Monday, 17 June 2013


June 17, 2013

So I just so happened to look bach at a list of goals I had set for myself back in August of 2012. Here they are as a reminder…

I.       Get A’s as my overall grades in each class

II.      Become good friends with 10 new people

III.     Say a prayer of everything I am thankful for each day

IV.    Keep up with my journaling

V.      Get my driver’s license before Christmas

VI.    Eat a new type of food

VII.   Do something that scares me

VIII.  Take the SAT

IX.     Figure out what my major is going to be in college

X.      Do my devotions diligently each night

XI.     Smile frequently

XII.    Go to the movie theatre in the early hours of the morning

XIII.  Throw yogurt at a squirrel (Thank you Anna!)

XIV.  Get all dressed up- the dress, the shoes, the hair, the works!

XV.   Learn how to do something new


Out of this list of fifteen things I have only completed ten, which means I have about two months to complete the last five things. Hmmmm… I get this feeling that this is not going to happen. I greatly enjoy looking back and seeing my goals then and comparing them with my goals now. A friend of mine and I are talking about possibly walking in Indy’s Mini-Marathon. I think it would be good for me to be committed to something like that and follow all the way through. I have a lot of good intentions in life, but my good intentions are worthless unless I am proactive with my good intentions. So I am just going to pray about this a little longer and if by the end of next week I still think this is a good idea I will be walking or jogging (not running) the mini-marathon.


Also I am really excited because I just was promoted to a supervising position in my job. My boss called me on Wednesday of last week and told me that  I would be promoted, so I am very happy about that.
Tomorrow I get to be a mini-4-h day camp counselor, which will be fun but exhausting. I love working as a camp counselor for community service, but by the end of the day I am ready to come home and just crash. My groups name is the maniac monkies, our color is blue, and our performance song is Princess Pat. I can’t wait for tomorrow!
 
Taylor

Thursday, 6 June 2013


June 6, 2013


(the first part is from last week)
    I have been so happy because I was able to go and watch two little girls on Monday and Tuesday. They are the youngest two in the family and they have an older sister. I used to be neighbors with these little girls and I watched them and their older sister at least once a week, but we moved away and I haven't been able to watch them as much. The two youngest girls remind me exactly of Chandler and Autumn. I titled the first day "Messy Monday" because that was pretty much all we did. Of course we made most of the messes on purpose and during nap time I cleaned it all up. We finger painted, made cut-out cookies, played in the sprinkler, blew bubbles, swung on the swing set, and much more. Then I devoted Tuesday to be an outdoor day. We went the park, had a picnic, went to the pool, went for a walk, rode bikes, and took a much needed bath. Their clothes had dirt from the park, their hair had chlorine from the pool, and everything was just gross.

    Well my schedule for this summer has already been altered, but thankfully everything is okay. Tonight I have a piano recital, which I am in no way ready for. I have been home almost as much as my dad, and since he’s living in Canada 4-5 days out of the week that is saying a lot. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t just live in my car considering I always seem to have some place to be. Right now I’m typing this from my car while Grayson finishes up baseball practice, then I will go to my piano recital, then someone will want to hang out afterwards, and then I would end up either spending the night at their house or not getting home until really early in the morning. Yesterday I went to work and then I went to a camp counselor training meeting and then I went to a junior leader meeting and then I unexpectedly met up with a couple of friends, which got us talking for quite some time and then I finally came home and crashed and today I was just as crazy.  Anyways hopefully you all are getting a somewhat peaceful summer vacation. My peaceful summer day would go something like this… I would love to just lay by the pool or the beach in the morning then walk to a shopping center in the afternoon followed up by a nice sit down dinner in the evening and finished off by lying in my bed talking with my crazy friend over the phone or in person or even over text messaging (Essentially just communicating with them in general). That sounds P-E-R-F-E-C-T!

Well wish me luck because I’m heading off to my piano recital. Yikes! :P

 

Summertime Loving girl,

Taylor

Sorry I will have to put up pictures later. :(

Sunday, 26 May 2013


Sunday, May 26, 2013

Well I had hoped that after school was over I would have more time to blog, but actually the opposite has happened. My schedule is so booked up this summer that I don’t know how I’m going to come out of it alive. Now before I get too far into talking about things that have happened recently, I want to go back and talk a little bit about that dinner I took my friend to.

