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

The Weekend

I BROKE A RECORD!

Cavender and I got to see each other two days in a row XD Never happened before. WooT!

Yesterday/last night was a Casting Crowns concert that my church went to, and Cavender came with us. Everyone met at a BBQ place beforehand, which was interesting XD

For the record, I like BBQ. But my sandwich was nasty. Every other bite had something hard or chewy or crunchy or gummy that I couldn't identify. So that grossed me out XD I'm not really a fan of food to begin with, so most of my sandwich went unconsumed.

So did Cavender's. Why?

Matt (little brother) -_-

Cavender does not like spicy food. Like, at all. (I love it, so hah XD) So Matt, being the Irritating-Yet-Completely-Lovable kid he is, decided to pour Texas Pete on Cavender's coleslaw. It just went downhill from there until I confiscated the hot sauce. Even Matt does not ignore The Look when I give it to him.

By the way, Cavender got revenge. Matt's sandwich ended up with copious amounts of Texas Pete...

The concert was good. Tenth Avenue North was there, too, which I didn't expect. I really like them. Casting Crowns is good and everything, but they're not really one of my favorite bands. I like hearing Mark Hall talk as much as I like their music. Their concerts aren't really FUN like tobyMac's are.

Yesterday was apparently Food Fight Day in my circle of friends. Matt sat almost right behind me at the concert, which I knew was bad news -_- I did not however expect him to shoot frozen lemonade at me through his straw. What a middle schooler XD

Cavender: "Hey, see if you can get it in her ear."

He did -_- XD Some of Cavender's nacho cheese also somehow found its way to my cheek...I could have put in on his Metallica shirt, but I didn't feel like starting World War III--with cheese anyway >:)

Today was also good. Church was good, and Cavender came home with us.

Have you ever seen these?

Kyle hadn't, so don't feel bad if you too have been so brutally sheltered and out of the loop ;P

Well. Allow me to share something with you:

They are waaaay more fun than they seem.

Call me easily amused (which I admit, I am XD), but they are freaking awesome. Cassidy and Katie (little sister) gave me some! I gave some away though, 'cause I'm nice like that XD Right now I only have a blue dog, a green turtle, a yellow sun and a purple rocket ship. Cavender has my cloud and my star.

But anyway, they are awesome. They're apparently extremely cheap, and if you're easily amused and imaginative like Cavender and me, you can enjoy yourself for long periods of time with them. I love how we think the same way. It's just really great.

Youth group was good. Dinner was good. This evening is good.

This weekend was great.

~Kendra

Your Daily Dose of Tpyos ;)

So yeah i'm so tiredddd and it's only like three forty five! Like, seriously, really exhausted. we did two shows for little kids today, and they went really well, yay! The make-up guy did Shang's hair differently today because he said it looked too young. I like his hair fine, but whatever. THe make-up guy slicked it all back, and Shang was so self-conscious, lol! He looked fine though.

So all the other kids got excused from school today as a field trip, but no such luck for me :( So now I've got a day of school t odo. But it's not gonna be taht bad because I knew it would be so I planned other days harder than today. I don't have that much to do today.

I'm so tired y'all. Like, wow. and it's so early in the day,too!! Ugh, so many typos...okay, i'm gonnna talk to ya later! Er, bye...wow...maybe I'll post soem pictures later!

Facts and Sigs

*jaw drops to desk-level* ... *rubs eyes* ...I *DO* have 54 followers now! :O :O Wow, how did this happen?? Thanks Jaynine, Cassie, and Illunse! Y'all are fantastic! You make my day!!

EDIT: *GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASP* 55??????? Thanks, Calico Zak! Wow!!
------------------------
Fact! Or...Fiction?

A tooth left in Coca-Cola over night will disolve.

Leave your guess in a comment or email me for an award! First person to get it right gets and award, and everyone who gets it right but not first will get a participation award. No Googling allowed ;)
-------------------------
Well, today was fine. Nothing to report, really. I have dance tonight, though! First class of the year! Same teacher, probably a lot of the same girls. It'll be fun. I do have kind of a lot on my plate, though. Soccer practices, soccer games, play practices, dance classes, school work getting significantly challenging...*moangroansigh*

Anyway, I started ANOTHER story inspired by soccer the other day, but I do not even plan to continue it, so I probably won't talk about it much. It's just a random scribbling (er, typing...).

I was very bored, and didn't have anything real to say today, so I made more signatures for no reason XD I made them for the main characters of "The W Chronicles".

The main character in "Woods" is Tyler Gifford (she's a girl, by the way), a bad-tempered freshman who has forgotten the joy of being a child.

The main character in "Waters" is Linder Asp, a shy half-elf lady-in-waiting for the Elven queen who wants to prove her human mother's innocence in a murder case.

The main character in "Walls" is Landon, an smart, sixteen-year-old orphan boy who works for the Leader. (This story is set in the future. It will portray how I think America will be in a hundred years or so.)

Also, there's Kaelie Kayla Morgan, Landon's clever and quirky fourteen-year-old sister.

The main character in "Ways" is Princess Kristalia Calvinson (Krista), a troubled thirteen-year-old princess whose strong family ties and sense of duty give her strength and courage.

During the story, Krista has to give up her identity as a princess and go "undercover". Then she can really be her own person. Because she's so different during this time, I made a seperate signature for just plain Krista.



The main character in "Wars" is Vega the Assasin Girl, proud and capable. (Yes, I decided against the majority. Vega is such a cool name [I loved Kieran, too, though] and it goes with the meaning of her brothers' names as well.) Despite the fact that I've talked about Vega the most and I have some of her story written, I don't know much about her yet. I'm still figuring it out. Here's her signature, though:


Her almost-thirteen-year-old brother, Levant, is also a big character, to give the series another boy :) He's wild, easy-going and extremely likable. He's also a pick-pocket.


