Scary Moments in My Life (Part 3)

Alright friends, it's time for the final edition of my Halloween series: Scary Moments in My Life.

This last one isn't exactly from my life personally, but I've heard the story first-hand. Get ready to be freaked out.

This story took place in a small town in Kansas called Bucyrus. Throughout this small town, a story began circulating about a crazy man seen on the side of the road in a long white robe. No one could say for sure whether he was real or a ghost. Typically, he was seen while the local high school kids were driving around at night, so no one thought it wise to pull over and take a good look.

My story follows one boy in particular. It was in the middle of his senior year when he began hearing about this supposed crazy man wandering around Bucyrus at night. Typically, he's not one to believe silly high school ghost stories, but those he talked to seemed to be telling the truth.

One night, he was spending time with his girlfriend. She was quite the catch: a year older, athletic and cute. They hopped in his old yellow truck for a night drive. He had a gravel driveway that turned into a road. It was on that gravel road that they saw him, where the headlights met the darkness. There were no street lights on that old gravel road, so there was absolutely no light other than that of the headlights.  Just as everyone described him, he looked as though he was crazy and was dressed in a long white robe. As they drove nearer he appeared to be waving down the young couple to stop for him.

Naturally, the girlfriend was yelling "Don't you dare stop for this man!" The young boy decides that the man in the white robe was either going to move over or get run over and starts to accelerate. As they drew even nearer, the boy swears that the man's eyes were glowing. As though he realizes the truck isn't going to pull over for him, he steps out of the road and allows them to pass.

That was the last known sighting of the man in the white robe. To this day, no one knows if he was real or a ghost. But, years after the incident, he still claims that was the most scared he's ever been. You don't believe me? Ask my parents, they were the young couple.

Scary Moments in My Life (Part 2)

Ok...it's time for Scary Moments in My Life (Halloween edition) Part 2!

My little sister, Jaci reminded me of this scary story. 

I can't even believe I forgot about it in the first place.

We shall preface with a reoccuring nightmare I had as a child. I would have this nightmare night after night and it was always as terrifying as the first time. I would dream that Jaci and I were playing in the front yard, but she was always sitting in a car seat on top of the car. So I guess she was really only watching me play. At any rate, this guy would always come to kidnap Jaci...he never wanted me. I would see him coming and automatically know what he wanted since I had this dream so many times. I would try so desperately to get Jaci off the top of the car, but I couldn't reach. I could never decide whether I needed to stay out there with her and try to get the guy to leave her alone or if I should take a chance and run to the house to get my parents. It was terrible. At the time, my dad had this tv show called FishTv, so I would always try to bargain with him...haha. I would tell him that I would give him a FishTv sticker and t-shirt if he would just leave Jaci alone. I would always wake up just as he was getting ready to take her.

So, now you know that I always had a fear of something like this happening...and so it did.

One evening Jaci and I were playing basketball in our culdesac. At this time of life, Jaci was impossible...I'm sure she'll admit it now. She wanted to do the exact opposite of everything I would say. It was beginning to get dark and I kept seeing this guy walk back and forth at the end of our culdesac...very creepy. To make it a little worse, we were the only ones around since it was getting dark...everyone else was inside. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him start to walk up the culdesac. I tried not to panic because I didn't want him to know that I noticed him and start running for us. So, I calmly put the basketball down and said, "Jaci, we need to go inside." I started to walk up our driveway and notice that Jaci is not following me...of course. So, now I start to panic a little bit. I turned around and yelled at Jaci to come inside, meanwhile, the man is getting closer. Naturally, she doesn't come. All those memories of the nightmares came flooding back and I really freaked out. I opened the front door and yelled for my mom. As my mom came outside, the man saw her and ran away.

I'm not sure what would have happened if my mom didn't come outside, but I'm just glad it all ended well.

Lesson to be learned from this: ALWAYS listen to your big sister because you just might be on the verge of getting abducted.

Ok...so...here are some pictures (a lot of pictures) of my sisters and me in honor of us not getting kidnapped:

 Me, Dani and Jaci in Branson

 Our Christmas surprise for our parents!

 Jaci's graduation party!

At the lake

 

 Dani's birthday dinner

 Dani and me in New York City

 Dani and me with grandma

 Me, Dani and Jaci in Maine

 Are we giving the thumbs up to dummies hanging by a noose? Why, yes we are.

 Jaci and me in Maine

 Jaci's prom

One day, she was a little girl, the next - she was taller than me. 

