Ballet and Babies

I am not usually a superstitious person. I am a self-proclaimed realist with OCCASIONAL tendencies towards being a hopeless romantic. But I am not usually superstitious.

Tonight was dance class :D I love dance, and I love my teacher. She's so sarcastic, and hilarious. She's 28. We learn a lot of strange, random things from her. She tells us about having kids and the things to look for in a house and celebrity crushes and she gives us advice on boys.

So today, we got started talking about babies. (Boys, don't panic. This is not going to be that bad XD) And apparently, there's an old wives' tale where you have someone else dangle a necklace over your wrist and wait. After a few seconds, the necklace will start to sway in a pattern that will tell you the gender of your first child. Then the necklace will stop, and if you'll have more kids, it'll keep going and tell you the rest of them.

In my head: "Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight."

But, all the dance teachers at the studio have tried it. There are like 12 of them. And the necklace has never been wrong. Ever. And it'll give the same person the same thing every time. So. Hm.

Well, being the easily amused and distracted bunch we are, Adrianna yanks off her necklace and we decide to test it on each one of us.

It's freaky watching the necklace at work. It just sits there, then it suddenly starts to sway. If it sways parallel to your arm (towards your wrist and then back to your body), it represents a boy. If it sways horizontally, it's a girl. If it sways in a circle, that means twins. Then it'll sway to tell you if your twins are boys, girls, one of each, yada yada yada.

It was intense. All of us holding our breath, watching the necklace tell each girl what she was going to have. My friend Susanna was so into it. (But then again, Susanna gets really into everything XD) She almost cried when she "saw" her kids.

All the girls went. I was the only one left. (Dramatic, right?) I was slightly torn, because I've always said I wanted to be surprised, but I figured what the heck. I held out my wrist.

As some of y'all might know, I'm very adamant about having a boy first. I've always mourned the fact that I don't have an older brother, so it's really important to me that none of my kids have that issue. Preferably, I want boy, girl, boy, girl. Like really bad.

I watch the necklace dangling over my wrist. It just sat there.

That was awful. No kids?? At all?? D:

But then it started swaying. My heart started pounding. What was it? What would it be?

A BOY!! It was a boy! Everyone cheered for me XD They know how much I want that.

The necklace stopped, then started again. It was a girl! How amazing was that? I was thrilled. Then...

Another boy.

Freaking wow.

After that, it was done. Apparently I'm only having three children (boy, girl, boy). But WOW, three out of four is NOT BAD AT ALL. XD

Normally I'd just roll my eyes at this crap, but...if it's never been wrong...and it's consistent...hmmm? ;)

