I think I have deprived all of you of the wonderful tales of my life for long enough! There is so much to tell, I just hope I remember it all!
I survived exams. Unfortunately, that was also the week that I had the head cold that has been going around. I am sure no one appreciated my constant sniffling during our two hundred forty question history exam! Along with passing all my classes, I got new ones! First trimester of biology and English! Also, I have gym again this trimester-and guess what! We are going bowling Mondays and Tuesdays! I have styles this tri too. We are sewing an apron, pillow, and pajama pants. That should be fun.
Happy late Thanksgiving! My family and I went to my Mom's parents on Saturday of last week. It would have been a nice ride if it weren't for the fact that Gavin rode his pretend motorcycle the WHOLE WAY THERE. Yes, all I heard was "VRRROOOOOOMMMM, SCREECH! VRRROOOOMM. BEEEP BEEEP" the whole ride. On Thursday, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma always has the works for Thanksgiving dinner-turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, homemade rolls, buttercup squash, and our own individual pumpkin pies! Well, my brothers and I get our own mini individual pies, but not the adults. My dad and uncle still grumble about that fact even though she has been doing it for years. We stayed for two days, playing Yahtzee and cribbage and doing 1000 piece puzzles for hours.
I think everyone was out shopping on Black Friday. EVERYONE. My mom, Alex, and I all went shopping at five am. We went to Walmart, Kohl's, the mall, Target, and McDonald's. Even McDonald's was crowded! I have almost all of my Christmas shopping done though! Except for Alex......
Today we woke up bright and early (at ten) to go get our Christmas tree. For as long as I can remember, we have always gotten a real blue spruce. This year we got a fir tree! I still am in shock about that.....But anyway, we are decorating the house for Mom's first ever annual open house on Tuesday.
On Wednesday I have my sports banquet. I have only gone to my old school's banquet where skirts were required. Here, I had no idea what to wear! So, my mom helped pick out a shirt for me at Kohl's. Hope it works. And wish me good luck!

Wonderful Weekend

Wow what a great weekend! So many great things, good stories, hilarious memories!

Ever since volleyball started, I have had a pre-paid cell phone from Virgin Mobile. Don't ever get a cell from there! Ever! It is horrible. I guess they recycle their phone numbers after thirty days, and I was getting calls from Washington, California, South Dakota, and all over the U.S. I was even getting some sales calls. I switched my phone number, thinking it would help, but it didn't. So, on Friday, my mom went to a Verizon store-AND I GOT A NEW PURPLE PHONE!!! Mom has the same one, but that is ok!

I also have to tell you a story about the Verizon store- and its customers! It was kind of crowded that day, so there was a wait to see a floor rep person. Our rep was in the back getting our new phones when Mom happened to hear another sales guy behind us talking to a lady about our soon-to-be purple phone. He said something about getting additional money off, and Mom turned around to ask him about it. The lady that he was originally talking to huffed(yes, HUFFED) and turned her back on Mom, rolling her eyes. Mom was shocked and embarrassed and apologized for interrupting. The lady turned back around, really upset by now, and said "I had to wait for quite a while to talk to this guy, and you can't just barge in on our time! You have to be fair in public; you didn't wait to talk to him, I did!" Mom, in disbelief, said "OK, lady, just have a good time talking to him then," and walked back towards me. I could hear the lady say to the guy, "That was very rude of her!" and continue talking as if nothing had ever happened. Mom and I just could not believe that this lady had freaked out about something like that, and it was kind of a relief when after the lady left, the sales guy came and told Mom sorry for her behavior. It was just a little weird....

AND THEN, we went to see Madagascar 2 yesterday. As most of you know, yesterday was opening day for gun hunting deer season. My dad is big into hunting, as is most of my relatives on his side. So, my uncle, grandpa, and my dad spent a large amount of this past weekend in the woods behind our house. (To the horror of our poor dog who would huddle in her doghouse, whining with ears laid back flat on her head every time she heard a gun shot.) My brothers, Mom, and I got a little bored; we decided to go shopping and to a movie. The movie was soooooo cute! My favorite part was Moto Moto. Adorable. In this movie, the animals make it to a reserve where Alex finds his parents, and the other animals find their own kind. And they once again meet their arch-nemesis, the Granny. You should just go see it!

Well now I am broke from all that shopping, and not ready to go back to school after my four day weekend! This week is exam week, so I don't know how much I will be posting. Most likely, I will be cramming each night. But, on the bright side, Thursday and Friday are half days!!! And Friday will be busy because Mom just for some reason thinks I should go to the dentist at least once a year(weird, I know!), and so I have to go to the dentist Friday. Also, the highschool play is Friday. I'm excited to see "When Our Hearts Were Young and Gay." lol

Where Do I Start?

