Erin go Bragh!

I've been thinking about St. Patrick's Day for WEEKS now! :D I dunno why I've been so excited, it's not like we do anything special. I guess it's just an occasion to go all-out for something, and I love going all-out :D

Me and Lizzy :)

~Kendra

Jingle Bells

Cassidy is here :D She's spending two nights with me and we're gonna go see the third Narnia movie, "Voyage of the Dawn Treader." :D We're excited. And she's going to help me think of 18 Somethings to do for the Christmas Countdown.

...right, Cass? XD

...15 minutes later...

"Daddy? Can you help us think of 18 Christmas things to do for my blog?"

"Songs."

"...thank you."

Christmas Songs (our favorites are in green):
1. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
2. What Child Is This?
3. Joy to the World
4. Angels We Have Heard on High
5. O Come O Come Emmanuel (Casting Crowns instrumental version)
6. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (courtesy of Lizzy)
7. We Three Kings
8. Carol of the Bells (this is actually a Celtic Woman version)
9. Winder Wonderland (Lizzy again) (Cassidy: "Wonderland is one word." Me: "..right.")
10. O Holy Night
11. Holy Emmanuel (can't find a Youtube video for it :-/)
12. Bethlehem Town
13. In the Bleak Midwinter (-_- can't find this one either)
14. In Like a Lion (Always Winter Never Christmas)
15. Do You Here What I Here?
16. Jesus Light of the World
17. Jingle Bells
18. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

:D There you go.

~Kendra

Happy Thanksgiving!

(EDIT: .......it didn't work.......so I'm posting it really quick now before I have to go.)

I don't know if I'll have time to post on Thanksgiving ("today"), so I'm gonna use the auto-post thing. So, technically, I'm writing this when it's not Thanksgiving, but you'll READ it on Thanksgiving... XD

But don't worry; sometime soon, I'll post about what happened today.

I hope you're having/had a great Thanksgiving!

Girls' "Word Names" I Made Up
451. Peace
452. Survivor
453. Rumor
454. River
455. Tally
456. Trust
457. Every
458. Legend
459. Soul
460. Story
461. Lyric
462. Atlantic
463. Props
464. Amaze
465. Ocean
466. Anime
467. Memory
468. Lake
469. Lymrick
470. Echo

Things I'm Thankful For
471. Words
472. Talents
473. Writing
474. Freedom
475. Books
476. Family
477. Friends
478. Friends that are more like family
479. Straighteners
480. Internet
481. Education
482. Dance
483. Laughter
484. Music
485. Teachers
486. Advice
486. Friends that can drive
487. Food
488. Licky (my doggie :D)
489. Eyeliner (I really am...)
490. Razors (See above.)
491. Heat
492. Philosophy class/Philosophers
493. Languages
494. The chance to go to Europe this summer
495. My blog
496. My camera
497. My iPod
498. Thinking/Opinions
499. Challenges

500. The God who made all 499 other things possible.

~Kendra

Finally

Y'all know I've been having kind of a rough time lately. Well, these past few days have been just what I needed :)

Sunday:
Play practice went great! My dad took me and we talked a lot in the car. I love that. I don't really talk to him like I used to, and I miss that.

After play practice, I came home and just sat in the living room with my mom and dad :) Sometimes it's nice just to be around. We watched some TV and I colored XD [Shut up. You're never too old to color.]

After dinner, my dad and I walked down to the lake to feed the fish. The sun was shining just right and you see the little swarms of gnats near the water. A boat motor made a loud sound and all the gnats JUMPED! It was the funniest thing! My dad wondered if you could make them jump with your voice. He said "JUMP" in a low voice and...

They did! It was really weird, and equally hilarious.

We went back to the house and Daddy watered the grass while I kicked the soccer ball and played basketball. When he was done, he played with me. I got six shots in a row, which was good for that night. I was missing like 80% of all the shots I took XD

I picked daisies for my mom.

It was a great day.

Monday:
Memorial Day!
"I'm proud to be an American, Where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, Who gave that right to me."

