Okay, okay, so I've been *encouraged* to update by a fellow blogger. So here goes.

Lydia took pictures of me last night. I'm horribly vain and self-centered, so I'm posting them. Ta dah!

Oh, and I may seem pretty obsessed with my hair, but Lydia said it would make the best pictures... So now you know...the REST of the story. ;-)

School is going okay. We had a quiz today. Our teacher made it, and she didn't even know the answer to the second problem. Needless to say, I think I failed it.

Debate, biology and speech are falling behind. I'm *attempting* to stay on top of math, english, spanish and chemistry, but that's hard enough. Grr.

Life seems too difficult to bear right now. Especially at night when I start thinking. Guess it's unhealthy to think...because when I do, I get horribly depressed. And depression isn't fun. I wonder if it's the #1 killer of teenagers, and if so, if anyone is suprised.

But I have hope.

Romans 5:1-5

1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

4perseverance, character; and character, hope.

5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Perhaps I'm foolish. Perhaps I should not hope. But I can't help it.

Check out these awesome verses from Ruth, too!

Ruth 1:16-17

16 But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.

17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."

Ruth 2:11-12

11 Boaz replied, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before.

12 May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

Isaiah 12
Songs of Praise

1 In that day you will say:

"I will praise you, O LORD.

Although you were angry with me,

your anger has turned away

and you have comforted me.
2 Surely God is my salvation;

I will trust and not be afraid.

The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song;

he has become my salvation."
3 With joy you will draw water

from the wells of salvation.
4 In that day you will say:

"Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;

make known among the nations what he has done,

and proclaim that his name is exalted.
5 Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things;

let this be known to all the world.
6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,

for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."

I particularly like Isaiah 12:3. I don't know why, but I keep coming back to it.

So there's my update. All my wonderful readers should be happy. :-P