Monday, January 30

Little Women

Who wouldn't love this movie? So sweet, so sad, so funny, so precious....so Louisa May Alcott!
I love this song and this video game! So cute!

Aging

If you didn't know me, how old would you guess I am?
Well, it being only a week until my birthday, I am almost fourteen years old. I'm getting really old!
I'm a very strange thirteen year old. As my mom would say, I'm old for my age. Most people I meet think that I'm at least fifteen. Of course, as soon as I get comfortable around you and start being myself, you're never surprised that I'm only thirteen! Except that I like to use big words. Looking older comes in handy when you're actually young, but I'm thinking that I won't appreciate it so much when I get older.
Of course, the older illusion might come from the fact that even though I'm only thirteen, I'm in ninth grade, so I always hang around with kids who are at least a year older than me. Plus, I don't think anybody can hang around my older brother without picking up on at least a few of his smart person habits! :)
So while I may sound and sometimes look older than I am, just get to know me and I'll never seem so old again! Well, maybe when I actually am old, like sixteen. :) Think relatively, here.

I wonder how many gumballs I could get with 225 dollars...

Friday, January 27

The results are in!

OK, so for those of you who didn't see the Local section in the Pensacola News Journal today, the spelling bee went really well. Like as well as I could have hoped! By the way, if you haven't seen the News Journal yet, DON'T PLEASE!!! I look awful! It looked like I was crying, but I wasn't! Just so you know. :)
So, 9th grade was first, so I was up. After four other people got out, I had to spell off against a kid from PCA, and eventually he misspelled a word and I got it and another word correct (loneliest and emerge were my winning words).  I got first place in my grade, which meant that I was going to move on to the finals, along with the other two guys who placed second in 9th grade. Then I had to sit in the audience for the other grades, where all of the kids that our homeschool league sent to the bee won first in their grade, including Geoff. Then the top three from each grade went to the finals. The finals went fairly quickly, because about half of the kids went out on their first words there. Eventually, it got down to me and Geoffrey spelling off, if you could call it that, because I misspelled my first word and he, the walking, talking encyclodictionsauras, got it right. The word was wheelwright. To be honest, I just got distracted and wasn't focusing on picking my brain for other words that it sounded like. Still, I made off with a couple hundred bucks, and losing to Geoff is nothing to be ashamed of. He's awesome!
So, a big thank you to my mom and dad for teaching me to love books, to all of the other adults who have encouraged me, and to all of my friends for letting me correct their spelling - it helps!! :)

Thursday, January 26

Wednesday, January 25

Brownies

I am making brownies. Yes, I bake brownies. Don't have a heart attack. If you ask real nice, maybe I'll bring you one!
:)

Tuesday, January 24

I CAN SPELLE REELEE GUD!

We found out that the seventh grader who represented our homeschool group in the city spelling bee not only won in her grade, but she won the entire middle school bee! Last year, I won the middle school finals, but I got second in my grade because I got nervous or something. I really think I was just hungry! I hadn't gotten a real chance to eat dinner, and I was just like, "COME ON!!! I WANNA EAT!!!!!"
Now if we can just have a repeat victory on my night to spell! Unfortunately, even if I make it through my grade to the high school finals, chances are good that I could be up against two other homeschoolers, both of which are formidable foes and one of which happens to be my brother. So it should be a very interesting night with some cash prizes up for grabs!
I accomplished stuff today! I taught Mom some algebra (no, I do not have that backwards!), failed a grammar quiz, learned two of Newton's laws of physics, brushed up on my Spanish, practiced an hour of piano, and accidentally read  two more chapters than I was assigned in literature because the book was so good. And I worried about the spelling bee on Thursday. Why am I so worried? Because I've been out in the audience when someone misses a word, and then they have to walk across the long, loooonnnggg stage, trying to hide their embarrassment while everyone watches their sad journey. And I do not want to be that kid. At all.
Please just pray that I don't melt under the hot lights. :) It gets hard and long up there and sometimes I want to misspell a word just to get off the stage!