We can't forget :)

To celebrate Memorial Day, we went down to the lake! My friend Brianna and her little brother Michael came over, and we went down to the beach. Before long, lots of other people had joined us. A few hours into swimming and having fun, a thunderstorm came up! We got a canopy up just in time.

I love thunderstorms. And this one was cool. Not the most amazing one ever, but it had a giant crack of thunder that made me grin.

Some of the kids, including Matt, were actually in the water when lightning struck nearby. Matt said he felt like someone had kicked him in the chest. I wasn't in the water when it happened. I was jealous XD

The whole day was just amazing. Hanging out with friends, doing random things, I even got to DRIVE MY DAD'S CAR. In the neighborhood, but still, with just me and Brianna in the car. Please don't have me arrested.

Tuesday:
I slept late and just kind of chilled around the house. My mom and Lizzy are at a practicum, so it's just me and Daddy at home. We went to this new frozen custard place, which was awesome. Then we went to Wal-Mart to get stuff on a massive list I had just made XD I also got CHEAP CLOTHES! Who doesn't love cheap clothes? I got a skirt and a shirt for a grand total of $9.70. Alriight XD

We ate at Subway.

Play practice went amazing. I'm learning the dances better than I thought.

Daddy and I watched episodes of The Office :) I love that show.

Today:
Another sleeping in day. It felt great.

I laid outside in the sun for a while. It felt soo nice out. I'm not really one of those girls who can just "go out and tan". I get really bored really fast XD But I'm pale. So, I took notebooks, books, and my iPod and managed to stay quite happy for about an hour. Then I got up and played basketball until I satisfied myself with a beautiful three-pointer.

After dinner tonight, a thunderstorm blew up. It was so beautiful. Daddy and I went out on the screened-in porch and watched the bright lightning and listened to the thunder. I love those peals where you can hear where the crack starts, and then follow it as it rips around the sky :)
Daddy had to go to band practice for our church, but I stayed outside and listened to the storm. God is so cool, you know? I think thunderstorms are one of his finest ideas :) It even inspired me to write a little. A beginning of a story that will never go anywhere, but hey, I like it.

So basically, I've been having an amazing past few days. It's finally starting to seem like the best summer ever.

~Kendra

It's Mother's Day

When I was little, my mom was my best friend.

I would follow her around the house and say, "Remme dis book." She would stop whatever she was doing and we would read, right there.

She would wake me up every morning by singing to me. We sang all the time. We sang real songs, we sang made-up songs, and we made our own songs to go with Nursery Rhymes.

We would cook all the time, too. I would eat really weird and random things. Like raw onions.

We played Blocks. I had a lot of blocks. We built stuff, but not just that, we played SERIOUS BLOCKS. Like, all the longskinny blocks were people and we acted out legit stories.

My mom can sing.

My mom is a born teacher. And she teaches the 8th grade.

My mom is really smart.

My mom is one of those people that everyone likes.

In a lot of ways, my mom is like me. We're both logical and stubborn and LOVELOVELOVE to read. Our minds work really quickly and go in lots of different directions at once. We both have a "low idiot tolerance," which basically just means we're impatient XD

All of this translates to one thing:

Either we get along great, or we don't get along at all XD

When two people are so alike, there are bound to be lots of personality clashes. As I've been growing up, that's happened a whole lot. I can be quite an exasperating person. I'm great at learning peoples' buttons, and I'm also great at pushing them. The past couple of years have been rougher than ones before, but lately I think we're getting along again...

You'd think that hitting Sweet 16 and trying to grow up would make a relationship even rockier, but life (and moms!) are full of surprises. Lately I've found a really cool, reasonable, logical, fun friend and ally in my awesome momma. I don't wanna say it's a shock, but..well... ;)

My mom is pretty cool after all :) Okay, fine, VERY cool. I do love you, Momma.

~Kendra

Boxing Day

It's the day after Christmas, AKA "Boxing Day (Canada)" as my calender so aptly puts it ;) I know this day is supposed to be a huge let down, and it usually is for me, but this year it's not. After three years in a row of cruddy Christmases that I ruined by trying too hard, this Christmas was basically perfect. I didn't regret anything, and nothing could have made it better. Everything was, well, perfect. I'm really glad I've been blogging throughout the season so I can commemorate it.