Alright, those are all the pictures I'll subject you to. But my sisters are great, so you should enjoy looking at them. Have a great day!! I sure hope you're enjoying fall as much as I am!

Scary Moments in My Life

In light of it being October, the month of Halloween, I thought I would share some of the scariest moments in my life.

The first scariest moment took place a little after we moved to Franklin from Kansas. We moved here because of my dad's job, so there were other families that moved out here as well. One family was my aunt and uncle, Greg and Gina, with my cousins, Brandon and Corey. The Petraseks were the other family. They had three girls: Lauren, Kaitlin and Sarah. We all moved into the same neighborhood, so we would hang out every night and go on walks or whatever. 

This particular night, we are all hanging out at my cousins' house when we decide to go on a walk. Brandon just came home from soccer practice or working out or something, so he tells us he needs to take a shower and he'll catch up with us in a little bit. 

We all set out on what seems to be a night like any other night. In our neighborhood, we have these little stone walls that have the name of the subdivision on it. We start walking past one and we think we hear some kind of noise coming from behind the sign. I turn around and see the shadow of something moving, but I just assume it's some kind of an animal.

At this point, I start walking backwards to talk to everyone and I see this guy in a scream costume jump out from behind the sign. Naturally, we all freak out and take off running. We're just down the street from a family friend, the Collins, so we all start running toward their house to get away from the guy who is chasing us. 

*Take a moment to really visualize the situation. Four girls and one boy running down the streets of our neighborhood, screaming. I'm sure my hands were flailing around in the air, my face showing sheer terror. Closely following us is a man in a scream costume. This has got to be a scene straight from some cheesy horror movie. Also note that in the midst of our screaming, no one came to see what was going on....makes you feel safe, huh?

Everyone turns up the Collins' driveway....except me. In my state of panic, I totally forget to turn. So now, I'm running as fast as I can, but away from everyone else. This guy has the perfect opportunity to kidnap me because I have just isolated myself from the rest of the group. Typical Jess move. 

I notice that he's gaining some serious ground on me and decide there's no way I can outrun him. Rather than waste all my energy on continuing to run, I stop dead in my tracks, turn around and start wailing on him. Just blindly punching him. Of course I know this isn't going to stop him for long...I was like maybe 12 at the time. There's not much I can do for myself. I keep thinking, "If Brandon were here, he could have saved me."

In my head, I'm beginning to accept the fact that I'm about to be kidnapped. All of these thoughts of what will happen to me start to run through my mind. Until....I heard him laughing. I thought to myself, "I know that laugh." It was Brandon. As soon as we left, he jumped in the car and drove to where he knew we would pass by and hid behind the stone wall until we got there. I'm sure he didn't know that it would work out as well as it did. 

Fortunately, my scariest moment ended up being a joke. But, at the time, I really thought it was the end. 

So...this blog is dedicated to Brandon. Well done.

This is Brandon with his little girl Brooklyn.

All the cousins.

Me, Brandon, Dani and Corey as kids.

The cousins in our true form. 

Ode to Klutziness

Per the request of Karen, I shall entertain you this evening with stories of klutziness: both my own stories and those of my friends. Sit back, relax and be grateful that it was me and not you. 

We'll go ahead and start with my most recent incidents. 

Well, I'll start by stating that I have skills that others only dream of having. As I was getting ready for the retreat this weekend, I pinched my arm in my closet. Not sure how, but I did. All weekend, I received gasps and inquires...nice. Here's a couple pictures. Sadly, they were taken today, so it's not quite as colorful as it was this weekend, but you still get the idea of the magnitude. 

If only you all could have seen it when it was a beautiful shade of blue.

As if I didn't have enough lovely art currently displayed on my body, we got to the retreat late, so I had to be on the top bunk. Naturally, I got this beauty:

This next thing isn't really due to klutziness, but it's worth mentioning. I somehow contracted ringworm, not to be confused with tape worm. I don't actually have a worm in me...it's just a skin fungus...which I suppose isn't much better. Regardless...it leaves a pretty little rash in the shape of a ring!

Moving on...one of my favorite klutzy stories is about my friend, Courtney. 