So much to write, where do I start? Well, as some of you may know, this past weekend I was at a retreat with Liz's youth group. Wow. So many memories and funny stories and experiences happened! I guess I will start with the puppy chow story. Jamie, bless her heart, made a huge bowl of puppy chow. All of the girls decided to keep the bowl in the girls' dorm where we could have a late-night snack if we wanted it. As it turned out, we did end up eating almost half of it the first night. When we finally had had our fill, we put the lid on and put it at the end of Jamie's bunk bed for the next night. The next day, Liz, Kara, Sam, and I sneaked away from everyone else to have just a tiny bit of it. After shoving a few handfuls in our faces, we put back where we found it. No one would know........Then I had the BRILLIANT idea to demonstrate a "dance routine" that Mackenzie and I had thought up. It involved jumping and was not supposed to involved the puppy chow, although somehow the two got mixed, and........Let me just try to explain the situation. White powder everywhere-hair, clothes, floor, bunk beds, bags, did I mention everywhere?! Clumps of delicious puppy chow lay on the ground, getting smashed underfoot as we tried not to smash puppy chow. Everyone was looking at everyone else in horror. I think a tear even fell down my face, fearing they would kick me off the retreat. Liz, being the wonderful person she is, declared that no one would kick me out and grab washcloths, we were going to clean! Frantically, we grabbed random washcloths(still am not sure whose we used......oops) and started scrubbing the powder. Sadly, as I was on my knees with a washcloth scrubbing away, I began to sing, "It's a hard-knock life for us, It's a hard-knock life for us. Steada treated, we get tricked...." and so on. Well we were half way through cleaning the awful mess up when I hear the horrible creaking of the dorm room. Oh snap! I thought, Here comes Janis or Stacy to escort me out now. Turns out it was only another girl who PROMISED she would not tell a single soul. The floor eventually turned out quite clean. I did find some puppy chow in my boot later on in the day......

We also played Foosball 24/7 it seems. I got quite good at it by the end, though. I stopped scoring on myself and actually won a few games! There was also Wheel of Fortune, a really super really a lot hard obstacle course, huge scavenger hunt that included me having to put my own sock in my mouth. So many games and good food and good preaching. The theme was "Temptation." Brian showed us a video on Ted Bundy. I hadn't heard of him before, but I was almost crying.

That Friday, before the retreat, my Mom took me to Fashion Bug, and I got some wicked awesome boots. They are those furryish kind that aren't REAL boots, just fashion boots. The kind that isn't made to be worn in the mud and snow and slush. Guess where I wore them? In the mud and snow and slush. It was on Sunday when it half snowed. You see, we had just gotten back to Liz's church, and I really really wanted to go swing on her swings. When I got over there, I realized the seats were wet from the slush that was coming down! Oh well, easily fixed! I just stood on my feet. Drew was pushing me (which was fine too, made less work for me!) when all of a sudden me feet just flew out from underneath me. I think that they might have even gone in Drew's face! I have no idea what really happened, because I think I must have done some sort of flippy thingy. But, I landed on my feet-my NEW boots. In the mud. And slush. And snow. GRRRRRRRRR. RUINED!!! I just knew it! I think I even cried. Guess what-boots can be washed. My mom told me. And it even works. Well after I scrubbed my beautiful boots, my mom found some sealant-lovely stuff! Safe stuff.

Well, I think I am going to go watch a movie with popcorn. Yum. Better get all the relaxation before exams next week. Even though I have the next four days off!!!

Forty-nine More Days Until Christmas

I made this card! I was super, unimaginably bored last night, and I made the mistake of telling my mom that. She calmly told me that she could put me to work cleaning any of the toilets. My face must have shown my enthusiasm, or my lack of, because she changed her mind and told me to go stamp a card. Unlimited access to her supplies-yes, that's right, unlimited-my favorite word! Anyway, I ran down to the basement and just stood in front of her stamping nook, my mouth watering and my eyes enlarging by the minute. All of this was at my disposal! I cut, and stamped, and pondered, and scrutinized, and punched, and used more than enough adhesive(just kidding Mom!) until I came out with the finished product. Tadaaaa!

My Freshman Academy teacher had laryngitis today, so we watched the Brady Bunch. Wow-let me just say that while it was cute and funny most of the time, they had a strange sense of style!