So, yeah. That's what I did for like forty-five minutes XD Thanks for reading, you guys! WOOT! Over 'n' out,

P.S. *another jaw drop* TWENTY PEOPLE VOTED IN THE POLL! YAAAAAAAAAY FOR MAJOR RECORD-BREAKING!! Apparently, "Beauty and the Beast" is the most popular Disney movie among Carpe Diem readers. Runner ups were:

Mulan: 11
Aladin: 9
Cinderella: 7
Toy Story: 6
Sleeping Beauty: 4
Hercules: 3
Snow White/Can't decide: 2

Over all, I totally am in agreement with the outcome. My top three favorites came out as the over all top three, and my least favorite, Snow White, came in last place. I'm just surprised that Sleeping Beauty beat Hercules... ;)

That is One Long Word

Today was Day 1 of VBS (vacation Bible school)! I'm a crew leader this year, which is fun and awesome and a little nerve-wracking (not too bad) at times. I'm kind of a co-crew leader with another girl my age named Stacey. In our crew we have six little boys and then two sixth grade girls. They're a pretty interesting bunch :)

After VBS, which is 9am-noon, we (my family) ate a quick lunch and then went to the old house to clear out some more junk -_- Our realtor came over and gave us some pointers about what to do to make the house more appealing, too. Sounds like we'll be painting and getting new carpet. Luckily, it also sounds like we'll be getting a professional to do it, so we don't have to, lol! I know, that's probably pretty selfish and lazy for me not to want to do that.

Being at the old house was kind of hard for me. I've been missing it A LOT lately, so to go see it and miss it in "person" was difficult. We had the best yard in the whole world, I loved my view (best in the house), I loved the upstairs, etc. I almost cried like three times. Never when anyone was around, though. If my family knew how much I wished we'd never moved, they'd be upset.

Yes, I do actually wish we'd never moved.

*spoiled bratty complaint alert*

I didn't realize it, but I had everything I wanted at the old house. Yes, it was too small to do much, but it had so much character! So much happened in that house. The old house feels like an old friend that I'm deserting, and this new house feels like a stuck-up, colorless place. Our new house has no character. It's brand-new, so nothing has happened to it yet. That might be a neat thing if I were staying longer. It might be fun to watch my house go through all its first adventures, but I'm only gonna be here for three years anyway, and then I'm off to college.

You can't know how awesome my old house was. I can't even explain it. I'm not even gonna try. I can't even fathom why no one will buy it. It's the best lil' house ever. I miss it t :(

We had pizza for dinner, which was pretty good, but now I feel a little unsettled, so we'll see, lols :) Lately I've been worrying about everything all the time. GOSH, I thought I was past all this!! *sigh*

Today is Word Day.

.

..

...

.....

.......

.........

...........

.............

...............

.............

...........

.........

.......

.....

...

..

.

I guess you expect me to post a word, don't you? Okay :D I'm going to try to pick on that WON'T lead to a Carpe Noctem style rant. Um, what about...

Okay how's this. I'll do two words since I won't go into a rant:

The most commonly used English word: the

The longest English word is 189,819 letters long and it's:





...





Would you believe me if I told you that it was too long for Blogger to post without freezing up? Because it is. It's so long you can't believe it unless you see it, so I'm determined you're going to see it. Let me just post this, and I'll try a seperate post for that word.

Peace out.

P.S. Oh, yeah, and CARPE DIEM!

Lost: One Beautiful, Red LG Shine Cell Phone

I'm back and fully functional!

I'm gonna do the lovely Name Day stuff before I jump into the recap of my life :)

NAME DAY!!

Name of the Day:

Cavender

How cool is that? I really love that name. I can't remember where I heard it...maybe I read it somewhere...At any rate, I haven't looked up the meaning yet, so let's see...

searching...

searching...

searching...

"The name 'Cavender' is not in any of our records."

"We're sorry, the name 'Cavender' could not be found."

"No information on 'Cavender'."

*blink*

That is...creepy.

Apparently, to the rest of the world, the name "Cavender" does not exist. This is really very odd indeed...that's never, ever happened before.

And I can't remember where I heard that name! All I remember is that I heard it and had to go do something really fast, so I jotted the name down on a Sticky Note so I wouldn't forget it.

Wow, that is so odd.

Anyway, sorry. That wasn't much of a name for Name Day without a meaning, but whatever.

Back to my life :)
------------------------
The practicum went great(ly)! It was the perfect ammount of tiring, difficult, and fun. There were some really great kids, and then some ones I hope I never see again ;) Just kidding (mostly).

I worked with Daniel in ArtGeo (6-8 year olds), which turned out to be fun. We ended up doing a lot of stuff because there were only the two of us as helpers. I like that better than having, like, four helpers. When there are too many helpers, no one gets to do anything.

I got asked if Daniel was my older brother six times. MADE. MY. DAY. Hey, if I can't actually have an older brother, I can at least have someone close enough to confuse little children.

Since this practicum was pretty close to our house, we didn't have to stay at someone's house or at a hotel. We just drove the forty-five minute distance every day (which was fine). But, we had to be the host family for two families who lived too far away to drive every morning.
Family one: Mom, Denise; daughter, Hannah (age twelve). There's more to their family, but only them came to the practicum.
Family two: Mom, Ginny; daughter, Kirstin (age eleven); daughter, Michelle (age nineteen). Again, more to the family, but only they came.