Today we went to my aunt's house, and did presents and Christmas with them. My aunt made lasagna, and, as some of you know, I don't like lasagna. It's not a taste thing, it's a texture thing. I hate ground beef. I know that's weird. I can hear you saying, "But it's in spaghetti!" Yes, well, I don't eat spaghetti with meat in it, which, in case you were wondering, is one of the quickest ways to get yourself considered a vegetarian. (I am not.) And then you say, "Don't you eat meat on tacos?" The answer that is, well, yeah, but it's different because A: it's softer and not as disgustingly coarse and B: the sauciness helps.

But that's really not the point of this. The point is, I hate lasagna. But when we sat down at the table, I mentally crossed my arms and said, "Kendra, today is the day you like lasagna."

And I ate it. Two servings.

The texture was occasionally gag-o-licious, but the taste was really good. I can actually say that I think I'll eventually LIKE lasagna, and for now I can at least say I can eat it. So, today was pretty productive. Some weird stuff happened on the car ride back, but that's not for right now, LOL.

I know I've been promising pictures from my new camera, but we (okay, I) haven't gotten around to attempting to upload them yet. I think I might still have a few more snow pictures though, so there they are:

Lizzy and Katie making snow angels :)
KatieMe :DAt the Open House. Left to right: Daniel (the guy who always brings out the worst in me), Caleb (a kid from church), and me.Playing LotR Risk. THAT was fun.And, that's my post for the day. I hope you're continuing to have a happy Christmas season! The Christmas blog header and background are coming down the 31st, so if anyone wants to suggest backgrounds, go for it. No promises on taking the suggestions, though XD I can be picky.

MERRY DAY-AFTER-CHRISTMAS! ;)

~Kendra

On the 17th Day of Christmas...

First: Thanks, Emma, for following! Hope you're enjoying the Christmas Countdown :)

Okay, so it's really just seventeen days till :) SEVENTEEN DAYS!!

I love counting down to Christmas, but in a way it's sad :( I almost don't WANT Christmas to come because I love everything about the season!

Alright, now for the Christmas Countdown, a Christmas tag with seventeen questions!

1. Do you believe Jesus is the reason for the season?
Of course!

2. What is your favorite Christmas beverage?
Hot chocolate with peppermint in it :)

3. Do you have any Christmas traditions?
Yes. Every year someone in my family makes a cross. Last year was my mom's turn and she made a cross out of all the different materials that went into the new house! This year is Lizzy's turn. Wonder what she'll do...?

4. What do you do on Christmas Eve?
We got to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at my church and then we each get to open one present :)

5. What do you do on Christmas Day?
We wake up and find Baby Jesus in the manger! We have a real wooden manger and a doll that's been "Baby Jesus" for as long as I can remember. All leading up to Christmas we get to see the waiting manger...and then on Christmas Day, HE IS COME! :)

6. What is your favorite Christmas song?
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

7. Do you usually have a white Christmas?
No, sadly.

8. How long did you believe in Santa?
I never did. My mom sort of wanted me and Lizzy to, but my dad said he felt betrayed and lied to when he found out the truth and didn't want that to happen to us. Looking back, I probably would have felt the same way.

9. Who’s your favorite reindeer?
Well, it's a tie between Dancer and Blitzen. Why? I'm a Dancer myself, of course, but Blitzen's is German for "lightning"! Did you know that? And Donner (originally Donder) means "thunder"!

10. What’s the best thing about Christmas to you?
The feeling of love and cheer leading up to the special day.

11. When do you put up your Christmas tree?
Usually the first week in December

12. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nope ;)

13. Does Santa wrap the presents or just stick them under the tree?
Just stick 'em under the tree. The elves do the wrapping!

14. Do you prefer giving or receiving?
Well, both are special, obviously. I don't want to see stuck up and perfect, but I really love giving. I love that anticipation when someone you love is opening your gift!

15. What do you want most for Christmas out of everything in the world, material and nonmaterial?
An older brother, duh ;)

16. Do you go to lots of parties, parades, etc. during the Christmas season?
YES! We have an Open House every year where my mom makes tons of Christmas goodies and people come eat them with us :) My little town also always has a big parade. There are always plenty of festivities this time of year.