Note: Here's the killer though. It's the male that determines the sex of your baby. So...technically, your babies' gender is NO WHERE inside you, girls. But hey. It's worth a shot, right? XD
~~~~~~~~~~
My Favorite Books
181. The Mortal Instruments trilogy
182. The Farsala trilogy
183. The Inheritance cycle
184. The Uglies series
185. The Da Vinci Code
186. Inkheart
187. A Morbid Taste for Bones
188. The Maximum Ride books
189. Sophie’s World
190. The Princess Bride

Things that Scare Me
191. Rock climbing
192. Being alone in dark, sketchy parts of town
193. Heights
194. Losing people
195. Being out of control
196. Drowning
197. Arachnids (spiders and scorpions >.<) 198. Being unprepared 199. Crazy people (like, actually mental XD) 200. GOING crazy Things About Clothes
201. I hate pointy-toed shoes.
202. Skinny jeans only work on girls.
203. There’s a line between “mini-skirt” and “is that a belt?”
204. Dresses don’t have to be girly.
205. I’ve worn white shoes after Labor Day.
206. High-water pants are hideous.
207. Make sure your shirts aren’t see-through.
208. White socks with black/brown shoes will never be okay.
209. Hot pink and red are supposed to be okay together these days. Well, they’re not.
210. Knock-off shoes are not a bad thing. If they look the same, who cares? Now you can spend those 40 extra bucks on something else.

~Kendra

Junior Year: Week 1

~ Spanish
~ Shakespeare
~ Poetry
~ American History
~ Chemistry
~ Philosophy
~ Logic
~ Algebra

So far, Junior year is okay :) I'm hoping to bridge the Gap of the Cliques once and for all this year. You might think I've got my work cut out for me (and...well, maybe I do), but anything's possible.

I wanna try and not get behind or put off my work. So far, I'm doing pretty well, but today was pretty bad. I got a late start and couldn't seem to get motivated. Some personal stuff is giving me a lot of trouble lately. But hey, I am living and learning. (The laughing and loving are the hard parts right now.)

I made a sign in Spanish this afternoon, inviting my family to watch "Gone with the Wind" with me tonight. At least Momma and Daddy showed up :D I really do like that movie, even though it's a total downer. It's a really interesting story. Scarlet o'Hera fascinates me, Rhett Butler amuses me, Melanie Hamilton amazes me and Ashley Wilkes just disgusts me, but it's interesting, especially along with my American History class.

Other News
I missed soccer sign-ups for the first time in nine years.
At least dance starts in a couple of weeks.

I haven't felt that good today for some reason. Just generally pretty down about things and lacking the energetic motivation I had last week and through the weekend. I'm really stressed out. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow.

~Kendra

"The King and I"

I never liked the name Eliza, but now I love it :) It feels like a part of me. I've been Eliza for the past week, and I loved it. All the waiting backstage during the shows was pretty boring, but dancing is always so worth it. And this time there was acting involved, too. I didn't know I could act. I always felt like I could, but I'd never tried. Apparently I'm not too bad at it XD (Although yesterday, the day pretty much all my friends came, I didn't do as well with the acting *sigh* Of course.)

The costumes and makeup were crazy. I can't say that I liked the process, but seeing how different I looked was kind of fun :) Pictures? If you insist :) This was a great experience and I'll never forget it.

Captions on the bottom.

Momma experimenting with how to get my hair in a bun exactly on the top of my head XDDying my hair black :DAll the supplies for my bun XDMaddie, the cutest Siamese princess in the world.Me and my mom (note the black bun :D XD).Me and Danae. She was a fellow Hun in "Mulan"!Danae doing a pose from the ballet ("Small House of Uncle Thomas").Princess Ying YaowlakMore friends :DSIAMESE WIFE MAKEUP!!!! I could hardly recognize myself. It was so strange looking in the mirror.The dress for the song "Western People Funny" when the Siamese wives dress up like European ladies.The dance for "Western People Funny".The opening for "Small House of Uncle Thomas", starring.........Eliza! Played by yours truly :)Oh yes. And my baby. George.
Eliza and the Angel.A part of the ballet.Me before Eliza makeup.Me after Eliza makeup :) (Too bad I'd already taken down my hair in this picture :-/)Eva, Eliza, and Topsy :)Eliza (who looks awful in this picture XD) and her evil master, Simon of Legree! I really wish he'd hold up his mask in this picture, it's SO FREAKY. I'm gonna try to find a picture of it...Me, Lizzy, and Princess Maddie :)Me and Maddie.My hair after I took it down!

