Wednesday, November 30

Sooooo.....hungry!

This morning I was so hungry I felt like having this for breakfast.
But I didn't. Instead I had chocolate chip pancakes and scrambled eggs. And I'm not so hungry anymore. Although that Whopper does look good...

Tuesday, November 29

Christmas earrings

Once you get to know me pretty well, and even if you don't really, one of the things you'll know about me is that my fashion pretty much consists of long skirts, culottes, and tennis shoes. But you'll also know that while I may not dress in a way that is very "in", I am not afraid of color. In fact, I embrace it! One of my favorite ways to "fun up" an outfit is to add wild accessories. Several of you have seen my hot pink shoes, and those are a good example. But my absolute FAVORITE way to add that POW! to an outfit is to add funky earrings. Probably most of you have seen my gummy worms, which I love, and my ice cream cones. Still, gummy worms and ice cream cones are kind of a spring and summer thing. Once we hit winter, I knew I needed some serious help with my earring situation--fast and cheap help at that! Of course, Walmart stepped in to save the day! For only two bucks apiece, I got these awesome pairs of earrings that you will undoubtedly be seeing a LOT this holiday season. Even at PE. I love wearing my earrings to PE. So, without further ado, I will show a picture. Of course. I can only wear one pair to PE at once, so you're going to have to see the rest of them in the picture for now!
Top left: Jingle bells with bows
Top middle: Christmas trees with multi-colored rhinestones. I love rhinestones!
Top right: Jingle bell ornaments
Bottom left: Cute little puppy in a stocking
Bottom right: Polar bears with cute little round bellies. And glitter. Glitter is good.

Kickball

Have you ever thought about what a juvenile sport kickball is? (Maybe that's why I love it soooo much!) Still, it's always fun for teenagers to take something that they did when they were little and do it when they're older. It's fun, like reliving the glory days. I mean, you stand there and sass the pitcher for a little bit (at least, I do, most of the other kids have good manners), then you turn around and grin at your best friend who's playing catcher, then you kick that ball as hard as you can, then you run to a square that's lying on the ground. Then, if you get out, you throw a temper tantrum. Inside your head though--we are teenagers, after all. Otherwise, you grin smugly at the first baseman, unless, of course, they're one of your friends, and then you stick your tongue out at them. Well, at least, I do. Most of the other kids have good manners. Then you stand there and see how much you can get off the base without one of the other fielders catching you, all the while yelling at your other team member who kicks after you. At least, I do. Most of the other kids have good manners. Then you take off towards the next base as soon as the pitcher starts to roll the ball to the kicker. Then you watch the ball to make sure you don't have to run back to first base. If the ball was a grounder, you take off and make it safely to second base. If the ball was a pop fly, you take off, but a little slower, and you should stop almost completely when the ball gets closer to the fielder. If they catch it, you better hightail it back to first; otherwise, run to second. I'm playing out this game in only single base runs. It makes it easier to follow, plus it gives me, the runner, more chance for bad behavior on the field. If you're me, always go for bad behavior, if you're other kids, you have good manners and you should behave. :) Anyway, now we have a man on first and second. Actually, we have a man on first and a girl on second, thank you very much. You start to lead off from second--don't get caught too far off the base--but you don't scream this time. You want to be inconspicuous so you can sneak safely to third base. Your other team member kicks the ball, a pretty good kick, right to the pitcher. You know you can make it to third safely because the pitcher is a moron and won't remember that there's a girl running to third right behind him. He will, instead, hurl the ball to first, maybe getting the other person out. But you're safe and that's all that matters. At least for me. Most of the other kids have good manners. Anyway, this is your big break! You know that probably every fielder on the other team is going to try to prevent you from scoring that point. But you decide that you're going to do whatever it takes to score a point for your team. You start off down the third baseline and watch the other person prepare for kickage. You watch the ball roll off the pitcher's hand. Everything's moving in slow motion! You watch the ball roll down towards the kicker. Their foot is drawn back! The ball is closer! They bring their foot forward. You start to take off towards home! You hear the high PONK! of the ball being kicked, hard! You grin and power towards home. As you near the base, you look and see that the outfielders are still fumbling for the ball, somewhere near the basketball court across the kickball field. Your foot pounds on home plate and you quickly move so your teammates can score as well. GRAND SLAM! You all run back to join the rest of your team. There's cheers and high-fives all round. You smile and can't wait until your next turn up.
So what did we learn from this story?
  1. Kickball may be a "little kid game", but it's fun for all ages!
  2. Things move in slow motion when you're on third base.
  3. It feels really good to score a point! :)
  4. I need to work on my manners.

Monday, November 28

Family field trip!