17. Describe Santa.
Oh boy! Well, Santa is not like other grown-ups. Santa never gets angry, though sometimes he's disappointed, and he manages to understand all children. He never tells them they should be more like someone else, he always appreciates them for who they are and where they are. He looks for the good in everything and everyone. He's a master of jokes, and his laugh is the most contagious you'll ever hear! His beard is fluffy and white, his belly round, his cheeks rosy and his laugh jolly. Always gentle and definitely wise, Santa is the essence of all things wonderful: laughter, kindness, generosity, wit, humor, fun, joy, wisdom and honor. Yay, Santa!

Now I tag...EVERYONE!! But be sure to tell me you're doing the tag so I can go read your answers!

Twenty-One Christmas Pet Peeves

How do you like the new background? :) Thanks, ***Emily***! Should I leave the snowmen, or switch to the one without them?

Now, with only twenty-one days until Christmas, how about some of my personal pet peeves about the "holiday" (grr) season?

1. When people complain that "Xmas" is taking Christ out of Christmas. It's merely an abbreviation, people, and it's actually very religious. It comes from the Greek letter chi (kye), which is the symbol for Christ.

2. When people cloud the joy of Christmas with the fact that Jesus dies. Yes, he dies, but we have EASTER to mourn that! Let's be happy about our savior at Christmas!

3. Candy canes

4. Complaining kids who didn't get all the stuff they wanted.

5. When little kids ask you if you believe in Santa. (Really, how do you answer that??)

6. Nativity dolls with weird faces

7. Colored, blinking lights on Christmas trees

8. Feeling sick after being warned not to eat too much

9. Neighbor's Christmas lights that are so bright that there's pseudo-daylight in you room at night

10. Mistletoe

11. Spray-on snow

12. Teenagers who are "too cool" for Christmas

13. That dropped-off-a-cliff feeling the day after Christmas

14. Getting that present you'd been hoping you wouldn't get

15. People who make snide remarks about your favorite old Christmas movies

16. Maurice Chevalier

17. Staying long periods of time at adult Christmas parties

18. The fact that there are no commercials for toys for outside anymore, only electronics

19. People who say "Happy Holidays!" just to be politically correct

20. Idiots on the highway when commuting to spend time with relatives

21. People who celebrate Christmas but shun the whole reason for the season

Haha, hoped you liked hearing all that complaining ;)

MERRY TWENTY-ONE-DAYS-UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

CrAzy Trees and the Number 24

Thanks for following, ***Emily***!!!

TWENTY-FOUR DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

...so why does my countdown say 22? Good question! I have no idea. I set it to count down to December 25th...*shrug* Ah well. You get the idea.

Speaking of ideas, I've decided to do both Christmas ideas, the countdown and the daily Christmas...thing. So, something interesting about the number 24...

24: Subtracting one from any of its divisors (except 1 and 2, but including itself) yields a prime number. 24 is the largest number with this property, for to have this property a number cannot be divisible by a prime greater than three, nor can it be divisible by 9 or 16.

Kind of a "brainful", isn't it?

Now, in the spirit of preparing for Christmas, here are nine Christmas trees! Enjoy!

Serious recycling goin' on...

Hmm, she's really putting herself into her decorations...
Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!Whoa! Who came up with this??
A Christmas tree made out of CDs!
I don't even want to think about how long it took to free up all those bottles...
Colorful, earth-friendly, what's not to like?
I'm not really sure what this is...
God bless AmericaMERRY TWENTY-FOUR-DAYS-UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

P.S. I think I'm going to start doing every-other day. Tomorrow I'll just do something about the number 23, Friday I'll do a Christmas thing, and so on.

Twenty-Five Days...

There are only 25 days until Christmas! How exciting! And doesn't it feel like we just did this? Wow, the whole year has absolutely blown by. Pretty soon, 2010 (don't you love saying "twenty-ten"?) will be here, and I didn't achieved my New Year's Resolution (stop cracking my knuckles). *sigh*

But, back to Christmas :)

I've made some smaller Christmas color changes to the blog! I might be interested in a Christmas header, too, if someone *cough Bethany cough* has time... :) I'm going to do a Countdown to Christmas! I'm torn between two ideas, though. Help?