My little sister, Lizzy (age twelve), Hannah, and Kirstin already knew each other, so I knew that it would be an interesting three days having all three of them in the same house. Nothing could have prepared me for the endless hugging, fighting, bickering, laughing, screaming, tickling, complaining, bugging, loving, wildness of those three.

The first night, it took them about thirty seconds to warm up to each other, and then they were immediately really giggly, really loud, and really annoying (sorry, but it' the truth). I came downstairs and got on the computer to try to write, and they kept trying to read over my shoulder -_- Then, they kicked me off because they wanted to look at the songs on Lizzy's iTunes.

I went upstairs to watch some TV. I got really into the program, and they come barrelling up the stairs and say, "We want to watch a movie, so you have to leave." You see, we have two TVs in the house, but only one DVD player. I was like, "Uh, no." So, they got mad, but they left. Then, twenty minutes later, THEY'RE BACK and they decide to watch TV WITH me -_- They talk a lot during TV and movies.

The next day at breakfast, I just didn't even say anything. I knew if I opened my mouth, I was going to snap someone's head off. I was in a really bad mood, but I was controlling it because I knew I would have the whole forty-five minute car ride to listen to my iPod in the front seat of our van.

Well, I was in the front seat preparing to fire up my iPod when Daddy comes out and says, "I need you to stay and ride with Mrs. Denise so you can lock up the house." I'm like, "You're kidding right?" So, I get out, slam the car door for all I'm worth, and wait around for Mrs. Denise to get ready to leave.

Moments later, she's ready and we drive to the church where the practicum is.

The rest of the day was great!

It comes time to leave, and the prospect of riding home with the Giggling Three is too much at the end of a day filled with bratty six-year-olds and eating nasty turkey sandwiches with no pepper, so I ask Mrs. Keri if I can ride home with them. Mrs. Keri is David and Daniel (a.k.a. my "brothers")'s mom. They were coming over to our house for a cookout anyway, so that worked out great. An hour or so with the boys was just what I needed to give me a break from the girls.

The cookout was lots of fun, and it was the most delicious ever. We had perfectly seasoned grilled chicken, rolls, red and green peppers and onions that were seasoned and grilled, and the best spicy seasoned fries ever. WOW, it was good :)

Day 3 of the practicum was fine, but tiring. By the end, I was half glad it was all over and half sad because I really do love working with kids.

We came home after eating out on Day 3 and watched "Star Wars: Episode 5".

That's when I noticed my cell phone was missing.

My first heart-pounding, panicked thought is, "Well, I'll just call it." But, whoops, I forgot; IT DIED.

I racked my brain for when I was sure I had it: in the afternoon at ArtGeo, I pulled it out to see what time it was only to notice that it was dead. I was fairly sure I'd had it when we went into the restaurant, too, but I couldn't be sure.

So, I stressed about that all night. No way was I going to tell my parents. Do I look suicidal to you?

I thought about calling Daniel and asking him if he had seen it or found it, but his number was in my phone -_-

So, to destress myself, I called Ellie B. We chatted for a while until Daddy made me get off the phone because I'd forgotten to empty the downstairs trash.

I killed time all afternoon, worrying. I added up how many pages worth of NEW books I had read so far this sumer, and guess how many pages I've read? Are you ready?

7,335. Maybe not that impressive. I don't really know.

Finally, the stress was too much. I told my mom about the cell phone after making her promise not to get mad. We looked EVERYWHERE :'(

She suggested looking in the van (again), but it wasn't there.

She suggested looking in my room (again), but it wasn't there.

She suggested maybe Daddy had found it and was just waiting to see if I would notice/say something. My reply: "He's not that...crafty. Only you would do that."

She suggested looking in Daddy's recliner, it WAS there!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!

My ridiculously good luck has not abandoned me yet! I must be the luckiest person in the world (besides the fact that I don't have an older brother).

And that was my last three days. Sorry I went on and on. It's okay if you didn't read it all, I'll still be glad to look back years from now and read over what happened the summer I was fifteen.

You know how I was all upset about turning fifteen because fourteen was so awesome? Well, I love fifteen!! It's even better than fourteen! I've changed my mind, fourteen isn't the perfect age, fifteen is.

Sixteen on the other hand...

;)

Thanks for reading, go carpe what's left of this diem!

EDIT: OMG, MICHAEL JACKSON DIED! MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD! DEAD! HOLY COW! WHOA! What a crazy thing to happen. He's the first celebrity that I've "known" that has died. How...weird.

Top Five

Sorry. I haven't been posting. And I can't now either because I'm really tired and it's "late". Just a few things:

1. Practicum went well.
2. Having three little sisters would kill me (will elaborate later).
3. I got asked if Daniel was my older brother six times, which made my day.
4. We're watching Star Wars (we got that for my dad for Father's Day ).
5. Hate Chewbacca, love Darth Vader (what else is new?)

Okay, I have to go :( I'm being kicked off the computer because I sort of never made my bed this morning... :D TTYL!

Challenge and Update

Hi! It's sooo good to be home! And guess what? I'm here for almost a whole week before I have to leave town again! I won't be going to a practicum this time, I'll be going to this camp thing with my friend Brianna. It's kind of a mini-weekend thing. Thursday-Saturday. It sounded really fun, so I told her I would go. Yay!

This practicum was okay. I'm not nearly as tired after this one, so that's a giant plus. Also, the house we stayed at was *GORGEOUS* and the people were *AWESOME AND NICE*. The only real bad things were that I worked in Logic camp and ended up hating it, and one of the helpers IRRITATED ME TO NO END.