For Thanksgiving this year, my family went to Naval Live Oaks and wandered around a little. Yes, I took pictures, and our visit is visually documented for you thusly. WARNING: There are about twenty-seven pictures. Yeah, I took lots.
A landscape with water and buildings. Start off with a semi-boring start.

Ooh, trees! Getting a little more interesting!

Yay! Sun glow! The picture is crooked. Just turn your head a little bit!

Trees, grass, blue sky, some sand-doesn't get much better!

Bumps in the sand. Dad said that he thought they were from hermit crabs or clams or something.

Okay, so this is the bathroom building. But it's still a nice picture, right?

Bright red berries. Like you didn't know that.

OOH! Semi-intelligent life! When I saw this picture, I told Mom she could use it for my obituary if I died, I liked it well enough.

Little brother Cameron. Geoffrey used to do that exact same thing in that exact same pose. Actually, he still does sometimes.

Here's all four of us! Don't we look cute?

There was a lot of wood like this on the beach.

Geoff has always liked to climb on stuff, poke stuff with sticks, whack stuff with sticks, stare at stuff, you get the idea.

A close-up of a piece of wood with this stuff growing on it.

OOH! MORE SUN GLOW!

A complicated, but cool looking twisty piece of wood.

This kind of makes me think of someone standing with their arms wide open for a hug.

Geoff, Cam, and Audge climbing on a tree. No, I'm not there. I am a lady sometimes!

Geoff and Cam. Cam's too cool to smile. :)


Some more wood. Yes, there's a lot of pictures of wood, but there was a lot there!

Cam, being cool or something.

Pretty twisty trees!

YAY PINK SHOES IT DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoa, I did get a good shot there. I was chasing every butterfly I saw trying to get a good shot. I probably looked like an idiot.

Another butterfly. What does it matter-they're pretty!

Ooh, that one's orange! With flowers! Pretty good shot.

Oh man! My one close-up and it came out blurry! Now I must grump for the rest of the day. :(
By the way, none of my photos have any kind of Photoshop or anything on them. They're all straight out of my camera. I would probably mess them up if I tried to Photoshop them. :)

Friday, November 25

Black Friday breakfast

Breakfast the day after Thanksgiving is interesting. Usually somebody gets the leftovers from our Thanksgiving breakfast( cocktail wieners, petite quiche, cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs). Everyone else just kind of scrounges. This year, I took Thanksgiving dinner leftovers.
In the top left corner, mashed potatoes. In the top right corner, broccoli casserole (I LOVE broccoli). In the bottom center, donut. With sprinkles.
Yup! Here's what the rest of my family is having.
  • Mom-Thanksgiving breakfast leftovers
  • Audrey-Donut
  • Cameron-Popcorn
  • Dad-Thanksgiving leftovers, diet Mountain Dew (he lives on that stuff)
  • Geoff-Still snoring away
  • Gracie-Everyone else's leavings
Now I'm going to go celebrate Black Friday by sitting around playing video games and watching old movies. Unless Mom has other plans. Maybe I'll draw or actually do something productive. (Or maybe not.)
Okay, so I did a post a little while back about the baroque festival we went to( and performed at). Dad also videotaped the whole thing...but the camera is hard to work with, and Dad's been busy, so the result: NO VIDEO ON THE COMPUTER.
Still, my faithful friend YouTube has my song! So if you really care enough to spend four minutes of your life watching a video of a guy playing the song that I performed, go ahead and click! (Keep in mind, I did not play it quite as fast as this kid does. But I was very close.)

Thursday, November 24

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was different this year. We didn't have anywhere to be until five, so we decided to go somewhere. We decided either Johnson Beach or Naval Live Oaks. We'd never been to Live Oaks as a family, so we decided to go there. We plunked around a bit, I tried to take pictures of butterflies-and failed-all in all, a great time. Then we went home, ate some snacks, and then the kids played video games and Mom worked on our dishes. We had to bring veggies to the Thanksgiving meal. Mom made broccoli casserole, carrots, and mashed potatoes. Mom did the peeling and chopping, and I added milk, butter, sour cream, and salt to our mashed potatoes. Yummy delicious! Then we headed out and had a fun meal with some friends (of my parents). The only person there who was my age was my older brother. So I kind of watched the little kids and made sure nobody died. Now we're at home, getting ready to konk out. Take tha, Black Friday-ers! I'm sleeping till noon! (Okay, maybe like, 8) Fine Arts tomorrow night (again)so I'm very excited!

Wednesday, November 23

"Lipstick? What lipstick?"

Tuesday, November 22

Gas station

If you've seen the movie Wall-E, you know that it's about a little robot who lives on Earth about five hundred or so years in the future, when all of the humans have left because Earth is so dirty, it's uninhabitable. There's this one part where Wall-E is driving through his town and you see all the buildings and stuff. Here's a picture of one of the gas stations.
See how insanely huge it is?

