Happy New Year's Eve!!

Well, what a year this has been! I am sure there are a million things I am going to forget in this blog, so I apologize to anyone who remembers something I don't from the past year. You can comment if your heart so desires. :)

In 2012...

• I went to my second annual Lord-of-the-Rings-athon
• Had my first tap recital in (at least) 8 years
• Participated in Operation MOMS
• Got strep for the first time
• Went to APACHE (my first homeschool convention)
• Lost a good friend (Gamma)
• Got a new fishy (Delta)
• Found Rock Island with my best friends
• Saw 'Music Man' live for the first time
• Started going to a new small group
• Went to 'Fake Prom' for the first time
• Went to Worldview Academy (and loved every second of it)
• Turned 15 years old
• Celebrated my best friend's 16th birthday :)
• Started my sophomore year of high school
• Talked to the police :)
• Started watching Isabella (my nonkey minin)
• Started a new co-op (and my last co-op)
• Started working with the one years olds at MOPS
• Celebrated Caleb's 17th birthday
• Went to Seattle (for the second time)
• My Aunt got married
• Met my new uncle (Panda)
• Found out I was lactose intolerant
• Went to Fall Festival (Oh, the memories!)
• Celebrated Thanksgiving
• Did Miracle League with Nathan
• Had piano lessons
• Went horseback riding
• Saw 'Fiddler on the Roof'
• Signed many songs with four amazing friends (yes Josiah, that includes you) :)
• Celebrated Christmas
• Caleb got glasses
• Took my top bunk down
• Had the best Christmas piano recital ever!
• Saw 'The Hobbit'
• Saw 'Les Mis'
• Grew a ton closer to my Heavenly Father
• Grew a lot closer with all of my friends
• Found contentment in God (it doesn't stay that way, but I felt what this really feels like for the first time)
• Got new Sunday School teachers
• Discovered the 'Moon Man' :)

These are just a few of the things that happened to me over the past year. I have learned so many lessons from all of my family and friends, whether they know it or not. :)  I know there is so much that is going to happen in this coming year of 2013 and I cannot wait to spend it with all the wonderful people in my life. I am going to try to blog about everything that happens, but who knows how well that is going to work. I am going to start posting a Bible verse everyday this new year. Hopefully it will be an encouragement to everyone reading this and to myself.

P.S. If I left something out that happened this year and you want to share that memory, go right ahead and post it in the comments below. Also, these are not in any particular order.

Les Miserables

Wednesday morning I finally got to see the movie I have been waiting for most of the year. Les Miserables! It was completely wonderful and amazing. Definitely not recommended for young children (under 13) just because of the theme and there are also some suggestive scenes. PG-13 is a very appropriate rating for this movie. It is about a man who is put on parole and breaks it because he wants to change his life and cannot while being on parole. His name is Jean Val jean. He meets a woman who is dying and has a daughter that she cannot take care of. He takes young Cosette into his keeping and raises her. Cosette grows up and falls in love with a man named Marius. A love triangle comes into play when Marius' friend Eponine (my favorite character) is in love with him, but being a typical man, Marius does not realize it. Jean Val jean wants to take Cosette over to England from France because it is not safe for them anymore. Cosette and Marius are devastated, but Marius has to stay and fight in the French Revolution. I will not tell you anymore about the story that way you can still enjoy it. The music is phenomenal and the acting is fantastic. If you are interested it is a musical based on the book "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo. The book is really really good too.  I will warn you the book is very long, but worth the read. (Also the movie is very sad, but since the name of it translated into English is 'the miserable' that is kind of expected)

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I had a wonderful Christmas today. We got up at 6:15 and I played "Carol of the Bells" to wake everyone up. (I did warn them I was going to do this) Then Caleb played "God rest ye merry gentlemen" on his guitar. Then I read the Christmas story from the Bible and we prayed. Everyone opened their presents and was very happy. We had sausage balls for breakfast, which are my absolute favorite. My grandparents sent me and my mom a Cricut mini, so we were trying to figure that out. Then we played a card game called 'Pit' which is really fun. We had turkey, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes for lunch. After that, we all pretty much just laid around. Over all it was a really good Christmas.

