Hard to Believe

It's really hard to believe that it's been two months since the last retreat. I know I've told everybody (almost) that, but I still want to say it again. I thought it was so fun seeing friends again and making new ones. I've e-mailed them and even seen some of them since then, but somehow I figured it would be a long time before I saw any of them again. Maybe it's because four months have passed between every retreat I've gone to before this one. The first one I went to was in June 2004 (Camp Curry), with the next one occurring in October of that same year in Sterling. I didn't go to the Christmas one last December because it was in CO, and I think we were busy that weekend anyway. I did attend the retreat in February; it was in Minneola, and I met a couple new people. That was really fun! There was no retreat in April, but I went to Camp Curry in June of 2005. After that, the next retreat was in Shawnee in October, and now I'm preparing to attend the one in Clay Center.

I can remember every retreat I've gone to; my favourite has probably been the one in Sterling. At that retreat I learned how important it is to let your faith shine in your everyday life, whether you're a lawyer or a high school math teacher. I especially liked the prayer time when we divided into small groups of threes and fours. I wish the other retreats have had that, but I guess there's always been that at Camp Curry. I appreciate that!

76!

How am I supposed to choose a book when I've read seventy-six books this year! Oh no! However, I do have the capabilities and resources to handle this with calmness and ease. I will choose a book and write a review for all of you.

Now since you all are probably tired of hearing all about "the book of the year," I'm going to stop. You shall not hear the results until after the retreat, probably next Tuesday or Wednesday. I promise not to talk about it until I announce the results. :)

oooooookay

This is a better template, but right now it's kinda green. just kinda, tho. i'll change it later when i get bored. :)

i'm enjoying myself. i practiced an hour and half today. i think if i keep working on my music at this rate, i will have it ready in time. oh, and i have "Scherzo" memorized-- finally.

grandma's in sabetha as of this afternoon. i think everyone here was kinda shocked; dad said she wasn't gettin out today. i guess he was wrong! mom and lydia met them on oregon street this afternoon as they were headed to the hospital. i guess the nurses got tired of grandpa or something. just kidding! i think this is good that grandma is showing improvement.

our phone line is fixed. yay! however, that means my thoughts are usually interrupted by the shrill ring of the telephone. it's never for me, so it's kind of annoying to listen to it. oh well. i guess i don't mind too much.

Seereuslie!!!!!!!! (Okay, so I'm not really)

The year is almost over. In fact, there are a total of four days and about seven hours-- give or take a couple-- until it is time to turn the page of the calendar. Actually, I need to do more than that: I need to put up a totally new calendar. I guess I need to think about that. Pretty soon it's going to be January, and then I'm going to look at my wall and wonder if anything's happening. I won't know because I didn't write it down because I didn't have a calendar. So there is a reason why you should get a sixteen-month calendar. It's so you don't get hung up without those precious little squares when the clock chimes midnight.

However, that's not why I'm posting. I'm posting because nobody has voted on the book of the year. I think I know what I'm going to choose, but I'm not announcing it until I have a whole paragraph written up, including author, and series of the year. In choosing the author of the year, should I go with the one whose books I read the most or the one whose books I enjoyed the most? I want your opinion! (note: it probably won't change my vote, but that doesn't matter :P)

The Beginnings of Vacation

I really like Christmas breaks. They're fun. The only bleak spot on the calendar is that I have to do chemistry sometime today. :( I wish I could just do my own thing and follow the book. I never know whether or not I'm supposed to believe what the book says. I also feel like I'm suppose to know that and instantly understand the material, regardless of the fact that there's a week between classes. Also, I really don't know how to pace myself. There's a lot of new material there, but I don't know how to work my way through it. I wish I could just follow the day-by-day and just read several pages per day, gradually working my way through the course. After all, this is supposed to be a self study (or whatever it's called).

Wanna know something really cool? My grandma walked 100 feet this morning. We all (except Mom) went down to see her last night for a couple of minutes, and that was really nice. I know Grandpa appreciated it. Eric took his violin down and tried to play "Son of the Puzta" that he's really actually supposed to have memorized, but it was obvious that he didn't. The bad thing about that it that he will have it (mostly) memorized, and he'll do very well for the contest. I hate that! I wish I could do that. I always practice more than he does, but he always does sooo much better than I in the actual contest. It really stinks. Anyway, the point is that Grandma is slowly improving, and that's a good thing. Even the fever that she had last night is gone!

hohoho!

Never mind. I guess I'm not leaving just yet. I will soon, though. You may count on it. I promise. I really think we're leaving in a jiffy. Actually, I'm not leaving in a jiffy because a jiffy is equal to like one trillionth of a second or something like that. I'm pretty sure we're not leaving that soon because a lot of jiffies have past since I said that. Oh, I know what I can do: I can find a new profile pic to put. That will be fuuuuuun. Actually, I'm going to do something else. Tahtah!

hahahahahahaha

Someone was saying that just now, so I get to, too. Right?