 

It was a rainy day in Chattanooga. Becca and Caitlin were hanging out in the living room, Courtney was working on homework in her room and I was taking a nap in my room. Courtney ended up falling asleep, sitting up in her bed, with her laptop on her lap. Becca and Caitlin decide that they want to play in the rain and come rushing to the back of the house to get Courtney and me to go with them. I wake up to the screaming and recognize it as goofy screaming, so I merely roll over to go back to sleep. Courtney, however, hears the screaming, wakes up and automatically decides the house is on fire. She half jumps, half falls out of her bed, chucks her computer across the room, shoves Caitlin out of the way and rushes to the back door. At this point, I'm confused because I hear both goofy screaming and terrified screaming. I come out of my room just in time to see Courtney frantically panting at the backdoor as she realizes that we are all staring at her in amazement. At least I now know that if there's a fire, I can't count on Courtney bothering to wake me up. 

This next story may be my most epic fail yet. This happened at the wedding of my dear peekle (Katie). 

Her wedding was a beautiful outdoor wedding. The reception was held under a tent with a wooden stage on top of the grass.

Anyway, I'm talking to Missy on the other side of the tent when I see that Robert and Katie are starting to dance. "Oh my," I say to myself, "I want to be a part of that." I take off in a light jog across the tent and realize that I don't want my shoes on anymore, so I turn around to kick them off. I guess I don't realize how close I am to the dance floor, so I don't life my foot enough to step onto the floor. My foot gets caught, and I go legit flying onto the dance floor. Who is there to catch my fall, you ask? Oh yes...the groom, Robert. But it's not a little trip that I can easily recover from...I smack into Robert...hard. This wouldn't be terrible had he not been holding a glass of lemonade that goes everywhere. So, if anyone was wondering why the dance floor was sticky...sorry. So, I think the worst part is over until I look down and see that I'm gushing blood everywhere (including a couple drops on Katie's wedding dress...don't worry...she said it came it out). 

The picture doesn't do it justice. I couldn't wear any shoes except for those for a good two weeks and I still have a solid scar from it. Ridiculous, but funny. 

There are so many more that I would love to tell, but I'm wiped and need to go to bed. So I'll leave you with a couple videos. You will just have to click the link because it takes forever to process videos. 

This one is just a compilation of funny falls.

And a favorite of mine...Scarlet Takes a Tumble. 

Longest.Week.Ever

I have no idea what the deal is with this week, but I assure you, Karen will agree with me when I state that this has been the longest week ever. It may have something to do with the fact that we are constantly testing our product at work. It's totally necessary and really cool to see a product develop over time and to even have a say in certain things, but still...testing is not the most fun part of my life.

And I say it's been the longest week, but that doesn't necessary mean it's been a bad week. It's actually been a pretty good week. I've had a lot do which is why I haven't been able to blog the last couple of days. Monday was the beautiful Christina's 25th birthday (quarter-life crisis as she likes to call it). She's so funny. So we went to dinner for her birthday that night.

Tuesday night, the amazing Darlene Zschech and her team came and led a night of worship at my church, Bethel World Outreach Center! It was amazing and I'm so blessed that I had a chance to go. It was crazy packed and I had forgotten to get a ticket, but the lovely Lynsey went out of her way to get a ticket for me. I have some seriously awesome friends!

So get this, my sister was going to start a blog a while ago and had the same name for hers (reckless abandon). Can you believe that?! That's just crazy! Regardless, whenever she starts hers, everyone should read it because she is awesome.

So, there aren't any great insights into this blog because book club is about to start.

We are starting on a Jane Austen series (one of my very favorites)! If anyone has recommendations for good books, I'm all ears. Just let me know!

So, I know what I'm going to do with my blog sometimes. Every now and then, I'm going to take a week where I do a series. Eventually, I want to write a novel, but I want to start small. So....I'm going to do a mini-series here and there just to dip my feet in the water of writing fiction. It may or may not be awesome. We'll see!

Song of the day: Reindeer Section: Cartwheels

The Joy of Sundays

I love not being in college anymore, but it really hits me on Sundays (especially now that it's cooling off). Sundays were the worst when I would come home from college because I just wanted to kick back and relax with my parents without worrying about getting back to school in time to finish my homework for the week. That being said, Sundays are quite possibly my favorite days now.

Today has been great. Sadly, I wasn't feeling well this morning, so I missed church, but it gave me time to do other stuff that needed to be done: I cleaned a bit, played with Stormie, started a new painting and figured out what I want to add to my tattoo. Later on, Jaci came home and spent the afternoon/evening with us. I still can't believe my baby sister is off in college now.

A little later, Becca-boo

texted me to see if I wanted to go for a drive....hmmm....let me think....going for a drive through the country with the windows down, music up, perfect weather, great friend?....duh!! Of course I wanted to go, and it was just as perfect as it sounds. Then we continued to enjoy the great weather by talking music on the patio and making Stormie look like a balla!

