fupianna's Xanga

Moved Away

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:02:19 GMT

I dont know that anyone actually ever looks at this anymore, but incase anyone does, I should let you know that I no longer use this site. I am guessing you figured that out being that my last entry was from 2007, but if not.... my new blog address is http://annameiners.blogspot.com/ . If you are still interested in my life, feel free to look me up and see how life is going.

Officially, I say goodbye to Xanga.... though I cant actually figure out how to cancel my blog :)

Ciao

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:09:11 GMT

I discovered last week that my drivers licence was expired. Good thing I rented a car to go to St. Louis for thanksgiving, or else I might have never known. So, anyway, this week I had to go and not only get it renewed, but transfer to a Tenneesse licence. So I went, talked with the police officer at the front desk and told him that I needed to get a new licence. He said, "oh, you need to get a permit?" I replied, "no, I need to transfer my licence from Georgia to Tennessee", he replied "oh, you mean you need to transfer your permit". By this time my personal pride was so far out the window.... I said "no, not a permit, a licence" "a REAL licence?" he asked. "yes.. and real licence".... "how OLD are you???" "well, 23 I explained". He looked shocked... I was shocked... I didnt have a form that I needed, but he let me through anyway. I think he felt bad. He should have felt bad.. I feel bad. Oh well, I'll appreciate it when I'm older. It was wierd to think that 15 was almost a decade ago though. I'm glad I'm not 15 anymore. What a crummy age.

I am part of this small group. It is run by my pastor and his wife and it is for young professionals. Every time we meet we do a short "get to know you" moment. Last night we had to go around say someone from history that you admire, and some social issue in the world that really bothers you. The first person that popped into my mind for the person that I admire was my father. People said, Martin Luther King, Mother Teressa, and others. I decided thought that mine was really my father. I said that I really admired all the sacrifices that he has made in his life to serve God. His willingness to travel all over the world, and his ability and gift at working with people. I think that one reason that I chose my father is because I have been realizing more and more lately that I am so much like my dad. Our personalities are really similar in many ways and I think we share a passion for people and we relate to people in a really similar manner. I admire him because one day I would like to be just like him. Aside from the corny jokes and the inability to multitask of course :) But he really does have a heart for people and a real heart for ministry. I think he is cool.

We also had to share a social issue that really bothers us. I had a lot to choose from, but I felt like self-centered-ness is at the root of a lot of problems. I debated choosing between child abuse, AIDS, Starvation, ignorance, and many others. It was a tough choice. There are a lot of problems in the world.

On a whole other note. I went up to Thanksgiving in St. Louis. I got to see Sarah and Kirk and Joanna, and also got to spend some good quality time with Kable. It was awesome. Here are some pictures from that. Just kidding, I haven't downloaded them yet. They'll come later.

Well, I need to get back to work. Hope everyone is doing well. P.S. Go and see August Rush... I really liked it. and I bought the soundtrack and really liked that to.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:40:24 GMT

I am 23 now. I can't really say that I feel much differant, however I do feel like as the years pass I am some how behind schedule. I know that I am not, but there are still so many things that I want to do as I am gaining more and more responsibility and growing closer and closer to the place I live and the relationships that I have it will be even harder for me to leave. I still want to leave one day. To fulfll my dream of living in Africa, but for now I am pretty content where I am. I could see my self here for several years. I think this is the first time I have admitted that, and it might just be a good week. But I suspect I will be in the States for at least two more years.

So, yesterday was my birthday. Last night Mom, Dad, Wil and Amy and I all went out to dinner. Outback! Pretty much amazing. We went all out. Appitizers, drinks, steaks. I felt loved. As I was sitting there I could not stop smiling, I was reminded over and over about how blessed I have been in this life. My family is more than I could ask for. Mom and Dad drove from Atlanta and Wil and Amy came from North Carolina, just to have dinner with me and to eat a little birthday cake. Mom made my favorite, Chocolate Peanut Butter. To die for.

My housemate Corinne came into my room and gave me something I treasure. Chocolate Chips. I am sitting here eating them as well speak. Brian came over and gave me a funny card and Sour Patch Kids. You know why he gave me sour patch kids? People who know me really well know that when I eat anything sour my right eye twitches. Without fail. Its pretty amazing actually. Annoying from my standpoint, but histarical to those around me. I appreciate them.

