Status Updates

Katie is happy.

Katie is looking forward to tomorrow.

Katie is hoping that she gets a good grade on her Spanish test from Monday.

Katie is loves Phantom of the Opera sing-alongs in French!

Katie is procrastinating.

Katie is a little more than useless.

Katie is trying again.

Katie is trying, again.

Katie is hoping for lots of comments etc. tomorrow. Best present ever?

Katie is needs to clean her room

study for finals

write Christmas letter

copy stuff into thanksgiving book

call one of her favorite people

eat brownies and ice cream. Oh yeah.

I feel like, I would like
To be somewhere else doing something that matters
And I'll admit here, while I sit here
My mind wastes away and my doubts start to gather
Whats the purpose? It feels worthless
So unwanted like I've lost all my value
I can't find it, not in the least bit
and I'm just scared, so scared that I'll fail you

And sometimes I think that I'm not any good at all
And sometimes I wonder why, why I'm even here at all

But then you assure me
I'm a little more than useless
And when I think that I can't do this
You promise me that I'll get through this
And do something right
Do something right for once

So I say if I can't, do something significant
I'll opt to leave most opportunities wasted
And nothing trival, that life could give me will
Measure up to what might have replaced it
Too late look, my date book
Is packed full of days that were empty and now gone
And I bet, that regret
Will prove to get me to improve in the long run

And sometimes I think that I'm not any good at all
And sometimes I wonder why, why I'm even here at all

But then you assure me
I'm a little more than useless
And when I think that I can't do this
You promise me that I'll get through this
And do something right
Do something right for once
I'm a little more than useless
And I never knew I knew this
Was gonna the day, gonna be the day
That I would do something right
Do something right for once

I notice, I know this
Week is a symbol of how I use my time
Resent it, I spent it
Convincing myself the world's doing just fine
Without me
Doing anything of any consequence
Without me
Showing any sign of ever making sense
Of my time , it's my life
And my right, to use it like I should
Like he would, for the good
Of everything that I would ever know

I'm a little more than useless
When I think that I can't do this
You promise me that I'll get through this
And do something right
Do something right for once
I'm a little more than useless
And I never knew I knew this
Was gonna the day, gonna be the day
That I would do something right
Do something right for once

:-)

This seems to be en train de become my dumping ground for inspiring material.

I came across this quote in this month's Reader's Digest, in an interview with Denzell Washington.

They asked him what his life motto was, and he said, "Do what you got to do so that you can do what you want to do. And fail big."

I like it, but I think I'd like to change the last adjective to "trying."

Do what you gotta do so that you can do what you want to do. And fail trying.

die trying?

haha. I hope ...not? so? I hope not to die, but when I do, to die trying.

Failing big is just as bad (worse/better is debatable and a moot point) than failing small...but just giving up is the worst of all. (:-) If I'm going to make mistakes (*sigh*) I'd rather make them while trying, doing my best, than by giving up.

that is all.

by Lena Lathrop

(from “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”)

Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing
Ever made by the Hand above?
A woman’s heart, and a woman’s life--
And a woman’s wonderful love.

Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing
As a child might ask for a toy?
Demanding what other have died to win,
With the reckless dash of a boy.

You have written my lesson of duty out,
Manlike, you have questioned me.
Now stand at the bars of my woman’s soul
Until I shall question thee.
You require your mutton shall always be hot,
Your socks and your shirt be whole;
I require your heart be true as God’s stars
And as pure as His heaven your soul.

You require a cook for your mutton and beef,
I require a far greater thing;
A seamstress you’re wanting for socks and shirts--
I look for a man and king.

A king for the beautiful realm called Home,
And a man that his Maker, God,
Shall look upon as He did on his first
And say, “It is very good.”

I am fair and young, but the rose may fade
From this soft young cheek one day;
Will you love me then ‘mid the falling leaves,
As you did ‘mong the blossoms of May?

Is your heart an ocean so strong and true,
I may launch my all on its tide?
A loving woman finds heaven or hell
On the day she is made a bride.

I require all things that are grand and true,
All things that a man should be;
If you give this all, I would stake my life
To be all you demand of me.

If you cannot be this, a laundress and cook
You can hire and little to pay;
But a woman’s heart and a woman’s life
Are not to be won that way.

“To girls...I pray this poem serves as a reminder to keep your standards high. Require all things that are ‘grand and true’. As you consider the possiblity of marraige, don’t lower your standards for a moment; any guy who asks you to do so isn’t worth your time. And to the guys: we have our work cut out for us, don't we? My hope is that you would truly grasp the costliness, the pricelessness, of a woman’s love. It is no small thing, no game, to invite a girl to accompany you through life. May we earn the right to make such a request by striving to be men of integrity - men whose hearts are oceans 'strong and true.' Then, and only then, should you stand at the bars of a woman’s soul and ask to gain entrance.”

