Pictures from Living Stations

My good friend Amanda took pictures from Stations!

Cody, me, and baby Oliver, who we finally got to be Baby Jesus

Bouncing Oliver- he loved to bounce!

  That's the end of the happy pictures...

The Fourth Station

Me doing a bunch of crying

"And though I do not understand/why all this has to be" Me asking God, "Why?"

Me, Jesus, and Mary Magdalene at the cross

"Where are all your loved ones?  Oh, they left us all alone." As John comes up behind me

"John and I stand side by side/and it seems so cold." One of my favorite pictures-actually my facebook profile picture

 The hardest part of being Mary is this scene below, the Thirteenth Station-Jesus is taken down from the cross.  A lot of girls don't put their name in for Mary simply because they can't do this scene.

Me, Andrew (Jesus) Elliot (John) in the back, and Michael (as the soldier who has a change of heart)

  They've just taken him down from the cross.  This scene is also known as the Pieta Scene.

A drawing of Michelangelo's Pieta, what this scene is based off of.

More pictures of the Pieta scene

Me cradling him.

This Pieta scene goes on for about five or ten minutes,but it seems like hours.  It's intense.

I will have a video up shortly.  Comment or send me a message with your email and I will share a google doc of it with you.

Living Stations and Disney Medleys

Almost a year ago, I posted this snippet:

We picked parts for my church's passion play on Sunday.  It's called the Living Stations of the Cross.  I'm a junior this year, so I was hoping for a good part, like Mary Magdelene, Pilate's wife, or Mary, wife of Clopas, or Mary, mother of John... or even a flash back Mary (we have a LOT of Marys) but I look nothing like the girl who got the part of Mary, my friend Heather.  She'll love it that she can hold the baby Jesus at the beginning (we start with the presentation in the temple- there's a flashback when Jesus dies and two girls stand with a baby doll and the kid who played 12 year old Jesus... I can't do the 12 year old Jesus flashback- I'm 4'9" and not only is my friend like 6 ft tall, but the kid playing 12 year old Jesus is taller than me...yeah, I'd look real motherly.)  So anyway, I was hoping for a part where I get to do a lot of crying, since according to Elli, I'm really really good at fake crying (who knew?)

Yeah.  I'm a serving girl.  I get a towel chucked at my face (if I'm lucky) and I stand there with a straight face.This should be interesting

Well guess what?  It's that time of year again!  Living Stations.  And I am a senior, which means I'm guaranteed a good part.

But before I get into the goodies of this year, I wanted to comment on my disappointment with last year.  My freshman year I was a weeping woman.  When I was a sophomore, I was the first girl to play the newly added part of the prophetess Anna (see presentation in the temple above).  My junior year I was a servant girl.  Not big parts at all.  As a weeping woman, I went up to Jesus during the 8th station and cried.  As Anna, I basically knelt and prayed, and watched Mary and Joseph leave with the baby.  As a servant girl, I gave a cup to Pilate to drink out of.  That's it.  But that's not to say that I didn't have a very big part.  Every year (and I've been doing this since 6th grade-I was in the crowd) I've come up with a story.
Freshman Year: I was Leehi, a pregnant weeping woman.  Here's my backstory.
Sophomore Year: Anna, the prophetess.  When we fastforwarded 33 years, I changed my headscarf and took of the creepy grey braid wig and became Anna's granddaughter by the same name, also gifted with prophecy.  I knew what was going to happen.  I'd seen it coming, but kept it to myself.  I was dreading the inevitable. I had a story written for it, but I never typed it.  I don't know where it is.
Junior Year: Terentia Octavia Camilla of Rome, aka Lira. I actually looked up how Romans were named so I could get an accurate name.  I wanted to switch the cup I held out for a lyre we had from when we did the David skits for VBS.  They never let me, but I kept Lira as my nickname.  I was a simple Roman girl who could care less what could happen to a Hebrew "Messiah."  But a miracle changed my heart.  You can read Lira's story here.

Well this year, I dropped my name in the hat for Mary Magdalene, because I love her story, and Mary, because, as a senior, I could, and why not?  (How we pick parts: you get two pieces of paper, write your name on them, and put them in the bowl for the character(s) you want.  The leaders then pray [so do you out while you watch last year's show on DVD] and pick one out of the bowl)

Guess what?  I'm Mary.  The Mary.  Yeah.  I'm praying the rosary on my way to school now...praying that I do her justice.  I'm not worried about the acting, but I should get my prayer life together if I'll be portraying the mother of God.  And ironically, this is the first "lead" role I've ever gotten in my life.  I'm so excited and so happy.  I was totally not expecting to be Mary AT ALL.

In other news, why I've not blogged in forevers:


We'll be performing it February 8th.  And my laptop's dying, which means I should go to sleep.  G'night.