          If you know me, you know that I am very adventurous when it comes to food. I am always trying new kinds of foods from all around the world. Anytime I can try food from another country I will. When I took my friend out to dinner we stopped to eat at an authentic Korean restaurant. Neither one of us girls had ever tried Korean food, so this was quite the adventure. Originally we were going to try something really different, but the waitress said we wouldn’t like it because it was an acquired taste, so we ordered something else. We didn’t want to offend the waiters and waitresses when they brought the food out to us, so we asked how we were supposed to eat the food because instead of just giving us one main entrée they served us ten smaller plates with food before serving us our main entrée, teriyaki chicken sauté. All I can say is hopefully we were not a disgrace to the restaurant, but rather some good comic relief to the waiters and waitresses serving us, uncultured teenagers, the food.

Well I officially finished another year of school with straight “A’s”!!!! YEA!!! Also, I AM OFFICIALLY A SENIOR!!! I want to be overly excited at how far I’ve come, but I’m realizing that senior year may be one of the most stressful years of high school. I hope I’m wrong about that though. I also realized that in my previous blog post I had said that there were over 400 questions on the Latin exam, but I just looked at the test again and realized that there are over 700 questions. Opps, I was only off by 300 questions! J And that is what finals week can do to you.

          Now on to more recent activities…

I have gone shopping more this past week than I did over the whole school year combined. I am specifically looking for outfits I can wear in senior year pictures, graduation, open houses, and a few essentials missing from my wardrobe. I realized that only two out of my ten skirts actually fit me, now that I’ve gone on this gluten free, dairy free, peanut free, oat free, and processed meat free diet. I’m not sure how much more you could cut out of a person’s diet and them still be able to live a healthy life. I’m not even as strict as I should be with this diet, but when I follow it I feel energized, renewed, and full of life and energy. These past couple days I have not been watching what I eat very carefully and I feel like a zombie. It is amazing the difference in how I feel when I eat all of those foods I listed off above and when I avoid eating them. I do not by any means think that this diet plan is right for everyone, but if you have food sensitivities I would highly recommend trying to stay away from foods that your body does not digest well. Anyways that’s enough about my weird food plan.

          This summer I plan on applying for college scholarships, going on a small lake trip, working two part time jobs, spending pool and relaxation time with friends and family, blogging a little bit, finishing up 4-h and fairground work, being an encourager to others, and hopefully taking a trip to Cedar Point. That is a broad overview of my summer plans, but who knows what God may have in store for me this summer. I’m halfway done with the book work for 4-h, which is going to hopefully help me to not be overly stressed out with it. I know 4-h is a lot of hard work, but it teaches you such valuable life lessons that I think everyone should know. Well before I go off on another rabbit trail about why I think everyone should be in 4-h, I am just going to end my blog here.

I hope you all have a wonderful, fun-filled, and relaxing summer vacation!

Taylor Good





 The boys playing baseball

 Grayson preparing for baseball season
 
 My friend and I just being our normal crazy selves
 Authentic Korean food

 First summer smoothie
THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!
 Soaking up the glorious sunshine with my puppy
 I took my siblings out to Menchie's as a celebration for the last day of school
 I went to a Dave Ramsey Seminar in Ohio with my daddy to help prepare me more for college 
 My first shopping trip of the week with my younger sister
 
 My fifth shopping trip of the week with one of my best friends from church

Wednesday, 8 May 2013


Wednesday, May 08, 2013

This is a blog post I wrote last Monday, but couldn’t get around to posting until today. So here is last week’s post and then I’ll get into this week’s…

Today I got to talk with some of my favorite people, the little Sexauers. The youngest two are twins and say hello to me in the hallways every Monday, but today I actually got to have a conversation with them. They think I'm crazier at school then when I came over to their house and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but they do continue to ask if I can come over again so I think my craziness  is okay. I want to be able to tell them that I can come over, but I think I need to continue asking my parents if I can have them over at our house first. My parents are mostly hesitant to say "yes" because my dad is rarely home and time with him is precious. Also while I'm on the subject of my dad, I just would like to ask for prayer for him as he is going through some stressful things that could result in a variety of different things including moving, change of job title, and much more. Anyways enough about one of the few stressful situations in my life...  They, the youngest Sexauers, also have an older brother and sister who joined in our conversation about all kinds of things. I found out that the twins favorite color is purple and their moms favorite color is green (just like mine). I also learned about a candy shop out in California that they really want to go to and that their older brother was just out in California looking at colleges, which I already knew but loved hearing them explain to me in their own words. We also talked about the tooth fairy and how girls tend to grow taller quicker than boys. My conversation with them just made my day so much brighter.