~I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Joshua Harris

I HIGHLY recommend this book, whether you plan on kissing dating goodbye or not it has some good advice about how TO date too. How to go about it. Etc.

Sorry that my first post in awhile has to be a moralizing one (at least it's not DEmoralizing) (haha, sorry, that was baaaaad), but I must needs keep moving! :-)

this past week

One week ago, we were in the middle of girls' night/an extended starbucks adventure. That was some really good just fun girls time. (see pix on facebook.)

then, the crazy week began. It has basically been a whirlwind. First I was totally tired from staying up late for girls night, and then I realized I had two tests and a scholarship essay due on Friday. So, Wed I came home from classes and started studying spanish, studying geography, and working on the essay...

...and I stopped doing that Thursday night at about 9.

Needless to say, my work at home didn't get done, so I did all that yesterday and today.

I know. Not only do I have school after dinner, but also on weekends! The horror!

However, I didn't stress about things too much, I just did what I needed to do and I really hope the grades show it...please...lol.

And Hamlet is actually interesting and not too hard to understand, and my physics test wasn't too bad at all.

NOW, I would REALLY like to get together with some people. 2 hours of facebook were great to make sure I don't feel like I'm cut off from humans, but actual humans would be nice...

ah well. We have church and youth group tomorrow and I get to teach the preschoolers! :-D

And, no tests on the menu next week...that's one nice thing about having a bunch at the same time.

Leave some comments please! It will make me very happy!

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted.

Needless to say, I have been busy.

school

school

more school

dance

piano

friendssssssss :-)

overall, life's going pretty well. As long as I don't think too hard about how life's going. :-D

but I have some people to contact and some jazz to get ready for, so I must needs keep this short.

much thanks to everyone who still cares enough to check this old thing.
:-)

I can't decide if I'm amazingly happy or ridiculously depressed.

But my favorite piano songs are the ones that carry that tension.

this is a Gina-type short, mysterious post, but don't worry, I'll do a post-summer review...soon...

:-)

:-(

:-)

Life...

LT is in 78 hours. (well, 77 1/2 by the time I'm actuallly posting...)


When I get back, I'm planning on getting together with

Marisa, Brittani, Caitlin, Stephanie, Kay, Michaela, and all the girls from church (girl's night anyone?) (not that Marisa and Brittani aren't from church...haha...)


I'm all set to take Spanish grammar and intro to geography in the fall, postsecondary. I'm pretty excited about it--I'm not freaking out, yet. :-) It'll be different, but I think I'm ready for something different. Can anyone say, "famous last words?" haha!

Babysitting is still wonderful. As long as Riley's bloodsugar is at a reasonable level, that is...haha. We've been playing Monopoly like crazy. He's extremely competitive--Ella and I would never dare to buy Boardwalk or Park Place. But it's fun. He just didn't have breakfast this morning, and was a bit irritable all day as a result. And Ella kept getting injured. Overall, however, things are good.

Volunteering is good too. It's not boring, as I have figured out many things to do. Tomorrow is going to be interesting--we may be...umm...graced by the presence of an alligator? At least a few snakes and lizards and a small, furry-type animal. IE, a chinchilla.

I'm in the goofy condo for LT--we've got Rachel and Elysia. Well. And Hannah and Bea and Stacy. Tee hee hee! It's going to be AMAZING. :-DDDDD!!!! As Stacy said, "We communicate well in gibberish..."

I rearranged the furniture in my room last week. It took the whole week. I really like it, however, the only slight function problem is that I kind of don't have a decent place to put on makeup (once it gets too cold to have the window open, that is...) We'll see how that works.

Well, I think I'm going to be done now. I don't have much more to say. Farewell, all, leave me lots of comments. There has beeen a depressing dearth of commenture. (which one is the real word? lol)

one last thing: HP!!! :-D

buhbye. :-)

the deterioration of the english language is ridiculous

So i just got too email's, they were from colledges that I'm considering going to. There were a problem with each of them, this problem was having to do with simple inglish rules. it was desgusting.





lol.

oh me oh me oh my

Hello all my faithful readers...haha. I have a feeling you all might be more faithful readers if I were a more faithful writer. haha! I am posting on my dad's sweet laptop. So that means that I'm actually writing, not typing. Let's see, I have lots to write about: babysitting, Akron orientation Relay for life, all kinds of crazy stuff.