My crazy weekend

Now that I have caught everyone up, I can tell you about last weekend. Saturday my mom, Caleb, and I all went to see the Hobbit movie. Dad was sick so he could not go. The movie was pretty good, but it did not follow the book real well. The book was much better. We did a little bit of Christmas shopping, grabbed some dinner, and then came home. Sunday Sharyssa, Rebekah, Josiah, Katherine, and I were signing in church. It was also my piano recital, in which we signed again. I played 'Carol of the Bells' as a duet with Mrs. Greene. It was really fun! Everyone else did really really well. The last person to play the piano was phenomenal! He played 'Sleigh Ride'. After the recital, we all went down into the fellowship hall for snacks and apple cider. After that, we came home and sat around the rest of the day. Today is my calm down day. Bella has been pretty agreeable, besides the fact she is in time out right now, and there is not rush to get anything done. Christmas break is delightful!

A little catching up to do

I really don't know what was going on when I last posted, other than I did not finish the Seattle posts. I got to the end of my journal that I kept, so I do not remember the rest of the days that well anymore. I will start with Thanksgiving and go on from there. Actually I will mention that I got contacts the week before Thanksgiving. Izzy did not recognize me and would hide for a while. Then I asked if she was my 'nonkey ninin' (monkey minion) and she got all excited and said "yes Kiki"

Thanksgiving was just me and my family. We made lunch and had way to much Turkey. :) Then I took a nap and the rest of the family just sat around all day. That pretty much sums up my Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree. It was Caleb's year to put the angel on the top of the tree. We got out all the boxes and ornaments and made the long endeavor of putting the tree up, We have an artificial tree, so it requires being assembled and  'fluffed'. Fluffing the tree is my least favorite part because your arms get all scraped up. Not much happened the rest of the weekend...or the week for that matter.

That next weekend though was mine and Sharyssa's annual Christmas sleepover. We take turns for whose house it is at, so this year it was my turn. My mom and I picked up Sharyssa and we got our nails done at the mall, then went to lunch at Panda Express (in the mall). We came back to my house and took a walk then worked on 'Held'. Since our brains were dead, we watched a little bit of 'Castle' and then made no-bake cookies. While the no-bake cookies were cooling we looked at wedding type stuff. Then we had a tea party in which we came up with nicknames for each other that we had a long time ago. Sharyssa was Ms. Magnolia Dolittle and I was Ms. Amber Honeysuckle. We exchanged gifts and then went to bed. She got me a music box that plays 'Masquerade' from Phantom of the Opera. I love it a lot!! It was a Saturday so the next day we had to get up and take a shower quickly and get to church.

Thursday that week, was gingerbread cookie day. Isabella was quite happy about this experience. We made two batches and that is about 10 dozen cookies. :) They were for the Christmas tea at church that Saturday though so we could not eat many of them.

As I just mentioned the Christmas tea was Saturday. My family had to be at the church at 11:00 so that everyone else could set up. I drew a Christmas tree on the dry erase board in the fellowship hall and goofed around until everyone else started showing up. Most people did not get there until about and hour before. The tea itself was quite fun. The teenage girls had a table to ourselves, so we were a little goofier than if we had to sit with the adults. We did not get home until almost 7:00 that night. 

Seattle Day 3 (Thursday)

Hectic is the only word that comes to mind. We all got up really early and ran to Panera for breakfast. Then the boys left us and we went to some stores on the Landing, which is a giant shopping center. It is kind of like a giant outdoor mall. It was freezing cold out and I didn't bring a jacket, so I got one at one of the stores we had to go to. Auntie's car was being fixed by her own personal pit crew. (aka Caleb, Dad, and Papa) She came in the Jeep to take us girls to IKEA. We were meeting Brian's mom, Michelle, at IKEA so we walked a little ways and then turned around to go back to the door to wait for her. Once she got there, we walked around looking at things and grabbing what we needed. Then Auntie came in her Subaru, which was fixed, to pick us up. The boys followed her to make sure nothing went wrong. They took all the IKEA stuff and put it in the jeep so that we did not have to try to fit all of us in with the stuff into the Subaru. We then went to Michael's craft store to grab the craft stuff needed for the wedding. Then we went to LifeWay Bible Bookstore because Gram needed some stuff to take back to Alaska. Jack (Brian's dad) came and picked up Michelle while we were in the bookstore. Then we stopped at Auntie's and picked up something she needed to take to a friends house. We dropped by her school and got the coffee pots for the wedding reception. The kids all ran to her and screamed with joy when she came in. It was so cute!! Next we dropped the things off at her friends house. Then we went to pick up her veil and bouquet. The lady who made them has a little boy name Finnigan who is absolutely adorable! Since all of our tasks for the day were accomplished, we drove into downtown Seattle and went to Dillitante. It is a magnificent chocolate store and restaurant. They did not open for about fifteen minutes, so we went and got Auntie's bridesmaid's gifts. We went back to Dillitante to eat dinner. It was delightful. I had a white hot chocolate and some hummus with really addicting crackers. Auntie took us back to her house and we got to meet Brian. He will fit into our family quite nicely. :) We went home and then chilled out for the rest of the night. End of day 3!

