December 25th CHRISTMAS!

Wow, guys. I'm crazy!!! I've had an extreme amount of sugar, that probably wasn't good for me, but I don't even care, because it's Christmas!! Haha! So I took a little while and took pictures of my gifts. You know, today has been quite free... and sort of empty... Ohohoh!!! Except that I got AWESOME things from family and friends and I even got to read a book that one of my friends wrote last year!! It was AWESOME!! Okay, here we go. I won't be surprised or offended if you think these are boring...

Yeah, terrible lighting...

I got a TON of journals!! YAY!!! I love journals!!

Okay, that little dolphin was just a cute thing. Sort of just my parents being funny. :) And I meant to kind of smile and make a funny face but it didn't really work. Oh well...

And no, I am not getting another dog. I wish... I just wanted a leash and collar. That's me for ya...

I also got a coupon from Alex for the privilege to be the very first reader of the next comic of her series that she's drawn! YAY!!! Oh, yes, and free hugs from her whenever I want. Thanks, Alex!! :D

And I also got a hug from another friend as my Christmas present from them because they are just so awesome like that. :)

I hope you guys enjoyed all my Christmas ranting... I'll probably post something more meaningful in the next few days. Hopefully...

I love you all!! Thank you for all of you inspiring and heartfelt words to me. They mean so much.

Merry Christmas!!!!

A. J. McKay

December 19th An Angel Returned

In my last post I talked about a song called An Angel Came Down, by the Trans Siberian Orchestra.  Well, I finally listened to the end of the CD.  There is another song called An Angel Returned.

An angel returned
That night through the sky
The time it was short
He had to decide

And so as he flew
Back over the land
A gift for his Lord
Was there in his hands

It was the glow of a light
It was the heart of a song
It was the tear of a child
Where they never belonged

It was the wish of a soul
On an old neon light
And the Lord smiled at him
On that cold winter night

(Chorus)
Hear the bells ring through the night

Kyrie among nations
Kyrie among nations
Kyrie among nations
Hear as they ring through the night

Kyrie among nations
Kyrie among nations
Kyrie among nations
Hear the bells ring through the night


Kyrie among nations
Kyrie among nations
Kyrie among nations
Hear as they ring through the night

Listen to the bells as they ring
Listen to the message they bring
Listen to the sounds as they
Sing as one voice in the night

Hoping that we'll all understand
Every dream in there in our hands
And for every bell
Let them ring all through the night

Repeat chorus

Hoping that we'll all understand
Every dream is there in our hands
And for every bell
May they ring all through your life!

If you go to this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOlrkscD44U) you can listen, but the words on the screen aren't the same as the words they actually sing.

I really like this song.  Its message makes me smile.

A. J. McKay

December 17th My Christmas

I have two things.

This is my sonnet for my Writing and Literature class -

My Christmas
By Amory McKay

I feel the love around me when I sing
The Spirit brings a gladness to my soul.
I love to see the treats which people bring
All neatly tucked with care inside a bowl.
I prance off for snacks in between the songs
Eating the scrumptious, perfect, heav’nly fudge.
As I return to the music that throngs
I give my good friend a fun, loving nudge.
I sing with my heart my praises to God
I sing, a miracle lifting my voice
I sing the high notes of Hallelujah
I sing, my heart glad that I made this choice.
This is why I love the Christmas season.
And the Grinch, no one quite knows his reason.

This is a song by the Trans Siberian Orchestra (I think that's how you spell it), and it's my favorite one on the CD that I have (also here's the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDqRdatSsoU) -

An Angel Came Down

An angel came down
One night to the earth
A mission from God
To find out the worth

Of everything bad
His children had done
Since that winter night
The birth of His Son

(Chorus)
And then a sound filled the night
In the cold winter air
And in the midst of his flight
It was holding him there
And as he looked towards the earth
For the source of this sound
On that cold winter night
It was pulling him down

To bring something back
This angel was told
That no one could touch
What angels could hold

So on that night
When the sky was cleared
Among all the stars
An angel appeared

Repeat chorus twice

I don't know why I like this song so much.  It seems sort of mysterious to me for some reason.  And I think it's beautiful.

A. J. McKay

December 11th A Miracle

I have two things to say.  The first one has nothing to do with the title - I am turning fifteen this week!!  I am so excited!!!  HAHA!  :D  Mostly because of what I get to do on my birthday!  THE HOBBIT!!  YAY!!  And there's even going to be Battleguard!!  YAY!!  It will be cold...  BUT YAY!!!!!  I'm counting that as my birthday party even though it's not for me...  Okay?  Okay, good.  :D

The other one...  I was having a hard time today.  I was sick and tired of quite a few things: school, homework, being mad at my own siblings (yes, that happens to me sometimes...  It's quite annoying...), and some other things - and I was just in a bad mood...  I was talking to my good, great friend over chat about it.  Here's the miracle - she knew EXACTLY how to make me happy.  She sent me an email with the song in that link down there.  I clicked on it, and I just started smiling as I listened to it.  Not only did she know somehow that that is practically my all-time favorite song, but this is my favorite version of it!  I've just been happy ever since!  And, yes, I count that as a miracle.  I love her.  I love all of my friends.  Thanks guys!!  And especially you (you know who you are!)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5wCzNYU8kU

A. J. McKay

December 7th Rambling

Hello everyone!  I'm eating ice cream!  Do you know why I'm eating ice cream!  Because my mom said I could, and it's yummy!  :D

Tomorrow is the speech and debate tournament.  Earlier today (which seems like yesterday because it was such a long, drawn-out day for me), I was saying, "You know, I'm actually kind of excited for the tournament tomorrow.  I finally get to give my speech!"  It's not memorized, so I wouldn't place anyway, but I think I'm more excited for the people that will hear it, and the message I want it to convey.  But now, for some reason, I'm thinking, "Wow.  I am really not excited for the tournament tomorrow."  I mean, I am, but I just don't want to wake up, and I don't want to just be sitting most of the day...  I'm SOOO excited for the people that I get to see there, just not for the boring parts I guess.  (Oh, yeah, and getting up at 7:00, which means I know that I will get less than 8 hours of sleep, but I guess it's not really that bad when I only got six the other day...)  Anyway.  I'm excited but I'm not excited.