Okey dokey. Babysitting has been going really well. I really enjoy it, Ella and Riley are really good, and the dogs aren't bad. haha. Plus they're super flexible about how crazy life is, as shall be demonstrated below. Not to mention the pay's not bad... : - )

Let's see then... yeah, last week was just pretty crazy. Instead of babysitting on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri, I babysat long days on Tues, Wed, and Thurs, because on Fri I had orientation for postsecondary classes. Also Relay. Yeah. So, I really didn't have very much free time--to prove that, I shall demonstrate: I just put away my clean laundry, um, an hour ago, and Mom washed it on Thursday. Usually I put it away on Friday, at least!

But Friday, I had postsecondary orientation ALL DAY. 8-5. It was crazy. Lots of seminar thingies that I can't even remember what all I've learned--hopefully I remembered the important stuff. Or hopefully it'll come to mind when I need it.

The worst part was, in those nine hours, I couldn't get my classes scheduled! In the morning, they gave you this little card with checks by the placement tests you needed to take. I had no checks, because I did well enough on the SAT. However, there was a spot for a language placement test. Dad told the lady who was filling out my card that I wanted to take a Spanish class, and she said that I should tell that to my group leader. However, she didn't actually check "Language placement test." So when we got around to placement testing, the group leader was splitting up the people with and without checks. I asked her, "I want to take a Spanish class, so, I need to take a placement test for that?" She asked, "Do you have a check on your card?" I was like, "No..." And she said, ok, go with the people who have no checks. So we got our ID cards and stuff, and I asked her more about it while we were doing that. She said I should talk to my advisor about it. I'm like, ok. I considered calling Dad then, to ask what he thought, because he was in a different seminar and we were just sitting around waiting for people to finish testing. But I didn't.

So, after lunch, we went to meet with my advisor. It quickly became clear that there was no way he could schedule me for a Spanish class when we had no clue what level I was supposed to be at. So the time that was supposed to be spent scheduling classes was spent rushing off to and taking this spanish placement test. That all was a bit confusing, because on the way to the testing center he's telling me, "Make sure you meet back up after your group after this or you'll have to go through this whole orientation process again and pay the fee and everything. I'll be advising the rest of the afternoon so you'll have to come back to me at 4:15." I was like, Ok. All right. Ok.

Then the Spanish test was kind of fun. I didn't realize that I missed Spanish, but I did. It was quite entertaining and a bit challenging--but it wasn't extremely difficult, as demonstrated by the results: I tested out of 2 years of college level Spanish. That was pretty sweet--definitely the best part of a boring/confusing/hurry-up-and-wait day. So, if I pass my spanish class, I can buy the credit hours for $5 instead of $350 and up. $70 instead of at least $4900. If I have that math right, I can't quite remember. whatever.

But on my little paper with the results, there's a number for the modern languages lady. So Dad called her while we were waiting for the next session to start (back hooked up with my group). She told him some information about classes and said that there was a grammar class that was full, but the prof said he would accept a few more. So we sit through that last session about myspace/facebook safety and all the technological perks this university offers, meet up with Mom, and go see my advisor again.

And for the next 45 minutes we try to schedule two classes: a spanish class, and a social studies class that kind of has to revolve around spanish, meaning we're trying to find one Mon/Wed in the morning. That took almost 45 minutes--we're sitting there trying to find stuff listening to people saying, "Ok, have a good weekend!" "Bye!" thinking "we need to finish we need to finish we need to finish..." My advisor signed me up for an Intro to geography class and the spanish grammar class that was full. He had to override that, which he was kind of nervous about that because he wasn't supposed to...but we were glad he did. But we get down to the registrar to make everything official, and it's already closed. bummer, eh? Not to mention we didn't get the papers for the funding figured out...so we're going back tomorrow. This is where a flexible babysitting job comes in--they're fine with my sisters or mom coming over. :) but me oh my, it was complicated.

Then we went home, ate dinner, finished packing (Hannah had to pack for me during the day while I was gone) and we were off to relay, which was an adventure in itself. Lots of walking, not much sleeping...I managed to get 3 1/2 hours of sleep after staying up for something like 22 straight...yeah. So I'm tired, but Hannah and Abby stayed up ALL NIGHT, so in comparison to them I feel fine! It's great!

Lots and lots going on...it's so weird how things just keep cycling through my mind: getting together with Kay, Amy's off dance team (which is terrible) Relay, college, kid's fun day next week, getting together with friends, youth group, lack thereof, LT, dessert :-D, the friends themselves, piano (or lack thereof) ljfsowr jwoiesalklk ewajoewi.