Monday, January 23

Wow, it's really foggy tonight...

Scrapbooking - without the mess!

I love to take pictures. I also love to document my pitiful adventures in scrapbooks.
But I despise all the mess of scrapbooking! Glue everywhere, paper scraps all over the place, stickers messing things up, all to come up with a sad little scrapbook page.
Never more!
For my birthday a couple years ago, I got a scrapbooking program for our computer, so now I can have all the fun without making a big mess. Plus, if I make a mistake or don't like how something looks, I can tweak it until I'm happy with it. Plus, I can do all sorts of things to the photos and stuff that you really can't do in real scrapbooking. Here's some pages from a scrapbook I made the other day!
 There's a bunch of different things you can do, but what I like best is that the computer doesn't do it all for you. If you have zero creativity or artistic ability, your scrapbooks still won't come out, even with all the bells and whistles of scrapbooking software.
 I decided to devote a whole page to each kid. Keep it simple and sweet, ya know? And since we actually had good shots of all the kids, I was not gonna let them go to waste!
 Yeah, that's my page. Walk on.

 Cameron is so much fun to photograph! He makes for a very interesting photo, especially when he's in action!
 Well, this is Audrey's page. Yeah.
And this is the part where we try to take a Christmas photo. And you can see how well that worked out. Nobody wanted their picture taken, but we had different ways of showing it. Geoff gets all goofy. I start looking really awkward. Cameron makes weird faces. Audrey starts being ornery. And then Mom gets fed up with our antics and drops the whole thing.
And the best part: the sunset. It's too bad that I think this is the worst page out of the whole book, because the pictures are so pretty! Isn't it cool how the same sunset can look so completely different? In the bottom one, I was trying to get pictures of the dolphins that were playing in the water, but they were too far away, plus you couldn't really see them anyway.

Still, there is a downside to having a scrapbook on the computer. For example, you might spend months and months making a whole bunch of gorgeous scrapbooks using sentimental photos that you loved and get fabulous results out of all seventeen of your scrapbooks, only to have the computer crash and you lose all of that. Hypothetically, of course. I miss my seventeen scrapbooks. :(
I shall start anew!

Thursday, January 19

Culinary Endeavors

So the last week or so, I've tried some new recipes. Okay, two new recipes. Okay, one new recipe and another one I've tried before that had never turned out quite right. :) The first one was from the Amish cookbook I got for Christmas. It was chocolate cream pudding, and there were probably five ingredients. Less ingredients is bad for me because if I mess one up, it'll have a lot worse effect than a recipe with fifteen ingredients.
Anyways, obviously one of the main ingredients in pudding is milk. And, like the newbie cook that I am, I forgot that you should always check and make sure you have all of the ingredients before you start. So I mixed my cocoa powder and corn starch together with some salt and sugar. And then I realized we had no milk.
Now, if I was anyone but me, I would have sensibly put the ingredients in a bowl or something and saved them for a later time. But, being me, I remembered that we had powdered milk packets in the pantry (leftover from some sort of craft). So of course, I mixed up the artificial milk.
Gracie found a nice little box to sit in while she hoped that I would drop something for her.
After that, I poured it into a double boiler and cooked it until there was a semi-skin on top. I started to have doubts about this "milk" right about now.
Looks perfectly innocent, doesn't it?
 After the milk was ready, I mixed it into the cocoa powder mixture.
 Then I whisked it all together, quite vigorously, and ended up with this.
Ooh, bubbly!
 So I covered it with plastic wrap, stuck it in the fridge, crossed my fingers, and hoped like nobody's business that it would turn  out. While I didn't get any pictures the next morning after it sat in the fridge all night to set up, it really doesn't make any difference, because it looked exactly the same after twelve hours in the fridge. Chocolate soup, anyone?
CULINARY ENDEAVOR #1: FAILED


Last night, I decided to try something a little more in my comfort zone: cinnamon rolls. I used my cousins' grandma's recipe to mix them up. You combine the yeast, flour, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, etc... and let it sit overnight. Then the next morning, you roll it all out and spread the delicious things on it: butter, sugar, cinnamon. Then you roll it all up and slice the giant log of doughy, cinnamony goodness. You stick all of those delectable goodies in their respective pans and let it sit for a while longer, until you can't stand to wait  any longer. Then you bake them at 350 degrees for about fifteen minutes.
I decided to make a caramel sauce to go on top.
That turned out pretty well.