~Kendra

Dance, Dance

Well, the old philosophy of
"Bad rehearsal, good performance"

has been proven...

CORRECT!

Things That Went Wrong at Rehearsal:
1) I messed up some foot work in dance #1, Razzle Dazzle.
2) The spacing wasn't great on Razzle Dazzle.
3) I work a short-sleeved leotard for the tap dance, which we were supposed to, but no one else did, so I looked weird.
4) I couldn't find my black capri pants for the tap dance. I had to wear my shorts that were part of another costume!
5) I did the wrong number of fouette turns in my ballet dance! It was really obvious.
6) I had a few wardrobe issues.
7) I almost forgot the end bow thing for my tap dance.

Yeah :( But...

The recital was great! I messed up a bit in once dance, but other than that, I have to say it wasn't bad at all :) I had SO much FUN! I love my dances :) My makeup was even fine! And I changed my hair three times and nothing horrible happened :) Also...

I DID MY SPLIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First time ever going all the way down. Can you believe it?? I felt myself hit the ground and kind of looked down, shocked. After the dance, I ran back into the dressing room to do it again. Could it be true? It was! A year and a half of training ends in a perfect victory! Yay!

I also had awesome people come watch me! David, Daniel, their parents, Cassidy, Brianna, my family, my grandma and Cavender! Yay! Most of them had never seen me dance before, and it was really important to me that I do as close to perfectly as I could :)

Dance songs (all of them were cut to fit the time frame):
1. Jazz: Razzle Dazzle (different version)
2. Tap: The tap dance was a cappella!
3. Ballet: Dance, Dance
4. Jazz/hip-hop: Bad Romance (WARNING: suggestive lyrics and language. The language was edited for the dance.)
5. Finale: Thriller! (We did the dance, too :D The Youtube vid won't load for me, so I'm going to cross my fingers that it's a good one, lol XD)

[Captions on the bottom]
Bad Romance poses + Razzle Dazzle costumes = ...this XD (I'm far right, and my face looks weirddd >.>)

Guess which one is me? The one with the dorky leotard and shorts, that's which one! >.< XD
I'm on the far right. With the gray, white and black tie-dyed tights.
Woo! :) I'm front and center, with the same gray, black and white tie-dyed tights.

Good weekend, awful ending. But I'm not gonna think about that :) The dance recital went great, and that's what I'll remember :)

~Kendra

Dance (Rehearsal)

Today is my dance rehearsal! I'm very excited. I love dancing and I love performing. I don't get stage fright, and I love what I'm doing when I'm up there.

Everyone has that one thing that's amazing to them. I know I'm a writer, but I'm so much a dancer, too. This is going to be sooo cheesy, but when I'm dancing, nothing else matters. I might be depressed, but I don't feel that. I might have just pulled a muscle, but I don't feel that. I might be so tired I can barely breathe, but I don't feel that. When I'm dancing, all I hear is the music, all I feel is joy. Everything I am goes into the dance, and I could do it forever.

I love to dance.

The energy.
The music.
The beat.
The excitement.
The subconscious counting that tells you exactly where you are.
The intensity.
The joy.
The passion.
The fun.
The feeling of your body doing exactly what you tell it to.

I can't describe dancing, and maybe I've tried too hard. All I can say is that I love dancing, it's a part of me, and it's been shaping me for fourteen years.

~Kendra

Busy!

This has been a busy week! Monday-Wednesday, I helped with 6-8-year-old day camps at practicums. Practicums are basically three day day conferences for people who do my kind of homeschooling. The moms (or dads) can drop their kids off at the appropriate camp while they go get training and listen to speakers. Handling 50 little kids is exhausting and challenging, but I LOVE it. Kids are one of my favorite things in the world.

Yesterday, I slept in. I hadn't been able to sleep past 6 o'clock in six days! I sure made up for it yesterday. I slept about 12 hours and got woken up at 11:40 (thanks, Daddy XD). The rest of the day was pretty chill, and I went to Cavender and Matt's band concert that night. I'm really not a person to give compliments and I'm not easily impressed, but I will tell you something:

Cavender is a beast on the trumpet. Just saying.

Today, I woke up from an extremely awesome dream, but unfortunately have a cold :( Not enough sleep and not enough vitamin C, I guess. I'm taking Zicam and drinking lots of water because guess what happens tomorrow?