I got to talk to my whole family yesterday. Even Meg called from Tanzania. And all three of my verbal nieces called to wish me a happy birthday. They all said they loved their Aunti Anna and I almost cried.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:04:59 GMT

I have discovered that most frequently I write on this thing when I feel like A. it has been a rediculously long time since I last wrote. B. I have nothing better to do. or C. I really should be doing something else, but am procrastinating and justifying my procrastination using option A. Today... I am option C. I should be working on a budget for Chattanooga Sports Ministies, the organization that I work for, but budgets just aren't very much fun, and I haven't updated in a rediculously long time :)

So, life these days. Lets see. Summer is now officially over. I shed a tear about that one. I used to sleep in, go to the pool, hang out with friends, and all sorts of other stuff. Now I go to work every morning, come home from work every afternoon, and well, still go to the pool sometimes, go to soccer games, and hang out with friends, so I guess that it is not all bad. Right now my boss is on a missions trip in Peru, so I am pretty much on my own. I have been working on this yearly budget, but it just really ist much fun. I am also currently house sitting and have decided that I never want to have cable. It is soo addictive. But for this week I am accepting my addiction and letting it flourish. :)

Lets see, something really fun that I did recently was to go out on the TN River on my friend BJ's boat. BJ and his wife live on the mountain and it is really anoying to cart a boat up and down the mountain, so they have been storing it in our backyard. The other weekend BJ, his wife Jamie, Brian, Anna Steere and myself all headed down the river on the boat. It was awesome. We rode for a while and then stopped where this was this giant rope swing into the river. Super fun, and then went downtown and drove aroudn for a while. By the time we started heading back it was pitch black and Brian had to use the spotlight to try and find bouies (no idea how to spell that one) so that we didnt crash. A little on the scary side, but pretty funny.Here we are in the boat. You must admit, my hari looks spectacular:)

Also funny story, the other day, before school started up again, a funny thing happened. Brian called and said, hey, can I come over and hang out. Anna and Corinne and I were in their room and so we hear Brian come in the door, and he comes in and walks by the door in his bathing suit.. "Did you guys know that BJ is in the backyard, sitting in his boat, having a beer" . In writing this doesn't sound that funny, but it real life it was histarical. We proceeded to the back to find that Brian was telling the truth. There was BJ, in the back, in his boat, enjoying a beer. I thought it was histarical :) Here they are:

Janell and I have been feeling extra adventurous this summer. It has been great. it is nice to have someone who likes to do some of the same stuff as me, and it is great having the time to be able to hang out. Anyway, the other day Janell and I decided to go canooing. It was pretty great. We got on the river and started paddling, and about five minutes later it started to pour. haha. it was awesome. We were completely soaked and probobly could have died, but it was awesome. Also something to note is that the two of us were able to successfully get the canoe on and off the xterra without any problems. Here is evidence. Also worth noting, this is the Xterra that I am buying in about a month. :)

Other than our great adventures, we end up sitting around the house and chilling a lot.

Quite enjoyable.

It is kind of sad not to be in school anymore. I had to go up to campus yesterday to get a couple signatures and it was so wierd to be back up there, but not going to classes. I went into the computer lab to try and get some of my old stuff off the network... I can't log in anymore. It was sort of a reality check.. I am no longer a student. But I think that I like it. Right now my job is kind of hard cause I feel like there really isnt THat much to do. I mean, there is, but it is hard to be super motivated since we have all year till the summer stuff starts up again.

I made a new friend this summer. Brian and Aaron play baseball for this adult summer league. The team is run by these two twins, Travis and Trevor, their dad helps coach, and their sister keeps stats. Anyway, I ended up going to pretty much every game and so I got to know Rachel, the sister pretty well, as well as the twins. Rachel and I have started haning out more, which is fun, and yesteray we went walking together. it is nice to be around a family and I really enjoy going to their house and chatting with Mr. Harrison as he works on his flowers, and hanging out with Rachel and the boys. I am trying to reqruit their little friend Sonya to play on my soccer team.

Well, I guess this is pretty long. I am still procrastinating, but I guess I need to move on to bigger and better things :) Hope everyone is doing well. Meg.... UPDATE YOUR BLOG!!!.

Love you all, Banana Head

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:26:44 GMT

Well, I thought I should probobly put up a picture of my new addition. So, family.... here you go. It will probobly look a lot better in person, but here is the tattoo.

Here I am right after it happened, with my witnessing parties, Janell and Brian. They both wanted to go with me. And here is closer what it looks like:

um, ok. I have to go back to work now, but just wanted to show it to you all. Love you guys :) Hope you still love me :)

Monday, June 18, 2007

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:37:34 GMT

Well,

I have now graduated from college, I graduated in May - thus the last entry - and now I am moving on to the real world. Or at least trying to. Currently I am working kind of as a head coach / assistant director for a program called Chattanooga Sports Ministry (CSM). It is an organization that targets young inner-city girls. Girls ages 9-14 and is basically a soccer league / a mentoring program.. I have to be honest.. I LOVE IT!!! I am having such a great time with it. I love my team (who is currently undefeated), and I love spending time with these kids. I in some ways just feel like this is what I was born to do. I get so excited to go to practice and to do tournaments on the weekends. And I love going to my office, which is equiped with computer and the usually office stuff, plus has kids cleats and soccer balls and all that sort of equiptment scattered around as well. I love it!! This program definately has its challenges. The kids come from pretty rough situations and we deal with a lot of attitude problems and other side effects from the kind of homelives that these kids come from. I am really loving it though. I really like being able to talk with the kids, and to be an example of how an adult can relate to them that is maybe differant than what they are used to. My job and my personality is such that I am able to simply sit down and talk with them, hear them out.. hug them, care about them. And I dont do it through yelling or frustration and that is sometimes what they are used to.