Idea #1: Each day I'll post something about the number of days till Christmas. So, for 25, I might say something like..."There is a spiral galaxy about 25 million light years away from earth!"

Idea #2: I'll post something Christmas-y, simple as that. Today's might be a recipe for cookies or pictures of crazy Christmas trees.

What do you think? I'd like everyone's opinion! You read it, so you should decide. Even if you don't care, I want to hear your thoughts :)

MERRY 25-DAYS-TILL CHRISTMAS!

P.S. If anyone knows how to get their blog to "snow", let me know! I've been wondering about that.

EDIT: I DID IT!! :) It's super easy, definitely the easiest widget I've ever added. Just go here and it's duh from there :) http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2008/12/simple-snow-effect-widget-for-blogger.html

My Thanksgiving and a Tag!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! As cheesy as it might sound, I'm really thankful for you all and this blog. Having somewhere to write whatever I feel like is great, but knowing I have people who care reading it is ten times better :) I appreciate you all so much! God bless you guys!

Today was fun! I woke up a little after nine and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, OF COURSE. Totally a family tradition. After a while I got dressed in nice(ish) clothes, and Kathleen came upstairs. (She's a late-sleeper :D) My aunt, uncle, and other cousin Garrett arrived at about noon. Garrett (will be 15 in December) is so tall :-/ I feel tiny next to him, which is never the case. He's 6'2" and I'm like 5'7". *shudder* :P

After dinner (turkey, ham, sweet potato pie, corn casserole, stuffing kind #1, stuffing kind #2, cranberry sauce, strawberry salad, rolls, pumpkin pie, gingerbread cake, and pound cake!), we cousins always just mess around for a while before everyone goes to visit my grandfather's grave and then my great uncle. My grandpa died in 2001 :( and my great uncle just...never comes out of his house except to play golf and go to the store. LOL. Some day I'll do a post about my dad's side of the family. It's...really something XD

Depending on what mood my great uncle is in, the visits range from short and stiff to really fun and engaging. But before I get into the visit itself, allow me a quick paragraph on his house.

It's really big and old and completely white on the outside. There's a porch, but it's just like an inch off the ground and, like, gray concrete. There are big white pillars that go from the ground to the top of the house. It's definitely not pretty.

Then you open the door. Right in front of you are steep, freaky stairs. All along the stairs are giant boxes and garbage bags filled with STUFF. To your left is a room with a fire place, two couches covered with the UGLIEST orange and brown pattern ever. Then there are about fifty boxes and twenty garbage bags full of STUFF. To your right is the dining room minus a table, chairs, and a china cabinet. And yet, it's completely full. OF BOXES AND GARBAGE BAGS OF STUFF. Don't even get me STARTED on the man's kitchen. You'd have to pay me a lot to attempt to find anything, and even more to eat anything that came out of it.

Basically, the guy's the world's biggest pack rat. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration. In the WHOLE WORLD, maybe he comes in more like...second. But maybe that's being too kind. My great uncle has...some of everything. He hits every sale Wal-Mart ever has and buys at least three of whatever it is. Yard sales are his thing. Basically anything kind of sale is his thing. The useless family heirlooms he's collected are crazy. I mean...I don't even want to get into it.

BUT, he did have a couple of items of considerable interest to me and Garrett: SWORDS.

Real swords!! From Thailand and India! A machete and...some other kind of way cooler sword. And several cool knives. Oh man, that was so awesome. I want a sword really bad(ly). Actually, I want a dagger. Well, I call it a dagger. My dad says what I want isn't called a "dagger" (excuuuuuuuse me, lol). I want something small (maybe a four or five inch blade) and sharp that comes in a little sheath. Is that not a dagger? Einar? Is that not a dagger?

Anyway, the sword part was freaking EPIC, and my great uncle was in a really awesome mood. We had tons of fun and took plenty of pictures to show my grandmother. *grins evilly* Maybe I'll upload them later.

