Where The Sidewalk Ends...

When I was in 6th and 7th grade I participated in UIL, which was this competition where kids who really like to do school work would compete in all types of school-y (yes this is a word..err) events and earn medals for doing amazing and basically being nerds. In 6th grade everyone did it because you got to spend a whole Saturday with all of your friends sitting at round tables playing cards, doing Mad Libs and eating junk food while waiting nervously for your event to be called. Basically, it was a big deal and you better believe that I had a blast. A list of some of the events you could participate in included:

Creative Writing
Prose/Poetry
Listening
Maps, Graphs, and Charts
Science
Math something or another
and a few other nerdy sounding things

My specialty was listening and Prose/Poetry with the occasional Maps, Graphs, and Charts thrown in. Then there was that one time they tried to get me to do Math and that did not go so well. For Prose and Poetry a person had to memorize an excerpt from a story or a poem. I was all about the poems. My absolute favorite poet in 6th grade was Shel Silverstein. He had the wackiest, funniest, and craziest poems. They also had catchy rhymes so it was fairly easy to memorize them. I thought I would share with you a poem from his book Where the Sidewalk Ends that I memorized for one of the UIL competitions in 6th grade.

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too By: Shel Silverstein

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too
Went for a ride in a flying shoe.
"Hooray!"
"What fun!"
"It's time we flew!"
Said Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.

Ickle was captain, and Pickle was crew
And Tickle served coffee and mulligan stew
As higher
And higher
And higher they flew,
Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too,
Over the sun and beyond the blue.
"Hold on!"
"Stay in!"
"I hope we do!"
Cried Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle too
Never returned to the world they knew,
And nobody
Knows what's
Happened to
Dear Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.


So there you go. I spent weeks on end memorizing poems like this so that I could go to a nerdy competition and win medals so I could parade them around showing off how good I was at really liking school. And yes, I can still recite many of these poems by heart today 8 years later.

Back To School

So it has been about a week since I last posted and I have very good reason for this. Last Saturday I drove the 8 or so hour drive back to Asheville. I moved into my dorm Sunday afternoon. I am staying in the same building and floor as last year but I have a different room number. My address here at school this year is:

Amy Noll
Southridge 317A
One University Heights
Asheville, NC 28804

Classes started this past Monday the 17th. I had little time to get settled in before the waves of homework hit. This semester I am taking Spanish 210/220, Humanities, Physics, and Sociology. Spanish is every morning for an hour and a half so by the end of the semester I should be dreaming in Spanish. So far my classes seem like they will be relatively enjoyable.
This week I have pretty much only been in my room to sleep. I have been busily hanging out with old friends and making new ones. It has definitely been a strange feeling to be back here at school. I feel like summer completely flew by. But I am excited to see what this new year brings.

Blast From The Past

I went to Boerne, TX for a quick family visit last week. While I was there, my Dad pulled out a picture from when I was 6 years old and we went rafting down the Arkansas River outside of Buena Vista, CO. It was during one of the two summers that we were at Trail West a Young Life Family Camp. I remember everything from that rafting trip. From having to squeeze into a wet suit to the famous rock with the perfect hole right through the center of it that the rafting guides always point out. The picture was just too good so I thought that I would post it:

Yep. Right there in the front row is my older brother Ryan (now 22), my dad, and me at age 6. I had not seen this picture in 14 years. I LOVED this trip.
So there you have it. A little blast from the past that I thought I'd share.

If You Can't Stand the Heat....

This clip is from the BBC World News. My aunt Lisa showed it to me and I thought it was absolutely hilarious so I thought I would pass it on.
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the sauna!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8192499.stm

Elvis Week 2009

Yes, I am in the land of Elvis Presley, The King of Rock and Roll. I have been here in Memphis, TN a month and have not visited Graceland and probably never will but I have the great pleasure to be here during Elvis week. People are really crazy about keeping his memory alive. Just for kicks you should check out the schedule of events at http://www.elvisweek.com/

