the beginning of a new year.

This summer I did a lot of thinking and never really had solution to all of the problems and situations inside my head. And don't even ask me what those were. This year is a huge step up from the last. I have a whole year of discovery ahead of me and have decided right now that that is the word to describe this year.

Discovery of myself; who I am as a person and be confident with who that person is, school; what am I majoring in, career; who am I going be when I grow up, volleyball; how bad do I want it? I want it bad! and finally to discover the friendly side and meet more people. Work on the whole Mere DEATH STARE!

Well there is my list of things to do and sorry its been awhile. I have been dealing with some internal conflict that I am working on resolving.

Life is school with little or no recesses!- Stacy Lynn

love to all.

fate

in life things happen for a reason.

thanks grandma for this quote today:

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

~ Robert Schuller

America's Funniest Home Video

This is what happens when three sisters are left alone with a computer on a Saturday night. Please enjoy and feel free to make fun.

Please comment your reaction to the little film :)

sorry it is the shorten version, for full please skype me!

my spanish sister

After a long and stressful two weeks at school working little kids camps. I have learned that at this point in my life I do not see myself being a volleyball coach. Expecting a nice and relaxing three weeks off before I drive back up to school I come home to a new arrival to the Crenshaw Hotel.

Lucia Garofano is from a little town just 45 minutes from the hustle and bustle of Madrid. She is 19 years old and she was visiting America with 13 other European Volleyball players. She is a libero for her club and University team. Lucia was assigned to us to be her host family and let me just say that she was the best fit! She is hilarious even with a little bit of a language barrier you could see her sense of humor shine through. She loves to dance, hang out with friends and family and of course play VOLLEYBALL. So she fit in perfectly except for the whole being as tall as my nine year old brother, olive complexion, and the thick accent.

We had so much fun! We laughed, we danced, we played volleyball. It was quite the experience. We also got the chance to meet all the other girls that were on the trip.

There was five Spaniards, four Italians, and four Slovenians. I loved getting to know them and interact and hear their languages. It is a week that I will never forget and I am so grateful for the experience and hope that someday some I will go and visit all the girls that I met this week.

Hotel, B & B, Hostel, Landing Pad, Safety Net

Since the Crenshaws manifested their Santa Barbara home with its terraces, gardens, sprawling floor plan, four full bathrooms, and tiny kitchen, they have had more visitors, house guests, drop-ins, passers through than Mom and I combined. Maybe you have been one of them? Maybe you have felt the loving atmosphere? The coffee in the morning while watching the rising sun in the east? Perhaps you have taken walks on the beach or strolled downtown with your Crenshaw escorts? Wine and pu-pu's on ht terrace in the cool afternoon shade? Most guests get the elegant dining experience at the Neches house, where G. Kitty makes a gourmet meal and PT pontificates and discusses any and all things from his armchair. If you are a Crenshaw, you know this magic. You hunger for it, because it seems like there is never enough time. Just remember to sink in and soak while you are home, doing all the things you love, being fully emersed in the present, knowing that your home is a magical, special place where visitors get their cups filled and you help do the pouring.

I Have Done it Again!

Hi All! It's Aunt Shelley. I am comandeering Mere's blog because I have grown bored of that old Alabama "Vacation That I Will Never Forget, Ever" post, and I'll bet you have too. Here's the report, as I see it, of the summer. Mere, you can add the pics.

Brittany returned to CO in late June. Ouch, that hurt! She will be back for a home break this weekend, though. Her heart and muscles are stronger than the rest of ours because she works out in altitude. Oh, and she eats a lot of fresh beef. Britt lives in an apartment now. She is fully versed in the language of roommate life. Maybe we will catch some good stories when she gets home.

Mere spent two weeks back at Gonzaga running the Volleyball summer camps. Her baby sister, Holland Sterling was an attendee. Was Mere proud of her sis? I am assuming she was. Speaking of proud, Mere's coach, Allen Allen said the Mere was looking GOOD as far as keeping in shape over the summer. We won't tell Al about the two good humor ice cream bars you chased your enchilada dinner with last night.

Holland now has her driver's permit and has taken her first behind the wheel training lesson with the Steve Morris School of Defensive Driving. I saw her peel out of Grandma Kitty's driveway last night with her mom and Morgan as passengers. I predict a new Crenshaw license by the Holidays.

Morgan has been spending a lot of time with his cousins, Kieran and Aidan. When together, they often go to magical places. Just the other day I arose from my nap to find a wizard, an explorer and a dragon rider in my living room. He and Poppy Tom just recently returned from a trip to the Kaminski house in Alabama, where they had a blast in the heat with their favorite southerners.

Grandma Kitty has healed beautifully from her neck lift. We can't really remember what she used to look like, only that she looks positively gorgeous in a choker and a v neck blouse. You hot G Kitty!

Poppy Tom is as fabulous as ever. Not much more to be said about that. He will be starting his new blog soon, or I will start it for him. He can start with book and movie reviews.

Stacy and Tony (Mom and Dad) are in heaven settling in to their new routines. Mom is busy ALL THE TIME, buzzing like a bee from one flower to another. She is either in her garden, volunteering at ceramics, working for Cathy and Summerland Mercantile, painting, sewing, designing, washing dishes in her tiny kitchen sink, driving to or from Grandma Kitty's or her favorite thing, walking on the beach. Dad has been moving fence posts around, suspending bird feeders and erecting birdhouse skyscrapers, shopping at costco, swimming, and surfing. Life is very good.

Mere says she loves doing nothing and that nothing is worth doing. She's become wise with her passing years. What can I say. I must be rubbing off on her.

Love, Aunt Shell

Vacation that I will never forget...