Well, as you all know, we now have a new President. Also, both proposals passed. I think that stem cell research could be very helpful-even good-just why do they have to get it from aborted babies?! That's the part that bothers me. But, what can I do about it?

Yesterday we had a pizza party after school for the freshman volleyball team. We were supposed to give our jerseys back and pick out team awards for the banquet. Man was that hard. I bet I sat there for no less than ten minutes trying to figure out six awards. Pretty soon I felt like giving up and just putting my own name down for all of them. I didn't. Thought it might be a little suspicious......

Best Day Ever!!!!

Quick overview of the past exciting days.....

Saturday(two weeks ago)- Hannah, Mackenzie, and I went to see HSM3 after winning our last tourney of the season. I thought that it would be a cheesy movie, but it was actually kind of cute. The memories made were better than the movie though. It's no crime to laugh and giggle in a movie theater-right?-and that is what we were doing. It might have been a little loud, but it wasn't to the point of distraction. Should not have been a problem, but it was for the couple in front of us. They turned around and said very rudely "Do you MIND? You are being very rude." We were traumatized, but after the initial shock of being spoken to like that, Mackenzie had an idea. I gave her the last of my popcorn. Just as the lights were coming on and the credits were rolling, she stood up, "tripped", and "accidentally" spilled the popcorn on the couple. Oops. I know, looking back, it's horrible, but it was sooo funny at the time......

Wednesday-We won our last game! Sniff sniff. I can't believe that the season is already over. One of the girls' mom brought red roses for us all. I had brought my camera, and we had a bittersweet time taking pics of the team.....

Friday- Halloween. Surprisingly, school was fun. Freshman Academy was game day, so we played Disney Trivia. We made caramel apples in Foods, and P.E. we went outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather. At church, we had a Fall Festival with a dunk tank, booths, and candy.

Today!- I had no school today. Hallelujah! My mom and I headed into GR to a wonderful day of shopping at Rivertown Crossings and lunch at Red Robin. I was going to be brave today. I was going to choose something DIFFERENT for lunch. Our waiter seated us, asked for drinks, then asked if we were ready to order. Of course, Mom was still getting the usual Whiskey Burger, so she was ready. After she ordered, she and the waiter began to stare at me, waiting to hear what I wanted. I frantically scanned the page, looking for anything to stand out-something new. Sweat began to form on my forehead, and my eyes kept darting back to the Whiskey Burger. "It's safe," a voice in my head seemed to say "it's normal and safe getting the Whiskey Burger. No one will blame you! Just get it! You are running out of time...." With horror, I found myself opening my mouth and beginning to say "I'll have the same thing as her." Luckily, Mom saved me by saying "Are you sure? Do you want more time?" "YES!" I wanted to shout. Proudly, I can say I got the Red Robin Bacon Cheeseburger, something totally different. The only damper on my wonderful day was going to be my piano lesson. Guess what-yep!-no lesson!!!!! Tragically, the high school had an unexpected after school play practice in the auditorium. Where the piano is. So sad. I almost cried......

Looking ahead-The t.v. show Made is coming to my school tomorrow to interview kids for the show. Kinda exciting. Out of the four school days I have this week, we are cooking three times in Foods-brownies, muffins, and cookies. Yay. Also, next week is the end of the trimester, and I have no school Thursday and Friday!!

Vicious Snakes

As you might have guessed by the title, my post is going to recount the story of how an innocent, sweet, beautiful, amazing girl was almost attacked by a vicious, huge, enormous, ugly snake. It all began on a gorgeous afternoon not too long ago.......

Shannon hummed a little tune as she stepped off the bus that afternoon into the bright, warming sunshine. She shrugged out of her coat-too warm for that!-and glanced up at the clear blue sky. Wonderful October afternoon. Then she heard a horrible, mean hissing sound. Looking down with dread, she spied the very thing she hoped she would never have to see-a HUGE evil snake. The snake was sticking its forked tongue in the air, head scintillating wickedly back and forth. (I shudder even now in my warm, safe house) The girl did whats was only normal, she screamed. She screamed bloody murder. When screeching "MOOOOOOOM" didn't bring the expected results, she whips out her cell and dials her house number. The snake, by this time, was baring its sharp fangs, bringing its head back before the deadly strike. No one answered her call. Just then, she heard an engine start somewhere in the distance. Maybe there was hope. The snake seemed to sense that its life was in danger, and slithered off into the grass. As her mom pulled up in her van, Shannon looked off into the distance, knowing that somewhere the vicious snake lives on.