YUM!! Breakfast....

I poured the caramel sauce over the top until it looked like the rolls were sitting in a giant hot tub of caramel sauce. Now, I'm done and I can go eat one!!!!!
CULINARY ENDEAVOR #2: DOMINATED!!!!!!!

Wednesday, January 18

Painfulness!!!!!

You may not believe it, but Frisbee is one of the potentially more painful sports. Even though modern Frisbees have come a long way from their ancestors, which were pie tins. Like metal pie tins. Hello?! Metal hurts! Of course, so does the plastic Frisbee of today.
Why you should believe me:
1. Um, duh?
 Hurling a solid plastic disk through the air when there are lots of people around? Yeah, that could get a little dangerous! Especially because many of the people at PE (myself most definitely included) are only OK at throwing the Frisbee.
 When you're out on the field, you never know where that thing will be or when, so you've GOTTA pay attention.
2. Personal experience.
 I've played Frisbee at PE one week ( you'd be surprised how much I improved in just one week), then I practiced with Geoff for three afternoons.
I managed to improve my short tosses, my long throws, and I learned a trick throw. Yeah, I said trick throw. Watch out, cuz I rarely do it right, and that Frisbee is downright deadly when I mess it up! Also, on the receiving end of things, I got some practice with catching and dodging those awful throws. That skill will come in handy, I'm sure.
 Besides learning a trick throw, I also learned this: unless you catch it right, FRISBEES REALLY HURT.
 I am actually trying to manufacture some sort of guard for my hand because I don't think there should be a purple bump where the Frisbee impacts my palm.
Not to mention that being hit anywhere else on your body with a Frisbee hurts a lot too. At least when you're playing with my big brother.
Me: Harder is not always better!!
Geoff: Yeah, yeah. (hurls Frisbee as hard as he can)
I should be ready, come dodgeball season!
So when playing Ultimate Frisbee, run hard, play smart, watch for teammates, watch for opponents, keep your cool - and watch your head. :)

Tuesday, January 17

I'm trying to psych myself up enough to make the phone call to set up our next SGA field trip--I feel awkward on the phone. :(

Hilarious!

from www.blimeycow.com

Monday, January 16

Obsessed with being the best

I spent the whole afternoon yesterday playing Frisbee with Geoff. Why? Well, most of you know that I have a semi-unhealthy obsession with being the best, so when I play kind of bad the first week of  a new sport at PE, I spend the whole week following wholly devoted to improving my skills. At PE this week I did only passably well, partially because it was cold, and as my friend Ashley said, I was so congested I sounded like I was "hacking up a corn dog."
But it was also partially because I hadn't thrown a Frisbee since sometime last year. So yesterday, I practiced. And practiced. And practiced. I think I'm ready, even though there's not really any way to practice throwing a Frisbee when there's somebody all up in your face, trying to block your every move and about thirty-two different voices screaming at you to throw them the Frisbee.
When I'm in that position, I don't tend to handle it well. In fact, I seem to recall that when that happened to me on Thursday, I screamed, "TOO MANY VOICES!!! AAAAAH!!!!!!"
Maybe this week will be easier. And then we have to play with the boys, who play every sport like football to some extent. It's always interesting when the girls come in and all of the boys are all shy because they don't want to hurt them. Then they get comfortable and start dominating the field again.
So I figure, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! You will be DOMINATED, you BOYS!!!!!

