Christmas break is fast blowing by...

We had a very good Christmas, we got so many presents that I think we should be classed under "spoiled rotten" although also with "extremely grateful." Hmm, unusual combination. We also had some really good extended family time, everyone sat around and talked after dinner. It was very relaxed, which makes it really strange that my skin totally broke out. Must've been the excitement or something, cuz I know I wasn't stressed out! lol. Anyway, we got a digital camera, with which Abby just took my picture, and that's the really big thing--oh and HP6 on tape, and then all the wonderful smaller stuff like clothes and belts and a purse and keychains and I said I wasn't going to list everything, so I won't. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd yeah, it was a very good Christmas. I love having everyone over to our house.

Then, we've just been lazing around, watching all the DVDs we got, ummmm, Can't think of anything so I'll cut to the chase.

Yesterday afternoon Mom and I left for our Sweet Sixteen Sleepover getaway. We went to a hotel in fairlawn, really close to Summit Mall, and we shopped till we dropped. I got my sweet sixteen cactus, (brownish purple, I'm sure I'll post pix of it), used some of my bath and body works gift card (I love the cherry blossom scented stuff! I'm going to reek of cherry blossom from now on!!), we smelled perfumes at Kaufman's and candles at Yankee Candle, we got clearance wrapping paper at Target, all kinds of good stuff. But all the time, we were looking for a ring. Yes, a ring. We searched at every jewelry store on the planet, Jared's; Mom got her ring at Jared's, we looked in the mall, we looked high and low and up and down. The lady at kay's was very nice, and I saw one I liked there, but she encouraged us to sleep on it once we had mentioned it, so we did.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the food. We had Donato's for dinner. It was soooo good. We were considering some fancier places, like Red Lobster or Max and Erma's, but Donato's is the BEST pizza, and to make it a little more gourmet I got to get root beer too. Pizza tastes even better with pop. Then for dessert, after we went to the mall and before Marc's and Target, we went to Coldstone creamery. It was pretty cool, the staff was nice, and the ice cream was good, but I wouldn't say it was the best or anything. Not after having Graeter's. MMMMMM. Anyway, snapping out of it.

This morning we had our complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel, there was a wrestling team from columbus there we think. Then we checked out and came back down to Belden village to spend more b&bw money (more cherry blossom!) and look some more for a ring. It finally came down to one at...ummm...I forget the name, but the one there was very pretty, and on sale for less than what we were expecting to pay, and there was one at Kay's that was a little bit more than we were expecting to pay, and there was, like, less of it, it was smaller. But it seemed higher quality. So we walked back and forth, back and forth, checked with Dad to make sure the more expensive one was even an option, it was--not to mention, the cheaper one didn't come with a warranty, and the one at Kay's did. So finally, after much agonizing and walking, we decided on the Kay's one. It's simpler, but very elegant and, well, GORGEOUS! I LOVE it. It's three pink stones, um, how bout this, I'll just wear it Sunday! lol.

Right now I"m working on ANOTHER to-do list. I've always had the impression that to-do lists are kind of bad, like, they take away from spending time with your family, and I suppose if you used them in excess they would, but I've found writing a to-do list and setting a goal time to be done is the only way I can get anything done!

If I make this any longer, however, I won't get anything done anyway!

Merry Christmas (Eve!)

Today's Christmas Eve! Mom and Meme have been cooking up a storm! Pops took us out to Bob Evans for breakfast (french toast) and then he took us to Borders and we got our first Christmas presents. He found me a giant book of Sudoku, Hannah got The School Story (wonderful book) and Abby got a giant Lord of the Rings poster. So that was really cool. And then we came home and I helped with some cooking, and then I did the brown belt for today in 25 mins. I've limited myself to one Sudoku from the book a day.

