time keeps on slippin'

Hi. Let's just skip the part where I apologize for not posting a new entry in forever. My drug business has really picked up, and I haven't had much time for blogging.

Well... does anybody know what time it is? No, not Tool Time. Although people do confuse me with Heidi an awful lot...

No friends, it's time for another installment of "Lessons from Pre-Teen Brittany's Journal." Let's go back to 1999 again. I'm still the incredibly awkward 11-year-old with slicked back hair. I've provided visual proof below. It's ok, you can laugh... I can't hear you.

The overalls are always a classic. As is the "over the shoulder" look.

It was December 31, 1999. I just got back from a super cool millennium party with my friend/neighbor Kimberly. Our parents made us come home early in case the world ended or people went crazy because of Y2K havoc. After safely ringing in the new year with ginger-ale and lime sherbert, sparklers and the neighborhood fireworks display, I thought it would be appropriate to document the past year. What better way to do so than with a timeline, right? Great idea, I know. Well, according to the drawing below, nothing much happened in my life during 1999. So apparently I had to go back and document my entire existence.

Let's take a closer look at some of these events:

1985: Mom and Dad were married. That's sweet. But I'm not sure why I put it on my life's timeline if I wasn't even born yet?

1988: I was born. Good. We're getting somewhere.

1995: Started first grade at Clay/ Mom got pregnant. Obviously two monumental moments, but one provided a little too much information.

1996: Hope was born. This is my sister's actual name. I wasn't being metaphorical, poetic or dramatic.

1998: Clinton accused of affair w/ Monica Lewinsky. I'm sorry, WHAT?! Why, oh why, did I feel the need to put this on my life's timeline? I can't believe this is one of the eight events that I considered important in my eleven years of life. What a weird kid.

1999: Blank. Hmmm... that's interesting. The year I decided to draw this timeline is the year that nothing of any significance occurred in the life of Brittany Todd. I wonder what I did that year? Was I in a coma? Guess I'll never know. I'm going to hereby refer to 1999 as the "Dark Ages" of my life.

2000: Made the basketball team! Yep... I went back a year later to update the timeline with one of my most valued accomplishments. This event really should have read, The basketball coach felt sorry for me so he let me on the team and I sat on the bench all season!

Thankfully, things have since picked up in my life. My timeline is not as puny anymore, and I've only added one political scandal to my events (Governor Mark Sanford's affair was a big deal to me, ok?).

There is one thing that has remained constant throughout my 22-year timeline, and that is the Lord's impeccable timing. Looking back, I see events that, at the moment, shook my world and made me question God's plan and purpose. But then I see how those events have somehow been molded into something beautiful. Never the way I planned, but always beautiful. His absolute sovereignty becomes more evident with every passing year. While I laugh at how goofy these timelines are, I'm thankful that I wrote them down. They serve as a visual and concrete reminder of God's faithfulness, even when I am so very faithless.

I hope this entry has made you, the reader, feel better about yourself. Any time you feel like there is not much happening in your life, just hop on over to brittanyrtodd.blogspot.com for an instant ego boost. If one person reads this entry (or looks at that picture) and walks away with a better self-esteem, then I have done my job.

Now I'm off to go write down another event. June 28, 2010 will forever be remembered as the day a two-year-old child urinated on my lap and I ate two McDonald's apple pies for lunch. Wait, that's every day.