how awesome is this...

oh, one more thing...
I HAVE A WEDDING DRESS!
i don't have an engagement ring or anything else that would be essential in the planning of a wedding. but i do have a dress. because my grandfather found this:

while we were in oregon, i saw this picture and i fell in love with the dress. i asked my grandpa about it and he told me that they had donated it to a university drama department about 3 years ago. i asked him if he could look for it, but i didn't get my hopes up, because i was not at all expecting him to find it. but several weeks ago my grandpa facebooked me to tell me that he had found the dress.

so now i have a wedding dress, one of the most essential things in planning a wedding. it is so weird to think about that. i haven't yet tried it on, because it is still in oregon, and i'm expecting it to need cleaned and altered, but it is still SO EXCITING!

on being old(er)

In less than a month, I will be turning 20. It is strange to think about being an adult, which prompted me to start reading some of my old journals. Most of them are so boring...silly prattle about boys that I liked at the time. It's slightly annoying how much I wrote about that.
But here are some funny excerpts from my journals...warning: I was super weird.

January 16, 2002
Dear Diary, 
Today we heard terrible news. Father David has resined, it means he will never be our priest again. Dad has told us not to talk to our friends about it


July 17, 2002
Dear Diary, 
Today the Wilkinsons are leaving for theire trip :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( 
They are going to be gone for 3 weeks :( :( :(
The other day at the library, Ethan, Mommy and I learned to paint ourselves like clowns. Then mom suggested that we be clowns in Dormition Fest (but I hav'nt called Fr. John yet.) So Sophie, Justin, Ethan, Louisa and I are going to be clowns.


November 14, 2003
...On my way to basketball today, mom told me she is PREGNANT! It'll be 6 kids! Since tomorrow is the beginning of the Nativity fast, mom told me so that I wouldn't get suspicious when she ate meat or cheese. I could hardly speak when she told me. I want it to be a girl named Cassia (haha, YES!) When the baby is born, we will be in the new house, which means as soon as the baby gets out the the newborn baby thingy, it will either sleep with Ethan (if its a boy) or with me (a girl).
So much has been happening lately. We put our house up for sale, we are going to have an open house on Sunday, we started basketball, mom's pregnant, Aidan is 2, we will be moving soon, whew. I guess I can look forward to some pretty busy months ahead. 


April 23, 2004
Today was not a good day (morning at least.) Well, I had an order of cookies for the Bailey's, and I had to finish them this morning. After awhile of baking, Mom and Dad began yelling at me, so finally dad left and then I kept spilling things. I cried and cried.


August 16, 2005
Hello!
The Wilkinsons got back from their annual month-long trip today. I missed them so much...
I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy to see them. (Well really the only person I was happy to see was Weezer, noone else.)
We talked for ages, walking around the block, eating pizza. We swapped cute boy stories, talked about sex, boys, periods, and next school year....
I MISS THIS!!!!!!


April 11, 2006
This is the worst day of my life.
Well, I have lots to say about my birthday and Ben, but I'm not going to. I have to say this first. Louisa called this morning and told me that they are moving-to Billings, Montana. 
On my B-day, she gave mea card~I didn't read it before she ripped it up, but she told me that she would tell me later. She dropped a few hints all day, and by last night I kind of guessed it. I was really hoping it wouldn't be true. But it is.
We've been friends for 8 years, they've lived here for 9. Over the years, our friendship has gotten so much richer and more wonderful. I can't stand it that she's leaving. Mom has given me 1 hour to cry before I start school. I am so depressed. Hoe can this happen? I can't write any more.


April 15, 2008 
Well, my obsession with U2 and Larry has decreased, but only a bit. I try to keep myself to only liking Andrew (Kantzos), and I do like him. A lot, and I constantly talk about him, however, he's not the one that I constantly think of. I hate myself for obsessing over a 50 year old rock star, but I can't seem to stop...Catherine and Hannah (El and Sophie) are going around giving special friends special names. I'm Jane, for instance. I have been asking Cath...er...El to help me think of a name for Andrew so that I can talk about him, even on Myspace and he'll never know. 


