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Hmm... So I was reading people's blogs today at school because there's nothing to do in class. Then, suddnenly, I remembered that I have a blog. haha... So I was wondering if anyone still read it. :) ? I know a lot of people kept updated on me and my family's life through this blog when we lived overseas, but now that we're back home I don't know if anyone reads it. I haven't updated since last Easter... woops!
My life has been crazy recently with show choir, winterguard, church drama, churh choir, school, dual credit classes, and one act. Needless to say, I don't have much time to mess with a blog, but I will update every now and then if people are still keeping up with it.

leave me a comment to let me know! :)
Holli :)

He Rose!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!

I hope y'all have had a great Easter! A great song, He Rose by Jeff Johnson, has been on my mind all day long. It's a wonderful song and very appropriate for today! Go look it up, buy it on itunes! :) Thank you Jesus, for dying for me! Thank you for coming back to life on the third day! No other gods can match up with you! No man can come close! You're alive and always will be! :)

Well, yesterday, I had my birthday party. I was able to invite two friends so I invited Michael and Sierrah! My gram, paw, and me-maw also came along. Then, Jessica surprised me by coming while we were at the restaurant! Such a nice surprise! We ate at an authentic Chinese restaurant in Plano.It was an awesome time with all of them! The food was REAL!! My friends really enjoyed the food too! After we ate our delicious Chinese food, we had cheesecake! My mom made it homemade! So yummy! After eating, we walked next door to the Asian market. As soon as I walked into the doors, or actually, even walking to the doors, I felt like I was back in Asia again! There were hardly any Caucasian people. And everyone was speaking Chinese around me. I talked to so many people in Chinese while I was there. Sierrah was a great friend and just stood next to me and smiled. haha! :) After I spent forever talking to people, we traveled down to downtown dallas to hang out. I love big cities and so we went to Dallas. haha. I know I have weird Birthday parties. :) My gparents showed us the building where they used to work, and that was extremely neat. Then, michael, sierrah, and I took millions of fun pictures. It was a laid back birthday party, but awesomely fun!!!!!!!!!!! :) My parents worked HARD to make it special for me, and they did an amazing job. I'm still gonna have a party with all my friends sometime soon. And, I'm going to Oklahoma to camp next weekend with my family and another awesome family. So, I will have three bday celebrations! My famiy loves me and boy do I love them! Thanks for making my dad so special, guys!!! I love y'all!!! :D

Since I was around many Chinese people, speaking the language, and enjoying the culture yesterday, I thought for sure that I would really be missing China. But to my surprise, I really didn't. It's crazy because I love China so much. I thought for sure that I would be devastated because I'd be missing it so much, but that's not really the case. I truly believe that I'm supposed to be here right now. It disappoints me living here in the States. Even my "believing" friends disappoint me in the things they say and stuff they do. I've experienced a lot of crap in a short five months that I never had to deal with in China. To be honest, I've had to catch myself conforming quite a bit. That really does scare me. I don't want to be a conformer, but that's a weakness for me. I'm workin on it! Anyway, back to what I was saying, I really do feel like I'm supposed to be here. A lot of US teens who have lived in a foreign country like me want to go back to wherever they lived because of all the crap in America. But I feel like America is my mission field. Even though the guys are perverted, and people have their priorities messed up, I find peace knowing I need to be here. Be praying that I will know how to reach out to my friends here! Pray that wherever I go, I will be his feet. I'm not saying I'm perfect and all other Americans are horrible. I know a lot of great people here! People who love the Lord! I'm not the only one.. that's for sure. I mess up too. I conform.. say things I shouldn't, do things I shouldn't. But I believe I, along with anyone who wants to join me here, can do great things for his kingdom.. even in Maypearl, Texas! I don't have to be in a foreign country to do His work!

Enjoy the pictures from my birthday/partyday! :)

In da car on da way! woop woop!

I love her!! ;)

The whole gang!

our waitress!

fortunes!

and more fortunes

Marsh and Michael

Jethkur and I found our coffee!!

Asia market!

we're cool. don't mess with us. haha

trying to be the beatles.. didn't work out all that well. haha

we're so official!

cool!

The building where my Grandparents worked years ago

We had to take a picture with the hotttt man!! oh yes!

We start out with sierrah. so beautiful!

Then me...

And then there's michael. He needs serious help.

I love this picture!!!

A great picture to finish off a great day! haha!

If curious, my real birthday is the 21st. We'll be camping on my real birthday! yay!!

Thanks for reading! Hope y'all have a fabulous week!Email me, facebook me, or leave me a comment!

He's alive!

Holli :)

Life.. it's crazy

Hey gang!

It's been forever since I've updated this thing! Please forgive me for that! Things have been so crazy! School has been taking up all my time recently, but i finished at a decent hour today so that was really nice!

