Alrighty, you all know what a picture freak I am so brace yourselves for a visual tour of MY LIFE.

~*Partying it up at TGI's and the GPI*~

All of my beautiful girlfriends....

Alisha, me, and Kelly.

Jess, Heather, and Kim

Elise and me

Checkout the party vest and tiara!!!

Groovy faces at the Grove Park

Jess and Hezza dancing the nigth away

You gotta love the silly string.....               

All of us after church

~*Boys Club Banquet shots*~

Heather, Me, and Elise

Tim and Elisha....so cute!

Steph, me, and Tiff

Heather cheating with my hott date

My good pal Michael

~*Youth Rally Weekend*~

My sexy beast

My cool redneck friend, Jake

Kimmy and Heather cowboyin' it up at barn party

Hindman's sr class contribution:  shaved his head for $100

So much has happened in the past two weeks that I cannot neglect to fill you in on all of the excitement. I've been really busy but its a fun kind of busy....and yes, slightly stressful. So get this, I turned 18 last Friday!!! Yeah, I'm no longer a minor meaning I can run off and elope, buy cigarettes, and go clubbing. Yay. What freedom. About he only thing I'll be doing now that I've hit the big one eight is renew my license so that the bold letters "Under 21" can proudly be displayed. Anyhow, I had a fabulous birthday weekend and it was the best cake day EVER! My sweet, adorable girlfriends made it so memorable and I love those girls to pieces. On Friday morning they threw a surprise party for me in the office with an amazingly good chocolate cake, yellow roses, and a BIG balloon. And my card was hysterical! They stuffed it full of cash and lots of coins and inside they all wrote me hilarious personal messages. Oh the memories. The minute they started singing that beloved birthday song I felt the blood rush to my head, and then being the emotional gal that I am, the tears started welling up. It was all I could do not to cry but I was a big girl and I held back! That evening after classes Steph, Alisha, Kelly, Elise, Kim, Jessi, Heather, Tiff, Rach, Lacy, and I signed out for the weekend and loaded up our cars to meet my mom and dad at TGI's for dinner. We laughed the entire time and all of the restaurant staff came out and sang to me and gave me a monstrous chocolate sundae. Haha, do I sound self centered? Me, me me! Afterwards all of us girls went to the fancy Grove Park Inn and danced to the live band and then stopped at Starbuck's to quench our coffee craving. The rest of the weekend was spent staying up late making prank phone calls, playing truth or dare, being crazy, playing with my blow-up doll "Eduardo", watching chick flicks, eating lots and lots of sweets and candy, taking l-o-n-g naps, cruising Patton, and hanging with the guys Sat night. One highlight was hearing a survivor from Columbine speak at church. Her testimony was amazing and it had us all in tears. God truly is an almighty God and by hearing her incredible story I could feel God's presence. I'm so glad that within all of our girlie times we were able to gain a spiritual blessing as well. I think it's important for us all to be there for each other, especially to strengthen one another in our spiritual walk. I am so blessed to have Christian friends who are able to understand my shortcomings, and rather than look down on me, love me for who I am.

Anyhow, after our partied up weekend was the Boys Club Banquet at school. The guys did an exceptional job planning at the elegant evening and their theme was smashing. "The Lounge." They set up a pretty renaissance looking tent out on center campus for the main events.....and later on in the evening we hung out in the Café which they had completely rearranged and decorated with lights, comfy sofas, and plants. Everything was so chic and stylish.

The school week flew by faster than ever and this weekend was Youth Rally. The speaker, Pastor Litch, was very good and he had a laidback way of getting directly to the point. Unfortunately YR wasn't was well attended as usual but if the other youth were as blessed by Pastor Litchfield as I was, than all of the efforts for the weekend were definitely worth it. On a sadder note, last night I went to the memorial service for a man at our church who died from cancer. He was only in his forties and he left behind three kids. It was so sad. Steve was an awesome guy and it was hard saying goodbye. As various people stood up and expressed memories they had of Steve the tears were streaming down my cheeks. I wanted so bad to share my remembrances of him but I was too emotional at the time. The church was packed beyond its capacity, showing how much he was loved and cared for by his family and friends. Afterwards I was kind of down but I decided to go hear the group SoundMethod play at Foster's youth group since I had me them the night before.....and Lewis actually invited me for once. It was awesome! Jess and I jumped around all night long....I'm sure we looked like idiots but it was crazy fun. And all of the band members were so nice and entertaining. From talking to them I could sense their sincerity for Christ and God was def reflected through them which I thought was awesome.

Well this morning I took the grueling SAT which consumed 5 hours of my precious time. It was non ending but I feel assured that I got a better score on it this time around. Only the essay....I miscalculated and ran out of time to complete my conclusion so it ended abruptly. Darn it. Tonight was the annual fall fest at school which was alright. I had fun working the Senior booth selling funnel cakes and hanging out with my friends....I was too tired to be crazy. And now I'm too tired to ramble on anymore. Have a spectacular night and I send you lots of xoxox's. ~ Mel

::Relaxin at Coolidge Park::

It's my birthday!!!  (almost)

Hello my amigos! Life couldn’t be any better. I'm on break right now! It's so weird not having to do any homework or hastily prepare for a big deadline. I don't know what to do with myself! I 've watched three episodes if Laguna Beach, a little and I've been talking on the phone all night. It's so nice just to lay around and be lazy! So today I was supposed to meet Lace for lunch but we got mixed communications as to which Apollo Flame we were meeting at and we both ended up waiting at separate locations for 45 minutes. We're such duphouses! I only had a buck on me so I got a bean burrito at TC....it wasn't nearly as good as the Greek salad I had been craving but I didn't feel like eating out by myself. It feels so lonely!