Half way throught the week! I cannot believe how time just flies by. Sometimes I feel as if I am just holding on to life by my pinky finger, desperately trying to take everything in and do everything right. I guess I wish that I could stop time for a while and take a nap or think about life and where I am right now. Craziness! At least it is a good craziness!
When we had that really cold day(Monday, I think), my blessed mother got up extra early-to see my before I ventured out into the freezing outside-and dug a thermos out of the back of the cupboard and made me a delicious, steaming hot chocolate that I could carry out with me while I was waiting for the bus. I go out there every morning about six fifty, and it is still pitch black out. I got on the bus, excited to drink my hot chocolate in ecstasy. Slowly, I brought it up to my lips and sipped. "That's funny," I thought "I can feel it going all the way down to my legs. Usually I can only feel it going down to my stomach." I took another sip, enjoying the warmth, until I looked down and yelped in horror. THAT'S why I could feel it in my legs-I'd spilled it. It was so dark I couldn't see that the cap wasn't screwed on tight, and the warm liquid soaked the front of my jeans. I thought I was going to cry. It looked as if I had peed my pants, and there aren't even any hand driers in any of the school's bathrooms! Trust me, I checked! Several times. Desperately, I walked around for first period with my bag hanging in front of me so that no one could see my still-drying pants. Talk about starting the day off on the wrong foot.
We had our last home game of the season tonight. Sniff sniff. At least we won! We played Portland.......ahem ahem..........

Indiana Jones, Individual Cheesecakes, and Hush Puppies

My mom bought the newest Indiana Jones movie just recently. I watched it for the first time and surprisingly thought it was good. Usually I would go for a chick flick or cute love story like the Notebook and Enchanted, but the movie was good.

It has been a long time since I have posted-too long. So many times throughout the days lately, I will hear or see or experience something and I will think "Oh my gosh! I just HAVE to blog about it." Consequently, I sit down fully expecting my post to fill up twenty paragraphs, and I cannot think of a single one of them.

I ran the mile on Friday. It was me and another kid. Figures. The day everyone else in my P.E. class runs the mile, I am sick. So we go out to the track, the temperature just a little on the chilly side, and my teacher tells my class that I and the other kid are the only ones allowed on the inner two lanes. Great. I have my own lane. Let's just say I was mortified. Anyway, I made it through alive and in seven minutes and fifty seconds. yay. I think the requirement was nine fifty-two.

Foods class has been a lot better ever since the muffins.....Friday we made individual cheesecakes and Italian dipping sticks. The cheesecakes were heavenly!

Yesterday we had a party for my great grandparents' sixtieth
wedding anniversary. It was up in Saginaw at Fire Mountain.
It was buffet-an unlabeled buffet. I think it would be helpful
and nice if restaurants would label their food, but maybe it is
just me. They actually had really yummy rolls and hush
puppies. I have never tried hush puppies before. Fried corn
bread. Fried balls of corn bread. Yum.

What A Monday-and week!

Let me go way back to Friday. I take a Foods class. We just recently started cooking(we call it labs), and we have made taco potatoes, scotcheroos, and blueberry muffins. Muffins from scratch. All Thursday and Friday I was craving a muffin, fresh out of the oven, light and fluffy and blueberry goodness. I can smell them now.......Anyway, my lab group and I grabbed our recipe card and ran to the kitchen, tying our hair back and throwing on aprons, anxious to get our muffins done so we could EAT. Our batter was lumpy and looked like throw up. We put it in the little muffin papers and hurriedly put them into the oven. We figure a little heat and time would magically turn them into ultra delicious muffins. Five, ten, fifteen minutes slowly ticked by. Now, I am no Betty Crocker, but I am pretty sure that muffins that only have three minutes left in the oven should not be soupy blue, and should not be BUBBLING! Yes, we had blue, lumpy, runny, bubbling soup when the timer went off. We were devastated. For a few minutes we thought and cried and thought some more about why our muffins didn't turn out. Then, I realized. Flour. There was two different measurements for flour in the recipe. One was a teaspoon of sifted flour, the other was 1 and 3/4 cups of regular flour. Unluckily, we only saw the teaspoon. I guess no muffin can be made with only a teaspoon of flour. My dream muffin slowly crumbled into nothing. My stomach growling, I did the only thing I knew how to do. I begged. I begged shamelessly until another lab group took pity on me and gave me one of their extra muffins. Two words-blueberry heaven.

Saturday-we won our tournament!! I also went to see City of Ember. I was impressed. There was actually not a romance between Doon and Lina. I had read the book before hand, and loved it! Most of the time books are much better than movies, but this one was actually good. You should see it.