I thought I would LOVE logic, you know, but it turns out I hate working with 9-13 year olds. Hate it. I don't know why, but the 9 to 11 year olds are all brats, and the upper 11-13 year olds are all boring. *shrugs*

And then one of the helpers just got on my nerves. He was so weird. And VERY immature. And he was sort of mean to this other little helper. And he was just SOOOOOO immature!! GOSH! Lol :)

When we got home today, we chilled for an hour, then ate a quick supper and went to a play that this guy from our church is in. The play was "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat". I love that play! I had seen it once before when the Broadway version came through, and then we have the Donny Osmond version on DVD.

The play was so good! Joseph was good. He had super curly hair, and he was a good singer. The narrator was AMAZING though. Even better than the one that travels with the Broadway version (my mom and I saw that a year or so ago). The show was really well done. There weren't many props, but somehow everything was still elaborate...I don't know how to describe it. Some of the brothers were around my age, so it was cool to see that.

NEW THING: I want to be an actress.

Not because I saw this play or anything like that, though. It's something I've been wanting to do for a month or so now. I don't know how serious the desire is. I mean, I REALLY want to be an actress right now, but the urge came on so quickly; I'm sure it could disappear equally quickly. The funny thing is, four different people tonight told me I should act in one of the next plays. Maybe it's a God thing? I don't know.

I am going to looking into *maybe* doing "Mulan" and/or "The King and I". I would just audition and then take whatever part I got. As long as it was a girl. Some girls in "Joseph" had to play guys, and I am NOT doing that, lol!

Back to "Joseph". I love that Bible story. It is my absolute FAVORITE. There are a few reasons for that, but I want to see if anyone can guess the main one. Just curious. I know some of you will if you're reading this (*cough* EllieBandGabrielleandLizzy *cough*), but I want to see if anyone surprises me.

Since this is Friday, that will be the Challenge: Figure out why the story of Joseph is Kendra's favorite Bible story.

If you don't know the story that well, here's a condensed (REALLY, *sadly* condensed) version.

Well, even though I'm not AS tired, I'm still pretty worn-out, so I'll just say a couple more things:

WE MIGHT BE GOING TO SEE "STAR TREK" SUNDAY AFTERNOON WITH DAVID AND DANIEL AND THEIR FAMILY!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT??!! I AM SO THRILLED! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

And I would like to point out the results of the "Star Trek" poll about whether or not you liked it. Well, only two options had any votes for them: the "I haven't seen it option" and the "I LOVED IT" option. Therefore (of the people who voted), if you saw it, you loved it! SO GO SEE IT!

Okay. I'm done.

Good night.

Quel du.

Carpe diem.

Over 'n' out.

Practicum Overview

I am tired.

Wow.

In order to keep up with blogging, I wrote in my journal what I would have blogged, and now I'm going to type it up.
--------------------------
DAY #1:
Time: 11:48pm

Did: drove here, dumped stuff at house we're staying at, went to set up bookstore at the church where the conference is gonna be.

Weird thought: I love practicums. They make me feel like a slave.

House we're staying at: good, smells like a granny though

Church the conference is at: huge, awesome

Good: most things

Bad: No Daniel :( It feels weird and wrong without him

Wish: I had pants that fit

Sleeping situation: air mattress 2day and 2morrow, bed on nite 3

Camp I'm working: supposed to be logic ( :( ), actually ArtGeo ( :D)

I feel: good, tired

Reading: Pendragon #2

Writing: Creepy, 173 pgs, 90k words

Overall omnia: yay!

DAY #2:

Too tired to write anything.

DAY #3:

Too exhausted to write anything.

DAY #4:

Too worn-out to write anything.
--------------------------
Okay, after the first night, things sorta went down hill.

DAY #2, WHAT I CAN REMEMBER:

The lady doing ArtGeo was odd, but okay.

The kids were more well-behaved than I've ever seen.

There were too many helpers, though, so none of us got to do much of anything.

Lunch was a sandwhich soaked in tomatoe crud and letucce-ness. I ate the turkey out of the middle and a 50 cent bag of Cheetos.

Little kid named Johnathan was an utterly amazing artist (holy crap, you'd have to see it to believe it).

Very tired at end of day.

Daddy came to see us!! Lots of stories from Jamaica to tell. I'll tell you tomorrow maybe.

Went out to eat at Chili's.

Food took forever to get there, and I was starving considering I didn't eat much for lunch.

Ordered the wrong kind of food. DANG IT.

Got the right kind of food. Ate it, but (this is gonna sound weird) was too hungry to eat much (don't ask; I'm just a freak like that).

Starving, but it was my own fault.

Watched Night at the Museum on TV.

Ate a Pop Tart.

11:07pm-ish: slept in a bed because some people didn't end up staying at the house with us after all.

Woke up FREEZING like twice.

DAY #2 WHAT I CAN REMEMBER:

Kids were louder, gained like three, lost one.

Lunch was weird pasta stuff with broccoli and possibly peanut stuff, so I couldn't eat it. (I'm very allergic to peanuts -_-)

STARVING. Ate half an apple and some Doritos.

Felt fairly defeated after lunch.

Went to eat at some lake side place.

Food was good, friends were awesome.

Ran around the restaurant in the rain with awesome friends. Scared some little kids through the window. Rocked the floating docks and were a bad influence on some kids. Got really wet. Fed the fish and the big stupid ducks. Sang the Veggie Tales theme song in the restaurant. Planned our own traveling entertainment business.

Went back to house happy :) :)

Ate a Pop Tart because I was still hungry :/

Went to bed.

Woke up freezing again.

Mom woke me up at 7:15 as usual.

Got up, stumbled into bathroom and stared at myself, wondering what to do with my hair.