Et cetera.

And, I'm getting a headache from staring at the screen--and perhaps from all this other stuff too? Maybe? Lack of sleep could also be a factor...hmm...at any rate, I'm going to wrap it up. good luck with reading all this. You should just read a paragraph a day and then it'll seem like I post more...haha. (or it'll last you untill she posts again~Abby)

alrighty, thank you faithful readers, press on, read some sermon notes (if you missed them, pick any one of the Phillipians ones--they're a good way to kill time without having to watch tv and if you like playing video games, you can always listen to them while you play...personally, I'm a tetris/sermon fan when I miss them. haha.)

no really. I'm done now. :-)

hellloooo all...

School is officially over with!!

The dance recital went off without a hitch--it was great!

I'm having a lovely week of doing whatever I want.

On Monday, I drove myself to the library and got all orientated for volunteering there! Met a couple people, and I think it'll be good.

On Tuesday, I had piano lesson and babysat O&Em. (the two cutest most adorable girls in the world, FYI.) Piano was OK...I wasn't quite as prepared as I would've been usually because I slacked off the last week of school. Hence, the piano goals below.

On Wednesday, I spent the day convinced it was Thursday and ran in the morning. I went to bed super early last night, too. I think I was asleep before ten. It was nice. It was lovely weather to run. My hips hurt a bit, so I think I need new shoes. ? At any rate, it was all very nice. lol

Last night, I realized I'm coming down with a cold, but I'm fighting it off as best as I know how.

On Thursday, I've pretty much been moseying around doing nothing too exciting. All the exciting things are coming to me: We're having carpet installed in the basement (one last day of people banging things down there forever! ok, till our next party), and Grandma Theresa is flying up for the week, starting today. yippee!

Hannah and Abby got (super-cute) haircuts this morning, so I'm thinking about some kind of brushes-the-shoulders-layery haircut. It'll take awhile to think about! haha. I'd like a hair change because I've had this hairstyle for...2 years now I think. It's definitely time for something different!

I'm also trying to figure out how to rearrange my bedroom. There are only so many ways I can put things. It's time for that to change too!

I have a week off babysitting at the beginning of July, so we may try to go on vacation then...that would be nice.

Relay for Life is coming up! I'm looking forward to it. We need to raise money for it, however (donations, anyone?). lol. Anything from pocket change to a million bucks is welcome! :-) It's going to be fun! That's going to be a busy weekend--orientation (scary!), relay, and then all kinds of grad parties! Aahh!

As if all the weekends aren't busy.

Well, I'm beginning to ramble now, so I'll leave off. leave some comments please! you all rock, press on!


ps: LT is in 43 days.

!!!

25 THINGS TO DO THIS SUMMER, PART B

14. Visit Bowling Green. And probably OSU and Kent too. ?
15. Get my senior pictures done.
16. Finish this list. (cop out, I know, but it's not lookin too good!) Changed to: Memorize some Bible verses. (another cop out?)
17. Survive something scary/daring/aaaah!! (ie, orientation? lol)
18. Make fudge.
19. Make frozen fruit stuff all by my onesie.
20. Cook dinner all by my onesie without burning anything.
21. Learn how to make at least 5 meals.
22. Write someone a letter.
23. Clean out under my bed and the top shelf of my closet... :-(
24. Do something majorly silly/goofy/crazy/fun. Changed to: Memorize 3 poems, one of which must be If, by Rudyard Kipling. One of the others will probably be The Road Not Taken (Robert Frost).
25. Re-read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.

Hurray! Here goes!

25 THINGS TO DO THIS SUMMER

1. Read an average of a book a week and do the summer reading program at the library (for which I am now a volunteer. :-) Four of those books must be the Newbery Award/Honors for this year, and two must be Improving your Serve and Who You Are When No One's Looking.
2. Cinderella. I'm not sure what this means but it's what I wrote down when I was writing notes to help me remember these. They helped a lot, no?! So if I remember it I'll fill it in.(6 hours later) I remember now!!!: Frame and hang up my Cinderella's Carriage picture that I made the last week of art. :-D
3. Learn 3 of the Pride&Prejudice songs--one of which must be "Liz on Top of the World."
4. Accomplish 3 piano goals a day--however long it takes is however long I'll practice.
5. Have at least 3 girls' nights.
6. Raise $75 for Relay for Life.
7. Get lots of exercise--try to exercise every day (except weekends. When I say every day I usually mean every day except one of the weekend days.) Run sometimes.
8. Make friends when I volunteer at the library.
9. Get together with Caitlin 3 times.
10. Finish Harry Potter y el Caliz de Fuego. I think I can do it. :-P
11. Go for a walk in the rain in a swimsuit? :-)
12. Rearrange the furniture in my bedroom.
13. Try a Storytime at the Park or two.