My first "King and I" practice! 5 hours of nonstop Siamese dancing! That will really be something! Never in my whole life have I danced alone, so this will be a very new and challenging experience. I hope I don't mess up! The play is in just over a month. Think I can master a 16-minute foreign ballet in that time? Honestly...

I think so :)

Here's to staying positive and having a great summer! Hope you all are doing great. Carpe diem!

~Kendra

Prom and Pictures

For me, prom was one of those rare nights that I don't know how to post about. Usually words are my little minions, but sometimes they just fail me XD

My awesome friends Meredith, Stacey and Jessica came over at 4pm to help me get ready, seeing as how I'm a little challenged in this area...Lacking in self-confidence if nothing else XD Mer curled my hair, Jessica did my nails, and Stacey hung out and was her wonderful self :D Despite getting a late start on preparations, we were ready only about five minutes after Cavender showed up.

*Daddy and Lizzy take pictures and stuff*
*Daddy takes Sa--Cavender and me to Olive Garden to meet friends (Emma, and Tori and Tim)*
*apparently Olive Garden wouldn't take reservations*
*we find out the wait is 40 minutes long*
*we end up at Macaroni Grill XD*

Dinner was good, both funness and foodness wise XD We didn't get to the prom until 8:15, which was really fine considering there wasn't anything to miss.

Those of you who know me know that it takes me a ridiculously long time to warm up to situations. I usually end up getting loose about the time something ends -_- That was almost the case at prom. I'm honestly not an extremely awkward person. I feel incredibly awkward a lot, but I can usually hide most of it. It usually comes out as arrogance or irritability.

I knew more people at prom than I thought I would, but Cavender actually knew more. Go figure, "my" prom and he knew a ton of people XD I mostly hung out with Emma at the beginning. She's awesome XD We got into dancing towards the end. I have a confession to make:

I am decidedly very white XD

The prom just got better the longer we were there. I ended up having a freaking epic blast. We also learned "hardcore dancing" which was lols. And fun. Even though I'm pretty sure I didn't do it right XD Cavender and I also did a teensie bit of non-legit slow dancing, at which I failed even though there was nothing even to fail at.

(Cavender: "You put your hand on my shoulder."
Me: "What? I know. It is on your shoulder."
Cavender: "No, like--"
Me: *changes hand position*
Cavender: "No. Here--"
Me: *changes hand position again*
Cavender: "No. HERE."
Me: *changes again*
Cavender: "Your arm needs to be on top of--*fixes hand/arm position* There."
Me: "Oh. Heh...sorry..."

>.< Nothing like wounded pride to bring you back down to earth, right? XD)

Long story short, prom was one of those nights I wish would never end. I honestly had no intention of staying the whole time, but we did. It was like my mom said to me and Daddy the other day,

"I don't know that you really want to go to prom. I think you just want to buy a dress and do your hair and makeup and take pictures and have Cavender and then change into shorts and y'all watch Alias all night."

Me: "...maaaaaaybe...>.>"

So yeah. I had fun. So much fun. Cavender FTW :)

Wait, what's that? You want to see pictures? XD Okay. Here they are. Captions on the bottom.
The AMAZING :D:D:D Crew, left to right: Mer, (me), Stacey, Jessica.
Hair...Hair and nails...Nails...The name of the polish? Gun metal >:D I would."You're gonna paint my toenails? You really want to? Okay..."Hairspray...All done :DWooT! The dress!Shoes...
Me.
Me and Cavender.
Tori and Tim.
Me and Emma putting our shoes back on XD
Emma and me in the masks :)
Me, Cavender, Emma, Tim, Tori.

:) Hope y'all had a zillionth as much fun reading this as I had last night :)

~Kendra

Prom Preparation

So, I'm an intelligent person. Not gonna lie. I'm talented in some areas, like writing, dancing, and (supposedly) singing. I'm good with kids, I can get them to listen to me. I'm a good debater (when I'm ready). I read fast, learn quickly, and think on my feet.

But there is something about hair and makeup that spells F-A-I-L to me.

My mom and Lizzy and I left the house early before my dance class and bought me some more makeup. (Apparently eyeshadow from Claire's just doesn't cut it anymore XD) We got good stuff, including a little set of eye makeup. With instructions. WooT XD

I actually DO have good taste in clothes and makeup, I'm just never sure how to do it. I can tell you what I want my face to look like, but getting it there...That's something else.