Elsbeth is soooooooooo cute. So's Cory.

And we're leaving an hour earlier than expected. Am I surprised? This means I have to get ready to go now.

I'm hungry. Maybe I can find something to eat. Oh, here we go. Nothing beats a loaf of bread for a midnight snack. I suppose I could make a peanut butter sandwich. No, I don't want to wait that long! :)

I still want to see King Kong, but I've pretty much given up the idea of seeing it in theatres. That would be, like, three trips to the theatre in a month! It will be a test of my patience to wait six months when I couldn't wait a week and a half to see Narnia! Oh well. I haven't seen Pride and Prejudice, either.

Yay for Today!

I have school done for today. Yay.
I have chemistry class tonight. Yay. (just kidding!)
Eric's almost done, so we're going to town soon. Yay.
What's wrong with what I come up with? I just asked what I knew. That was for you to guess, and nobody came up with anything. So I repeat: What do I know? The answer to this could be anything, as I know a lot. Yay.
The retreat is in two weeks. Yay.
I need to wash my socks. It's kind of cold outside. :)

What do I know?

Books of 2005

I know I still have two weeks left of the year 2005, but I figured I'd get started naming the books of the year. It was really fun keeping track of all the books I read this year, although I have to admit that I neglected to record a few. The Curious George books didn't count!

Choosing my favorite series this year is really difficult. I enjoyed Heirs of Montana by Tracie Peterson, as well as Dakota Treasures by Lauraine Snelling. My brothers will berate me for even doubting The Lord of the Rings to be the best, but I did enjoy the two books I read. I really enjoyed following the perils of Merry and Pippin almost as much as I trembled in fear for Frodo.

A few of my individual favorites include Emerald Windows by Terri Blackstock (May); Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and Secret Tides by Gary Parker (September); Operation Firebrand by Jefferson Scott (July); Crossfire by Jeannette Windle (August); and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (December).

Check back in two weeks to see which ones win. If you have a favorite, please say so. Remember, I still have two weeks to read one or two books! :)

hm... it has officially been proven that I am unable to maintain a secret.

I also can't pay attention to details.

The only word ending in sede is supersede. The only three words (in the English language) ending in ceed are proceed, exceed, and succeed.

I also never want to learn the Chinese language. Actually, there's probably a million spoken Chinese languages because the Chinese have a hard time understanding each other. I don't even want to learn the written language because to be able to understand it, one must memorize 60,000 characters. There's no other way to learn it. Bummer.

Hm, that last post was a little long. I'll make this one a little shorter. :)

We're watching The Alamo right now. I didn't want to because I'd heard that it's kind of slow, and it is, but it's okay. I don't think I'm going to like the ending, though, because I'm getting drawn into the story, and then everybody's going to die. It's so sad. And Santa Anna, the cruel Spanish guy, is so filled with hate that he's ugly. The actor's good.

I almost have October's block embroidered. It's taken me a long time; it's going to take a long time to do November's. Lydia's expecting me to get it done before the end of the month. She should just get December's. Unfortunately, then she'd do it right away and I'd be even more behind.

I know I haven't done anything with my template, but I'm beginning to think it's okay. It's definitely not like I'd really like it, and some things are a bit screwy, but it doesn't look bad. I'm thinking that I'll just leave it until after the first of the year or until I find the time. It could be a while, especially with all the school I want to get done. It's hard to believe that I should be halfway through 10th grade.

Until next time!

Geometry was really fun this morning. We didn't go in Thursday just because the start of school had been delayed an hour and a half and we didn't really know what the schedule was was. So we evidently missed class. When we got there this morning, we discovered that we'd missed this super-long 60 point quiz. That's the closest to a test we've ever gotten there. Anyway, we got to do it in class while Mr. Hall gave a "lecture" in which he walked everybody through all the problems. At least I think that's what he did. I'm not sure because I didn't exactly listen, but that's what he does every time he hands back a quiz. But the point is that that quiz was a lot of fun. It took me a long time to do everything, but I think I'll do pretty well on it. :)

I still haven't updated my website. I have even gone to it to see what new tweak it needs. But I am going to rename a page. You'll have to guess what one it is! :)

I'm missing cheesecake tonight! Mom said they'd save me some and that there will be plenty left, but it's not the same. Bother chemistry class.

The snow is mostly gone. All those four (I really actually don't know how much we got) inches of snow depleted to various spots. Our driveway is a mess because by the time the ice starts to melt, it's time for it to freeze again. It's been a sheet of ice the past couple of days. However, you can't really go sledding on it. :(

On a brighter note, it's warm outside. I used to think that 45 was cold, but not after -3 (with a windchill of -14). I like it.

It's a lot closer to Christmas than I thought it was. Suddenly it's 5 days until Jacque gets home and we have one branch of our family celebrating Christmas, and then it's thirteen days until Christ's birthday. Hmm... it kind of snuck up on me.

