would you run and puke when you could throw and eat?"...) Carpe Diem means "seize the day". At the first track practice, our coach showed us the backs of our team shirts and explained "Carpe Diem" to us although most of us already knew what it meant. He used it and applied it to track. Don't waste today's practice or today's meet. Seize it. Do your best, and never wait around for someone else to beat you because there is always someone is working just as hard or harder than you are. He is completely right, and I totally agree with him, but I also think that this saying could be applied to other things in our lives as well. Things that hold a little more significance than throwing implements into muddy pits. For instance, sharing the gospel. In the Bible it clearly states that it is our job as Christians to spread the good news of Christ (aka: the gospel) to people everywhere. The Bible also clearly states that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. Why wait to reach out to unbelievers? Seize the day.

Speaking of track, our first meet was Friday. It was at Lincoln Southwest. I found it very funny to hear the other team talk about how this was their JV only meet. Most of the teams only brought freshman and sophomores, we brought our entire team.

Shot put went great! My farthest throw was 28 feet 8 inches, which is a personal best. Still working towards breaking 30 feet this year! It was a relay meet, so each team had a group of 4 throwers, and the totals were added together. My team got first! Discus went okay. I think I threw too much before hand because my shoulder was killing me when I was in the ring. It is pictures like this one that make me realize why my shoulder is all messed up. Look at the awkward position my right arm is in. I'm not a  nurse or doctor or anything (...yet...), but I'm pretty sure my arm isn't supposed to do that. Ally says it gives her pain to watch me throw because of the awko positions my arm goes into. My best throw was 79 feet 11 inches, which is also a personal best, beating my previous PB by a little under 2 feet. I was hoping for more of an improvement, but we'll just see what happens. My team got third in discus. Over all, it was a pretty successful meet.

After the meet, my Momma took me home and I was greeted by most of the Stofer side of my family. My parents successfully planned a surprise birthday party for me. I had no clue. As I walked through the kitchen about ready to take my uniform shorts and shirt off (thankfully Momma stopped me before I could expose my extremely white tummy), they all yelled surprise and it about gave me a heart attack.

The entire dining room was decorated with music notes and treble clefs! It was absolutely amazing. As always, Dad almost started our house on fire while he was attempting to light the candles on the cake. I swear that man has started more fires than he has put out. I love my family.

Dance.... and stuff!

This week has been absolutely crazy, but it's not even over yet. Wednesday was my birthday, and I had a lovely time having dinner and cake with the bunch of crazies that I call my family. People keep asking me if I have driven a lot since I am 16 now, the answer is no. Annastazia made a dumb choice, and now Annastazia is grounded from her car until tomorrow. (Which is technically today...).

Today (which is technically yesterday) I had track practice, and right after that, dance team try-outs. Track was so awesome today. We were throwing shot put, and some idiot (that would be me) forgot to bring down a towel to clean off the shots and every one's shoes. (We all take turns bringing towels...). It happened to be very muddy because all of the snow we got last weekend melted today. All of us were caked in mud. It was so awesome! Although it was hard to glide across the ring because it was so slippery and mud-caked. After track I had about 10 minutes to wash up before Dance Team try-outs. It took my like 5 minutes to get all of the mud off of me. The first 45 minutes of try-outs was a warm-up time. We practiced the dance, our turns, and our leaps. At 7, they called in the first group of girls, my group. I derped up that dance sooo bad. There were two 8-count sections missing, and I rolled my ankle on one of the turns. It was bad. I walked out of the gym after I was done, and just wanted to cry. I went to the locker room to get my stuff and then went outside to wait for Daddy. He arrived a couple minutes later, and then we left. We were about 6 miles south of town when I got a call saying that I needed to go back to the school immediately, and that the judges wanted to see me dance again. So we turned around and headed back to the school. I did my dance for the judges, but this time I didn't derp it up as bad. As we were on our way home, Rudy, who was at a music contest in Malcom all day, called Dad and said that they would be back in 20 minutes. Dad decided it was pointless for us to go home, so we turned around again to go back to town. As we pulled into the parking lot, I saw a group of dance team girls standing by the door; they were waiting for the coach to post the sign that lists who got in. I didn't think I was going to make it, but I went up there and waited with them anyway. When she finally posted the list on the door, I skimmed through it and sure enough, my name was on it! I couldn't believe it! I actually made dance team! I ran back to the truck to tell Dad and his first response was, "I didn't know you could dance!". I replied, "Neither did I, but apparently the judges thought that I could. I am so happy. My Momma is happy as well, hopefully this mends the quitting-basketball-wound.

Tomorrow (which is technically today), we don't have school, and I have a Track Meet at Lincoln Southwest. I am excited and nervous. My shoulder has been killing me all week and I have only been throwing around 25 feet in shot all week. Minus the aching shoulder, discus has actually gone pretty good this week. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow!

Holy white!