I'm back

I've survived the week.  Yay for me!  Let me tell you how my week went
MONDAY:
-blogged
-edited "Changes" my original song I'm performing at MacPhail on Sunday
-took two music quizzes (aced them both)
-started studying for Astronomy test
-started music paper
-enjoyed the one peaceful night of my week

TUESDAY:
-started working on plot outline for a play for my writing class
-started thinking about what to do for 3 points of view scene for writing class
-visited with Mia and Lindsey after Astronomy- had to get coffee from the college's coffee shop because I was nodding off in class!
-reached the level of "Word Dynamo" on Dictionary.com during lunch
-wrote two poems for a poetry contest: "Storm Child" and "The Color of Sound" (I will post them in a separate post for organization's sake
-acted out my first scene (Act 1, Scene 1) at play practice.  Was chased by a wolf, thought to be crazy, frightened by a beast and a magic looking glass, tempted to take a rose, and then nearly killed by said beast.  The Beast and I have to work out a "dance move" (or something inspired by a dance move, anyway) to throw me across the stage safely.  Should be interesting
-raced to dress rehearsal for Stations; stayed there till 9
-took notes for writing quiz while waiting for my turn to go on stage
-planned out 3 point of view scene
-studied for Astronomy test

WEDNESDAY
-studied like a madwoman for astronomy test ((even during the youth group performance of Stations, but I was backstage))
-aced writing quiz, even though I studied only half the chapters (I thought it was 2 & 3, but it was also 5-7.  Luckily, it was a short online quiz with a longer time limit and I knew how to use my book's glossary)
-studied even more for test- could not grasp the concept of Hydrogen fusion
-practiced a short scene'
-raced to Stations performance

THURSDAY
-walked a long way through the rain (I love rain and storms- see "Storm Child")
-took my astronomy test *crosses fingers*
-finally settled on a plot outline- Letters from If (after going through several, well, two.  Back Row Band and Shadow Stories.  Got discouraged and ended up writing an outline for a 3 act play... took all day and was 3 pages long)
-started working on 3 points of view- Back Row Band
-did piano lessons in the morning and started a Beethoven Sonata
-stayed for play practice, but they were doing my scene last, so I spent most of it doing my plot outline.
-found out that we might be doing The Secret Garden musical from pioneer drama next year, along with their version of Rapunzel, which is supposed to be really funny, or The Importance of Being Earnest.  Was just chatting with our director and all of us juniors are begging her to do a musical next year for our last senior performance... wow, I feel old.
-ate at McDonalds for dinner (chicken sandwich and a parfait.  Yum.  now I'm hungry.  Darn it)
-first "real" performance of Stations.  went very well
-got home at 9:30 and stayed up till 11:30 writing my 3 points of view scene, since it was due at midnight.   Another kid in my writing class who played Peter in the Stations posted his stuff at 11:15.  Made me smile.
-went to bed

FRIDAY
-got up at 6:00 am (crying because it was so early and I was so tired and stressed, literally)
-dragged myself out the door with a tuna and cheese sandwich for dinner, two granola bars, a can of Sunkist (the only caffeine I could find in the house- my mom didn't make coffee and I didn't have time to. It's orange juice, right?  That was my reasoning for having it for breakfast) and a toast, cheese and egg sandwich for breakfast.
-studied for communications quiz
-took said quiz
-received my take home sociology test
-received a in class discussion sheet for sociology class
-also was assigned half a book to read and a paper to write on it- not thinking about that right now.
-wrote my music paper
-stayed after for vocal practice and got to leave early!
-went to the library and picked up my movies and the last Song of the Lioness book on audiobook (they didn't have the regular book).  Not sure how I like the Song of the Lioness. I liked the first two books,  but I'm not sure about the last two yet.
-did the last performance of Living Stations and it was PACKED!
-Got home at a quarter to ten, my sister at a cast party, and finished my paper for music.  It was supposed to be 4 pages, but I only got 3 and a half.  I'll take the points off, and I turned it in at 11:30.  My teacher was kind enough to extend the due date for me from St. Patrick's day to March 23 since I didn't realize it was due on Mar 17 until the 19th.  oops.  (a week after the concert I was supposed to see, which was March 10th.  Didn't get that little detail)  I got it in with 30 minutes to spare.
-got into bed crying I was so tired- midnight

SATURDAY
-slept in until about 9 or 9:30- my siblings woke me up
-showered for the first time since Tuesday (gross, I know, but I had NO TIME at all and felt really nasty.  I'm clean now though)
-ate breakfast (toasted maple brown sugar pop tarts and chai tea... I'm weird, I know...)
-blogged
-tried to go on webkinz since my sister dragged me to Justice and they had the lil kinz on sale for $3, and this adorable husky caught my eye.  His name is Sterling.

THINGS I STILL NEED TO DO
-reading response 3 for writing
-all said sociology stuff
-watch movies :) (Juno and Beastly)
-eat lunch
-take a nap
-practice piano
-practice french horn (We're learning the music from How to Train Your Dragon in band- it's pretty epic.  If that link doesn't work, try this one.  Still have to keep practicing Nocturne)
-learn to sing "Pie Jesu"
-learn to sing "Last Rose of Summer"
-post me singing "Home" to youtube
-ditto with Journey to the past... wait, should record that again...with Sadie as Pooka!