The Arrival of Autumn

When I woke up this morning, it was only 42 degrees!! It was actually really cold! I took Izzy outside for just a little while to play with bubbles and I had to wear a jacket over my sweater. I am quite happy it is finally getting cold outside. Right now we have cakes cooling because we need them cooled off really fast. We are making a special ice cream cake for our friend's birthday and taking it to him as a surprise later. :) I need to go help.

Seattle Day 2 (Wednesday)

I got up at 6:30 and wrote a little bit in my journal. Of course it was dark because I didn't want to wake up any one else. Papa got up pretty quick after that, so I did not get too much done. We started coffee and hot water for tea. I had vanilla caramel tea. It was delicious. I had a peanut butter bar of some sort for breakfast. We sat around most of the morning just doing a little bit of planning. Right before lunch I started to work on the the banner for the reception hall. Markers and glitter glue are my friends. WE all had leftovers from dinner for lunch, then the boys took a walk down to the water. I stayed at the house and worked on the banner for a while. When the boys got back, they and Gram went down to the ceremony site and reception hall to learn where they both were. After a while, we ran to Jack in the Box for dinner. While we were ordering, Auntie called and said her car had broken down, but she had a ride coming. We came home and ate dinner, all worrying about her. In the process of us eating, a car accident happened right outside the house we were staying in. Everyone ran outside, but Caleb and I were told to stay on the porch. It was terrifying to watch as two infants and a first/second grader were pulled out of the car. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Everyone came back to the house and we finished dinner. I read a little, then Dad and Papa left to go look at Auntie's car. They already knew what was wrong, but they wanted to see how hard it would be to fix. Caleb and I played a game of "Battleship" which he won. Then I went to bed. End of day 2! :)

Seattle Day 1 (Tuesday)

We got up at three a.m. yo pack last minute things and get dressed before our ride to the airport arrived. He got there and we put all of our suitcases in the back of the truck. Next we all got in. Unfortunately the truck only had five seats, which meant we had to ride all the way to the airport squished together. We got on our first plane (after getting some Starbucks) on time and it was really empty. We had a layover in Minnesota. Of course, our gate was on the other side of the airport. :) Did you know in the middle of the Minneapolis airport there is a full-blown shopping mall? There is. We had to walk through it to get to our gate. :( Thankfully we made it to the gate in plenty of time. The flight was really crowded and stuffy. I was thankful to get off. Papa met us outside and we drove to Auntie's house. She greeted us, along with Gram, and we went for a walk to get lunch. All of us ate outside at Panera except Caleb and Dad, who ate at Panda Express. After that, the girls and guys split up to do our own thing. Us girls went to a kitchen store and party store to grab some stuff for the wedding. Then we stopped by a shoe store because Gram needed some shoes for the wedding. I found a pair of sparkly converse that I fell in love with. I am still thinking about what to draw on the toes. :) When we got back to Auntie's house, I went through some clothes of hers that she was going to give to Good Will. There was a lot of clothes that did not fit, but a lot that did too, which makes me very happy. After a while, we loaded up the cars and drove to our rental house. It was really small, but it worked. Mine and Caleb's bunk bed was just in a tiny nook off the hallway. I didn't really like it, but living with a curtain as your door/wall can be counted as an adventure, right? After exploring our house and hanging out for a while, we went to an Irish restaurant. I wasn't really hungry, but I got a shepherd's pie. Everyone else was a little bit more adventurous. We went back to the house and set up computers and internet. Mom, Gram, and Papa all went to Trader Joe's to stock up the kitchen, while the rest of us stayed home to rest. I went straight to bed. End of day 1. :)

I'm home!!

So after a long week in Seattle, I am home! Starting tomorrow I will post my journal entries from each day.

I feel bad not posting anything at all. :( I guess I could tell everyone that I am in Seattle for my aunt's wedding. It was yesterday and it was wonderful. I will start posting things on Wednesday about the week. I have been keeping a journal of everything, so I will just post those entries. Au revoir!!

Just letting everyone know (especially three girls of whom I promised), I will not be posting for about a week, because I am out of town and want to include all the details, but not while I am still here. :) So, I will post later. Have a good week!

P.S. To those I promised, I am sending you guys emails everyday with updates. Promise is just compromised, not broken. :) I may send you more than one email a day, so remember to check it. Also remember I am a little behind you guys time zone wise, so they may not be up before night time there in Chicago. :) Love you all!!