Yeah.  I hope you enjoyed my rambling.  Or not...  :P

Until next time!  I miss you all tremendously!!

A. J. McKay

December 4th Who Can Find a Virtuous Woman?

One of my awesome friends from Summit posted this on her blog.  Ho-... ly...  COW...  She... is...  AWESOME.  These are EXACTLY my views on how we are as women.  This is a must-read.  She wrote everything in the red.


10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
14 She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
17 She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.
19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
25 Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.
26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.


 I noticed that strength was a common word used, which surprised me because it isn't usually attributed to women. I just love these verses! 

I have noticed that as time has progressed and immorality has strengthened, the value of women has decreased in the world's eyes. Women are one of the target markets when it comes to vanity, immorality, materialism, discontent with themselves and others, coveting, etc... They are the most highly affected by the idea that "we can never be completely content with who we are and what we have- we need to improve ourselves with the worthless things we don't need." We are put in the mindset that we do need these things to be beautiful, to be worth anything. 

You girls may be reading this and thinking "of course! This is a horrible epidemic in our time, but I'm not part of it. All of those girls who covet and buy meaningless beauty supplies, and those girls who only see themselves as beautiful if they are decorated, those people over there. not ME." But I hate to break it to you: we are ALL like that. yup. No matter how much you want to deny it, we all feel this way at some point (some more or less then others). Now, don't go and send me a strongly worded email telling me exactly why I am completely wrong-- bare with me for a moment. If you will listen for a few more minutes, I will explain everything.

Firstly: It is partly not our fault. We have been brought up in this society (no matter how much our parents have tried to shelter us) and we are dealing with the consequences. The Lord didn't send his strongest angels to this time for cake and ice cream. The 21st century is TOUGH. We most definitely have our work cut out for us. This makes it almost impossible to go through this life and not somehow be affected by the media and propaganda screaming in our ears. Unless you sew every piece of clothing you wear (if so, brownie points to you) then you buy clothes. From a store. made by someone else. You probably also wear shoes, or scarves, or hats, or all the above. No matter how much as you claim innocence, you ARE affected by our society and it's current styles and trends.

Secondly: We aren't perfect (shh, don't tell the boys!! :P). Sad to say, we make mistakes, we long for what we don't have, we sometimes think more of what is cute then what is modest and respectful. You girls are peculiar to the rest of the world: you exceed expectations. But WE ARE NOT PERFECT. 

I am not trying to accuse anyone of not being modest enough. My goal with this post is to make sure we do not discount the little sins; make sure we don't give ourselves the exception because we are doing better then others. I find myself doing this constantly, and I need to improve in this area. 

TO ALL YOU MEN:
Take care of the girls, will you? We are having the war of our lives, just trying to pick out an outfit every morning or feeling like we are worth something. Please make it a little easier for us to see our true worth. Be respectful. Offer to help. Yes, we are stubborn and independent, but secretly we long to be treated like a woman, even if that means letting you open the door for us. We want to feel loved. We want to feel like it will make someones day that we showed up to class today. We want someone to smile and wave excitedly when we enter a room. We can tell ourselves we are beautiful for hours, but that doesn't even compare to having a guy friend take 5 seconds to tell us instead. I seriously means the WORLD to us, no matter how much we say we don't need or want it.


(Girls, don't even try to deny it, you were all thinking the same thing. :D)

A. J. McKay

December 3rd Cardozada's Pathway

I FINiSHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I wrote a book, I finished it, and now I get five free copies of my own!  And plus, I just posted it.  It's on the page "NEW!! - Cardozada's Pathway."  PLEASE tell me what you think!  I wrote part of it with my friend Ironfist.  Enjoy!

A. J. McKay

December 2nd Snow

My friend, Oreo, got snowflakes on her blog!!  AHHH!!!  I LOVE snowflakes!!  I REALLY want them on my blog, but it isn't working!  So instead, I put on some snow.

I love snow.  If you haven't figured out by now that I love snow, you haven't actually met me.  Or you at least don't know me at all.  It's one of my very favorite things!

I was wearing flip-flops during this year's first week of snow, before I got better shoes as an AWESOME early birthday present from Laura and Lisa!  Anyway...  So there were a few inches of snow on the ground.  While I was waiting for my ride home from the place I was having art class, I decided to run around in the snow with just my flip-flops.  I don't know why I keep doing it.  It's painful.  But it is so much fun!  I think it has something to do with the texture.  I've always liked the texture of it.  And anyway, I was waiting for my ride and decided to run around in the snow!  But I lost my flip-flop!  I stopped running and tried really hard to find it, but I couldn't and my feet were getting colder.  I ran on the asphalt, trying to warm up, but that hurt!  I found a patch of grass and stood on it.  I was VERY hyper!  My friends had voluntarily begun to look for my flip-flop.  It was bright yellow.  But for some odd reason, they just couldn't find it!  It got lost!  So I got into the car missing a flip-flop.  It was Thanksgiving break.  Luckily, soon after, I got new shoes, but it was two weeks before I got my flip-flop back.

See?  I love the snow!  I can't wait for it to snow again so I can run around in it!  But next time, I will be taking my flip-flops off.

A. J. McKay