Now, H--Gracie tagged me! The tag is fun, so read it if you feel like it. If you're leaving, HAPPY THANKSGIVING

TAG:

Do you like to write? YES.

Favorite books? Eragon, the Mortal Instruments Trilogy, the Farsala Trilogy and...I'm forgetting something...someone help me out...

Do you compose music/write songs? I haven't ever written the music down (I don't how), but I've written lots of lyrics and thought of some tunes.

Do you like poetry? Some.

Love someone so much who made you cry? Yeah :-/

Broken a bone? Nope. Maybe my pinkie toe a couple of summers ago, but it might have just been sprained. I never went to the doctor, so I'll never know...but I *can* move it by itself now >:D

Been in a police car? No.

Been on a boat? Are you kidding me?? I live next to a lake! I looooove boats. Good times, good times.

Fallen asleep in school? No, haha.

Did you sing today? Yep, in the car. I'm still figuring out the mystery of alto harmony...

KFC, Popeyes or Church's? Um, KFC. What kind of a choice is that?? Their mashed potatoes are especially excellent!

Chick-fil-a or What-a-burger? I have no clue what What-A-Burger is and Chick-fil-a fries in peanut oil, so it makes my throat hurt. *sigh* The injustices of life :)

Starbucks or McCafe? Starbucks. McCafe is good, and I love McDonald's, but nothing's quite like Starbucks.

What's your favorite time of year? SUMMER. Do you even have to ask!

Do you ever talk to yourself? No, never. But I do have several, um...*imaginary* friends that keep me great company ;)

Do you have a favorite treat you like to buy on occasion? Anything sour, and atomic fireballs :D

Do you believe the Bible is the literal Word of God and is infallible? Absolutely. Whether it's literal in the way we think of it in some places (mainly Genesis), I'm not sure about.

What's your favorite sport? Definitely dance. But if you insist on ball sports, SOCCER. I'm also dying to do fencing and archery though.

What color is your iPod? Silver

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? In THIS world? ;) Ireland.

If you could go to any fictional place, where would you go? TOUGH CHOICES. Alagaesia probably. Unless my own worlds count, and then it's a tie between Sorayoni and Jeolotoe.

Do you love to write or do you just like writing? Love it. When you like to write as much as I do, it stops being a "gift" and becomes a mental disease.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Lawyer-writer-mom-teacher. Don't you dare tell me I can't do it all >:D

Favorite animal? Puppies and anything adorable. I'm a sucker for those big eyes, lol :)

Favorite song? Hmm, it changes. Right now, Orchard of the Mines. AMAZING.

Do you like school? Eh, yeah, I guess. I love learning with everything in me, so I guess I have to. I do not like math and science at all, though.

Are you a people person? Yes. People are my coke. Lols, that sounds even weirder than I planned >:D

Do you like to talk? I will quote a Facebook flare: "Telling me to stop talking is like telling anyone else to stop breathing."

Favorite food? Ugh, seriously? Um, I love my mom's corn casserole. Also love M&Ms, Cadburry mini eggs and tomato soup.

Hobbies? Reading, writing...um...arguing, goofing off on the computer, reading, writing, hanging out with friends, languages, writing, music, reading.

Favorite author? Hilari Bell is definitely one of the most brilliant writers I've ever read. Cassandra Clare is extremely talented, too, though. (This is not including obvious ones like Tolkien and all the famous people XD)

Favorite weapon? My mind. But if it has to be concrete, I'll definitely side with Gracie and say a bow and arrow.

Is this a fun tag, or are you getting bored? Fun, but I really should be with my family on Thanksgiving, so it's getting kinda long...

Do you like Hannah Montana and all those girly people and movies like High school Musical? Shoot me, no.

What are you scared of? Forgetting, losing people I love, and crane flies.

Favorite flowers? I do not know...

What is the expression on your face? Glazed and bored-looking, even though I'm not really.

Color of your eyes? Blue and green. Kinda like THIS.

Who are you going to tag and why?

1. Kyle Hendricks, because he says he never gets tagged.
2. Chris Kolmorgen, because he's proof that good Christians can still accept Twilight :)
3. Lady Brainsample, because she wrote older brothers into her stories, too.
4. KnightWing, because he's my internet older brother :D
5. Bleah, because she's my newest awesome follower!