Caleb's birthday

Yesterday was Caleb's birthday, but I did not feel like putting up the pictures. In the morning, Mom and I went to get our hair cut and the boys went around and looked at crossbows. While we were at the mall, Caleb got a set of throwing knives. They are quite fun. :) After lunch we gave Caleb his main birthday present. A kilt. That night we had small group and they threw a little birthday party for him. (In other words, we got a cake, which had chocolate ice cream in the middle. YUM!!!) Since I don't feel like explaining in words, here are some pictures. :)

 Caleb in his kilt.

Caleb with his throwing knives.

Me with my knife I got to stick. :)

Me on my swing.

Caleb happily showing off his knives.

Me with my new hair cut.

My evil face. :) (or not)

Happy Birthday!!

Today is the day to wish my dearest brother

Happy Birthday Caleb "Flyboy"!

 I hope your birthday is absolutely wonderful. I love you big brother, even though I don't always show it. :) I can't believe you are already 17! 

 

MOPS

Well, yesterday I watched 17 one year olds for two hours yesterday. My mind is not really working still from all of that work. There were five of us with the 17 kids and we had several kids who screamed the whole time. Thankfully the two year old class did not have too many kids and they took some of our really loud screamers out. There was one little boy named Caleb and he was in a dinosaur outfit, so we called him Calebasaurus. He adored my brother Caleb. There was also a girl named Ellory who had the prettiest eyes every seen. They were amber. She was also a snuggler. Most of the kids were really good, except for one who could break glass with his scream. Overall, it was a lot of fun. By the way, Misty is feeling much better.

Another really long post

I am seriously needing new blog titles!! Maybe having a full day and being brain dead is what is making me not be able to come up with anything. :) Today was library day with Izzy, so we took her to story time at the library. Our tradition is that we take a walk on the bike trail right by the library and then take her in for story time. She is not at all a shy child, but at story time she will not leave my lap. Today I convinced her to play with the bubbles without me. I was quite proud of her. :) After we all picked out some books, we left the library and went to feed the local swans. A long time ago I named the Gus and Gertie. They are beautiful and I wish I had pictures of Izzy getting to feed them. Around the swans there is a really tall fence. It is probably five feet tall. Izzy could not get the feed to the birds, being only two, so I put her on my shoulders. She thought this was one of the most fun things she could have done. After that we came home and started lunch. It was going to be quite a while before we ate, so I took Izzy outside to play for a little bit. She asked if we could go for a walk on the trail behind our house and I told her yes. Of course, she does not call walks walks, she calls the flowers because that is the only reason (in her mind) you go for walks; it is to find flowers. I laugh every time she asks if we can go flower. :) She ran up and down and around me finding flowers and announcing it. She also likes hanging off of things, so I let her hang off of a tree for a little while. Izzy quite enjoys that type of thing. Caleb came out after a while and told us lunch was ready. We fed her so lunch and then put her down for nap. Our usual nap routine is I lay her down on the little couch in the living room with her special pillow, blanket, and puppy, then I turn on something on the tv I want to watch. I do this because she will not fall asleep very quickly if she is just laying there and tries to find other things to occupy her mind, which usually causes trouble. I do school while little bit is napping. Today I was going over to one of our friends houses to cut out the pattern for a dress I want to make, but we decided to wait because we are not positive of the measurements and also it will be too cold to wear the dress by the time I have it finished. So I am waiting until the spring to start sewing it. After we came home, Izzy was awake and we played some games until her brother got there. Then she ran around the house pretending to be a puppy until her mom came. After her mom left, mom ran to get dad from work and we had dinner. While mom was making dinner, I decided to do one of my school assignments. We are supposed to do a kind act for someone in our family this week. It has to be something they need and not something they want though. My first thought was to clean and organize Caleb's room. This is what I am doing, but I did not realize how kind I was really being until I started. Unfortunately I will not be able to finish until morning because Misty is not feeling well and she likes sleeping on Caleb's bed. (By the way, I would highly appreciate prayers for Misty. She is really not being herself and I am really worried. I guess prayers for the family would be nice too, because she is a pretty old dog and we are all worried for her.) I know I spoil my dog way too much and could go into Caleb's room and clean, but why would I want to do that. The dog is just a good excuse not to do it. :) That is pretty much all that is going on in my life. Other than the book I got from the library is a music book that has a whole bunch of pop hits that I like a lot in it. It also has tips for each of the songs. I have not tried to play from it yet, but am really excited! Sorry this post was so long! I hope everyone has a good night/day! (depending on when you read this)