Sunday my brother almost died. Serious. For those of you who don't know Alex, he is extremely allergic to bees. Like, he could die if he doesn't insert his epipen. Well this day he was wrestling around on the ground and all of a sudden he jumped up, screaming. I was about to tell him to shut up when he started yelling "I got stung! I GOT STUNG!" Immediately, my family jumped into action. Mom stomped on the offending insect viciously, killing it at some point. Dad was panicking and trying to find his epipen, I was trying to ask Alex where his pen was, and Chase and Gavin were cowering on the sofa, faces white and eyes bright and wide. As it turned out, he must not be allergic to yellow jackets, just bees. Thank You, Jesus!

Today was a crappy day for most of my friends, but it was actually pretty good for me for a Monday. I had no homework, no volleyball practice. Yay. I kind of don't know what to do with my extra time.

Also, if you are looking for a really super amazing awesome good read, read The Taking

by Dean Koontz. I loved it! It is one of those books that makes you think for a while after you finish it. I actually found it in my algebra teacher's classroom.

Spirit Week

My double dual game on Monday was at Grand Haven High School. First of all, just let me say that two hours on a bus is an EXTREMELY long time. But, we all survived the ride and got to the town of Grand Haven just fine. As soon as we got off the expressway, we realized we were lost. Coaches were starting to panic, wildly asking if anyone had Internet on their phone to look up MapQuest. I don't know if someone called someone who knew where to go, or we followed another team's bus to the school, all I know is that we got there finally only a few minutes late. We had another game Wednesday in Perry. We got lost again. This time we realized it when we found ourselves in the midst of cornfields and cute farm houses with carved pumpkins on their porches. In the middle of nowhere. We had to stop and ask this random guy if he knew where we were supposed to go. Luckily, he did, and I think the bus may have done a u-turn but not sure.
Enough about directions. Let's get on to spirit week. Wow. Monday was nerd day, and surprisingly not many people dressed up. I did as much as I could (we have to wear our warm-ups on game days), laughing nervously at myself all the way to the end of our driveway where my bus would pick me up. My nervous laugh turned into nervous hysteria as I stepped on my bus and saw NO ONE wearing anything even remotely nerdy. That's when I started to think that maybe I had the wrong day, or maybe even week! How embarrassing would that be?? Long story short, I got to school and walked in with another nerd from another bus. Wednesday was 80s day. THAT was interesting. Mom tried to hairspray my bangs up-yes that's right, UP-but I guess I have too long of bangs. Darn. What a shame. Anyway, I saw a lot of funny outfits. And hair. I think the hair was funnier than the outfits. Today was superhero day. A lot of Batmans and Supermans in the world.
And, as a sort of sequel to my softball horror story, I have to tell you about the soccer game today. There is a girl named Courtney in my P.E. class. She was defending her team's side as a forward was about to kick the ball. Between Courtney and the kicker was about five feet, plenty of time to gain speed and altitude to smash into poor Courtney's face. The remarkable thing is that she didn't cry or scream in outrage at all. She just said "I'm ok, I'm ok." AND WALKED. I would have been screaming and running and attacking and sobbing and dead. Talk about tough.
Well, only one more day and it is the weekend!!!! Hallelujah!

One Word: FRIDAY

We made it through another week! And, I guess, another month. October already. Wow. Time to get the costumes out and buy some pumpkins. For my dad and brother, it is time to get the bows and deer stands out. Sometimes I don't understand the point of sitting in a tree, cold and cramped and unable to relieve yourself for several hours, just to see a deer that they might MIGHT be able to shoot and actually kill. Maybe it is better in reality than in theory.
I cooked today in Foods! Well, I didn't cook, but my group did. We made scotcheroos. Really amazing. We ate them with black cherry kool-aide to drink. Not so yummy. But cooking was fun.
Since tonight is Friday, our family is getting pizzas and movies! Yay! I think almost every family must have at least one food custom at some point and time. Ours is "weekend pizza". Almost every weekend we order Penny's pizza.
I want soo much to have an amazing story to write about, but I can't think of one. Next week is homecoming week, so I am sure that I will have some fun-and crazy-stories to write about next time. So, like, a quick preview-our freshman float's theme is "Survivor"........