Honestly this summer and this program have been both really great, but also really challenging. At the beginning of the summer we (the coaches and the director) talked some about what we wanted from this summer and something that I said was that I really wanted to be broken this summer, and built back up so much stronger. I feel like Christ is slowly breaking me of my old self, the self that I have just sort of been stuck in, the self that was conveniant, and now I am trying to figure out who I want to be outside of my family, my school, my housemates, and even my relationships. Who I want to be for myself, as well as for Christ. This is both a challenging process and also a great one. So, that is something that I am dealing with this summer and that I could definately use prayer for. I wanted to quickly put up some pictures to show what I have been up to recently. haha, these are awesome.

So, here are a bunch of my girls... posing of course:

Here is a picture of us coaches... I love all these girls. They are great. My co-coach is the one on the ground on the far left.. Kendie. She is only a junior in highschool, but she is great and we work well together.

Um... Being goofy with my coaches. This is what I am good at :)

The other day Sarah (one of my housemates) and I went to my good friends Aaron and Brian's baseball game and took some sweet pictures... here are a few of the hundred or so :)

I really like they way the catcher looks here... and Brian is the guy pitching in the background.. looking a little awkward :)

Sarah took this picture of Aaron.. it is a really good one. Number 9 is one of the coaches of the team. Another very cool pitching picture Aaron steeling home!!! Brian again. Sarah took this picture of Brian also. It is just such a fun picture.

This is what else we have been doing :) By the time I get back from work and coaching I am generally really hot.. sweaty, tired, dehydrated.. and swimming at night just seems to help everything. So, this was also a great night. Sarah.. also pictured is one of my new housemates. Haha, I am having such a GREAT summer!!!!!

Here is the link the CSM website.... check out what I am up to!! http://chattsportsministries.org/

Love you all.... Anna

Monday, May 21, 2007

Mon, 21 May 2007 23:02:33 GMT

So, some huge things have happened since the last time I blogged.. The following are some pictures from the last couple weeks of school, and a couple from graduation. I graduated on May 5th, and mom and dad, Rinnie and the girls, and Wil and Amy all came down for graduation. And then Sarah and Kirk came down the next week. It was great to be together, and tons of fun.

I GRADUATED from College. Here is the fam and I after I got my diploma.

With Two of my close friends, Anna and Sarah at the last baseball game. Hanging out with eachother was a bit more fun that actually watching baseball... no offense Covenant.

One day we took the girls to the fountain at Coolidge park. it awas a ton of fun. This is Joanna and I playing in the water.

We all went on a family bike trip which was relaly fun except that my chain kept falling off. But other than that, it was really fun.

These are two of my good buddies. Aaron and Karin were both Sociology majors with me.. the three of us had fun.

This is Anna Steere (aka Steere Dog) She is living with me next year, we are both pretty excited. It was only till very recently that we realized that we are both named Anna, which could potentially become confussing. However, I call her "Steere Dog" and she calls me "Meiners", so hopefully it wont be too huge of a problem.

um, ok. So I think I will update more later, just wanted to give you a general picture of what is going on in my life.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:57:08 GMT

So, I want to put up a new entry, but I haven't really slept all week and so my brain is fried... thus, I stole this survey from Jenny's wall and thought I would just fill it out and see if it is interesting :) Thanks Jenny for the loner.

-THE WHOS-

1.Who is in the room with you?
Sarah Lester -- Love her!!

2. Who is the last person to text you?
um, let me check. Sarah Lester... before that, Kabe Sauce

3. Whose house did you last go to?
Mine. This afternoon after my internship I stopped by there.

4. Who was the last person you told you love them?
Madre and Padre on the phone earlier.

-THE WHATS-

5. What was the last thing you ate?
McVitties

6. What was the last thing you drank?
tea

7. What color pants are you wearing?
purple shorts :) breaking out of my shell. Dont worry though, they are Nike, so it isnt THAT much of a stretch for me.