Labor Day

Today was labor day. I was not feeling too good this morning, so I just sat around. Then I had to do some school, because I do not have off. Thankfully I got a lot of my history done so I don't have to do as much when we have Izzy. A little while before lunch, Mom and I started working through my math. Algebra 2 is not fun. That took until lunch. We ate leftovers and Dad finished some strange war type movie he was watching. After a while, Mom and I worked some more on math until I finally understood what I was supposed to be doing. I still have not quite finished, but I got really close. Mom and I ran to the store to grab some stuff and then came home. The boys worked outside for a while and then we made hot dogs over the fire pit in the backyard. They were delicious! That is pretty much all we did for our tiny celebration of labor day.

 Caleb loading the fire with wood.

 Dad and Caleb standing proudly with their fire.


Misty ready to play.



Dad sitting in his chair happy to be outside. :)

 Rosco, the dog next door, trying to get Misty's attention to play.

 The lone rose that bloomed off a certain plant.

The hot dogs cooking in the fire pit. Yum!!

Caleb soaking the fire pit with his super soaker after we finish cooking dinner and the wood supply had been exhausted.

New Gadget thingymabob

So for those of you who have not noticed, there is a new gadget thingymabob on the side of the blog. It is titled 'Songs stuck in my head'. I put this up here because I always have a song or two (and sometimes more) stuck in my head. I thought it would be fun to put these up on here. You can learn a lot about a person by the type of music they listen to. Unfortunately, all the songs that get stuck in my head are not always the songs I listen too, but Caleb listens to. So this shall be incredibly interesting. Enjoy! :)

It works!!!

This morning, Dad had to go work because it is the first day of the month and there is a lot of work he had to do. I slept in until 9:00 this morning, so Mom and Caleb were already up and functioning. When I went out into the living room, Mom told me a guy was coming to fix the air conditioner. I was super excited. Yesterday it was 95 degrees inside the house, so Mom and Dad decided it was time to get it fixed. Right now I am enjoying my bedroom, nice and cold. I cannot wait for the whole family to sleep well and to be able to sleep with my door and window closed again.

Last week not too much went on in my life. Co-op was on Wednesday instead of Monday because the other family we are doing class with had something going on Monday. The only downfall of this is we only have 3 days, not counting the weekend, to get our work done. Technically we have more thought because we are not meeting at all next week because of Labor Day, so we have 2 weeks of work to do in a week and a half.

We took Izzy to McDonalds last week to let her play in the play place. At first she would not go into the play place at all because there were too many kids, but finally I convinced her that it would be okay to go into the toddler area. After she had been in there a little while, she started climbing up the big kid area. I did not think she was going to be able to make it to the top with all of the older kids going up and down, but she made it and walked around up there for a while. When she was about to go down the slide, some kids ran up the slide and it scared her too bad, so she came back down the way she went up. I was really proud of her for trying though.

A crazy day

               Sunday was incredibly insane. In the morning, I really wanted to check the cast list for 'Fiddler on the Roof', but I had promised somebody in particular I would not look. This drove me crazy until we left for church. My mom did tell me that she learned from Chandler's mom that he was Tevye (the father). I was super excited! Unfortunately, I still did not know who Sharyssa was. We went to church and I had nursery, so I did not know when Sharyssa got there. I was talking to one of my other friends, and then we told my dad we were waiting for Sharyssa. Katherine went up to check and my dad told me she was already there. I flew up the stairs as fast as I could. When I got up there, I walked at a very fast pace towards her. She was in!! She is a villager mama. I cannot wait to see the show!
            After church, we came home and let the dogs out (we are watching Gwendalin), got changed, and ate lunch. We sat around for a little while, then left to go to a friend's graduation party. It was at an equestrian center, so we got to be led around on horses. The horse I rode was named Princess. She was beautiful. The graduation party was a lot of fun. There were six kids and we all sat around to talk. I don't remember the names of everyone, because I did not know two of them at all.

Above is a picture of my riding Princess. We were in the indoor arena because it was really, really muddy outside from the rain.