That's all for now, but I'll fill in the rest tomorrow. It's a good start. :-)

this is the part where I ramble

Hi everyone, how are you? So, A, I think the US needs a new political party, and B, Bach's 20th fugue has it in for me.

B first. So, I've already learned a prelude and fugue set, I think the sixth(?), and I love the 20th prelude. The fugue is giving me trouble. First of all, it's just plain HARD. I don't know if having Mom look at it and say, "Whoa, I haven't looked at your music in awhile--this is really complicated!" somehow psyched me out or what. I really didn't try exTREMEly hard to learn it the first couple weeks--I think I was still working on other songs and it looked just a little bit scary. For some time, also, I had no idea that the piece wasn't 2 pages long. It's SIX. I think when I figured that out, the small shreds of valor that I still had were smashed.

Finally I realized I just needed some motivation. Everyone knows that the thing Katie likes best is food. Right? Right. And everyone knows that Katie reeeeallly reeeeeeeeaaalllly likes blizzards. So I thought to myself, when I've learned this whole piece, I'm taking myself out for a medium blizzard. Just remembering that raises my morale. And, so that I won't get discouraged along the way, I decided to buy myself something else nice when I've learned 3 pages--ie, a candy bar, some sourpatch kids, nail polish, earrings, or cool wet-erase markers for my to-do list. :-)

However, this afternoon, when I was trying to get a start on page 2 (I've had this piece for almost 4 weeks now, remember) the end of page three seemed a loooooooonng way off. To further complicate matters, our piano teacher suggested at my last lesson that I learn a page a week. This sounds logical--although it's taking me so long to learn this, I really should be capable of tackling this kind of piece more rapidly. However, in reality, this comes out to a line of music a day. I practice for an hour, and only about 35-40 minutes of that is devoted to this song. I could probably learn a lot more if I put my mind to it, like, a lot, but I'm having difficulties with that at the moment. Somehow it's a lot easier to learn a page a week when you know that by next week, you'll be done with the piece! Come to think of it, my other 2pg fugue took at least 4 weeks to learn. It was one of those pieces that I despised having to learn--then when the hard part (aka, getting it into my fingers) was over, I fell in love with it. I can think of at least two other songs that worked that way. If the pattern continues, I'll like this piece so much I won't be able to tear myself away from the piano.

I know, I'll have to learn it one way or another, it might as well be the easy way. The way where I actually try my best so I have no excuses when I've only learned 1 page in 2 weeks. If that. I probably can't honestly say that I've tried my best this week, at the moment. But I tried my best for at least the first three days...but now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place...I'll work it out.

That was probably completely unintelligible, but it was probably also more for my benefit than yours. *oh brother.* haha.

A. America needs a new political party. Like, one that stands by the Constitution, not their party's agenda. One that doesn't want the government to take control of things and will mandate that the people it elects read the Federalist papers, the Constitution, and a biography of a different framer of the Constitution regularly.

I have no idea if such a party is even feasible, it's just what I was thinking when I was reading my history books today.
_______________________________

Oh yeah, I remember now. This is what happens when I stay up half an hour later than usual too many nights in a row--I get disgusted with life and all self-commiserating. (Hence, the mysterious lack of smileys and exclamation points to which you are accustomed.) I think I better go snap out of it. Hope you all aren't disgusted with life/me now too, talk to you later!

PS--I just read over this and now I'm inwardly laughing at myself. So I guess it really did make me feel better. *crazy kid.*

Oh, and this wouldn't be a truly melancholy post if I failed to mention that my favorite song on the new RK CD has switched from "Faking my own Suicide" to "Deathbed." Just kidding, I like a bunch of the other songs too, don't worry about me! I just had to put that so that I'd be outwardly laughing at myself too. *twisted teen.*

:-D How that made me all better, I don't know. But I'm definitely in a better mood now. Did I mention that this post was going to be a rambler? You get major KT points if you made it through the whole thing--I'll even help you pay for the therapy sessions you'll probably need. :-D luv you guys.

French2

Isn't it ironic how when they're teaching you how to ask someone to repeat something more slowly, you can read the thing they said fast along with them, but not the bit about "I'm sorry, I'm learning French. Could you repeat that more slowly please?"

French

Isn't it ironic that when they're teaching you how to ask someone to repeat something more slowly, they speak so fast that you can't read along?