8. What is the closest item near you that is pink?
an ugly poster on the wall.

9. What are you wearing on your feet?
nothing... barefoot.

-THE WHENS-

11. When is your birthday?

November 15, 1984

12. When did you last go to the mall?
I have no idea.. a long time ago. Before Christmas sometime.

13. When was the last time you ate?
1 hour ago.

-THE WHERES-

14. Where is your favorite place to be?
In Chattanooga - a place called Racoon Mountain. There is a man-made lake on the top and a road running that you can drive on that has the edge of the lake on one side, and what looks like the edge of the world on the other, it is awesome.

In Africa - so many to choose from. Lets just go with anywhere is Africa will suffice!!

15. Where is your mom?
London England... fast asleep.

16. Where do you sleep?
Generally in my bed though last night I fell asleep in my behavior therapy book. Though, if we are all going to be honest I haven't been sleeping much lately. I have been averaging about 3 a night for over a week.

17. Where do you shop the most?
Bilo - for oranges !!

18. Where did you get the shirt you're wearing?
Dont laugh, but I made it. It is one of our fun soccer shirts.

19. Where was your profile picture taken?
After a game soccer game in chattanooga.

-PART TWO-

1. What kind of underwear are you wearing?
I dont remember, and I probobly shouldnt check at the present moment.

2. What is the song you want played at your funeral?
Death has ended, In Christ Alone, God be Merciful to Me... plus lots more. I think that my funeral should just consist of sining praise songs! Maybe with one person saying something nice about me

3. Beer, wine or hard liquor?
gonna have to go with hard liquor

4. Do you have any phobias?
Not really. I have started to have a bit of one for hair... thanks for giving me that one Kable. but to get back at her, she is afraid of Kudzu (you know, the plant that is eating the south. haha, its great to make fun of her)

5. What are your plans for the future?
I have gotten that question so many times in the past few weeks.. um, well for the summer I am either going to be coaching an inner-city girls soccer team, or I also just got asked to consider being the director for the program, so I am planning on doing one of those... then after that who knows, I am in God's hands (this face doesn't really correspond, but I think its funny)

6. What's your dog thinking right now?

"Why did that dumb black mamba have to bit me"

7. Do you walk around the house naked?
Um, I am not so much of a "comfortable while walking around naked". I would shower with clothes on if it was affective.

8. How many drinks does it take to get you drunk?
I dont really know?

9. Where is your best friends?

they are all over the place.

10. Hair color you like on someone you're dating?
I am partial to dark, but dad has blond hair and he is pretty handsome.

11. Would you rather be blind or deaf?
deaf.

12. Did you brush your teeth this morning.

yup, while in the shower... I was multitasking.

13. First movie you can remember seeing as a kid?
The bear - I cried.

14. What do you do as soon as you walk in the house?
Throw my keys on the chair by the door. Then pretty much head streight for the bathroom.

15. Do you like horror or comedy?
Depends on the mood, but I would generally tend towards drama or action. can I have that option?

16. Do you like to watch movies by yourself?

Love it. But also enjoy watching with others.

18. Where do you want to live when you are old?
In a hammock on my front pourch in Africa. My husband will have one too :)

19. Who is the person you can count on?

Pretty much everyone that I know. I am a pretty lucky one.

20. If you could date any celebrity past or present, who would it be?
um, dont really know.

21. What did you dream last night?

When I fell asleep in my book I was dreaming about driving a truck. then my friend David dropped his book to make a loud noise, and I thought I slammed the door so I woke up. That was all I remembered.

22. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Soccer and gymnastics

24. What is your obsession?

Jackets

25. If you could take back one thing in your past, what would it be?

Eating too many McVitties an hour ago... now I feel sick.

Ok, so that was kind of dumb, but it took me forever to do it, so I am not going to erase it now. Hope it is atleast a little bit entertaining.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:40:14 GMT

This weekend I got to escape (everytime I write that word all I can think of is that line in Finding Nemo "escap-e, hey, that kind of looks like the word escape" - love that line, hillarious... but cant every say the word escape right anymore). Anyway, this weekend I got to escape from school and work and go down to Orlando to spend a couple days with Rin, Erik, and the girls. It was great fun.. a blast really. I had so much fun with the girls, and it was great to be with family. It was great to spend some time with the Hersmans as well, they really do feel like family. We got together for Meredith's birthday, and also made Ethiopian on Easter. LOVED it!! Anyway, just wanted to put up a couple pictures from the weekend. My SIP is due this friday, so things are kind of crazy this week. Interestingly I always seem to write on this thing when I have tons and tons of work to do.... am I a procrastinator or what ??

Rin and the girls chillin on the beach. She so GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Easter egg hunting :) Playing at the beach. I love these pictures!! Erik with the girls :)

Now that the weekend is over.... start praying that I can finish this paper, and maybe even that I can graduate :)

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:52:57 GMT

MODE OF SURVIVAL FOR THIS WEEK = Gobstoppers + Looking forward to Easter Break !!!