Usually I don't really plan or practice getting ready that much. I always intend to, but it always ends up that we have to leave in fifteen minutes and I'm putting myself together for the first time. My mom strongly suggested I practice with the makeup, so I did last night.

Yay, for instructions. And yay for labels. And yay for--holy crap, my face looks bad.

To put it nicely, the directions did not speak to me. Kyle is my witness -_-

No wonder people can major in cosmetics. There is some definite skill to be had. Skill I apparently lack. Who would have thought that simple instruction like "Blend" could be so...not simple?

So I started over, ditching the directions entirely, and experimented. I used common sense and not too much creativity XD It looked fine. I was pretty pleased with how it all came out. I practiced it again today and it was even a little better. Hallelujah.

Today I decided to brave the world of hair. It went worse than the makeup XD I have an awesome friend coming over on Saturday who has promised to help me :) Yay for friends.

Yay for moms who buy new makeup even thought it's not cheap.
Yay for makeup experimentations.
Yay for "Blending" fails.
Yay for hair.
Yay for prom.
Yay for Cavender :)

~Kendra

Audition Results

Well, the cast list for "The King and I" has been posted. I really wanted to play Eliza, the main character in the ballet portion. Of course, this is only my second play, there were several good dancers and the audition instructor had me doing the part of the Angel the whole time, so I knew what to expect when the list was published.

Which is why it shocked me so much when I got Eliza.

I was so shocked when I saw my name next to Eliza. I gasped, jumped out of the chair and covered my mouth XD A pretty cliche reaction, but the truth all the same. Lizzy asked me what was wrong and I told her I was Eliza. She was thrilled for me. I then ran upstairs to share the news with my parents.

I'll be honest, I know I can dance. I'm not pulling false modesty there, I'm a pretty good dancer. But I just knew that someone else would be better, and better suited to the part. I was hoping for Eliza, but not really expecting her.

I just can't believe it. I'm so excited.

If you want to see what I'll be doing, here is the ballet on Youtube.

Part I
Part II

Thank you so, so, SO much for all your prayers! I know they helped!

~Kendra

Prom Dresses!

Thanks for following, Messed One and Steven!

So, guess what?

I went shopping today.

More or less voluntarily.

For a dress.

A prom dress.

:)

I'm going to the prom.

Yeah, me. I'm actually going to a prom. I didn't plan to do that until I was a senior. Put if off as long as possible, because I'd feel awkward and...I can't dance.

Okay, so that's not completely true in two ways. 1) I can dance, just not ballroom dance and 2) I don't actually know if I "can't", because I've just never learned.

So why am I braving the world of fancy dresses, makeup, hair and dancing now?

It's Cavender's fault XD

I know I won't be able to get away with talking about dress shopping without posting some pictures, so here goes. (You can thank my wonderful little sister Lizzy for these.) Comments are under the pictures.

This was okay. The beading on the straps isn't really my thing (it continues down the back and I didn't like it). Also, it's cut really low in the back and that goes against the dress code, not to mention my comfort zone.

This dress was too expensive to buy, but I wanted to try it on because it looked like a "fire fairy costume" to me :) I had to try it on, just for the memories it evoked.

Yeah, this just looks like I'm wearing a mermaid tail XD

I actually really liked this one (and it was cheap XD), but it was too big :-/ I'm leaning against the wall keeping the straps up higher XD

I really liked this one. It's my second favorite. I love, love, LOVE the skirt on it. It's the kind of dress that I could twirl in for hours :) The main problem was that it's black. I really didn't want a black dress, but I almost bought it anyway.

This one just didn't really call to me XD It was like, "Ehh."

This one was absolutely hideous on the hanger and before the sash was tied, but it wasn't too bad when it was fully put on. It's growing on me even now, but the seaming on the chest is weird...yeahh...XD

And last but not least, the winner :) This is the dress I got. I feel good in it. I just liked it the best :)

We shopped for like an hour and a half. Shopping tires me out like nothing else. I can dance for two hours and fifteen minutes, or play soccer for an hour and a half, or run around outside all day, but an hour of shopping is like *instant energy fail* XD

Hope you liked seeing my wonderfully girly-fail self in a prom dress XD Good night all!

~Kendra