I now begin the conclusion of my day on the back porch until the sun goes down reading for my book club.

I may or may not be obsessed with reading...lets go with I am. I love to read so much. It's one of my most favorite things to do because you can do it whenever you want. If it's raining outside-pull a chair next to the window and read with the sound of raindrops in the background, if it's cold outside-curl up with a blanket next to the fire with a book and kettle corn mixed with cinnamon (it's delightful), if it's nice outside-go read outside, if it's too hot-stay cool in the air condition and read a book. You see what I'm saying? Reading is always a great thing to do. Did you know that after your elementary years of vocab tests, the main way adults continue to increase their vocabulary is primarily through reading? I'm just sayin'....

So anyway, my good friend/coworker, Karen, started a book club and I'm way grateful because it has connected five girls who share a passion for reading. I didn't know any of them before the group and still have one more to meet, but the two that I met last time were great! Keisha is one of the girls in the book club and she is just so fun! Not only do we both love books, but we are both passionate about music AND we have the same taste in guys. That's plenty for us to bond over!

So, that explains why I chose the bookshelf in my background. I was going to do something of my own, but I really love the bookshelf. I fully intend on having an awesome library when I'm old. And I'm going to sit in there forever and read all the time.

So, that's all I've got for now. Next time I have a boring day, I'm going to blog about my trip to Texas that was last weekend. There are a couple good stories there, so stay tuned!

Music for today: Vitamin String Quartet - Coldplay's The Scientist

The Beginning

Do you ever write a word and think that there is no way that's correct? I totally just did that with the word "beginning," but it is, in fact, correct.

Moving on, this is clearly my first blog. I've been tossing around the idea of starting a blog for a while now. Writing is absolutely one of my passions, so it only makes sense, right? Well, one issue with me is that I need to be original, so I've been waiting for a brilliant theme for a blog. But after spending the first part of my day with my wonderful friend peekle, she convinced me to just start one and see where it goes. Therefore, the second part of this blog shall be dedicated to the one and only Katie Evelyn Lewis (formerly Dodge).

But first, I feel as though I need to explain my blog title. Next stage of life: reckless abandon. I've always been the kind of person that has to analyze every decision I make. Like a ridiculous amount. It's led to missed opportunities, frustrations and regret and I'm just not ok with that now. I moved back to the Franklin/Nashville area in May, started an awesome job and officially graduated from UTC in August, so what better time to change my way of living than now? I've really only recently really started listening to God (it's crazy how much He talks to us, but we don't know because we aren't really listening) and He has kind of blown my mind with how much He has for me that I didn't think I could do. For instance: song writing. I'm still working on claiming that one, but it ties into the title. For a month or so, the word "abandon" kept floating in my head. At first I ignored it, but then I started praying about it, and God showed me that it's my new theme in life. I'm supposed to completely abandon myself to Him. Stop worrying about the consequences. Just follow Him. So, after really mediating on that word, God told me to write a song about it. So I did. And I actually kinda like it. And then I tattooed the word on my wrist because I love tattoos. A lot.

Now about my dear friend.

I have been close with Katie since junior year and she is seriously one of the most amazing people I have ever met. I wouldn't trade the memories I have with her for anything.

At all. Ever.

Since we spent a good portion of the day together, she wrote about me in her blog today and I love that she knows me well enough to not even try to describe me. Those who truly know me, know that trying to describe me is just stupid. It's not possible. I don't make sense.
At any rate, Katie has been a constant in my life for six years now and it's not going to change any time soon. We don't get to spend as much time together as I would like, but she is the kind of person that I know will be there for me if I ever need anything. There are very few people in the world that I get legit stoked to see, and Katie is one of those people.

I realize that's a random picture and doesn't really go with the dialogue, but I don't really care because I love snow. And peekle.

So today we kicked it old school with fajitas for lunch, grocery store trip and dying Katie's hair.

 I totally stole those photos straight from Katie's blog, but I don't even care.

One of the things I love about Katie is how we never get tired of talking about God. We can talk about the great things He has done for us forever, but I also love that we can go straight from talking about God to talking about the latest guy in our lives. Well, really in my life now since she is married and wont be having any new guys.

But anyway, I love her and was blessed to be a part of her special day this April.

I also love that she eats taco bell all the time. Even on her wedding day.

This concludes the end of my first blog. Thanks for reading. You should totally follow my blog and make me feel special. I'll follow yours if you follow mine!!

Song of the night: The Avett Brothers: Kick Drum Heart