The next picture is one of the new gas stations being built in Pensacola. The RaceWay stations have about five or six pumps more than the other gas stations in town.

See how much it looks like the one from Wall-E?

Now, while it doesn't look exactly like the one from the movie, you have to admit, it looks a whole lot more like it than this one.

WOW. Two whole pumps. I'm not sure what that tall thing in the middle is. Anyway, max of three pumps. :)
And the moral of this story is: WE'RE GOING TO TURN INTO THOSE CREEPY PEOPLE FROM THE MOVIE WALL-E THAT SIT IN THOSE AUTOMATED MACHINES ALL DAY AND NEVER MOVE! It's only a matter of time...

Monday, November 21

Baroque Festival

On Saturday my family got all dolled up and loaded into our minivan to head down to Dollarhide's downtown( the store with all the pianos inside). When we got there, it was time for me, Audrey, and Geoffrey to get nervous. Except that Geoff doesn't get nervous. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. We were there for the annual Baroque Festival, an event celebrating baroque music. My big brother and I have done it for five or six years, but this was the first time for my little sister. Anyway, pictures!!!
Me, Geoff, and Audrey. Yes, there is something a little off with Audrey. She was being silly. :)


Audrey sitting at the very expensive Steinway we got to perform on. It was a really loud piano, and I loved it.

Thursday, November 17

Pinky pageants

It's so funny to watch those shows where they follow toddlers and their arenas through their pageant careers. Often, when the parents are talking to the camera people, conversation goes like this.
Parent: Oh yes, she LOVES her pageants!
Kid: No, I don't.
Parent: Yes you do, honey. Mommy knows what's best for you.
Kid: I. Hate. You.
Parent: Isn't she a dear?
Then they cake as much makeup on that little girl's face as I've probably worn in the past year. Then they put her on stage and make her dance around and look like a stupid. Why? I don't know. Maybe they felt badly about themselves when they were young and they don't want that for their daughters. Either way, I think the vast majority of pageant moms need to tone it down a bit.
And PS-Today is my seventy-fifth post! Yay!

Wednesday, November 16

Puppy wants to exercise too!

Mom and I were downstairs at 6:00 this morning getting ready to go on our 1.6 mile walk, and then I stuck my head outside to see if it looked like rain. The humidity was at about 6043%, so we decided not to go on a walk. Outside, that is. We popped in our two-mile walk DVD and got hopping. Now, you must know, our dog is a little bit crazy and she doesn't like unusual happenings. So me and Mom walking (marching, rather)in place in the middle of the living room was somewhat upsetting to her. So she came over and started jumping up on us. Naturally! Let me just tell you it was very hard doing knee lifts and side-steps with a little puppy jumping all over you! I do not recommend it highly.

Monday, November 14

My neighborhood

The other day, my mom, brother and I were out walking in our neighborhood. It was about six thirty in the morning, and it was freezing. Still, sometimes photographers have to suffer for their art, and we did. I have to tell you that I didn't want to bring the camera. At all. But Mom knew I'd have a change of heart when we got down to the lake, and, of course, she was right. I couldn't resist snapping a few shots of the lake, the trees, (which are changing color!!!) and the grass with frost on it. So, I'll shut up now and show you the pictures!
A duck swimming on a lake. Like you couldn't figure that one out. Sorry it's a little blurry, but it was six thirty on a Saturday morning and I was out taking pictures instead of at home in my bed. What would you expect?


The lake in our neighborhood. I guess it's Marcus Lake, since that's what our neighborhood is called. I dunno. See how you can see the water evaporating? Isn't it cool?
YAY! It turned out!

The fence. Yes, it has barbed wire on top. We don't live in a neighborhood of criminals, so I don't know why it's there.

CLOSE-UPS!!!!!

Same scene, different camera setting, totally new colors!

Frosted grass, fall trees, fog...this is a fall-tastic picture!

The moon looks so puny up there! It looked bigger in real life.

Doesn't this look exactly like the picture I had from summer vacation up in NC?
The picture from North Carolina. Notice how similar? The colors are just a little more vivid in the NC picture.

For some reason I've had the song "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid stuck in my head all morning. "Up where they walk! Up where they run! Up where they stay all day in the sun!!!!" Why? I dunno. I've never even watched that movie.

I was so nervous I was gonna drop my camera in the water when I took this shot. :)

See how beautiful the red is? I guess I spoke too soon about only having one stretch of fall!

I like that the sun is rising earlier now because Mom and I used to be stuck walking in the dark. Of course, then we could look at the stars!