I will be going to "a school" next year. So far, I think it will be the public school in our little town of Maypearl. I've heard so many terrible things about the school and many of my friends have had a hard time there, but I really feel like God has called me to that school. One Sunday a few weeks ago, our family went with our close friends to a different church than we usually go to for worship after Sunday school at our church. It was a powerful service and at the end the pastor called everyone up to the front who wanted to be prayed over. A lot of people went up and I did too. My dear friend/drama teacher was in front of me but she could not have known i was behind her. Then, all the sudden, she heard a voice say, "She's there." Crystal turned around and I was standing right behind her and she grabbed my hand. Crystal and I had been talking the night before this about some of my stuggles and the sermon was on the very thing we had talked about. As we were standing at the front, the tears were rolling down Crystal's face. She told me later that she felt like God told her that I'm going to public school next year. She said she kinda argued with God and said, "But she's not ready. She'll conform!" But she felt that God told her.. no, she won't. she will have her "fossits" on full blast. She felt like Maypearl was my mini mission field and that God has big plans for me. I know this is true. I'm so excited about serving God at school next year. Of course, I'm scared. I've never been to public school and it doesn't help that the school I'll be going to has a bunch of not so great people. But, I'm trusting God with it. He hasn't ever failed me before!!!!! Please be praying with me about this. I will be taking a tour tomorrow morning. There also might be some problems with them accepting my credits since I'm a homeschooler. Pray that this will all work out. :) Thanks!

Hmm.. what else is new? I am currently very involved with leading skits at our church. It has been lots of fun and we have something BIG coming up. I'll tell y'all about it soon. Pray!

We got a new dog!!! Now we have two. We got a four yr old golden retriever for free! He's the sweetest dog you will ever know. :)

My cousin, Mitch, got saved back in February at Dnow!! Praise God!!! Pray for mitch! This is a rather attractive pic of us. haha

These are some pics from last week when we met up with some close friends from the other side of the world. :)

Well, I think that's a good enough update for now! :) sorry it's been so long. I'll update again as soon as I have time!!!

Leave a comment!

I've missed hearing from y'all!!!

As I now say.. May blessings be bestowed upon your head!!! (It's a new thing that I've started since being in the states. I know.. weird. but my friends love it! haha)

Holli :)

Semaj Nitram

You will not understand why this is on here or what this means. It's ok. I don't either really.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We all have so much to be thankful for. I know this year I'm especially thankful for my family. Divorce is so common and families are broken all around me so I'm thankful for my mom and my dad's nineteen years of marriage and that our family's all together. I'm also grateful for friends. God has blessed me with some amazing friends! :)
And finally, I'm thankful for FOOD!!!! :) I can't wait to eat some turkey and stuffing!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I'm so thankful for all of you!

Holli :)

Puppy Dog and the House

Hey Guys!

I just thought I'd put some pictures of our dog and the house. :)

Here's dian dian!! :)

Here's dad painting! :) and him doing the asian squat! :) haha he's crazy.

This is our kitchen. It's still got aways to go but so far it's lookin good!! :)

And this is my parent's room. The lighting's kinda funny in both pictures...

Michael and Marshall workin on rippin up the bathroom!! I was hopin they would find gold but they didn't.

Dad at work...

This is Ron and part of Debbie(our family's REALLY great friends)I need to get a better picture of them! Ron was letting Katibeth help paint! :) Ron and Debbie are amazing and they help out all the time. :)

Wow, I really need to work on getting better pictures!! But I just wanted to show y'all a few.

I'll take better pictures soon and post them...

Hope y'all are all doing great!!

Leave comments!!

I wanna hear from y'all!!!

Holli :)

Far Out West

Y'all don't know how long I've told myself that I have to get on here and do this. Things have been crazy and very busy and I just haven't had time. I'm so sorry! I don't really even have time now but oh well... :) I've also been putting off the update because I don't have all the pictures I want. My friend has a lot of the pictures I'd like to show y'all and I haven't been able to get them yet. As soon as I do get them, I'll put them on here!

I lot has gone on in my life in the past two months. A lot indeed! Now, as many of you already know, I'm "Far Out West." I've thought about creating a new blog since this one is Far Out East and I'm not really far out east anymore. But I've come to the conclusion that I'll keep this one. Many of you are still far out east and checking up on my life here so I'll keep the same blog and the same name.