We have tulips growing out of our compost heap.

:-)

And I got done with school before 5 three days in a row now.

:-)

life is good.

:-D

haha I love this song. It's even better when it's a country song on a rock CD.

So, I've made up my mind
I will pretend to leave this world behind
And in the end, you'll know I've lied
To get your attention
I'm faking my own suicide

I'm faking my own suicide
Because I know you love me
You just haven't realized
I'm faking my own suicide
They'll hold a double funeral
Because a part of you will die
Along with me

I wish you thought that I was dead
So rather than me
you'd be depressed instead
And before arriving at my grave
You'd come to the conclusion
You'd loved me all your days
But it's too late
Too late for you to say

Because I'm faking my own suicide
Because I know you love me
You just haven't realized
Oh, I'm faking my own suicide
They'll hold a double funeral
Because a part of you will die
Along with me

I'll write you a letter that you'll keep
Reminding you your love for me is more than six feet deep
You say aloud that you would have been my wife
Right about that time
Is when I come back to life
And let you know
I'd let you know

All along I was
Faking my own suicide
Because I know you love me
You just never realized
I was faking my own suicide
I'll walk in that room and see your eyes opened so wide
Opened so wide
Because you know
Because you know you will never leave my side
Until the day that I die for the first time
And we'll laugh, yeah we'll laugh
And we will cry
So overjoyed with our love that's so alive
Our love is so alive

hey everyone

Life is so huge! haha.

that pretty much sums things up.

college--I'm going to my first college visit day ever at Akron on Saturday.

youth group--I want to get together with you people more often!

school--has been taking way too long. I haven't finished before 5 at all this week. I know, I know--I start at 9, finish at 5, what's the big deal? Well, yesterday I started at 8:45 and finished at 6:20...and that's all I did. School. With probably a 45-min lunch break. All. Day. I think I DO need more social interaction...ah well...who wants to come over? or call me? or comment me? or myspace me? or e-mail me? lots of options...:-)

SAT--yeah. studying away. I think I need to do a lot of studying if I'm going to score higher. Because I lost some skills...oh well.

Running--I ran Tuesday! hurrah for perfect running weather! I'm still sore from it, but oh well. I'm also sore from pitchfalls at dance yesterday.

Dance--is going well. :-)

LT--fundraisers? Leaders? 92 days? oh yes.

Babysitting...couple days coming up and alll summer long. :-D

driving--I need to do more of it. I just don't go anywhere. :-P

the new RK CD--is really cool.

like I said, life is huge.

and good. most of the time--well, all of the time, I just don't notice some of the time. :-P

I love the thrift store

2 shirts

1 skirt

1 purse (which, by the way, is extremely similar to one featured in Lucky Magazine for $45)

for $8.50.

now that's what I'm talking about.

Ok, so Abby and I ARE splitting the cost and use of one of the shirts.

All the same, that's only $1.

:-D

TIME FOR A POST! QUIOPQWERUIOP QWERUIOP

I'll just use short phrases and then expound on things if I feel like it. :-D

trip to grandparents: mucho fun, mucho food!

home again: gorgeous weather! I'm so ready for summer clothes!

We got Easter outfits and I was reminded of how terribly hot summer clothes are.

lots to do! Not sure what, but there sure is a lot of it!

I got my driver's license! I know you all know that but I just thought I should mention it for posterity because I don't remember putting it on here. I haven't driven more than .5 miles on my own, though.

I have lots of applications: LT and [the college where I'll probably be taking postsecondary's] soon?

SAT again or no SAT again?

LT fundraisers...yup yup.

*SATURDAY*: I drifted away from the post so that's all I did. If you'd like me to expound on one of the topics, comment and I'll (probably) oblige.

press on! :-)

no more miss nice girl :-P

"I guess I'd rather take the risk of disappointing people by not being good enough than disappoint God by not being brave enough." ~Lynne Hybels, Nice Girls Don't Change the World (but dangerous women do).

FEAR

guess what?

I'm going to get my ears double pierced.

:-D

Maybe not today, but I AM going to get a haircut today. :0)

Just thought you'd all like to know.

ACT

This is my 276th post. Just thought you'd all like to know.

My ACT scores came Monday. They were almost exactly parallel to my SAT scores, which is really funny. Also, it was exactly the same as the practice test I took. I probably won't take that one again, but Dad still thinks I should take the SAT again, because he thinks I can do better on the math and essay. I probably can. And like he said, it wouldn't take much studying since I'm still taking the math everyday. We shall see...I don't have to sign up till sometime in April. :-)

I was going to blog about something else but now I can't remember. Oh well...I'll talk to you all later. Maybe it was how I've been finishing school super early this week......that's been nice. They're working on our basement--it's starting to look how it's supposed to (I haven't seen it yet, but that's what they tell me.)