Fiddler on the Roof Auditions

Last night I went to my dear friend Sharyssa's audition for 'Fiddler on the Roof'. She was fantastic!! They came and picked me up last night and then went to pick up Rebekah, Katherine, and Kylee. Then we drove to the auditions and had quite amusing conversations all the way there. When we got there, we said hello to some people we knew and then went and sat down to watch the group before Sharyssa's. They all did really well. Then we watched Sharyssa's group preform. One of my old friends was in her group and he did amazing. If you are going to know anything about Chandler it is that he is a comedian. When he got on the stage he immediately made everyone start laughing. All the directors just sat back to enjoy, not taking any notes. :) Sharyssa sang the song 'Heart' from a musical I will not say the name of. She had great stage presence, annunciation, and never went off pitch. It was ultimately perfect. <3 Afterwards, we talked with our friends a little bit, then went back towards home and stopped at Culver's for ice cream to celebrate. Then we dropped off Rebekah, Katherine, and Kylee and the Whites and headed homeward bound. :) Sharyssa and I laughed literally the entire way home. It was a wonderful time! This morning Sharyssa called me and told me she has been called back!! She is in the top 16 girls and there are 8 girl leads. That pretty much means she is either a lead or an understudy. :) I cannot wait for her to tell me who she got tomorrow!!! The only thing I am not happy about is she made me promise I would not look up the cast list tomorrow morning so she could tell me and it would be a surprise. That will be a torturous morning. Anyway, she has asked for prayers all of today while she is at her call back and for tonight while she awaits the cast list. She is hoping to be the youngest sister that marries (at a loss for knowing how to say her name). The one that marries the 'gentile'. So she does have a good chance of getting her and all of us are hoping she does. Good luck Sharyssa!!! 

Lots of little things

So I haven't posted in a little while and there have been a few things that have happened, all of them are just kind of random.

Sunday Sharyssa came over for a little bit so we could just have time to be together and to work on the play (sassafrassandsimba.blogspot.com). We wanted to take some pop into my room, but that required us to put lids on the cups. Thus we were drinking from sippy cups.

So that was that. Today I was taking pictures of Izzy and thought I would put some of them up here.

Throwing the frisbee for Misty.

"Puppy!!!"

"I got it!!"

Playing on the scooter.

So that is what has been going on in my life.

Isabella and the Mayflower

This week we started watching a 2 year old named Isabella, but we call her Izzy. She is incredibly adorable. I am watching her for my child development class. We also watch her older brother, who is in first grade, for about an hour in the afternoon. His name is Ethan. Yesterday I was practicing my piano while Izzy played with my dolls, and she decided she wanted to play with me. Slowly, little Izzy crawled up into my lap and started playing the piano. At first it was like all little kids play, banging their hands and giggling. Then she watched me for a minute and put her hands on the piano with her fingers curved. She played each key individually, trying to copy the song I was playing. It was so cute! I love my little Izzybella!

Since we don't have Izzy today, Caleb and I had to do a school assignment concerning the Mayflower. We both have to do six hours of our school in a 7 foot by 2 1/2 foot box on the floor. Thankfully, we both have our own little boxes marked out with masking tape. Everything we need had to be in the box when we started. After we had been sitting there a while, Mom told us we had one minute to collect anything else we needed. Now I am at my last 3 minutes and am hoping it beeps soon, because I did not bring enough food. Caleb started 30 minutes after me, so he still has 32 minutes. I now feel for the people in the Mayflower. This has been miserable.

The first week of school

Well....it has been quite a while. Last Monday was my first day of school. The first week always goes by really fast and is always really easy (just because it is all review).
History: KONOS American History
Writing: (same as above)
Bible: (same as above)
Literature: American Lit (KONOS)
Math: Algebra 2 (Math U See)
Science: Child Development and Embryology (Way more curiculums than I can count)
Music: Piano

This may not look like much work, but it is all senior level work (except piano, which is just at my ability level). Doing this as a sophomore is quite difficult. I used to be able to have all of my school done before lunch, now I work until 3:30 at the earliest. :( Hopefully I will get into a routine soon. 

Oh yeah....our air conditioner is still broken. Thankfully the weather has cooled off quite a bit, so it is not bad. All the windows in the house just stay open all the time. 

Church picnic and first day of school

Saturday was our church picnic. It is the first picnic I have been able to go to in a long time because of Miracle League. It was a ton of fun. My friends and I got to talk quite a bit, which I like a lot. There was also a little hidden area that Sharyssa and I found, which was really cool.

Today was my first day of school. I got up pretty early and did my math. Then later this morning, some of the kids in our co-op (the ones that are starting early) came to our house. That went really well. After that I finished the rest of my school with ease. The day is now done.

Another thing going on at my house is the air conditioner is broken. We have fans blowing all over the place and the windows open, because it is cooler outside. Hopefully we will get it fixed soon. :) Dad is giving Misty a bath right now to cool her off. She is quite happy about that.