After too many years I got the opportunity to go on a little trip, not just any trip. Because normally in this family when you say trip it means volleyball. Not this time! I was so fortunate to be able to slip into my mother's ticket to visit my aunt, uncle and beautiful cousins at their new home in Spanish Fort, Alabama. This is located about 10 minutes from Mobile and an hour from the Gulf Coast. I was very optimistic and excited about this new location. I love the south and always have, aside from Houston, from the many volleyball tournaments.

My Aunt Steph has got quite the home, it is spacious and gorgeous. She has standards, if she is going to live in Bama then she was going to have a nice home. hahaha. But any who, she thought that Grandma Kitty and I wanted to site see and that was not the case for me. I have just spent a year away from home and was perfectly content spending the entire six days on her large and comfy sofa. We did venture away and visited the coast and shopped a bit. They did have to drag my large behind with them to the local TJ-Max but I tired to channel my inner Brit. It worked for a second or two but other than that I had a sour attitude, sorry GKitty and Steph about my poopy attitude. I have decided my ideal shopping mood occurs at the hours of 6pm to 8pm take it or leave it.

My favorite part of the trip was just torturing Steph's youngest children Indiana Michelle and Alexander Theodore. They have it easy as far as I am concerned. Ari can be mean but not as mean as me! So I to advantage gave them a taste of what Brit, Holland, and Morgan endure. It was fun. But my favorite was when I kicked Alex for being a little punk and he of course started to cry and moan, acting as if he was needed to be rushed to the hospital. I called him on his horrible acting and asked if he would like his Oscar now or would he like it at a later time. He eventually got up and was planning his dramatic exit, when he slipped on his hat and fell. I do love some good karma, and then he started laughing and couldn't even argue with me.

Indy is fun to antagonize too, but it is necessary to take a different approach because she wanted to be attached to my hip. But she quite the little athlete, I got to watch her play softball on Saturday. She is so precious.

I really do miss my Aunt though, I had so much fun laughing and joking around with her. I love her humor. She such a loving and caring person. I can't wait to back and spend more time there with her and her biggest little punk Arianna.

Ari is so strong and brave, I look up to her. She has gone through alot and I am so proud of her. I can't wait to see her grow up, she is going to be quite the young lady, well she quite the young lady. She made my trip.

Happy Birthday my girlie. Hope you have an amazing day! Take a million pictures in NH and have so much fun. I hope you enjoy every second of this summer and rock the socks off of the volleyballers in Alabama. Skype me soon!

My uncle Ted also took me on a little spin in the lake behind their house. It is so gorgeous, I love the green. As soon as we got further from the house he says to me, "Okay, we are going to switch places." Let me make this mental picture for you, little boat two swivel seats, large girl, shallow murky water, and this is after the discussion we had about water moccasins. AKA poisonous snakes. Not to mention I am not down with swimming with the fish or squishy, yucky water. Safe to say it was a quick and dry transition, but thank you Uncle Ted for stomach ache and heart rate increase. Everyone needs alittle adrenaline rush.

I would like to take this time to thank Poppy Tom for the trip with his free miles. For future reference I advice those of you who plan on taking this trip to mentally prepare yourself for the travel day from hell. But it was SO worth it I would do it again in heart beat minus Grandma's large carry-on bag. Thanks for all the laughs Grandma.

And I wish I was there to watch my "I HATE to sweat" aunt endure the long summer months of Alabama. Did I mention 100% humidity! Oh how I love my aunt! "I just don't like my hair touching my neck, you know." Or the saying of the week, "I'm just sayin'." hahahaha

Love you all and thanks for the memories!

the end is growing near

god bless summer that is all i have to say. this year of hell has been the most draining, most emotion, hair pulling year of my nineteen year-old life. my daddy gets here on wednesday at 10pm and let me say it could not come any sooner, i will be out of the dorm and into the hotel. and yes roomie that does mean i am taking my gorgeous flat screen to storage to sleep away all of the horrible shows you watched. unfortunately i have acquired an obnoxious amount of shit since i have been here. i have two large plastic tubs already full and along with 4-5 card board boxes that will be going into storage. that includes all my winter protection, pillows and dorm decorations. now i have moved onto my attire that will be making its way home to sb with me and let me just say that not all of the clothes will be traveling by plane. oh well apparently i need to down size....but seriously i will be donating to the less fortunate in sb for sure.

i need it to be saturday now!!! somebody save me please, but since no one can save me, the beautiful melodies of pandora.com online radio will get me though the next two days...oldies are the soundtrack of my life

dead week = library

So I have heard that during dead week you are to go to the library to do studious things like study, write papers, and well be studious. HA! That is what I say to that. Yesterday I went to the library because I only had one class. Thinking that this would be the most responsible way to use my time. Well I was "dead" wrong. I ended up sitting on my computer listening to music, fiddling with my photos, taking photos of my self and facebook stalking. Never again will I go to the library unless I go without my computer.

As you can see I had difficulty. I think I might have caught ADHD from my beloved Aunt Steph, what do you think? That or I just have too much fun with my computer. Who knows. All I know is that I cannot focus on anything but being home in less then 9 days! I can't wait, or maybe I can because I can't leave until next Saturday, maybe I can just start walking home or my mommy can come and pick me up and then we can swoop by and pick-up Brit-Dawg!

Doubt it. But today I have the same dilemma, one class and stuff to do. I plan to sit here and do my facebook stalking while listening to some classic oldies but goodies! And then once it's out of my system.

BUt now I sing for you, " It takes two baby, it takes two baby, just me and you!"

Love, the Super Focused Weirdy

P.S. Doesn't my hair look amazing? Just thought I would point that out.

final art projects

Now that I am done with those I can start working on the yucky homework! Poop, now I have serious stuff to do!! TWO WEEKS!! love to all