I would keep writing, but I need to get on with other things, so I'm not really feeling the re-typing of things. There will hopefully be several more of these posts, because there are so many more journals...hilarious journals. I am so happy that I found them!

more healthy stuff..

Kombucha tea..tonight I got to try it for the first time. It is a beverage the ancient Chinese called the “Immortal Health Elixir” and it's been around for more than 2,000 years. It has a rich anecdotal history of preventing and fighting cancer, arthritis, and other degenerative diseases.
The taste was...interesting. Not unpleasant, at least. So then my dad told me all about how awesome kombucha is and now I'm totally hooked. It may not be the best tasting stuff in the world, but it has so many benefits:


*Probiotics – healthy bacteria
*Alkalize the body – balances internal pH
*Detoxify the liver – happy liver = happy mood
*Increase metabolism – rev your internal engine
*Improve digestion – keep your system moving
*Rebuild connective tissue – helps with arthritis, gout, asthma, rheumatism
*Cancer prevention
*Alleviate constipation
*Boost energy – helps with chronic fatigue
*Reduce blood pressure
*Relieve headaches & migraines
*Reduce kidney stones
*High in antioxidants – destroy free-radicals that cause cancer
*High in polyphenols
*Improve eyesight
*Heal excema – can be applied topically to soften the skin
*Prevent artheriosclerosis
*Speed healing of ulcers – kills h.pylori on contact
*Help clear up candida & yeast infections
*Aid healthy cell regeneration
*Reduce gray hair
*Lower glucose levels – prevents spiking from eating
(http://www.kombuchakamp.com/)

Thanks to my recent health kick, I have decided to drink it daily. Dad recommended that I start small...maybe a shot glass or so a day, and then eventually ease my way to drinking a pint a day. When it is first made, kombucha smells and tastes kind of like carbonated vinegar. My dad made it slightly tolerable to drink by flavoring it with fruit. He added a small handful of frozen blueberries to the bottom of one of the bottles, causing it to taste like a strange combination of beer (the carbonation made it taste like that) and prune juice. Like I said, it wasn't entirely unpleasant, and considering all of the other diet changes that I am making, this is nothing.

Kombucha is made with sweet tea, SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast...you can buy those online) and kombucha starter liquid. Set in a warm space, and let rest for a week. The result is this healthy drink :)

SCOBY is the pancake-looking things
in these jars.

One thing...the SCOBY is gross looking.......................................
I call it an alien or an alien disc. It looks slimey and like it could possibly be alive. Just don't think about it while you're drinking it.

So...Bailey is working on being healthier, meaning drinking vinegar-y tea, working out and trying to eat almonds. Miserable for a few weeks, make stuff a habit, have a healthy life? suree :)

healthy me...

my parents raised me to be healthy. we have chickens for our own eggs, we have had a garden every summer since before i can remember, we make our own yogurt, my dad used to make bread. my parent trained us to know what things are healthy to eat and what things are not healthy to eat, especially when it comes to organic and natural foods. i have not ever really focused on exercising though. summer used to be the best time for that, what with garden work happening and what not. but in the last few years, i have been working over the summer and not really able to spend much time in the garden. i haven't been in organized sports for years, and even when i was, i was never very good at them. in high school, i was in our show choir, which was awesome and provided a good workout once or twice a week for the first few weeks of school, but it was pretty limited to that.

so now we come to today...as thin as i am, i am really not all that healthy. so, since the beginning of 2012, i've been really trying to motivate myself to do better in this area. it's difficult to be my own trainer in this, because, again, i have never really had an opportunity or a reason to work out. the first bit of the year, i tried, but i would have a few solid days, and then several days in which i did nothing. so now since i am posting this, i will be trying to hold myself more accountable. so, i sat down and wrote out a plan:

Monday: up @ 5:45...15-20 minutes of yoga
Tuesday: up @ 7:30...15-20 minutes of yoga; 30 minutes of pilates; run between classes (and hopefully shower in a friend's room)
Wednesday: up @ 8:00...15-20 minutes of yoga; 30 minutes of pilates; run after class
Thursday: up @ 7:30...15-20 minutes of yoga; 30 minutes of pilates; run after class
Friday: up @ 6:00...15-20 minutes of yoga; 30 minutes of pilates; short run after class
Saturday: up 3 hours before shift starts (i usually work at 11)...15-20 minutes of yoga; run before work
Sunday: up @7:30...yoga; possibly run after church

so...now i'm going to stick to this. it's not anything ridiculous, but it's more than i've ever done. so hopefully with the support of my boyfriend (hint, hint), i can do this.

also, i am planning on changing a few things in my diet by adding these things more frequently:

grapefruit...expensive, but so worth it

don't like these AT ALL, but i think i
can tolerate them.

don't like these either...i've never
actually eaten one, but i'm considering
adding them to breakfast

LOVE this, and i definitely think that
it's something else that i would be willing
to spend money on

green tea. love it. i should drink it more

i've been eating this a lot lately,
especially now that it's lent. but some
fresh fruit on a bowl of this every day... 

so that's all folks...bailey's attempts at being healthier and getting my life more in my control...

5 languages

A story told by Mother Gavrilia:


Once when I was there where I was, some foreign missionary came and said to me, “You may be a good woman, but you’re not a good Christian.”


I said, “Why?”

“Because you have been here so long and you only go about speaking English. What local languages have you learned?"

I said to him, “I haven’t managed to learn any of the local languages, because I travel a great deal from place to place. As soon as I learn one dialect, they start speaking another. I’ve only learned ‘Good morning’ and ‘Good evening.’ Nothing else.”

“Bah, you’re no Christian. How can you evangelize? All the Catholics and Protestants learn all the local dialects in order to . . .”

Then I said, “Lord, give me an answer for him.” I asked it with all my heart, and then I said, “Ah. I forgot to tell you. I know five languages.”

“Really? What are these five?"

“The first is the smile; the second is tears. The third is to touch. The fourth is prayer, and the fifth is love. With these five languages I go all around the world.”

Then he stopped and said, “Just a minute. Say that again so... 
... I can write it down."

With these five languages you can travel the whole earth, and all the world is yours. Love everyone as your own — without concern for religion or race, without concern for anything.

to contemplate during a 12 hour shift...

the things i'm saving up for...

a car

a wedding (eventually)

an apartment for next semester

challenges

the last few weeks have been incredibly difficult. it honestly feels like it's just one thing after another, and it has been incredibly overwhelming. but amidst the troubles with work, money, school, commuting and missing andrew a lot, i have just kept telling myself that God never gives us more than we can handle (louisa was so good to remind me of this when i truly thought that i was going to lose it recently). and i have been coming to the realization that God is pushing me...challenging me to push the limits that i set up for myself a long time ago. prior to this week, i was becoming frustrated with myself because i saw a lot of limitations that i had set for myself and thought that i could never accomplish "adult" things with these limitations in place. with the events of the past week or so, these limitations are being knocked down and i am forced again and again to make the mature decision...i've been putting on my big girl pants a lot. and through these mature decisions that i have been forced to make, i'm realizing that i will be able to handle being an adult. i know this sounds silly, but come on, i'm in college...i have insecurities galore about being a grown up and what that will require of me. and every time this week that i have made a decision that is in complete contradiction of what i want to do, or what i think shawn spencer on psych would do, i am coming to the conclusion that i can do this...i can handle the stress of juggling a million things all at once, and even when i drop something, i CAN own up to it like an adult would do. had i been confronted with this week a year ago, even a few months ago, i would have made excuses about the mistakes that i made. not taking ownership of my mistakes is one of my biggest faults, and rather than deal with the humiliation of admitting that i messed up, i would honestly much rather lie about it or hide until the situation is diffused. but this week, in working rather than going to jubilee, in not lying to Dr. D about why i missed a chorale performance and in still going to class, even when i was 20 minutes late (i was so tempted to skip), i have punched my old self in the face again and again. growing up is frustrating and not fun at all. but at least now i have a little bit more confidence in my ability be a grown up.