An innocent bike ride

In my last post I mentioned that I talked to a police officer. I figured you would all like to know what that was about. Last Thursday, one of my friends and I went for an innocent bike ride down to a park near my house. While we were putting flowers in our hair, being totally normal, a police officer approached us. We thought at first he did not want us to be picking the flowers, so we pulled our hands off really slowly. When he made it across the field we were in, he pointed to a bike and asked if it was either of ours. Quickly we replied it was not and he left us. A couple minutes later he returned and said there was a mistake and pointed to a dark blue bike on the other side of the park and asked if we rode that one. Calmly, we said yes. Mr. Police officer asked us if he could see the VIN number on the bike because it matched the profile of a bike that was stolen from the area. Very willingly me and my friend went over and flipped the bike. While he was writing down the numbers, another police officer came up to us. This one was quite a bit more threatening than the other one. He had a bullet proof vest, guns, and handcuffs. My friend and I were terrified! Both of us were ready to just give them the bike. Thankfully, the number did not match and the police officers thanked us and left. We decided it was time to go home. :) All the way home we were laughing about us being villains. When we returned to my house we told my mom and she teased us about having flower power. We couldn't stop laughing. That was our encounter with a police officer. :)

Countdown to the First Day of School

Summer has gone by way too fast! I start school in 5 days, so I thought I would highlight my summer for everybody.

• Played Miracle League Baseball
• Attended Worldview Academy
• Turned 15
• Had a surprise birthday for Sharyssa's Sweet 16
• Had piano lessons
• Enjoyed lots of bike rides
• Talked to a police officer
• Had many a play dates with my friends
• Competed in high school vs. college group olympics

That is pretty much all I did this summer other than just relaxing and not worrying about school, which is what summer is about, right? 

Pictures

 Sharyssa and Rebekah at the tea house.

Me and Sharyssa.

 Kylee and Sharyssa

 Katherine and Sharyssa

 Linnea and Sharyssa

 Sharyssa and her mom

 The tea house put a little setting for Sharyssa. If you cannot read the little picture frame, it says 'Happy Sweet 16!'.

 Sharyssa opening presents.

 Sharyssa enjoying the cold and refreshing strawberry lemonade. :)

 One of my favorite pictures of Sharyssa in her blue dress.

 Group picture.

 All of us holding scrabble letters that spell 'friends'.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARYSSA!

Happy Sweet 16 to a very special person!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARYSSA!!

Last Friday was a surprise party that was in the making since October or November.

It started out by me 'forgetting' my piano books at my lesson the day before.

Friday morning at 8:45 seven excited guests showed up at my house.

We straightened Rebekah's hair while we waited for Sharyssa to arrive.

At 9:10, Sharyssa came to drop off my piano music on the way to a 'doctors appointment'.

She walked into my room, suspecting nothing, where we were all waiting to surprise here.

All of us yelled, "SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" the instant she walked into the room.

She was so stunned! At first, she got really upset thinking we had gotten the dates wrong, that her birthday was next weekend. 

Then she realized we were all there and she had to go to the doctor. 

We all quickly told her she was not going to the doctors, but she was still confused.

After we did Katherine and Kylee's hair, we set out to go to the hair salon to get the birthday girls hair done.

We all watched as her hair was curled and pinned. It was gorgeous!

Then we went to a quaint little tea house for a birthday lunch. All of the food was delicious and Sharyssa had a lot of fun. 

While we were at the tea house, Sharyssa opened her presents.

The Whites gave her a homemade hat and twirly scarf, which were both very cute. 

Linnea gave her a special book.

Her Aunt gave her a pearl necklace. 

I gave her some sparkly body mist.

After opening presents, we went to go pick up a dear friend Mikayla to do pictures. 

She led us into a nearby park. 

Sharyssa was gorgeous in all of her pictures!

After Mikayla had to go home, we took some more pictures of the groups. 

When we had gotten our fill of pictures, we all went back to Sharyssa's house.

We painted little jars to use as cups, which was a lot of fun.

Then we had a small tea time, with "rasberry cordial" (also known as sparkling grape juice), Texas sheet cake, and frozen fruit.

Then the White girls had to go home. :'(

Kylee, Sharyssa, and I all walked down to the park for a little while, then came back and had hot dogs for dinner.

We were also playing a game of Skip-Bo while we ate.

Then we watched 'Singing in the Rain', of which I fell asleep during. 

After the movie was over, we went into their living room and fell asleep pretty quickly.

The next morning was nothing eventful. We all got up and got ready to go. 

Sharyssa and Kylee were meeting the White girls at the beach, but I was not going because I needed to get some rest before that night.