*am listening to How to Train Your Dragon and it's making me happy because it's waking me up.  Seriously, this song can't not make you smile or wake up.  If you haven't seen the movie yet, you HAVE TO.  It's got enough adventure for boys to like, and it's cute and cool enough for girls.  Seriously, I really like this movie.*

Oh, and I heard a version of The Polar Express for band and it's so epic, I want to play it for Christmas! (actually, several versions)

Bye peoples.  Will post poems in a sec.

Hey, how's it going?

Well, the only time I'll be blogging will be when I'm at my college.  I'm extremely tired and sad that spring break is over.  It was a good time.  Anyway, I'm much to tired to write about Chicago, so let me tell you a few things so that you don't go crazy (like I am this week)

1.   I lost the privilege of internet access at home, so no blogging there or my high school, only here
2.   I am EXTREMELY busy this week and will not be getting home before 9:00/9:30 pm Tues.-Fri. due to the fact I have Living Stations at my church
3.   I also have play practice every night this week and will have to go straight from play to stations...
4.   It's raining (or at least feels like it's about to) outside and it smells amazing and I love it, but is making me very drowsy and I want to go to sleep
5.   I just signed up for Script Frenzy.  I am insane.
6.   I have two music quizzes, a music paper, and a writing quiz to take
7.   I'm pretty sure I have a quiz Friday in small group communications
8.   I need a to do list
9.   I have one, but I need to find it.
10. I can't think
11. I need to clean my room, BADLY

Updates on me:
*I got a hair cut, same length, more layers
*my brothers messed up my bed (which I am extremely particular about) while I was in Chicago, so when I got home at 12:30 am I had to make my bed before I could fall asleep (I had to sleep next to a snorer- and I mean, a really bad snorer, in Chicago, so believe me when I say I was tired.)
*my dad is having issues and I don't know what or why, he's just acting like he's PMSing or something.  I don't get it
*I'm checking out three movies from the library, The Invisible, Juno, and Beastly.  I'm excited, but will not watch them until Saturday.  I shouldn't even be on my blog right now, so after this I'm done.  I'm doing a media fast for Stations.

K, I gotta go.  Talk to you Saturday (if I get internet back...)
bye
-Haili
or Lira (my servant girl name in Stations)

What's happening with me today

I really shouldn't be writing this...I've got a project and a paper and a test... all due before Monday (test today... in about 40 minutes... Astronomy!  Yikes) Sociology paper due Friday, Music project due on the 5th and I spent most of last night trying to get a video off our camera for my music project and answering questions about baby names on Yahoo Answers... my favorite time wasting activity.  When all this craziness is done, I'm supposed to be working on my screenplay (Twice Upon A Time)...*sigh*  I'm WAY too busy...

I'm going to sing for my piano teacher today before my lessons- she also teaches voice and is Elli's voice teacher.  She's going to give me some pointers so I can be really good for my audition on March 1st.  I'm so nervous!!! And I'm getting myself all worked up about this...I've been excited about this for a year...no joke.  I really hope I get the part.  It's my favorite fairy tale, and a musical, the last one I'll be able to do at my school- The Enchantment of Beauty and the Beast- not the Disney version- but still...

I feel like a complete dork because I spent some of my birthday money on the 2 disc special platinum edition of Beauty and the Beast... and I'll probably go see it in theaters in 3D if I can get around to it.  We ordered a bunch of other movies, and they're all coming by Feb 3, but my movie won't come till the 24th!  *frustrated*
Oh well, wouldn't have time to watch it anyway.

I'm going with a bunch of friends to see the college's musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in a few weeks, so that should be fun...

We picked parts for my church's passion play on Sunday.  It's called the Living Stations of the Cross.  I'm a junior this year, so I was hoping for a good part, like Mary Magdelene, Pilate's wife, or Mary, wife of Clopas, or Mary, mother of John... or even a flash back Mary (we have a LOT of Marys) but I look nothing like the girl who got the part of Mary, my friend Heather.  She'll love it that she can hold the baby Jesus at the beginning (we start with the presentation in the temple- there's a flashback when Jesus dies and two girls stand with a baby doll and the kid who played 12 year old Jesus... I can't do the 12 year old Jesus flashback- I'm 4'9" and not only is my friend like 6 ft tall, but the kid playing 12 year old Jesus is taller than me...yeah, I'd look real motherly.)  So anyway, I was hoping for a part where I get to do a lot of crying, since according to Elli, I'm really really good at fake crying (who knew?)

Yeah.  I'm a serving girl.  I get a towel chucked at my face (if I'm lucky) and I stand there with a straight face.
This should be interesting

Okay, I just wasted 10 minutes... I've only got half an hour before my test!!!  Study, you fretting Haili, STUDY!!!!

okay.  I'm out.

I really should be doing something else...

Why do I like elipses (...) so much?  I use them constantly!
I need to be working on screenplays... and my music quiz... I really should go...

I'm babysitting my guidance couselor's daughter tomorrow, so that should be fun.  My weekend is insanely busy and our first Living Stations practice is Saturday... I'll explain more later... I REALLY should go do my work.

Adios... (there I go again...STOP!)
Haili