Saturday, January 14

Celebrate!

Yippee! As of today, I have gone one whole week without a single sip of a super fake, super sugary beverage! I know it's a small achievement, but you must crawl before you can run! Speaking of which, I'm making a commitment (To me only - that way I'll only be able to let myself down) to get out and exercise a  very bare minimum of fifteen minutes every day, in hopes of being able to do a 5K sometime in the (hopefully near) future.  If you guys want, you can nag me about it, but I'm going to do this on my own. I'm getting to the age where I have to make decisions like this for myself, because I'm the one who has to live my life, nobody else. While others may influence me, ultimately it's entirely up to me. I'm seeing kids my age already making the choice to pursue or abandon a healthy lifestyle. It's my turn to make that choice. I guess we'll have to see which way I go. MAN that sounded intimidating! I'll try to lighten up, guys! :)

Thursday, January 12

PE again!

Today is PE day again! Unfortunately, Mother Nature seems to be protesting our choice of Ultimate Frisbee for a sport today. See, PE happens from 2:30 to 4:30. If you go and look at the weather forecast for today, you will probably see "partly cloudy". Until two, of course. Once we get to two o' clock, the forecast will say, "windy". We're supposed to have twenty mile per hour winds. And let's just say it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that, during a game of Ultimate Frisbee, having high wind gusts is not conducive to making good  Frisbee passes. Still, it could be an interesting demonstration. Maybe the high winds will be good for me. At least I'll have an excuse for why I'm doing so poorly!

Me: Well, that was the wind's fault!
Bystander: Um, the wind wasn't even blowing when you threw that Frisbee.
Me: Oh...hehe.

Yeah. Hopefully, we'll be able to go to PE today. Still, there's a possibility we won't, cuz Geoff is off with Dad with our only vehicle in Niceville, a little more than an hour away, so they won't get home until a little after two. Yup, it's a long story, and I won't tell the whole thing here, but essentially, there's a chance that we won't make it to PE and a good chance that if we do, we'll be a bit late. So if I'm not there right away, don't panic! If I'm not there in a long time---PANIC!!! :)
(fingers crossed!)

Wednesday, January 11

Crazy dog!

This is our dog, Gracie. As you can see, she hadn't been groomed in a while. (She looks much better now!)
I squeezed some gooey stuff out on her nose so she could lick it off. Unfortunately, our dog is not the brightest light in the chandelier. She just sat there and...well, you'll see!

Tuesday, January 10

I think I want to be a storm chaser when I grow up. I love weather, I love how cool dangerous thunderstorms look, and I love adrenaline rushes, so I think it's my dream job!

Geoff and the fridge

Geoffrey has named his laptop Orlando. That's the sort of random thing that is a regular occurrence at our house. This morning, I was fixing my breakfast and Geoff was rummaging in the fridge when all of a sudden I heard, "What is Captain America's Tommy gun doing in the refrigerator?" We have found all sorts of strange things in the refrigerator, from blankets to books to iPods. We actually sometimes find food in there, too! How strange. 
And for all of you who have been asking, my birthday is February 6. A Monday. :(

Monday, January 9

Soda

On Friday night, we were having family time. Mom had made homemade pizza (YUM!!!!) and we were all together watching a movie. After that, Dad took us kids out to drive around. It was foggy, and somewhat dangerous, which made it all the more fun! The kids played a game and drank their sodas while Dad drove. We went past the Graffiti Bridge and saw some kids painting on it, we drove by Joe Patti's, we held our noses past the waste treatment plant, we oohed and aahed at the houses on Scenic Highway, and we hoped that nothing creepy would come out of the thick fog. But while we were out, I realized something kind of disgusting.
I had guzzled three cans of non-diet soda just that night. And look how much sugar is in just one 12-ounce can!
That's a lot, and I had three times that in just one night. I know that that's not going to do wonders for my girlish figure. :) So I decided that I'm not going to drink soda anymore. One of my cousins quit a couple years ago, and he said that now, it tastes disgusting to him. So I'm going to take it one day at a time and see how long I can go! You might say it's a sort of New Year's Resolution, but I always get this way this time of year. Since my birthday is coming up really soon, I start to think about getting one year older and how I should act now that I'm older. I know that eventually, bad eating habits will catch up with me, and I figure it's easier to kick them now than later. Because it is so not good for me to have over 100 grams of sugar in just one night. Aren't I hyper enough without it?