Thanks!!

Kathleen!

My awesome cousin Kathleen is home from college and staying with us over Thanksgiving!! She's amazing and I love her so much. I can talk to her about anything. If I don't have an older brother (in real life, I do have an "internet" one, though :D), at least I can have an older sister!

<3

Happy Labor Day!

First of all, what do you think of my new blog header? Like it? Hate it? Too much? Preferred the old one? Let me know!
--------------------------
Advice Day!

"Who are you? Be sure you know. If you don't, how can you expect others to?" ~Kendra Logan
--------------------------
Well, today is going well so far. Since I actually got my work done this week, today wasn't bad. I had a significant amount of BritLit to do, but since I loved "Paradise Lost" so much, that was hardly work at all. I still want to read the whole thing. Over Christmas break maybe.

Well, as far as writing goes, I got a fair amount on that Desirae Mayes story last night and today. I'm not sure if I like it. Desirae's writing style is not mine at all, and I'm trying to decide if I can stand writing like her instead of me.

Because the story is about Desirae's story, it's kind of a book within a book. Coming up with a plot for Desirae's book is difficult though. Right now, it's pretty cliche and shallow. I'm not sure how much that matters. We'll see.

The overall plot to this story (my story, not Desirae's, lol) is okay, I think. It's so new and sketchy that I can't be sure, though. It most likely won't go anywhere, but with "Mirror" on hold for lack of inspiration, and "The W Chronicles" at a puzzling stand-still, I was going crazy not writing. Writing something cruddy and unimportant is much better than writing nothing at all.

Other than writing and school, that's all that's been going on today. We don't have any specific plans for Labor Day, so we'll probably just chill around here. Maybe we'll get together with the neighbors. (If we do, I'll be able to get the next HP book!)

Oh, one last thing: I made a blog button for, uh, my blog. It's on the sidebar...yeah, right there...You found it! :P It's the same thing as my new header (lol, no duh, right?)

Anyway, I'll talk to you later! Have an amazing long weekend! CARPE DIEM, PEOPLE!

Walks, Green, and Fitting In

IT'S SUNNY!

And I fully intended to go on a walk on the trails today before lunch, but then (this is lame), I found this movie on TV that I love and just had to watch it. So much for a walk.

Oh well. Still might happen. As soon as I'm done with this post I'm going to go out on the porch and see if it's warm enough to go out in wet hair (just took a shower).

Anyway, today is EARTH DAY! I think. I'm pretty sure. If I'm wrong, tell me, but for all intents and purposes, today is Earth Day on Carpe Diem :)

I am not a tree-hugger. I can see why some people are, and it's always made me sad to see huge areas of forest be chopped down in their prime to make way for WHAT?! another WAL-MART?! Don't we have one like, I don't know, TEN MINUTES FROM HERE?!

Anyway.

I'm not an official tree-hugger, but I have some tendancies toward being one (I love the Pocahantas song "Colors of the Wind" :D). I might actually BE a tree-hugger if it weren't for all the annyoing "GO GREEN!" crud all over. (Actually, I would probably still not be a tree hugger. I like books too much. [Get it? Books. Paper. Comes from trees. Okay, sorry. That was really lame and stupid and not even funny, but at least I realize that.]) There are entire children's TV shows dedicated to GOING GREEN!! Give me a break. It's just gotten kind of annoying. I can see how once upon a time it was important to educate people about harming the environment, but we've all gotten the message by this point. See Carpe Noctem for my full rant ;) http://toseizethenight.blogspot.com/2009/04/going-green-give-america-break.html

Besides all that interesting stuff, I have a couple more things to say:

I think I'm going to have a vegetable garden this summer. It seems like a fun and productive way to get outside and do something. I like growing things, too, I just, like...never do, lol!