Great Day, Great Life

Today was amazing, wonderful, strange, weird, cool, fun, amazing. Amazing. First of all, my youth group went to a fall festival. Lots of games, prizes, and preaching. There were games like an obstacle course, dodge ball and volleyball tournaments, ropes course, paintball, rock wall, and other little games. Actually, there were a couple of obstacle courses. One involved a sheer wall of white boards that you had to be lifted up by teammates to get over. Once you got over the wall, there was a platform where you stood and lifted up other teammates over the wall. I was the first one over the wall. All went well. Kara came next. All went well. Then it was Annelise's turn. All went wrong. I think part of it was her fault, and part of it was mine and Kara's. Not sure. Either way, she ended up sliding down the front of the wall and falling a half of a foot to the ground. When she made contact with the slightly muddy ground, she moaned and closed her eyes. She did not get up. After running everywhere and finally getting her to the nurse's temporary office in a fifth wheel, Annelise started to sit up and devour a piece of pizza. It was just a little scary.
Then there was the whole boy incident. It feels kind of weird to post about it, so if you really REALLY want to know the whole story, just ask and I will tell all!
At the conference, Kara and Annelise and Sarah and I all made up fake names. My name was Monisha Fish. Kara was Renae Fish, Sarah was Percephanie Fish, and Annelise was AnnaBeth Fish. We were all sisters, and we had our whole life planned and memorized. We filled out numerous college and camp info cards, getting several comments on our fake names in the process. Especially on Monisha. lol.
Last night was really fun. First Kara and I painted our nails sparkly pink. Gorgeous. Did you know that to figure out if your nail polish is dry, you smell it? And if it still smells like fingernail polish, then it isn't dry. Anyway, we then video taped ourselves singing different songs (like "Unwritten", and "Mayberry") on my camera which we plugged into the tv and proceeded to make fun of our off-tune voices and choreography.Then we had ice cream and danced to Seasame Street silly songs like "8 Balls of Fur" and "Watermelons and Cheese". We also found the word flibbertigibbet (means a flighty, light-headed, chattery person). Interesting word. We didn't end up getting to bed until one, and we had to wake up at five thirty the next morning for the youth conference. Really smart.
In fact, I think I am going to go catch up on some sleep right now.......

FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can breathe. Relax. Maybe sleep a little, or just enjoy the day. Seems weird. When was the last time I had free time?!
Today went well. Nothing spectacular to blog about. We have about a hundred algebra problems. But that's ok, because I really have nothing better to do with my pleasurable free time than algebra......(*note sarcasm*) The only other thing is that my bus driver-for the afternoon- usually speeds on the way home. So the first repercussion of that was she missed her road to drop, like, ten kids off. We had to go the long way around which made her speed even more so we wouldn't be late. I was ok with that until I looked behind us and saw a white and blue car tailgating us. How embarrassing would it be to have your bus pulled over by the police for speeding? I don't think I have ever seen a bus pulled over before. Ever. Thank goodness we weren't. I wonder who would have to pay the ticket.....
OH MY GOSH! My mom made the most delicious brownies with almonds and chocolate chips and everything!! They are the kind that melt in your mouth and leave a lingering want of MORE. Kara is coming over tonight, and I just have a weird feeling that between me and her, there might not be any left for tomorrow. mwahahahahaha..........

"She smashed the rearview mirror with her fist, because today she's never looking back."

Chaos

Phew! What a day! First of all, it was one of those days where you think "Oh my gosh, it must be three o'clock already!" and you look at the clock and it is only ten. In the morning. But I finally got through this Monday with only minimal excitement-MINIMAL. You see, it all started with a simple PE class.......

For the past couple of weeks, when the weather was nice and the field was not soggy mud, we have been going outside to learn softball. A little slow, but always interesting. Today was our last day before we start tennis, so we were making this last game count. People were actually playing seriously and actually trying to hit the ball and make it to first base. All was going well until a girl named Cacci stepped up to the plate. The pitch flew in over the plate, and she whacked a line drive straight to third base. Or, at least the third baseman. The hard-hit ball soared straight into the girl's forehead, knocking her onto the ground. My teacher ran out to her, meanwhile saying "teacher's worst nightmare, teacher's worst nightmare....." Everyone was either crying, running out to the injured, or just plain freaking out. The poor girl turned out to still be conscious, but now has some nasty cuts on her forehead.

Also, my exciting bus ride home......Now, you have to understand that this being my first year in public school, riding the bus is a new experience for me! But even I know that what happened today must not have been common place. There is a girl named Emily who rides my bus(at least I think that is her name, I am still working on names....) who happened to bring a snake in for her bio class. Fair enough. She stepped onto the bus, and our driver freaked out. Jumping up and down, screaming: "I will NOT drive that bus while the snake is on there. Get the snake off NOW! I need another bus driver to drive this route!" Seriously, she would not put one toe on the bus. We were delayed for fifteen minutes. Finally, the vice principal came out and made the girl let the snake go in the woods behind the school. I think Emily ended up crying, but our driver was able to actually step onto the bus. A snake. In a plastic jar. Whatever.