Today as we were stretching before lifting in track, Ally looked over at me attempting to do the splits and started laughing. "Come on, I can't look that ridiculous. What are you laughing at?". An evil, almost demonic look appeared on her face before she started laughing again and then she said, "You're legs are so white that they almost match your white socks." I looked down at my ankles and calves, sure enough, she was right. "I just can't win. When I wear white socks my skin matches, and when I wear black socks the contrast is almost blinding." She laughed again and said, "Maybe you should tan. Then I wouldn't have to be blinded by your dangerously white legs." At this point I was starting to get just the slightest bit irritated and replied with a snappy "I do tan, it's called softball practices and helping on the farm all through the summer. If I went actual tanning, my dermatologist would have a heart attack." She thought this was even more funny and continued to laugh at me. Up on the stage, which was right next to where we were at, Britton had overheard this entire conversation and quickly inputted that he did not appreciate my blindingly white legs either. Some people, I swear.

Today was the first day of the week long dance team audition/try-out process! I am really excited, although, the chances of me actually making the team are slim to none. Which will be pleasing to some people... cough... Celie and Byron... cough... who claim to disown me if I make it on to dance team. Personally, I would be delighted if I made it. After quitting jazz dancing, tap dancing, and ballet dancing in third grade, I am ready to get back into it. We'll just see what happens!

JennyPoo!

This is my beautiful friend Jenny! Although, sometimes I call her JennyPoo. :) I didn't meet her until like half way through my freshman year. It all started when we complimented each other's lunchboxes in FCA one day. We've been best friends ever since! We went to various track meets, bible studies, and FCA events together. Looking from the outside, you would never think that we would be such great friends because we are so different, but I guess opposites attract!

Jenny is so unique! Her smile and always happy personality can just light up a room. She always encourages me, and keeps me on track with my walk with the Lord. We push each other to glorify God in all that we do and say, and that just brings us closer together. It was really hard for me to move away from her! We went through a lot in the short amount of time that we were friends. Pointless guy-drama (ugh, some boys are just plain stupid, I'm still convinced that boys have cooties), "operation anti-prom", laughing comepitions, and other various things. During that short amount of time, we found out that we are really good rappers "Blah-blah-blah". She comforted me through friend drama, moving drama, drama period, and bad sunburns (which occurred quite often). This girl is amazing! You can tell just by looking at her life that she loves the Lord and desires to serve him in everything she says and does. Plus, I'm still trying to get her to join choir! Also, I am possibly dragging her along with me to church camp this summer with my church here in Lincoln. This will be the ultimate true friendship test, if anyone can stand an entire week with me, then they are definitely keepers! We were going to have a mud fight before I left, but we never got around to doing it.

Prayer

Last night at my Mansion Builders Bible Study we had an amazingly convicting lesson. We have been studying 1 Peter, but we took a break from that this week. The lesson was semi-topical, but we stayed in one place, 1 John 4:11-21. The way that Mr. Little taught this lesson was just mind boggling to me. It was so convicting. The main idea of this set of verses is that if you are truly saved (we know the author is addressing other believers because he starts the passage with "Beloved") you will love other believers and have a passion to put them before yourself. This passage also talks about how when we as believers love each other, God is glorified through us obeying what he is commanding us to do. This passage also talks about the fact that you cannot love God and not love your fellow believer. It also clearly states that you are not saved because you love your fellow believers, love of the brethren is just a defining characteristic, not a way of salvation.

After the lesson, we had small group time like we always do, the boys stay downstairs and the girls go up to the family room on the main level to discuss the lesson and give prayer requests. Most of the time in small groups, the leaders are the only ones who talk, but this week was different, almost every single girl had a comment about the lesson. Then we took prayer requests, which took awhile because we kept getting distracted and started talking about other things. Finally Sue, our fearless leader, said, "Alright girls, would someone like to pray for all of these requests?" When no one raised their hands, I spoke up and said that I would. Everyone was shocked, including my leaders. Sue said, "Annastazia, that's wonderful! I'm so happy you want to pray out loud!" At first I was really confused, but then I remembered that this was the first time I had prayed out loud in front of this group of girls. It's not that I didn't want to, the opportunity was never presented. At my youth group in Ogallala, it seemed like I was the only one who ever volunteered to pray. It got to the point where Amy would stop asking the other girls if they wanted to pray and would just say, "Annastazia, will you pray for us?".

Last year at National Day of Prayer, when FCA was running it, I was asked multiple times to pray on stage in front of everyone, but I always said no. Had it been a bunch of girls, I would have, but it is not fitting for a woman to lead men in prayer. It is also not fitting for a woman to teach or have authority over men in the church or such settings. 1 Timothy 2:11-15 state this quite well.

"11. A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. 12. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. 15. But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint."

Momma always tells me to reread these verses when I am struggling with leadership issues. Like last year in FCA and in praise band. It's hard not to have that desire to lead, but that is a man's job. We constantly teach these verses to the Girls of Grace girls. This is one of the reasons that Girls of Grace was started: to teach girls at a young age how to be submissive, godly women. I have been reading a lot of passages on the role of the woman lately. It is so interesting how I can read and reread passages that I have grown up reading and still learn something new every time. It is just absolutely amazing.

On a side note, I found a bunch of my old devotional books in a box in my basement last week. It has been so cool to look through them and read even though I have read and reread them all so many times.