And thing number two: to raise money for the summer mission trip for my youth group, we're having a Parents' Night Out tonight! You drop off your kids from 5:30pm to 10:00pm and go out to dinner or whatever! Then you donate to our "cause". It's sooooooooo much fun!!! I am such a little-kid-lover, and being a seven-year-old at heart doesn't hurt either :) I love playing dogeball, giving piggy-back rides, solving litte-kid problems, being in charge (bwahahaha), and getting to show my inner little kid without being looked at funny by all the girls my age.

In other words, having an excuse to be who I actually am.

Maybe I seem like a pretty out-there, carefree, non-conformist kind of person, but actually the desire to fit in is close to my heart. I've always been labled either the weird, home-schooled writer freak or the weird girl who plays with little kids instead of hanging out with kids her OWN AGE. (By the way I have gotten a lot better at not doing that. I actually do hang out with my own friends before church now, and the little kids are more than a little ticked off about that.) Now, a lot of people still talk to me and mostly accept me, but there's always that look in their eyes and that edge in their voice that tells me they think they're doing me a favor by talking to me. Some days are worse than others. This is one reason why I love my class so much. They will always "love" me for who I am.

Sorry to go all mushy on you. I'm in a really strange mood today.

Well, it's sunny and looks warm and my hair is drier now, so I'm gonna go take that walk. In other words,

Carpe the diem :)

Good Ol' Saint P and Other Stuff ;)

Dia duit!

That's "hello" in Irish in honor of St. Packtrick's Day! Today is awesome, because green is the best color EVER. But I have a confession to make:

I didn't wear green today :(

I don't have any green shirts at the New House yet! I know, it sucks, doesn't it? Oh well. Guess what? St. Patrick wasn't even FROM Ireland! He was just a missionary to Ireland. He was actually Welsh, I believe. And do you know why the shamrock is the symbol of St. Patrick's Day? Anyone? Anyone? (Haha, go watch "Ferris Beuller's Day Off") Well. St. Patrick used the shamrock as an example of how the trinity works: Father, Son, and Holy Spirt are all seperate, and yet one at the same time.

Personally, I don't like the analysis all that much. After all, the three different "branches" of God can be seperate altogether and still function, whereas who ever heard of a one-leafed shamrock? LOL! Still, you gotta meet people where they are, and I guess a shamrock was a readily availible and effective example for St. Patrick to use. *shrugs*

Class was good today. I wonder if last night was a full moon, 'cause we were pretty crazy today! The crazy days are always the best :)

Creepy is going okay. Not amazing, but it's DEFINITELY been worse (haha, y'all know that). I hit 63,000 words the other day (YES!!), and it's up to 120 pages! Hooray! In the words of London Tipton, "yay, me!" :P

Ohhhh! Awesome news! (Don't get your hopes up; it's not THAT great, lol!) I bought this really cute dress today!! Okay, my parents did, but this is a big deal because I usually only wear dresses about three times a year: Easter, and usually there are at least one wedding or funeral in a year. Yeah. I realy don't wear dresses that much, LOL! But this one is sooooo cute! It's green and pink-purple and teal and all swirly and abstract flowery. Okay, that description just made the dress sound really ugly. But it isn't. Really. It's short and it's got this belt and these little sleeves...okay, I know you're thinking that for a writer, I can't describe stuff worth crap. Lol! Oh well. It's cute, anyway :)

Alrighty. That's my day just about. Thought about green (best color ever), had a great day at class, thought about St. Patrick and his iffy analysis, found out how to say "hello" in Irish (wouldn't that be Gaelic, though? *shrugs*), and bought an adorable dress! :D

Not bad.

Carpe that diem!

Family Day

Well, today was Family Day! Lol, we made ourselves our own holiday when I was about eight. It's always on Martin Luther King Jr. Day so my dad can have the day off. We do family stuff together and just hang out. Unfortunately, I had a bunch of stupid school work to do :E (That's a growling smiley. :) I made it up lol!) After I go done, we went to the movies and saw the movie "Bedtime Stories." Lol, it was really good! Even though it was a kid movie, I loved it. :)

I don't think I'm reading for my Latin quiz tomorrow. :( Kinda forgot to study...hopefully I can cram and fake my way through it :)

That book "The Host" is getting really interesting. I'm liking it more and more.

Well, that's all for now I think. Hope everyone had an amazing day!!