How come everybody changes that little icon in the search bar to google instead of leaving it as a link to dictionary.com? That's such a cool website, I can't believe ya'll are depriving yourselves of it. I use it almost every time I make a post or write a paper -- well, almost every time I'm on the computer. What's up with that? :))

Oops! My bad. :)

Drat. I guess my template thing didn't work. It doesn't look at all like what I thought it did. Oh well. I'm not going to change it for a while. I don't think it looks too bad, and I really don't want to spend all that time changing everything. It takes forever! I might just get a totally new template and start all over. What do you think?

I'm back... from where?

I messed with my template before supper. My colors didn't all match, but at least I know what everything was. Then I went to supper. I didn't save anything because I figured no one would come close anything-- if they even got that close to the computer. Bad idea. After I finished eating, I started a load of clothes. When I came back to the computer, Eric was on there, and he had closed all my programs without saving anything. So now I'm mad at him because he made me do it over. He's mad at me because he thinks I'm obsessed. I'm not obsessed! Well, I might be a little, but it's really fun to see what I can do in the template. I like to think I'm that smart. :) Haha. Yeah right. It's fun anyway.

Mom thinks we all spend way too much time on the computer. She's probably right. However, I did get all my school done today. I think I'm well on my way towards accomplishing my goal: get two weeks of school done in two weeks. Isn't that such a great goal? I'm really hoping to have it reached by December 16. On a smaller scale, I'm hoping to have a week's worth of school done this week by Friday so that I can get someone to see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with me Friday night. I can't go watch it with the CY in Topeka. :( That would be so much fun... Oh well. I might be able to see it twice, though (not in the same night!).

So now I'm going to republish and see what it looks like. Blogger is so slow right now. I don't have a very good connection with them (why do I say them, anyway?), and it seems as if the more I publish, the longer it takes for my page to load. However, it seems as if our Internet has been slow overall the past couple of days. Sometimes I can't tell whether it's the computer or the Internet, but I think it's the Internet. Anyway, I'd better publish this before I lose my connection. :)

I did almost nothing today. I did do laundry, but that was only because I was desperate and it was piled high in my room. I have most of it taken care of, but I still have a couple loads left to go.

I didn't poke my nose out of bed until 10:00 this morning. Lydia tried to haul me out at some ungodly hour by bringing Hugh up and talking very loudly, but I ignored her and refused to open my eyes. Eric was really nice, so when he came up at 10:00, I got up 15 minutes later because he didn't even try to get me up before 9:30, which was the time before which no one could address me. ...and that was a very long sentence So after I got up I took a really long shower, and that felt good as well. Then I sort of got busy. I thought about e-mailing everybody because I haven't done that in forever, but I failed to find the motivation. :(

However, it's been a very pleasant day. I didn't even get cold! Well, my feet did, but that's because I didn't wear socks at all until about 15 minutes ago.

I think I might just list the movies I've watched, kind of like the way I list the books I read on my website. Instead of listing the director like I list the author of every book, I think I might give my rating based on a 1-10 scale.

So... I'm about ready to dislike geometry. Eric didn't get two of his papers back today, and they were worth a lot of points. I still haven't gotten a worksheet back that I handed in a long time ago. Plus, I don't see where we're going with all the weird assignments we have to do. Today we handed in a piece of paper that was covered with drawings of football fields, volleyball courts, etc. We were even supposed to draw a wrestling ring. Please don't ask me why because I know not.

Secondly, I apologize to everyone. I'm so sorry for all the times I inserted commas before subordinate clauses in some of my sentences, specifically when I use the word "because". It's so stupid of me, but I forget almost every time and put the comma in. I'm sorry.

Thirdly, I now have four movie reviews to write. I have so much to do tomorrow. Whenever I have a lot to do, I don't get anything done. If I can't get it all done, why do any of it? It doesn't make sense that I leave something undone, so I'm better off not starting it. (I'll probably start everything and finish nothing, though.)

That's the story of my life in three different categories. Categories and content may be subject to change at any given time and place.

Oh! I forgot. I left my purse somewhere for the first time. I'm kind of surprised I haven't done it before. I left it at the theatre after band, and after a dozen and a half phone calls, we got Boyds to drop it by Rippes' on their way home.

I'm off to sleep for the next decade.

Socks

So... I'm back from Rippes', where I spent my afternoon. It was actually pretty warm there. I liked it. There are certain rooms in the house that were really warm; I started to get hot pretty quickly. One was the bathroom, and the other was Austin's room. I even thought about shedding a couple of my four layers! Most of the other rooms were nice, and the only time I got cold was when I went outside in my socks and no coat. I thought it was pretty nice until I came back inside. Then I realized that my feet were really cold and I shouldn't do that even though I like wearing socks outside in the winter. I don't like going barefoot, and I don't mind wearing shoes (actually, I like it most of the time:P), but I think it's so much fun to go outside in socks when it's 20 degrees out.