This school year is about to finish up, but next school year seems to be right around the corner. Next school year I may be taking college classes, but who knows because if I take too many classes I won't get college scholarships, but I only have two more high school classes to take next year and both of them I would take at a college anyways, so now I'm in a predicament about what to do. Should I just take the two classes, should I enroll in college and not receive any scholarships, or should I take the two classes and take some other classes and graduate with extra credits? I'm not sure yet, but time is ticking away before I absolutely have to decide. I am so thankful to be able to pray to God about these things because if I wasn't able to pray I would be stressed beyond the point of even functioning correctly. I get worried and stressed so easily, but after I pray and tell God all of my problems I am able to take a deep breath in and out and just let God take care of what happens because he knows my future and His ways are always better than mine.

 

On Saturday I went to a friend’s wedding shower. It was beautiful! I loved the colors considering they were green and silver, my absolute favorite dream wedding colors. At work I got my first calligraphy set and Tiffany boxes. I have always wanted a calligraphy set and was so excited to sit down and practice using them. I still need a lot of practice, but I am so happy to be able to start working on my calligraphy. (Side note… if you didn’t know this, I do have a job as a personal assistant for a friend of mine.) Saturday night I took a friend out for dinner and then we watched another friends play. It was quite the experience, but those details will have to be told at another time because I have a lot more to say and it is almost midnight.

On Tuesday my English class sang each other’s hymns to start off the class. Then we read our narrative poems. It was quite interesting getting to here everyone’s poem and hymn. Everyone received at least one award for their hymn depending on what it was the best at, for example, I got both the most accurate meter and the most accurate rhyme for my hymn. So you can tell I didn’t spend as much time on the creativity as I did on the mechanics of the hymn. Oh well. I’m just glad that is done. This week for English class I have to write a persuasive paper on what grade I think I deserve to receive in English class for the year. I think it will be fun writing the paper, but it will take a lot of work and there are already hundreds of other English terms I will have to memorize, so this week will be kind of crazy. In history class we have to write a paper about a person we learned about in history class this past year and tell how they had some impact on our lives. I think I might do mine on Ronald Reagan, but I’m not sure.

Today, Wednesday!!!!!!!! It was a most beautiful and glorious day! I got an “A” on my Latin exam which is worth over 400 points!!! Then I sat outside basking in the sun, while I was working on my U.S. History final exam. Thankfully I finished it fairly quickly and will hopefully get an “A” on it as well. Tonight my Impact group girls came over to my house and we learned how we can be motherly to others without actually being biological mothers, considering all of us girls are too young to be thinking about having children of our own.

Well I seriously need some sleep tonight since I have a big day tomorrow.

Miss Overcommitted Crazy Lady

 (Taylor Good)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gherkins=cucumber
Sable= black
Appellation=name
Blithe= care-free, cheerful (this is quite a funny thought when you think about the character Gilbert Blithe from "Anne of Green Gables"
 
 
 
Just some interesting figures of speech we're learning about in English class...
 
Metaphor
            - Time is money
            - Laughter is the music of the soul
          - Strength and dignity are her clothing
Simile
            - Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever
            -It’s fleece as white as snow
            -She appeared to be as delicate as a flower
Metonymy or synecdoche
            -The White House will be announcing the decision around noon today
            -All hands on deck
Personification
            - The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky
                - The bees played hide and seek with the flowers as they buzzed from one to another
                - I can hear California calling my name
Apostrophe
            - Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone
  Without a dream in my heart
  Without a love of my own
-Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
 How I wonder what you are.
 Up above the world so high,
 Like a diamond in the sky
Hyperbole
            - I’ve told you a million times
            -If I can’t buy a new dress, I’m going to die
            -His brain is the size of a pea
Understatement
            -“Dad, I just was in a head on collision with another car, but there is just a scratch or two of paint missing.”
            -The calamari dish made by Bobby Filay was tolerable
Paradox
            - A rich man is no richer than a poor man
            - Drowning in the fountain of eternal life
            -What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young." - George Bernard Shaw
Oxymoron
            -Virtual reality
            -Definite maybe
            -Liquid gas
Pun
            - An optimists blood type is always B-positive
            - Corduroy pillows are making headlines
            - Energizer Bunny arrested -- charged with battery
 

 
 

Tuesday, 16 April 2013


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

I typed this up on Monday, so when I say today I actually mean yesterday.