Mom comes in and says Lizzy isn't feeling well. Mom thinks it's because it's "too hot" in the house.

Apparently, while I froze every night, everyone else was sweating bullets and threatening the air conditioning.

Great start to morning.

Felt dead all morning.

Kids were semi-bad.

Pizza lunch. Was so grateful for FOOD that I almost cried. Ate three pieces before I started tasting the pizza and discovered that I hated it.

Still felt pitiful, so I called Ellie and complained in her ear.

Felt much better. Went back to camp.

Teacher left to go to the beach. We had to combine classes.

Don't feel like talking about the rest. Let's just say, out of five teen helpers, I'm the only one who helps. The others just talk to each other and FLIRT. OH PUH-LEEZ!

Waiting around for late moms to pick up kids (as usual).

Felt tired in ways you probablty can't imagine.

Had to help load very heavy boxes of books onto a hand truck, cart them into the elevator, go down, get them out of the elevator, cart them down the hall, get them over this huge bump, and load them into the truck.

Repeat that step.

Repeat it again.

And again.

And again.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Finally get to start home. I put my feet on the dashboard, feel my aching body and don't say a word for like forty-five minutes.
---------------------------
I used to think it was stupid and unrealistic how slaves spirits get "broken" by being over-tired and over-worked. I used to think it was stupid and impossible. Now I'm a believer. When you're that tired and worked like that and ordered around, you start getting kind of...blah. Just doing whatever, making it through the day, being hungry, hot, tired, etc. I can see how that would "break your spirit" over time.

Anyway, wow, what a trip. So tired. Must sleep. Bye, and hope I didn't complain too much. Okay, I know I did. I guess what I mean is, don't hate me for being such a sourpuss? :D

Carpe di...*zzzzzzzzzzzzz*

Cherishing Family

*does a happy dance* IT'S QUOTE DAY!! YAY! MY FAVORITE!

But even before THAT, I have news:

I DID SOME OF THE DRIVING PART FOR DRIVER'S ED TODAY!!! YAY! It was kind of fun, medium boring, and quite nerve-wracking. I messed up some, too, which was embarassing. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Overall, not bad I don't think :)

Okay. Quote time.

"He who knows right will do right." --Socrates

I know I've talked about this before, though, so I won't go into detail. I just think it's cool. At first it makes no sense and you're like "nuh-uh", but then Socrates explains it and it makes perfect sense. Here's the link where I talk about it in detail(ish): http://puelladei.blogspot.com/2009/04/if-you-read-all-this-ill-give-you.html
---------------------
Well, the "family" is here again! With the dads gone to Jamaica, we have to help take and get Matt and Katie home from school. AAAND because my driving stuff is at their school, it all just works out. They're actually here right now. Lizzy and Katie are in Lizzy's room. I don't know what they're doing. Matt is flipping through channels and refusing to give up the remote. Which is fine because I'd rather post that rot my brain on the TV, MATTHEW. :) Just kidding.

Tomorrow the same thing will happen, only Katie has a million tests on Friday so I'll have to help her with that. Hmm.

Well, I don't have any more to say. Have a great day, and I'll probably continue doing the same! Carpe diem! Cherish your family. And remember, not all family is your own flesh and blood.

P.S. Could someone tell me who my latest follower is?? My computer is being stupid and won't load the Follower thing. Grr.

Couch Potatoes Can't Apply Makeup

So yeah. That's what I've felt like all day, lol! I'm so lazy. I watched like two whole episodes of Nanny 911. Yes, I did. And it's even pretty outside today!!!!!! I have to get out of the house! What is wrong with me? Okay, I know what's wrong with me...

I'm afraid of ticks. How pathetic is THAT? There was one on my shirt Friday after I took a walk, so I freaked out. And now I don't want to go walking in the woods anymore. And that's like my favorite. :( I'm such a wussy!! I'm not sure why, but ticks seriously creep me out. *shudders*

Someone stopped following my blog. Apparently they realized that it's not healthy to listen to the rants of a weird-o like myself ;)

Tomorrow is my sisters dance rehearsal! My mom won't be home from speaking at the practicum, so I'm going to have to do her hair and makeup. O.O HELP! I hope I do okay with that. I'm not completely incompetent in the art of beautification, but I'm not exactly an expert either. And I've never tried to apply eyeliner to anyone but myself. I'm also a big believer in less is more, so I hope I can bring myself to put enough on her so that she doesn't look washed out under the lights. I'm pretty sure I'm over-thinking this.

I started the final installment of The Farsala Trilogy today!! So far, it's fine. Not great or anything, but, I mean, I'm only on page like twenty-five. I'm not sure why I'm not at least halfway finished yet. Either I'm being lazy, or I just don't want the trilogy to end!! I think it's a little of both.

*incoming sarcasm* You should be proud to know that I wrote 619 words today. *sigh* I know, I know. I should be doing more than that, but at least I'm writing AT ALL. Yesterday was better. I wrote like...oh. Less than that. Well, one day recently, I wrote a bunch. I don't remember what day, Saturday or Sunday maybe. But I HAVE been writing. Promise :)

Tonight a family that goes to our church is coming over to eat ice cream, return my dad's tiller, and help us fix a problem with the stupid printer or something. Haha, I love having good friends! Abby and Jarrod are so much fun. I've mentioned them before. Abby is seven, Jarrod is nine. They crazy and fun :) So I'm looking forward to this evening.

Well, that's all I can think of to say! Hope I didn't bore you to death...anyway, carpe diem!

Slaves and Studying

Last night was so much fun!!!!!!!