Chivalry for the Win

Today has been crazy. I left school early to go get my license, and then I returned to finish out the day and go to track practice. I have to say, this speed and agility training isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It's definitely not the "throw, lift, eat, repeat" mentality that I am used to, but it is coming along fine. We actually got to throw today! Unfortunately, there was a mud whole in the middle of the shot put sector. Coach warned us about it and told us to aim around it, but no matter how hard I aimed, my throw always ended up in the middle of the giant mud whole. What's funny is that you can completely tell who lives on a farm and who lives in town just by the way they react towards the mud. The kids that live in town are like "Oh, no! I got mud on my white t-shirt! Someone get me a towel." and all of us 'farm-folk' are like "Dude, let's have a mud fight!". It is very entertaining. I have a feeling that my coach lives in town because he doesn't like the mud that much. Thankfully, my throws are actually getting better! I had a strange "It all makes sense now" epiphany with my shot put glide last week, so hopefully my distances will start to increase.

After track I went to Ally's house to have supper really quick and then I had to head back to school for Encore. As I walked into the choir room, there were a couple of other people standing around. I walked to the back of the room to grab a chair and I set it in "my spot". I was about to walk to the other side of the room to get a stand, but Logan, a bass who is a year older than me, said, "I'll get your stand, Annastazia." I smiled and said, "Oh, you don't have to do that. I can get it." but he insisted, so I let him. He returned with my stand, but then adjusted it to the right height, put my folder on it, opened my folder, got my music out, got me a pencil, and then held my chair as I sat down. I looked at him, remembering the lesson last year in youth group about being extra nice to men who display chivalry, and said, "Thank you, Logan, I appreciate it." Danielle had just walked in and her jaw was nearly on the floor and she said, "Logan, that is chivalry at its finest, well done." During rehearsal, I let that whole situation stew over in my brain. I was really confused. Logan is nice, but I wouldn't even consider us to be friends. The only time I ever talk to him is when I am chewing him out for singing the wrong notes (mainly because I am like obsessed with the bass part in every single sheet of music I receive) or when I am answering a question he has in Spanish class. The fact that he didn't do that for any of the other girls made me a little skeptical as well. It's not that I don't like chivalry, I actually think it's awesome to see guys care enough to do those simple things, but when it happens in strange situations like this, it creeps me out. If it had been one of my close friends, such as John, Micah, Britton, Elijah, or Byron, doing this, I wouldn't have been creeped out at all.

Chivalry is becoming quite rare, at least from what I see. Everyday in school I watch so many guys push past girls to get out of class faster, or walk right by a girl who is about to drop her books, or make rude and unnecessary comments. I have not seen a guy open a car door for a girl or hold open any door for that matter in a very long time. It's not like I expect it to happen, it just seems strange when people trade kind gestures for rude and unthoughtful ones.

Freaky Friday Morning

Friday morning, Dad had left for work around 4 and Momma had left at 6. I rolled all of my lazy jackwagons out of bed around 6:15 and made sure they were ready for school. At 7, I drove them down to the bus stop and then went back to the house to wait for a while, I didn't have to leave for school until 7:30. When I got back to the house, I started to clean up the kitchen mess from making breakfast and packing lunches. When I finished, I saw one of Dad's coats laying in the family room, so I picked it up and took it to the coat closet in the foyer/entry way.

As I was hanging it up, I heard my laundry room door open and some loud noises. I went into panic mode. The kids were on the bus, Daddy was in Omaha, and Mom was in Beatrice, so it couldn't have been any of them. My first thought was "Holy crap, there is a robber in my house and I'm going to die." I looked around the foyer for something that I could possibly defend myself with. I saw a gun leaning up against the end-table. (There are guns laying around everywhere in my house, we call it the "Home and Farm Protection System".) I grabbed the gun, but then another thought popped into my head... I had not shot a gun since my Riflery class in 5th grade. I quickly pushed this thought away and peaked around the corner into the family room. I couldn't see anyone, but I could still hear the noises. I was really starting to get freaked out. I crawled into the family room, praying that I didn't accidentally fire the gun. I was pretty sure that the safety was on, but who knows. I crawled all the way into the beginning of our dining room. I could still hear noises. I sat hiding behind our breakfast bar for a while. I was praying and praying for protection and bravery. Finally, I gathered the courage to peak above the counter and see who the heck was in my house. As the kitchen came into view, I realized that all of my freaking out was in vain. It was just the dumb dog. I stood up and scolded Reagan. I had forgotten that he can open our doors.

I must have looked fairly childish, telling a dog that he scared the crap out of me. Not only did he scare me, but his large St. Bernard paws were muddy and left a trail of mud on our white tile floors, that I had just mopped, from the laundry room into the kitchen. I was so angry at that dog. I put the gun down on the counter, and then realized that it was a very good thing that there wasn't a robber in my house. The gun that I had grabbed was my brother's old BB gun. In the words of Rudy, "That thing ain't gonna kill nothin' fool!" I looked up at the clock. 7:35. I grabbed my backpack and track bag and rushed out the door. Thankfully, I didn't have to stop for gas, and there were no cops on the spur. Ugh. I'm turning into my mother.