Talk about an adventure. Today was nothing, but one adventure after another. It all started out when I was helping out in a cooking class. I normally help the struggling young gentlemen learn how to correctly read and follow a recipe. I decided to try and let them do it on their own, if only it was that easy. We ended up with rock hard butter in the mixture instead of softened butter, one tablespoon of cinnamon instead of one teaspoon of cinnamon, and cookie dough flung EVERYWHERE from the electric mixer. Needless to say I learned my lesson on just letting them have at it.

So then I was supposed to take my younger brother to track practice at a nearby middle school, but nothing seemed to go as planned. First the laundry machine dryer didn't finish until five minutes before we had to leave and guess who's track practice pants were in the dryer, yes, my younger brothers, of course. Then my mom tells us we need to fold the clothes before she gets home from baseball practice with my other brother, so we rush to fold all the clothes. Even with all the rushing we still left five minutes later then expected. Now I had already set aside an extra ten minutes in case we got lost while driving to track practice, but since the folding took longer then expected  we were down to an extra five minutes instead. I tell my brother it is time to go and then I get in the car. Now we only had an extra three minutes to get lost. Yikes! Finally  we are both in the car. I race off trying to avoid all red stop lights, large trucks, and people who are more concerned about their phone conversation then they are about driving on the road. We finally make it to the road that the school is on and I recall my mom saying something about turning right after a stoplight into a subdivision and following it back to the school, so I  go through a stoplight and have to quick slam on the brakes to turn right after a stoplight and then I realize I'm on some country road. So I quickly turn around and we are down to only two extra minutes. I see another stoplight ahead so I go through this stoplight and turn right into a subdivision. I could tell I was not in the right place. Quickly I pulled out my phone and located the school and my car's location on the phone's GPS app. We were only one minute away from the school. We still had enough time to get their. I pulled out back on to the road only to go through another stoplight and turn right for now the third time. Thankfully we were in the right neighborhood, but of course I missed the turn we were supposed to take once we were in the neighborhood. Thankfully my phone showed me another way to get to the school through the neighborhood. Three minutes late and we finally make it to track practice were I am now sitting and typing this out.

After track practice I was to bring him home. When he stepped into the car, he pointed out to me that I had illegally parked in the handicap only parking spot. You would have thought that by now not much else could have gone wrong until I had the brilliant idea to take a different way home then the way I came. As I began driving I quickly realized I had no idea which way I was going and I started to slightly panic when I realized I was headed in the wrong direction. So I turned around and knew I was now going in the right direction, but I still had no idea were in the world I was. If you haven’t figured it out already, I have NO sense of direction whatsoever. I looked over at my younger brother and sweetly asked him if I could tell him the truth and when he said yes I said, “I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE WE ARE GOING!” I just kept driving straight. Thank the Lord I finally came to an intersection that looked familiar. I quickly turned onto it and we were back on track. At that point I was laughing and crying from both happiness and shock. Finally we made it home safe and sound. Who would have known driving to track practice with your older sister could have been so eventful? J

(Tuesday) Thankfully today has not been anywhere near as eventful as Monday was. Today I learned about hymns, took four tests, and wrote an in class essay. I also wished my gorgeous friend, Anna, a Happy Birthday! Other than that today has just been a rainy thunderstorm kind of day. I’m not a big fan of lightning and thunder; it is a little scary for my liking. My favorite kind of rain is when the sun is still shining bright, but it is pouring down rain and of course I like it when there is a beautiful rainbow that follows. Well that is about all that has happened. Until next time…

Taylor Good







A quote that I really like...

"The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian. But the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman." ~Elisabeth Elliot





A narrative poem that I am begining to write...