I had to skip dance, which was definitely NOT (I had to study), but I got to go with my parents to band practice for our church. After I studied, guess what I did? I PLAYED WITH THE LITTLE KIDS!! My favorite thing to do EVER! (Not really, but close.) That is so much fun, let me tell ya. Two nine year old boys and two seven year old girls.

Wow. It's weird thinking about how old they are now...I've known Ryan and Maddie since they were three and one, and Abby and Jarrod since they were four and six. THEY'RE SO BIG NOW!! I feel all...old or something, lol! Anyway.

We played--you'll NEVER GUESS--slaves.

YES, SLAVES! To some of you, you're like, "Oh, the big deal is that they played slaves. Okay. Got it." But the people who have known me since I was little know that it's a big deal because THAT'S WHAT MY FRIENDS AND I USED TO PLAY/DO, TOO. It felt so strange to be playing it again. Weirder than you can imagine. Like stepping back five or six years.

It was also weird because Ryan was a lot stronger than I remembered him being. In like two years or so, he's gonna be able to take me out. Which is weird, because I'm not exactly WEAK OR SOMETHING, and he's only NINE. And he's not, like, fat or anything (lols). So that was weird, because the first time me and Abby and Maddie tried to "escape" (we were the slaves, Ryan and Jarrod were the owners), I figured I would let the boys catch me, and then after a while, I'd just push them off of me and run away for real.

Only I tried and Ryan caught me by surprise, and then I was on the floor, blinking. Huh? Lol! It was hilarious. I was like "Wow, you are a lot stronger than I remembered." Of course, then I got up and outran him in like six steps and was ready for him the next time, but it was harder to get away than I expected. So yeah. It was just weird.

And now I'm thinking this has to be at least ONE OF the weirdest posts I've ever written. *shrug* I know it's weird that I like playing with little kids, and it's even weirder than we play SLAVES, but, hey, that's just me :) And it was really fun. You should try it sometime ;)

Also today, I saw someone I hadn't really seen in a long time. It was awesome. Not going to say more, but I think I already have in a post...let me find it...ah, here it is: http://puelladei.blogspot.com/2009/01/randomness-at-its-best.html Read that. And the comments. It explains it a little.

Studying went okay today. Physical science, not so great, American Government and memorizing my poem to say for the class are both going GREATLY!! So, I guess two and a half out of three isn't bad. Not bad at all.

"Mirror" still sucks, but I think I'm coming out of writer's block. Maybe. I started writing some of the sequel, and it's at least getting me out of the rut. The only problem is, I have such GREAT IDEAS for the sequel, and for the next generation, but I really, really, REALLY didn't want this to turn into a series. I really wanted to write ONE BOOK, and then just be DONE. But noooooooooooo. My characters have to keep having KIDS in my mind and cool stuff like that. And so much more. *moan*

Over all, it's been a KILLER two days. Despite exams. Who woulda thought, huh? Guess you never know. Carpe diem :)

~ME~ By Kendra Logan

Here is the "about me" paper I had to write for school. I don't know what else to say, so I'm posting it. I hope you don't think I'm, like, being all annoying and "it's all about me" ish. Anyway, here it is; enjoy! :

As everyone here hopefully knows, my name is Kendra Logan, and I’m fifteen years old. When it comes to my having namesakes, there is not much to tell. I don’t really have a namesake except my aunt. Even so, my parents say they mostly chose my middle name because it sounds right with with Kendra. Overall, I like my name fine, but I frequently wish it were something more exciting and unique (it's not actually Kendra. I only use that for blogs :D). To my extended family, however, it is unique, because it isn’t a family name. My grandparents strongly wanted me to have a family name, but there were not many good ones to chose from. If I had been a boy and my parents had decided to go with a family name, I would have been called either Clyde Lester Logan, or Marvin Lee Logan. Thank goodness I was not a boy, and my parents decided not to stick with family names.

While I don’t particularly like the names of my ancestors, I do find my family history interesting. I have a hard time remembering much about the history of my dad’s side because everyone has so many nicknames! I have relatives who are called everything from Pineapple, to Red, to Cricket, to Joker, and many more names. This makes it difficult sometimes to follow who did what, but I actually like having such colorful characters for relatives. It makes family gatherings interesting, and gets my creative juices going. Someday I think I might writing something based off of my relatives. It would certainly be entertaining.

When I was little, I had a very vivid imagination. I’m sure most of you find that hard to believe. Whenever my two cousins would come over for the holidays, we would always play an imaginary game. Usually the game would revolve around us being poor and orphaned and having to fend for ourselves, although occasionally we would play Slaves. I don’t know why we played such dark games. Maybe it’s because we had such nice lives that we decided it was more fun to pretend the bad stuff. One specific instance I remember happened when I was about five years old. My cousins, Sarah, and I were playing poor people in the guest bedroom at my grandmother’s house. The guest bedroom is where most of our games took place. We were snooping around for things to use in our game, and we came across a box of pennies. We thought that would be perfect to use since poor people most likely only had pennies anyway. We played the game with the pennies all day and had fun, but when the grownups found out, they got very upset that we had touched someone else’s money. None of us understood what was so bad about playing with a bunch of pennies, and to this day I don’t know why. Maybe the pennies were special or something.

When I was little, I was very persuasive. I remember multiple times when I tricked the babysitter into letting me do things I wasn’t supposed to, but the funniest instance of all occurred when my grandparents were babysitting me. I was about two at the time. I told them I was thirsty, and so my grandfather and I went to the fridge to get something for me to drink. I spotted a bottle of lemon juice on the shelf in the refrigerator. “That,” I said. “I want some of that, please.” I can remember my grandfather’s confused and hesitant frown. “Your mother lets you drink lemon juice?” he asked. I put on my most solemn face and nodded. “Yes,” I said. After a moment of convincing, my grandfather poured me a Sippy cup of lemon juice. I’m not sure if he really believed me, or just decided to humor me, but either way, the lemon juice was awful. I remember thinking that next time I should probably be careful what I persuade people of.