It is absolutely insane. I am sorry if I am offending any Elvis fanatics out there but this stuff is crazy. A Candlelight Vigil, meditation walks, many celebration concerts, and even events for the kids! It amazes me how many people attend these events.
The "Elvis obsession" is so crazy that there is a man in Holly Springs, Mississippi (which is about 30 minutes south of Memphis) who left his wife and son and dedicated his entire house to honoring Elvis. No joke, his house is called Graceland Too and no, I am not making this up. Google it. I did have the honor of going to Holly Springs this past Saturday. Apparently this guy opens his house to the public 24 hours a day and loves giving tours. The outside of his house is surrounded by a high security fence covered in razor wire and decorated with fake Christmas trees with tube lights. The front even slightly resembles the front of the actual Graceland though not nearly as pristine looking. The amount of craziness on the outside only foreshadows the chaos on the inside, this I am certain. Unfortunately Paul McLeod, the owner, was not home when we tried to go. No amount of door banging and hollering could get us in. I guess this means that I will most certainly be making another trip to Holly Springs in my lifetime. Here are some pictures that I found online. Notice the many similarities. The picture of Graceland Too is not up to date but you get the idea.

Graceland

Graceland Too

Its amazing what people will devote their entire lives to.

A Swirly, Whirly, Tornado of a Summer

This summer has been the busiest summer of my short 19 years. I am used to traveling here and there during the summers with my family but I most definitely broke the record for most places visited in 8 weeks or so. I kicked summer off by running a 15K (9.3 miles) race with my good friend Leslie Sloan at the Biltmore House in Asheville. It was incredible. We finished in about 78 minutes. Here is us being very serious runners in front of the Biltmore House:

I went back to Boerne, TX for a few days before I continued on with my summer adventure. Here is a family pic outside of Fredericksburg, TX. We visited the Bat Cave there.

all but one...

After visiting home, I volunteered at a Young Life camp outside of Fraser, CO called Crooked Creek Ranch. I was a baker in the kitchen for 3 weeks making desserts and breads for 600 people plus! I must have eaten enough chocolate chip cookie dough for a hundred people while I was there. It was so amazing! God used that time to help me to dig deeper and to show me that He is ultimately in control of my life. Here are a few pictures from this awesome time:

me and my baker friends :)



a view of the camp. gorgeous!

After Crooked Creek I came back to Asheville and then traveled to Memphis, TN to help Lisa and Mitchell Moore (my aunt and uncle) get settled in their new house. I spent a week there helping unpack and playing with my four adorable cousins, Lauren (8), Cora (6), Tucker (4), and Ben (almost 2). It was a great week but only one stop in the rest of my summer.

I then returned to Asheville where I boarded a bus with about 65 or so High School kids and traveled to Saranac Village, a Young Life camp in upper state New York. It was an amazing week and was my first experience at summer camp as a Young Life leader. My girls were wonderful
and Saranac was even more beautiful than I had imagined. Once again, here are few pictures:

on the parasail boat

classic jumping shot in front of the lake


the whole group!

After Saranac I was back to Memphis where I currently am right now. I will have spent a total of a month here in Memphis hanging out with some of my favorite family exploring the city and hanging out.

me with the Moore kids after they gave me a lovely makeover

I head back to Asheville on Saturday the 15th of August. I will move into my dorm on the 16th and then start classes the 17th of August. I can not believe that I will be a Sophomore in college. This summer has been crazy but I would not have had it any other way.

So there you go. Keep reading in the future for updates on what is happening to me at school this fall and beyond!

And So It Begins...

Well, I've been tossing around the idea of starting a blog for awhile. I actually never thought I would do it. Then I realized that it is the perfect way for me to keep in touch with family and friends, which is something that I like to do. I know it's not super personal but I really enjoy reading other people's blogs and figured that maybe somebody would read mine and maybe slightly enjoy it or at least know what is going on in my fantastic life! I'm not the most creative thinker in this world but I love to write things down even if they are long and pointless and seem to bear no meaning at all. Things could get crazy. Also, I am an awful speller and horrible at grammar so my punctuation is probably going to be a little off. Thankfully, I was never going to be an English major. Well that's about it for tonight because it has taken me forever to create this blog. Seriously, 2 days to even think of a darn name for the thing (may I add it still wasn't as spectacular as I would have liked for it to be) and another day to figure out the background. But you can count on a horribly long post about my summer activities very soon.