Thursday, January 5

I like donuts. :)

Early morning

Yeah, I'm writing this at fifteen minutes past midnight. Yes, I am awake. I don't know why I woke up, but that's not important. When I first woke up, I knew it must be past midnight, so what do I think? I did not think OH MY GOODNESS IT'S SO LATE I NEED TO SLEEP OR I'LL BE A ZOMBIE!!! nor did I think HMMM THAT'S STRANGE I WONDER WHY I WOKE UP. All I thought was YIPPEE IT'S FINALLY THURSDAY!!!!
Kinda sad, huh? Because Thursdays and Fridays are usually the only times I see my friends, I like to joke that the only reason I put up with Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday is to get to Thursday and Friday!
Yay! PE day! Sorry, I tend to get this way when I haven't seen my friends in a while...:)

Wednesday, January 4

Memories from December

December was a very busy month this year.
It wasn't always busy-good, but nevertheless, there was always something happening.

First, the moms' Christmas party. I played the piano and helped the girls who were waitressing (I cleared one glass).
That's the table from the dinner they had. It was actually really pretty! I got to try the pecan pie and it was delicious!
Then, we had a busy Saturday. We don't have very many of those.
 We went to the farmers' market. Some of our friends were there. We had a good time. Even if it was sort of researching so we could think about the possibility of us setting up a stand to sell our artwork. I don't want to part with my art!
Then we drove to Gulf Breeze for Geoff's piano competition. He won. He was excited.
After that, we had a semi-boring week, with errands and school and stuff.Then we had our homeschool skating party. I didn't really skate, but I had a good time nevertheless!
I'm posting this picture even though I look awful in it (but then, so does everyone else) because I know you guys all understand. Plus, it best captures the essence of my skating party experience. Whoa! Something got messed up with the layout! Sorry! I can't help that the computer is stupid. :(


 Then, we went to Bellingrath Gardens with our homeschool group.
Out of about four hundred pictures, very few of them turned out the way I wanted them. Of course, I'm very picky about my art. (snooty artist face) After we went to Bellingrath, Dad got a call from my uncle that Grandpa was having some trouble speaking coherently. Grandpa told me later that, fortunately, he could still say, "Oh, forget it!" perfectly. Now you know where I get my sense of humor from! Grandpa is even joking around when he might have something wrong in his head!!! Anyway, Dad took off for Mississippi with Cameron and was gone all week.
Then we had our homeschool skating party. I didn't really skate, but I had a good time nevertheless!
I'm posting this picture even though I look awful in it (but then, so does everyone else) because I know you guys all understand. Plus, it best captures the essence of my skating party experience.
Then we had a crazy day at our homeschool co-op. Yes, it was crazy and I have pictures to prove it.