I'm so amazed at how well everything went when we left and how well things have been going since we arrived in Texas! I've written that it would be the end of the earth and everything but I cannot say that it has been at any measure. Things have been going far better than I ever would have imagined. The night we left, our dear friends came to see us and we had a wonderful time with them! They're the sweetest people ever and their family has influenced my life in great ways and I miss them very much. We had a great time of fellowship with them before we left and I was encouraged by their smiles and blessings that everything would be alright. Their family has so much faith in Jesus and completely trust him in every way. They trust him to supply all their needs and they trust his will and plan for their lives. I learned once again, that I needed to trust Him and that He knows far better than me and that going back to the States was going to be ok because He would be right beside me guiding me all the way. When we left America three years ago I was sad. I didn't want to leave, but Jesus tenderly taught me to trust him and I said.. "Ok, God, if you really know best." And I had the best three years of my life there. Of course I had many struggles but I learned so much and got to experience so much and it was just wonderful. Jesus knew that and he wanted me to trust Him. Then, when it came time to come home to Texas... I was sad and didn't know how I would ever make it. But yet again, Jesus sweetly told me to trust him. When I did, I experienced incredible peace and I moved forward. Moving forward began to be fun! When our family left the airport, I was joyful. I was smiling from ear to ear as I took my last glimpse of that country. Marshall and I were laughing and smiling as we boarded the plane. Oh, and don't forget my fear of flying. I had been nervous about this flight for 3 yrs. The first flight was great. I didn't sleep at all but I enjoyed it and I didn't understand why I was so joyful!! Then, once in Korea, we waited for years and then boarded the plane to Dallas. Believe it or not.. the flight was great! I didn't sleep but it was fine. It got turbulent at times but I was ok. I was trusting in Jesus and he put an abundant about of joy into my heart. It was crazy landing in Dallas. Like a dream. But my heart was pounding and my face was shaking from smiling so much! haha. We got off the plane and the first thing I though was.. it smells good!!! :) We went through customs and I just couldn't believe that we could go in the citizen's line. Then, we got to baggage claims. While dad got the luggage, I sat on the floor just soaking it all in. Then a man that was working at the baggage claims came by and said.. Y'all have a huge crowd of people waiting for y'all outside!! I said.. REALLY? He just nodded his head and walked off. My heart was thumping loudly and I was way too excited. When all the luggage was collected, we all walked out me-maw ran to give us all hugs with tears in her eyes. Then, I noticed Jessica and her friend had a HUGE sign that said.. Welcome Back, Kotter! :) Then, a girl that I didn't recognize ran up to me and gave me a hug saying she had missed me and everything.. and I didn't know who she was. Then, after a few minutes I realized it was Abbi. My best friend growing up! I couldn't believe how much she had changed. Then I ran into my Paw's arms! :) EVERYONE was there... My good friend Autumn and old youth pastor Brian even came from two hours away. My aunts and uncles were there and my cousins and my parents good friends and everybody else in the world. :) Then, they took us to Whataburger!! I ordered in English!! weird!! I was in total shock from driving for like 45 min and taking in all the sights and being with americans and breathing in american air and everything. It was crazy. truly crazy. More people even came in while we were there to see us. Then, you won't believe this, when we arrived at the place we were going to be staying, we saw rows of cars along the driveway!!!!!!!!!! I was like.. oh my goodness!!! who's here?!?! It was like our whole church had come!!!!! It was so nice. I was in so much shock and my face was shaking.. don't know why. haha. I couldn't believe all the people that had missed us and who had come to welcome us. Then, after everyone was gone.. I was about to pass out from exhaustion. I went into our apt. and passed out. Don't remember too much after that. haha.

Well, things have been going great since then. I'ts been two months already. I've been enjoying friends and youth group and drama practice and family get togethers. Even the thought of going back turns my stomach because all I can think of is boredom. Don't get me wrong, I love that country with all my heart but I'm not ready to go back now. Our family has made the decision to stay. My dad got a job with the highway dept. again and we're remodeling our old house. Things are always busy and crazy but I love it. There are times I miss being over there. I miss my independence but in just 6 months... I will get my license and my independence will return! :) I have done SO much shopping and have enjoyed that thoroughly!!! :) :) America sure does have it's good points but it also has it's down. I've faced several struggles and am still working through some since I've been back. Things are different. People are different. Church is different (which is hardest probably). and there are others.. But overall, it's all good. :)

I will probably be going to public school next year and I'm scared/excited/ready for that! :)

The rest of my family is doing well. Katibeth and Marshall are also enjoying being around lots of friends again. My parents are enjoying being around their friends as well but they're also VERY VERY busy every single day with the house. I don't help much. and I should. bad holli.

We got a miniature Dotson!! :) She's adorable and her name is dian dian.

This is crystal, our drama teacher. She's an amazing woman and I look up to her quite a bit. The other picture is of our drama team. Wow.. I didn't realize till looking at this how many jr. highers are in it.

Here are pictues of random times with my friends...

Cousins!! :) Ty and Hannah....

I'm planning on gathering more pictures to show y'all when I can get em! :)

I love y'all and hope to hear from y'all!!

Bessings,

Holli