Also when I was around two years old, I attended play practice for the Christmas play at my church. I was too little to have a part, but I went along anyway, I guess. During a break in practicing, the adults went aside to talk about some details and make some decisions. Meanwhile, I convinced the older children and teenagers to march around the sanctuary being camels. When the adults looked up from their planning, there was a train of teenagers stomping around the sanctuary pretending to be camels—with me at the front of the procession.

I don’t think my personality has changed much in the past ten or thirteen years. I still have an imagination and like to persuade people of things. Of course, I no longer act out the stories I come up with, I do write them down, and I enjoy playing imaginary games with little kids. I guess I’m still a six year old at heart. Of course, having a vivid imagination is great, I guess, but not so much when you’re home at night with only a little sister to keep you company.
When I was ten and Sarah was eight, my parents left us home for an hour or so to go to band practice at our church. Things were fine at home for a little while, but then Sarah and I heard a noise coming from my dad’s office. It sounded like my dad talking on the phone, so we weren’t bothered by that, until we remembered that our dad wasn’t home. Then we sort of freaked out a little. Sarah demanded that I go and check in my dad’s office to see if someone was there. After a lot of arguing and freaking out together, I did. I didn’t see anyone, but both of us were convinced we had heard someone. The rest of the night we kept hearing people! Upstairs, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, in our parents’ bedroom. We finally decided that the intruders had to be invisible. It was the only explanation. I had actually been doing some research on invisibility cloaks for a story I was writing, so unfortunately I knew that being invisible was actually possible. Sarah and I ended up calling our parents, who were more than little ticked off at me for getting us both all scared. For a long time after that, I really believed that there were people in my house wearing invisibility cloaks. That’s definitely the downside to having a powerful imagination. Of course, my being persuasive didn’t help that situation much either.

This next story, like the previous one, deals a little with my imaginative side, but primarily with my persistent side. Behind the Long House, the place where my church meets, there is a “huge” dirt hill. At least, it was “huge” when my friends and I were nine years old. I played on that hill with my friends every chance I got. We played on it after church, after Wednesday night Bible study, even after the classes for our homeschool group that met at the Long House. We played slaves on it after church and Bible study, but after homeschool classes, the Hill became a place of war. We homeschool kids had divided ourselves into two teams, and we battled for control over the Hill. Needless to say, that hunk of dirt and weeds was a big part of our lives. We loved playing on it. It was the best playground imaginable. We had trails coming off of it, we had carved steps into the back side, there was a hole in the side for treasure, it was a kids paradise. That’s probably why the news of its planned demolition hit us so hard. Well, it hit me hard anyway. When I found out the Hill was scheduled to be destroyed and flattened out to make the Long House a prettier-looking place, I was devastated. I asked my dad if he would tell the bulldozer guy not to do it. My dad said that the hill really did need to go. It was ugly and not useful to anyone. I kept pestering him, though. Finally he told me that if I loved the hill so much, I should do something about it. I began plotting what to do, and decided that I would make a petition. I grabbed a piece of lined paper before homeschool group one day and labeled it Save The Hill. I went around telling the kids what I was doing, and before long, I had a ton of signatures. I did the same thing at church the next week. By the time I was finished, the paper had almost a hundred signatures. When the guy came to destroy the hill, I showed him the paper, and told him why we wanted the hill to stay. He actually listened to me, a little nine-year-old-girl. I finished explaining and held my breath. He shrugged. “Okay.” I was speechless. My idea had actually worked! The Dirt Hill is alive today, and still sitting happily behind the Long House.

As anyone who knows me well will tell you, I am a lover of words, or a logophile. Logophile comes from the Greek words “logos” meaning “word”, and “philos” meaning “loving”. I love writing, languages, names, and virtually anything that has to do with words. I want to eventually be fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, and Gaelic. I don’t just enjoy writing, I like finding the perfect word for what I’m feeling or trying to say. People often tell me that I sound like a walking dictionary, but I like being articulate even if it means sometimes people don’t understand the words I use. My being a logophile doesn’t only extend to writing stories; names are also very important to me. I love looking up names and their meanings.

While my personality has remained more or less the same all my life, I have certainly experienced many changes this year. I believe I’ve learned to harness my imagination and channel it into doing more constructive things. Instead of letting my imagination control me, I believe I’m now controlling it. This brings me to the first big character change I’ve had this year: I’ve become more practical and realistic. I still make silly choices sometimes and like to engage in crazy hypothetical conversations, but I think I’ve definitely grown away from the dreamy, unrealistic side of myself. I realized this most when I picked my favorite philosopher. I picked Plato almost out of habit. He focused on the “idea realm” and on things we can’t see. After doing research on Plato, I began to realized that he wasn’t my favorite philosopher at all! I really like Aristotle the best, for the very opposite reason I picked Plato: Aristotle is very concrete, realistic, and indisputably an empiricist. If I had to classify myself as a rationalist or an empiricist, I don’t necessarily think I would be a straight-up empiricist, but I do have some of those tendencies now. Instead of being the one to suggest unrealistic ideas or possibilities, I’m now the one who tries to bring people back to the real world and focus on what’s practical.