There are pictures of me, but let's just say that they might have involved chocolate frosting on my face and me laughing like a buffoon. And it was so bad that I will not even be sharing it with you. You know, I might need to make a new folder for my photos called "Bad pictures of me" to save time.
Then we had our SGA Christmas party, but I was working there and didn't get any photos. Sorry! I was decorated like a Christmas tree. I thought I would hate it, but it was fun. The price? I lost all of the small amount of dignity I had. Oh well. Egos heal.
That night we had rehearsal for our church's Christmas program. So I went. And I sang. And I went home. And I slept.
Then Dad and Cam came home.
The next day (Sunday) I went and I played the piano for Azalea Trace's church service.
That night was the Christmas program. I love singing in a choir, so I had a good time.
The next day, we all had vacation, so the whole family did some Christmas shopping. Mom and Dad gave all of the kids some Christmas money so we had all these places we wanted to go. We found this really neat store in Cordova Mall called Earthbound. It was full of all kinds of cool things. Everyone found something(s) they wanted. I got two necklaces, both of which are gorgeous. Then, we got another call from my uncle, but this time we found out that my great-grandma had died. She was eighty-something, I think. Dad and I ended up traveling up to Ohio on Tuesday. I ended up getting sick, which was no fun. Of course, going to a funeral is no fun, either. I had an interesting time meeting all of these relatives on the Stemen side. Let's just say some of them were a little strange. The night before we left, I had a good time playing pinball with some more relatives. I had never played on a pinball machine before, and I couldn't quite see all the way up it, so I had to stand on my tiptoes, and of course, everybody teased me for it. But they stopped laughing when I whipped them thoroughly. :) One of my dad's cousins is a bouncer in a bar, so he's a big, stocky guy. He didn't like that I was winning, so he started talking smack to me. But since I'm a big kid now, I smack talked right back--in your face! Anyway, I had a good time.
Then we went down to Mississippi for Christmas. We had a good time. We ate Burger King for our Christmas dinner. (It's OK, we made it up on New Year's Day)
We went shopping in MS, too, and I got some sunglasses, about three necklaces, and some other random stuff. I had a good time.
Then we came home and had a blast on New Year's Eve with our friends. The Air Hockey Incident didn't even ruin my night, even though all my makeup ran and I was kind of a mess. A hot mess, that is! :)
Had a good time there, then screamed out 2011! I kind of miss it now, though. A lot of good things happened in 2011...still, no use crying over spilled milk! Hopefully December 2012 will be just as wild! I love it that way--just no more funerals. I learned a lesson at the funeral, too. Always wear waterproof mascara to a funeral. Yeah, I was a mess there, too.

Psalm 31:19-20

Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!  Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.


I have actually scribbled, "Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence," on my hand to look at during tough times in my day today!

My old violin

A while back, my little sister got this idea that she wanted to learn how to play the violin. So when we went to our homeschool group's used curriculum (and other stuff) sale and there was a violin for fifty bucks, Mom and Dad decided to get it for her. Of course, it was pretty junky and had a barely passable tone. But she and I were very happy with it. I was legitimately scared to play it, it seemed so fragile at the time. But when we finally got to our lessons over the summer, my teacher told me I needed to apply more pressure. So, anxiously, I did. And it made a sound! I was ecstatic! She taught me the notes each string played, everything a beginner should know. Then the summer ended and she went back to college. I really haven't played the violin much since then. It's annoying because I have to tune it nearly every time we take it out, and none of the tuning knobs will stay once we've turned them. They always whip right back around and make the string even more out of tune than it was originally. (face palm) So after about twenty minutes of wrestling with the tuning knobs, I have a violin that is in tune- more or less. One time I was playing, and all of a sudden, the bridge just shot off the violin and smacked against the wall. I didn't play for a while after that. When I finally ventured back on, of course, it was out of tune. It's a vicious cycle. So I think I'll be stuck playing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" forever. Maybe I'll expand my repertoire to include "Baa Baa Black Sheep" soon! :)

Tuesday, January 3

Thursday

I really wish today was Wednesday. Why? Because we have PE on Thursday. Today is Tuesday. Wednesday comes after Tuesday, therefore Wednesday is closer to Thursday than Tuesday. And PE is on Thursday!!!! See you there!

Monday, January 2

New look...again!

Okay, so I've changed the look of my blog. Again. I decided not to change it back to the way it was before Christmas. As much as I liked it, I was ready for something completely new and symbolic.
The dandelion kind of reminds me of me. Flighty, sometimes easily swayed and distracted, but ultimately, when the storm comes, firmly grounded. The cool hues of blue and white are calming, reminding me of the peace we have through Jesus. And overall, it just looks cleaner, hinting at my resolutions this year, namely in the area of my room...
If you like it, feel free to tell me! If you don't like it, feel free to tell me too! Your wish might be my command!