Ok, tomorrow Nellie and I are going to try to buy lunch. We are kind of scared, but we have enlisted people to help us. Wish us good luck.......

Murphy's Law in Practice...

Have you ever had one of those mornings where Murphy's Law just ruins the whole darn thing? Today was one of those mornings. Yesterday I found some really REALLY amazing fake toenails of my mother's that you glue on. She had bought them for my aunt's wedding a while ago, and so I asked if I could have them. She said yes! I was tremendously excited and started gluing right away. Long story short, I didn't check first to make sure that the kit had enough of the right size to fit all of my toes, and I ended up having lopsided-looking toenails. But they were BEAUTIFUL lopsided toenails. I went to bed satisfied. Don't ask me how, but this morning I woke up with only eight toenails. After breakfast, I had seven toenails. I got out of my shower, and I had six toenails left. How was I going to go to church with only six toenails??!?! I started panicking, immediately trying to pull off the rest of the toenails. I couldn't. Not if I wanted to keep any of my original ones! So I decided to just wear socks to church. Ok, so I started breathing again, only to realize I was late! I panicked again. I was running everywhere, throwing a skirt and shirt on, speeding through blow-drying my hair, and rushing my make-up. I guess I was rushing a little too much, because the next thing I know, the top to my foundation is floating in the toilet (which is right by the mirror) and I am shrieking in horror. THE TOILET. Wow, even thinking about it now makes me shudder. Eventually I made it to church, twenty minutes late with half of my fake toenails on and silent tears over my poor toilet water soaked make-up.
We went to see A Journey to the Center of the Earth last night after my volleyball tournament. You could definitely tell it was fake, but it was cute. I have to say the book was scarier.
We also went to Applebee's for dinner before the movie. Grandpa and Grandma took Chase and Gavin camping for a couple of days, and that left just the four of us. For once, our table was not littered with broken crayons and spilled sprite. It was nice.
Well, I think I am going to go look for those missing toe nails........

This is a picture of my volleyball team, but I am not allowed to say which one I am. The only people I can say I am not are the coach and the girl in jeans. Actually, those two people are sisters.

I missed posting about September 11. I still want to acknowledge it. My mom showed me a couple of videos on youtube, and I almost started crying. It is hard to believe that it was seven years ago, but everyone can still remember what they were doing the exact second they found out about it. I remember it being on tv for days, and I could hardly believe that someone would do something like that.

It has been raining for three days straight! Can you imagine what Noah and his family went through? Forty days. I would go crazy. I had a tournament yesterday from seven a.m. until eight p.m., and I came home ready to pig out and take a nice, long shower. We had no power. I SUFFERED through a bowl of cereal in the dark and had to pass for washing my face with some water out of a water bottle. How did people survive without tv and electric lights and running water??

Ok, well, here comes another week. This year has gone by so fast! I can remember New Years Day so vividly. And at the time, I could not believe it was already 2008. lol.

Mondays. Yuck.

she asked 'am i pretty?'
he said 'no'
she asked 'do you like me?'
he said 'no'
she asked 'do you want me?'
he said 'no'
she walked away with tears in her eyes.he grabs her my the arm and says 'you aren't pretty, you're beautiful. i don't like you, i love you. & i don't want you, i need you.'
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Mondays. Yuck. I had school, piano, and then practice. I am so tired. We already have tests this week in some of my classes. I think that should be illegal; because that means that we learned enough to take a test, and that is NOT right.

I found a recipe for a Dr Pepper cake online. Who knew? (Mom and I are sooo going to make it!!) I have to do a food history research for Foods, and I picked Dr Pepper. I am extremely excited to make my poster! A pharmacist invented Dr Pepper! In Texas. I love the Internet! So many quick resources and articles.

Just loooove the weather! Isn't falling asleep to the patter of rain against your windows the most amazing sensation in the world? Until the time comes where I have to wait at the end of the driveway for ten minutes for the bus! Really, though, I love rain. God is good.

My first two days of high school passed with little embarrassment. The only real mess-ups I had was getting up an hour late, walking into the wrong history class, and forgetting which bus I rode.

I set my alarm for 5:30 am to give myself PLENTY of time to get ready for the bus which I had to get on at 7:06. It was a good plan, except my alarm did not go off. My mom came into my room at 6:30 asking my why I was up yet. In that half-asleep mode, I panicked and almost started crying. I had about twenty-five minutes to get ready and be down at the end of my driveway. Long story short, I made it on time, and my bus was actually twenty minutes late. The rest of the day was ok, except I panicked when I realized I did not know my bus number, and there were about fifteen buses!