Besides the emotional change of becoming more realistic, I’ve grown intellectually this school year as well. With all the academically challenging work, it was impossible not to! Philosophy has had one of the greatest impacts on me. Through reading Sophie’s World, I feel I’ve opened my eyes to many new ways of thinking. Sophie’s World challenged my thinking and made me think about things I never had before. Through physical science, I’ve learned more about the universe around me than I ever knew before; it’s wonderful! I think debate has also greatly shaped me as a person. I believe the accountability and amount of work involved has made me a more diligent student. All the subjects studied this year have made me a different—and hopefully better—person intellectually.

I’m not sure how much I’ve changed socially over the course of this year, but I think I’ve become a bit easier to be around. I know I still have a lot to work on, but I believe I’ve become a less demanding person, and have learned to somewhat curb my know-it-all tendencies. I also have more friends outside of class than I ever have before. I’ve grown closer to my friends at dance, and am getting along better with my church friends also. Protocol gave me much-needed practice in the area of conducting myself in high-class social situations.

When I was younger, I had three goals for my future: becoming an artist, an orphanage keeper, and the first woman president. While my dreams now are a bit different, the general ideas of what I want to do are surprisingly similar. I guess when you’re little, you have a pretty good idea of what you want in life after all. Now, I want to be a writer, a lawyer, a kindergarten teacher and a mom.

I recently looked back at the “books” I made when I was a little kid. I would draw pictures and then tell my mom what to write under each picture. I thought that I wanted to be an artist because I loved to draw the pictures so much, but now I see that really I wanted to be a writer all along! I just thought I was being an artist, when I was really being an author even then.
I still think it would be challenging and exciting to be the president, but that is no longer what I want to do with my life. I’d rather be the world’s best lawyer! However, I’m not really sure how that will work out with the rest of my dreams for the future. If I chose to be a lawyer, I will be in school until I’m twenty-six years old. I don’t think it would be too difficult to balance being a writer and a lawyer, but being a mother and a law school student might be a bit too much to do simultaneously. Also, I’m wondering if it’s really best to dive into a heavy career so young. Is it even realistic to expect law firms to immediately promote me to a high position?

Recently I’ve been contemplating becoming a kindergarten teacher. I really love little kids, and teaching, so the idea of becoming a kindergarten teacher was surprisingly appealing. While this career possibility did not really occur to me until a few weeks ago, I think it is one that I might pursue.

Being a writer is my only goal for the future that has never shifted once. Even when I was a toddler, I wanted to be a writer, although I thought I wanted to be an artist. My other dreams have all changed or been dropped, but I have always wanted to write stories for other people to enjoy. Being a writer would take all three of my most prominent characteristics. It would use my imagination, my persistence and persuasiveness, and obviously my love for words. Because of all these events and passions pointing to my becoming a writer, I do believe it is the one goal that I am certain about. I firmly believe that God’s purpose for me has at least something to do with my being a writer. While all my other career goals and dreams may shift and change, I think being a writer is something that will always be close to my heart.

You

*grins* VICTORY! I think I aced both my Latin and my philosophy exams!! Yay! I studied hard, and I think it paid off. Let's hope :) Now all I have to do is take an exam on my second worst subject: physical science, and my third worst subject: American government. *moan* It's not over yet, that's for sure.

But I'm surprisingly really sad about the end of school. Some people I never thought I'd miss, I'm going to miss. I was just thinking about it in class today, and it was. . .just really sad. I wish I could be more specific, but I don't feel like I can since everyone can read this. I'm just really sad. Because I firmly believed that my class was going to graduate together. We love each other. I thought. But it might just be me. I don't know. I can't tell. I'm probably just a more sentimental person than the rest of them. But anyway, this whole saying-goodbye-maybe-forever thing is really sad. I actually cried last night.

Okay. Enough about my crazy emotions. Let's talk about something else. . .like. . .like. . .

Okay, well, we had to write a paper for literature that was about ourselves. It really helped me to evaluate where I am in life, where I have been, and where I want to go. The paper had to include some of our ancestry, our namesakes (if we had any), and what our name means.

Then, we had to give three stories from when we were ages birth to five years old. This kind of helped us see our "real" selves. Because when you're little, you aren't trying to impress people, you aren't trying to fit in, you're innocent and ignorant. You can see the real you. Sort of the un-cut, un-edited ME.

Then, we had to give three of our character traits, with stories to illustrate them. It was interesting to see the parallels between my three most prominent characteristics and the stories from when I was little. It was weird to see that I haven't really changed all that much. (My three character traits were persistent/persuasive, imaginative, and a logophile [lover of words].)

The next section of the paper, we had to talk about the changes we've experienced this school year. Socially, emotionally, intellectually, etc. This was a real eye-opener for me. I mean, you would think you know yourself pretty well, but when you HAVE to really analyze yourself and put thought into how you've changed, it's interesting to see what you come up with. I've become more open-minded this year, mostly due to the semester in philosophy, I think. (Look back at Berkeley. He thought that maybe we only exist in the mind of God. Wow. What a crazy new idea! Weird!)

And lastly, dreams for the future. My personal dreams are to be a writer, a lawyer, a mom, and possibly a kindergarten teacher. I just really, really, REALLY love little kids. So much. So I think that would be a good profession for me. But I don't know. . .Maybe sometime if I don't know what to post, I'll just post my paper or something. Although I might have to leave our the ancestry because I gotta keep my identity safe, lol! Sorry :D

Writing that paper was surprisingly fun, and just FULL of self-discovery. I really think it's something that everyone should do once in their lifetime, preferably when you're younger-ish, lol! It's a really good way to get to know yourself and see where you are in life. Sorry if I sound really dreamy and all head-in-the-clouds. It's actually a pretty concrete way to look at your life, though.

Well, ttyl! Carpe diem! I am SOOOO tired.