My weekend was splendid.....I ran over to the mall after classes on Friday to do some quick shopping. I've been wanting some cutesie long sleeve shirts and a new pair of jeans. So I managed to blow 150 bucks in the 45 minutes I was there. AE racked in most of my precious $$$ and Hollister followed close behind. I got some awesome deals though! I bought the perfect fit of jeans, a cute little jean skirt, a bright blue button front sweater, a red hooded sweater, a pink open neck shirt, a pink “cheeky" shirt, and a 3/4 blue button front shirt. I love new clothes!! Anyhow, enough about my clothing obsession. On Saturday my mom, Lace and I headed over to Southern to hear my sister play in the wind symphony at the Collegedale church. The program was really long but Heather sounded exquisite and she looked as beautiful as ever. She's so gorgeous! We spent quality time together all afternoon and relaxed at Coolidge Park. Lace and I had high hopes of seeing hot college boys running around with their shirts off.....Unfortunately there was none of that but there were some mighty fine gym masters playing football in the field. And Heather introduced to lots of people(*cough* college boys) from Southern. Everyone was so friendly!!! We walked along the bridge that runs over the park and it was so peaceful. I felt as though all of my stessers vanished and all that remained was the gentle breeze brushing against my face. It was so restful!!! That evening we went out the Macaroni Grill for Heather's roomies b-day and we celebrated mine a little early. It was my first time ever and the food was amazing. Their eggplant was perfect and their blackberry mint tea is outta this world. Oh, and the cheesecake they brought out for our birthdays was mouthwatering. And the lady sang to us in Italian. It was so awesome! Afterwards some of the former pisgah boys picked Lace and I up and we went out to see serenity...it was alright. Not so much scary as it was bizarre. Haha and Thomas had to explain some of the key points to me. I always get so lost! We hung out at Steak'n'Shake until the 1am curfew and caught up on the past. It was awesome seeing everyone again!!! Sunday morning we stopped at Cracker Barrel, the best breakfast place ever! I love their french toast. We sat on our butts the remainder of the morning and I drove back to try to make up some time.....I was supposed to do some serious studying but instead I ended up watching the Panthers game where Jake got sacked....then I saw Brady get butchered but he almost redeemed himself. Just not quite. That game was making me so mad and for the first time in my life I found myself yelling at the tv screen. I've been hangin with my bros too much! This week NE is off so hopefully they can get their act together. Maybe they'll start playing ball like real MEN again. Geez.

I'm so excited! My sister is coming home on Thursday for break. I feel like we're finally gaining back that strong sister bond that we used to have. There was a period of time where we seemed really distant from each other. I always felt like she looked down on me because I was younger and I made some stupid choices. Now I can fairly say that we're about even in terms of choices (stupid ones) and she might actually be ahead of me. It took me awhile to get used to not always having her attention. I had to learn how to share it with the significant others in her life which was a huge struggle for me. there were times where I felt like what was happening in my life was more important and I would get irritated at her for "pushing" me aside. I've finally come to the point where I realize that she's growing up and its her life. I can't control her just because I'm her little sister and I can't expect her to always be around for me. It's been an adjustment for me but now that I'm able to accept that we're getting along so much better. We're there for each other now and I don't feel like she's looking down on me anymore. I'm so glad I finally have my sister back. I love her so so much!!!

Well, I'm going to go spend some time with my daddy. Enjoy the latest pics! xoxoxox ~*Melissa*~

 Blah.  The Red Sox are out now.  Way to make me proud boys!  Its alright, last season was phanominal so it makes up for it all....My years in sports can't always be perfect, though that would be nice.   I will always remain true to the Sox though!  I watched Fever Pitch yesterday afternoon and I about cried.  No, I'm serious.  It brought back the memories from last year..its a pretty cute movie.  Very predictable.  Especially considering we all know how it ends.  But 50 years from now when I'm an old granny I can show it to my grandkids and be like, "I was 17 when that happened and it was the best year in sports EVER!"  My bro and I are so obsessed with Boston but its cool having that connection with him.  Chris and I always have something to talk about.  I still have every single postseason game from last year on DVD along with all of the news comments and highlights.  Its wicked sweet.  Whenever I'm depressed I just whip out the 7th ALCS game against the Yankees and I'm a happy girl.  Especially watching my man Johhny play....I lost respect for him though after reading how much of a player he is when it coms to girls.  Jerk.  I'm sure most of you could careless about baseball, and strangely enough I'm a girl who actually likes this all-american sport and mostly all other sports as well.  Especially football.  Speaking of which, the Patriots won.  Let me spell it out for you....we w-o-n!  Yeah baby!  I only watched the last few plays since I was out all afternoon but I got to see my hero, Vineteri and that hott QB.haha  Anyhow, moving on. 

::The latest Gov project::