Tonight we're having Pulled Pork sandwiches for dinner and I'm happy about that.

adios amigos!

things that happened today

I went out for breakfast with Kay, which was nice+fun+good.

I finished the SAT math section that I started yesterday (I have no other math at the moment so that's just what we're using) and I got all 20 problems right, which was exciting+encouraging+cool.

I ate a peanut butter cookie with water and a Greta snuggling on the side while I watched HP2 and earned $5000 dollars in word auction on the spanish dictionary for Spanish, which was cozy+happifying+nice.

We found out that the finishing of the basement will commence Monday, which was crazy+good+the reason I have to stop now. Still more cleaning to be done!

ha!

I

Posted

Three

Times

In

February.

you're all in for it

You know why? Because I feel like I just drank a lot of root beer. Yeah, the kind with CAFFEINE!!! I'm a little crazy right now. So you get to hear all about my life recently.

Where to start? How bout last Saturday? I took the ACT in the morning. I really hope I'm done with those. More on that later. While I was taking it, Mom and Dad met with Owens-Corning and bought a finished basement. Pretty much spur-of-the-moment, yeah. So I got home and went, Oh. Ok. Cool. The thing was, we had 3 days to change our minds, so they were kind of trying to decide if we actually wanted to do it or not. Sure enough, by Monday night, not only had they decided that it would be good, but that they wanted to finish more of it than previously planned. That means that we need to clean it out big time. Before and afters on the way? I think so.

Mom, Hannah and I also went dress shopping for the Celtic Ball. Which is in two weeks. For which I have no dress. All I can say is that's all I'm doing this Saturday.

What next? Oh--Tuesday was pretty awesome. You know, the day that it started snowing and never stopped. Why was it so awesome? Not only did we get the night off from DANCE, PIANO, and SMALL GROUP, I got to take off a little bit of school to babysit Ella and Riley (and the two new canine additions to the family, Buck and Trix. :-) So Tuesday was amazing because I woke up thinking, "I'm not sure I can stand too much more of this," and then we pretty much got the whole day off.

Wednesday: Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a whole lot worse. Valentine's Day! More snow! And then--more snow!! And then--more time off school! Mom was making sugar cookies because Dad specially requested them (and how could she say no on Valentine's Day??) and I had to do French and then I would be done with school. But I REALLY wanted to make cookies and I thought that Mom wouldn't mind the help, so I asked if I could skip it and she said yes! So I got to get off school early to make cookies. (I mean the rest of the world got the entire day off! Even homeschoolers can skive off occasionally, right? :-) Then the evening was fun cuz I called Meg and we watched Psych (which is pretty much my new favorite show, the more episodes I see the more I like it) and we got to eat a bunch of awesome food (homemade heart-shaped pizza [death by flavor] and the cookies we made and some ice cream. [death by happiness]) (fyi: I pretty much dressed in all these colors yesterday. :-D)

Then there's today. This is the "More on that later part." Today was--still is--the day when the SAT scores were posted online. I got a really good score--and was disappointed because it was about 50 points shy of what I was hoping for. So now I'm torn between saying goodbye to the stupid thing forever, and taking it again just to satisfy my own high expectations. Do I decide that the time I could spend preparing for it (again) could be better spent on other things, or do I give in to the part of me that's always calling me to do better and reach for the stars? I do not know. I was happy with my Critical reading score, and my writing score wasn't bad, but I really think I could improve my essay and math scores. We shall see. At least I did score high enough to get my ears double pierced, and to have cookie-dough brownies and Subway tonight. I love special things like valentine's day, football, and test results--and about 75% of that enjoyment is because of the food. What can I say--I'm addicted. :-P

Let's see. Anything else? You can now apply for LT. We're making a stupid video to show there. It's Thursday and I LOVE THURSDAYS!!!!! Like, just about as much as Fridays. :-P The numbers 2-9-07 are the same as the color combo red, yellow and green. 1-5-6 or 7 is more pastel purple and blue and white. Don't ask me why, I really just don't know. Similarly, girls seem even and boys seem odd. (*...*) Blue's odd and red's even. Winter is white, summer is yellow, autumn is red, and spring is pink. October is blue. August is copper. I better stop before the psychologists get too excited about my craziness and decide that they need to take me in for questioning. Or before you all decide you don't want to be friends with someone so obviously out of their minds.

you betcha I'm out of my mind.