I went to my first football game last night. Well, varsity football. It was so much fun! Before the game, I went to a friend's house and we were all doing hair and nails and picking out outfits. Oh! And I tried Hawaiian pizza. Without the pineapple. It was good.

One-armed drummer and Chinese food

This past weekend was wonderful with just me and my mom. We had quite a few interesting conversations....one including a drummer with only one arm! I could not believe it. I laughed in disbelief for almost five minutes. I had never ever heard of a drummer with only one arm-was it even possible? So, I looked it up on the trusty old internet, and sure enough, there IS a one-armed drummer. His name is Rick Allen. He was playing for Def Leppard when a vehicle accident severed his left arm. And he played on. Wow. Talk about perseverance and hard work.

As much as that was entertaining, our lunch with the Atkinsons at a Chinese restaurant was much more fun. I know I have eaten Chinese before, just I don't remember it. First we had fun figuring out what animal we are supposed to be like, and what animals we should stay away from. Then they brought us this egg drop soup (I think that is what it was called). It was salty, but good. I had had no idea what to order, and half of the items on the menu I couldn't even pronounce. I got the general chicken with steamed rice. That is the hottest thing I have tasted in a long time! It was so hot that it made my lips water. Literally. Interesting experience. Especially watching Jimmy eat......

School starts tomorrow for my brothers Alex and Chase. They got home at midnight last night caked in sand and dirt and cuts. Gavin even has a burn on his leg from the mini motorcycles they ride around the trails. Poor little guy. Anyway, the house is chaos as they pack backpacks and get school clothes out. They have to wear a uniform, so black dress socks are dug out of the sock drawer, khaki and navy pants are hemmed, and white dress shirts are ironed. Lucky me now that I can wear normal clothes!!!

"TGIF"

It is Friday!!!!!!!!! Another week over with. Yesterday my volleyball tournament started at 8:30 AM(so we had to leave our school at 6:30 AM) and lasted until 6:30 PM. We did not get home until about 8:30 last night. Of course that was after we stopped at Arby's on the way home. Anyway, we played around twenty matches and ended up winning second place in the gold bracket. I am so sore.

My dad and my three brothers went up north to a cabin of one of my relatives. They will be gone until Monday; so Mom and I are going to have some fun this weekend! Shopping, restaurants, games, I cannot wait! We always end up having fun no matter where we are.

Here are just some funny little stories for your enjoyment!
(Location Unknown): A man successfully broke into a bank's basement through a street-level window, cutting himself up pretty badly in the process. He then realized that: (1) he could not get to the money from where he was,(2) he could not climb back out the window through which he had entered, and (3) he was bleeding pretty badly. So he located a phone and dialed "911" for help ...

(Location Unknown): A man walked into a Circle-K (a convenience store similar to a 7-11), put a $20 bill on the counter and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled-- leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer? Fifteen dollars.

Kentucky: Two men tried to pull the front off a cash machine by running a chain from the machine to the bumper of their pickup truck. Instead of pulling the front panel off the machine, though, they pulled the bumper off their truck. Scared, they left the scene and drove home. With the chain still attached to the machine. With their bumper still attached to the chain. With their vehicle's license plate still attached to the bumper.

Just Another Day In Paradise....

I woke up this morning, finally able to sleep in! It felt so good, so right. Then, I had a wonderful breakfast/lunch of Honey Comb cereal, my favorite. Since then, I have been reading, painting by number, and playing Uno with my family (doing nothing super important). Perfect. It is a day like this that I sit back and just realize how much I really have and am blessed with. As much as I complain and want, I really have all that I need to live and much, much more.

I cannot believe that this weekend will be Labor Day weekend! Thankfully we have Friday through Monday off for volleyball! It will give us all a little time to recuperate and relax. Then it is right back into the swing of things with school starting up. Yay! (said sarcastically of course)

Is this not the coolest picture? I found it on this site that has a bunch of other hilarious pictures. My brothers spent ten minutes just looking at them and laughing.

I had my orientation today for school. It was so nerve-wracking to walk into a hallway full of kids I did not know. Then I saw some familiar faces from youth group and volleyball and Faith. It turned out OK, but I now have an appreciation for any new kid and what they have to go through.

Speaking of volleyball, we had our first tournament on Saturday. We won first place, but there was only two other teams there. Oh well. Thursday I have a tournament with a lot more than three teams playing, and I am a little nervous!

My mother just made some delicious smelling brownies; so I am going to go get one.......

As always, ME