Sunday, January 1

Air hockey, my eye! Literally!

Yes, I stayed up to midnight last night. Yes, I whooped and hollered with the best of them. No, I did not partake in the traditional exchanging of kisses. Trust me, if you saw the boys who were at the party we went to, you'd understand! We had a fantastic time with a bunch of other families. The night kind of got off to a rough start for me, though, to be honest! 
I was sitting on a couch in our hosts' garage, watching a somewhat-less-than-exciting air hockey game between two little boys (ages ten and seven) and I was unofficially keeping score and referee-ing. Suddenly, the puck went out of control and before I had time to react, went straight at my eye. Yeah, not so much fun. Stung a bit, but otherwise, I'm fine. The funny part was this.
After I got hit....
Jonah: I'm sorry, Meredith! Are you OK?
Me: Yeah, I'm fine!
At this point, I realized what this must have looked like, and actually started laughing at myself. Meanwhile, my eye's natural reaction was to start watering--a lot--so it looked like I was crying. There I was, assuring everyone I was fine, and I look like I'm crying my eyes out. We've been at the party about forty-five minutes. Yeah. That's what happens when you hang out with a bunch of boys.
Jonah: Are you sure?
Me: I'm fine--go back to your game.
Jacob (saw the whole thing): Are you OK?
Me: I said, I'm fine! Don't worry about it.
Jacob: You've got to admit that was just a little bit funny!
Meanwhile, I'm laughing my butt off at myself, looking like I'm hurt so badly there's no way I'll survive. And then I found out that I was crying off all of my painstakingly-applied-in-about-two-minutes eye makeup. On only one eye, mind you.
Yeah, that ended well...NOT!
After a less-than-ideal start, the night was soon off and rolling! Watched some more air hockey, got scolded by Mom for sitting so close to the table ("Do you want to get hit in your other eye?!? Sit further away!!!"), then ran a race with Brooke. See, we have this little game we play where I go up to her and say, "Is that the little girl who's faster than me?" And then she does the cute thing, and then we race. She always wins, then I put on a big show about how I'll beat her next time, blah blah blah. Then, we played one round of flashlight tag before realizing that it was about nine o' clock and the neighbors might not appreciate the light and noise. So we just stuck to the noise. I wandered around, listened to my iPod, watched the boys play foosball and basketball, then sat in a tree, talked to Baylee, Tori, Brenna, Summer, and all of the guys who couldn't possibly stay away from me (yeah, right---they probably wanted me out of the tree so they could climb it), listened to my iPod, and then played Long Shot with Bria. Evidently, I will be going on a trip to Europe with my best friend when I graduate high school. And, according to Bria's self-told fortune, I will be going to swing with them sometime this year. After that, it was time for some dinking around in the streets, then some firecrackers. Ours were somewhat disappointing compared to the neighbors', but even a wimpy fireworks display is awesome when you're enjoying it with friends. At midnight, we all gathered round and cheered, then we all prayed together. Then my family hightailed it outta there and we went to bed. I slept till ten thirty this morning. I know I'm a lazy bum and I don't care!
We had a turkey sitting in our fridge that we didn't end up using this Christmas, so we decided to have a late Christmas dinner today. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts...I was going to take pictures, but I was too busy chowing down! Sorry...maybe next time! After that, we sat at home, watched TV with the family, played some video games, then went out to the drive-thru at Taco Bell at ten o' clock tonight to find out that they were closed.
:(
Still, all things considered, it was a good day! We have one more day of vacation, so I have some catching up and getting ready to do before plunging full steam into ninth grade again.
 I'm so ready for you, 2012!!!!! BRING IT ON!!!!!!
2012: Challenge accepted!
(I hope not!)