Love you all, call or e-mail or myspace if you need anything or just want to talk. :-D

Katie*** * * * * * * * *~* * ** * <3

hey everyone

Well, I was going to write a kind of gloomy, pointless post (you never know, this could still turn into one) and then I read Gina's xanga (from like, the past month) and that got me into a decent mood. Decent enough to post something coherent.

Let's see. What has happened since January 18th. Wow, I only posted 2ce in January. I shall add that to my February resolutions list: post THREE times in February. Am I just a little over the top with finding reasons to make resolutions?

I survived the SAT. Now if I can only survive the two weeks until the scores are posted online, and if only I can survive looking at them...yeah. I hope I either did badly or really well so that there won't be any "well, that was pretty good, but it's not as good as I was hoping...but it's still a good score...so should I keep it or not?"

Oh, and don't forget, it would be nice to survive the ACT. Yup pretty much. I have less time to prepare for that. *gulp*

I suppose it would be pretty pointless and gloomy to rant about how I wish I had more time to talk to all my buddies on the weekdays when I have an entire hour of free time before me...so I'll restrain myself. lucky you. :-P

somebody leave a nice comment to cheer me up? :-)

luv you guys.

tee hee hee

So I'm pretty much totally hyper right now. No idea where that came from. :-)

Ok. Life in the past...um...13 days.

Youth group: Rocks. As usual. I love you guys!! :-D We need to a. have tiedown soon and b. have a big random party.

School: Finally has a decent, workable system that makes me very happy and usually has me finishing before 5. :-D EVEN THOUGH I'm doing like, an hour of SAT prep a day. (hermione?) I better score high enough to get my ears double pierced. tee hee hee. If I score within a hundred points of the equivalent of my PSAT score I can get them double pierced. (I a. was going to talk them into letting me pierce them eventually and b. wanted to score that high anyway, so it's all good.)

Excuse me while I consume my evening meal.


(and then go make cookies, and then watch Beethoven lives upstairs, and then go to bed. Perhaps I will post later. If not, love to all, and to all a good night.)

Wrapping up Christmas break (along with the first week back)

I will now proceed to review the list of 10 things I wanted to do on Christmas break.

1. Redecorate my bulletin board. This is still a work in progress. It's about halfway done...haha. When you come over to my house next you need to see it. :-)
2. Talk on the phone for 3 hours (not straight, not with one person, just total. :-) This I did accomplish, even after I changed it to 5 after talking to meghan for 2 hours (straight.) I think some was with Gina and some was with Cayley and the other 45 minutes was my grandma I think...we've been talking every day since we got the new phone. Yay!
3. Get all the rest of my Christmas presents. Cutting it close, aren't I? Definitely check.
4. Read 2 books. At least. And also, finish The Children of Willesden Lane. I don't think I actually did this. But I did finish the CoWL.
5. Load all our crazy pictures onto i. the computer. ii. myspace. Abby helped with this.
6. Not pig out on more than 3 of the days: Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. :-) I'm pretty sure I managed that. Although there was that one day when we played 3 games of clue and ate chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate covered caramel corn and almonds...but I didn't totally pig out on the three exception days, so I'm going to count this one as an accomplishment.
7. Practice piano for 15 mins every day. (At least. :-) Hmm. I think I forgot about this one. But my lesson's not going to bad, so...I'm not sure I really "failed"
8. Watch 2 movies. (Ha. That'll get done without ME trying.) Oh, more specific: Watch the live version of How the Grinch stole Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life. We did watch it's a wonderful life, but not the grinch. Does 5-episodes-of-What-not-to-wear-in-a-row count?
9. Make fudge. *sniff* I meant to do this early in the break, so that we could eat it throughout, but alas...
10. Do something extra-Christmasily-nice for someone. Hmm...I did unload the diswasher for a family I babysat...does that count? haha.

Well, let's see. I think I did 6 of them if you count 1, 4, 6 and 10 as halves. :-) Oh well, it sure was fun anyway.

Now it's back to school. Not too bad. A new year is a new start. I've been doing some things differently so I have more energy (and hence, it takes a ridiculous amount of time for me to fall asleep. However, we had dance till 9:30 last night and didn't get home till 10 so I got to bed a little late. That means I should get to sleep faster tonight. :-) The only thing I still want to do differently is to get in touch with you all more often. So, if I just randomly call you and say, hey, what's up, that means you can either tell me it's a bad time and you'll call me back or tell me all about your day and ask me how mine was. :-D Ok? Ok.

adios