I left pretty quickly after breakfast. 

The fun was over.

Now on her real 16th birthday, I pray she has a fantasical day full of fun and love. 

(I will put another post up with the pictures in a little while, but my fingers are quite tired.)

Birthday part 2

After everyone left, I waited for Daddy to get home. When he got home, I showed him all my presents from my friends and my shark socks from Caleb. Then it was finally time to open the mysterious present that sat on our table all day long. I knew it was from my parents, but I had to wait until Dad got home to open it. I, not so slowly, took the tissue paper out and pulled out a box. I have learned in my family that you ignore whatever it says on the box, because it is probably not what is really inside. So when I read Kindle on the box, it did not effect me at all. The reason we had a Kindle box never crossed my mind while I slowly opened the box. Well, this time it really was what the box said. I got a Kindle!! I was overjoyed. I got a Kindle touch, so it does not have a really shiny screen. After messing with my Kindle for a while, we went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. It was delicious. Daddy took all of us to Dairy Queen afterwards, but I could hardly eat any of my ice cream. That was okay though, because I got to eat it today. When we came home, I played around on my kindle some more, which was pretty much just getting some books on there and figuring out how it works. Then I went to bed for the day. I have to say it was one of my best birthdays. Definitely in the top 5.

My Birthday!

Yesterday was my 15th birthday. I got up and went to the gym with mom. This was by choice, she didn't force me to go workout on my birthday. Then I came home and made breakfast burritos for my dad to take to work. After that, I made my birthday cake. It was delicious red velvet cake.

Me and Caleb decided that this did not look very much like cake batter. I looked like a vampire after licking the bowl. :)

 These are part of my present from Caleb. (The other part is not here yet) They are shark socks. Anyone who knows the baby shark song will get the meaning of this. We had lunch, then skyped with my grandpa in Alaska. My friends all got to my house right after we stopped talking to my grandpa. We made little plate-like things that we decorated with sharpies and ribbon. Then we had cake and tiger tea. After that we all made ribbon bracelets and necklaces. They all looked really cool. Then we had time to just goof off. It is easier to explain with pictures, so here you go!

 They all sang happy birthday, quite loudly might I add.

 Kylee was playing on my exercise ball.

 Rebekah, Sharyssa, and Kylee thought up a game of pulling each other on the ball. Here is an example of Rebekah. Sharyssa is pulling her feet and when Sharyssa stops, Kylee will pull her hands. They do this quite fast for a thrilling ride.

Katherine teasing us by getting on the ball, but not letting us give 

her the ride.

Kylee making faces at the camera. :)

Independence Day

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, so Daddy did not have to go to work. Me and him made chocolate chip pancakes. Then Dad took Caleb to the gym. We just hung around until dinner, which was barbecue sausage and mashed potatoes. Then we went to our usual spot to watch the fireworks. Unfortunately, our spot was blocked off so we had to go find a new spot. We like our new spot much better. You can see all of the fireworks much clearer. We had to wait about 2 hours before they started, but once they did it was really cool. Happy Independence Day!!

My Week in Pictures (minus lectures)

 Day 1. Alica, her sister Jessica, me, and some of Jessica's friends. Alicia and I were talking and Jessica was talking with her friends. Someone asked us to take a picture, so we did. I honestly have no idea who the other two girls are. Alica is right beside me (second to left) and Jessica is in the middle.

 My evangelizing group (to the right). We were talking to a boy that we stopped on his skateboard just about to put his headphones on.

 My small group playing mafia. From left to right it is me, Alicia, Sarah, Kathryn, and the person kind of hidden is Jennifer.

 The bean bag toss at our relay. All the girls were lined up on one side and the guys are on the other. We were tossing a bean bag back and forth and if we dropped it we had to start back at the beginning of the line.

 Ultimate Frisbee practice on Tuesday afternoon. We were playing sleeves and sleeveless. I was on sleeves.

 The blue team's cheer included all of us doing the can-can. This is just four of our very uncoordinated group. Thankfully, we are actually all doing the same thing. :)

 Alicia playing Phase 10. She was posing for the camera. This was during our break before dinner and we were all incredibly bored waiting for Jennifer to come, so we got out our Phase 10 cards.

 My small group and the small group that gave us the tea party. I wish I remembered everyone's names, but I don't.

 Kathryn and I at breakfast Friday morning. (left)







(bottom) Jennifer and I after our last small group meeting.

My amazing small group on Friday. From left to right: Kathryn, Joelle, Anna, me, Alicia, Margaret, Sarah, and Summer. Jennifer is taking the picture. :)