My Lost Hiding Place
Quiet, peaceful, tranquil, serene,
A four cornered room
Filled up with my dreams.
A place to think,
A place to pray
A place to find hope on those gloomy days.
Showered with green and pink and blue hues
To bring life and happiness to all who pass through.
A window so big to let sunshine flow in
With malachite curtains made of satin.
A frame full of pictures reflecting my past
With joyous memories that left way too fast
The walls know my story.
The walls know the truth.
The walls know that
I will be leaving soon.
No more late night talks with my mom,
 Or humorous stories with my sister Autumn.
No more space all to my self
Nor parents to run to for comfort and help
This grandeur place will be mine no more,
But rather left for a little boy.
To think, to pray, and to find hope,
But until that day I shall treasure my room.




Saturday, 6 April 2013


Saturday, April 06, 2013

TAYLOR UNIVERSITY here I come!!!!! I spent this past Thursday and Friday at Taylor University in Upland, IN. The campus houses just over 2,000 students and is made up of a fairly diverse group of people.

I toured two of the girls’ dorms, Olson and English (those are the dorm names). Olson has a downstairs lobby area complete with chairs, couches, a large flat screen TV, a standard sized kitchen complete with a toaster, refrigerator, microwave, oven, and cabinet space. There is also a laundry room on the main floor where you can do your laundry free of charge, except you must bring your own detergents. On the floors above the lobby, there are the girls’ dorm rooms. The floor plan of Olson is T-shaped. There are dorm rooms all along the edges and they house anywhere from 2-4 girls. The bathroom is shared by all the girls on your wing. So there are two bathrooms on each floor. In each bathroom there are multiple sinks, toilets, and showers with side walls and curtains in front of them. Each dorm room is pre-stocked with two stackable beds, two stackable shelves, two stackable desks, and two free standing closets. Olson is known for being a bit louder and more sociable. Then there is English. I personally liked English better, but my friend liked Olson better, so I think it really depends on your personality. The rooms in English appeared a bit bigger and are set up differently. The English floor plan looked more like a tree. There was the main “trunk” with “branches” coming off. At the end of each “branch” there were little circles. In the little circles girls would put couches, chairs, tables, refrigerators, or anything that would take up a lot of space in their dorm rooms. The dorm rooms were attached to the little circles. Guys are not allowed in girls rooms except one day a week for a certain number of hours, but guys are allowed in the downstairs lobby area until 1 am. The same goes for girls in guys’ rooms.

On Thursday night we went to a “Reject Show”. It is a talent show that was hilarious. Then we went out for a sweet treat.  There is only one restaurant in town called “Ivanhoe’s”. They have 100 ice cream flavors! I had their Strawberry Flip Shake and Strawberry Shortcake. I would highly recommend both, but specifically the shortcake. It was absolutely delicious. Then we stayed the night with Katie Beadle. Thank you Katie for an awesome 24 hours! The next morning we had breakfast in the school cafeteria. The cafeteria has a normal variety of foods, but what really made this cafeteria stand out was its gluten free bread and soy milk. Since I try to avoid eating gluten and dairy, these food options would be quite a blessing. On Friday I sat through a meeting and two classes. Both of the classes I sat in on had less than twenty people in the class. I greatly appreciate this aspect of the school because that way the students and professors are able to connect with one another better. Speaking of connecting better, the president and his wife, “the first lady”J, live on campus and invite all the students on campus to come over to their house. All the students I had talked with had been invited over to the president’s home either to watch a ball game, have dinner, or just talk about life. The president seems to love his job and do well at it. Another thing I love about Taylor is their focus on chapel. There is no requirement to go to chapel, but everything closes down on campus and the students are encouraged to attend chapel. On Friday I went and sat in on chapel and was greatly encouraged to see the chapel filled up with people even though chapel is not required. I also appreciate how the school professors direct students to the Bible instead of telling the students their personal opinions because the professors know that only the Bible is the only truth. I know that I’m not even scratching the surface with everything that I like about Taylor University, but I’m going to end my enthusiasm here and let you go and visit Taylor yourself. Now the biggest problem with Taylor University is the cost. It costs approximately $36,000 a year! That is going to kill me financially, so I am looking into scholarships. I’ve been saving for college since I was little, but babysitting kids does not make enough money to pay for college.

        On another note thank you for your prayers. They are greatly appreciated.

Taylor Good

 
 
 



 
 
EXTRA PICTURES!!!
 
 ~Eric Metaxas field trip with friends





 Anne of Green Gables





 Weekend with grandparents
 
 
 
 
 
 Easter Sunday Morning   
 
 
 
Daddy daughters date