Ok, for everyone who's wondering, Sudoku is a puzzle with boxes arranged 9x9. You have to get the numbers 1-9 in every row and column, and then there are 9 "cells," boxes 3x3 within the bigger puzzle, and you have to get the numbers 1-9 in those too. It's reallly fun. It's like a process of elimination and logic puzzle. :-D

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! Merry Chrismahannakwanzica!

Sweet lyrics to random song by Pillar on Launchcast

It's not like I'm walking alone into the valley of the shadow of death
Stand beside one another, 'cause it ain't over yet
I'd be willing to bet that if we don't back down
You and I will be the ones that are holding the Crown in the end
When it's over, we can say, "Well done"
But not yet, 'cause it's only begun
So, pick up, and follow me, we're the only ones
To fight this thing, until we've won
We drive on and don't look back
It doesn't mean we can't learn from our past
All the things that we mighta done wrong
We could've been doing this all along

Everybody, with your fists raised high
Let me hear your battle cry tonight
Stand beside, or step aside
We're on the frontline

And we'll be carrying on, until the day it doesn't matter anymore
Step aside, you forgot what this is for
We fight to live, we live to fight
And tonight, you'll hear my battle cry
We live our lives on the frontlines
We're not afraid of the fast times
These days have opened up my eyes
And now, I see where the threat lies

We've got to lead the way

I must admit, they're even sweeter with an electric guitar driving along in the foreground. I had to look up the lyrics to even figure out what the verses were, it was so far in the foreground, but it was a sweet song all the same.

Checking in Quick

Heloooo, today was a good day, I did 2 sudokus, brown belts, about 25 mins each, then I got dressed and stuff while listening to HP6 on CD (brilliant, as usual, except for Ginny's weird deep voice) and then I ate a magbnificent lunch consisting of a large amount of delicious vegetables and then all the fat and calories you could wish to make up for them. Oh, and I'm reading Pride and Prejudice, which is really funny and interesting at the same time. It's good Xmas Break reading. And tonight we're going to the Barn to see our cousins who live in Texas. So that'll be really fun!! And I got to talk to people online this afternoon and even practiced piano a bit. Anyway, now it's time to get ready to go, so I gotta run! Merry Christmas!!!

luv to all,
Katie
ps--this wasn't an e-mail, was it? oh well I ended it like one anyway! :-D

YAY FOR CHRISTMAS BREAK!

So life's good, it got even better this morning! It's Christmas break! We celebrated by having a watching "the Toy that Saved Christmas" and having a Sudoku race with today's puzzle. I felt about 6 years old, I was so excited about both of them. I lost the race miserably. I didn't really mind because I was just happy I finished by the end of it. I'm really fast at Sudoku if I'm not racing, but when I'm racing I make stupid mistakes. Slow and steady wins the race!! I started over three times, and finally solved it the 4th time. By that time everyone else had finished, but it only took me 30 mins to do it the last time. So I did it faster than everyone even though I finished last, which sounds so wrong but it's true. ;-) It was pretty funny. Mom did her first Sudoku today. Yay!

Ok, what else...only 6 days till Christmas! Yay! James and Bruce and Jacob posted! Yay! Oh, yall, we really gotta decide who we're killing in Cleb's Mafia game! He might decide to just kill someone every day!

Aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnd....NO SCHOOL! I'm not sleeping in or anything cuz it makes it so hard to start getting up again early, which I've gotten pretty good at. I just don't get dressed till I have to. Or feel like it.

Today we're going to dip more chocolate. We did some a week ago and it's almost gone. Dad read Eldest to us while we dipped and the time just flew. They're like, well, we should probably finish up, and I'm like, Hunh? It was 9 something and I thought that it was only about 8:20! Anyway. I think I'll go to Fishy's xanga now.

GO TO XANGA.COM/KIDABYTE AND VOTE!

ATTENTION BLOGGERS! ESPECIALLY BLOGGERS WHO PLAY MAFIA!

BREAKING NEWS! THERE HAS BEEN A KILLING ON SONIKID'S XANGA! MULAN HAS BEEN KILLED BY THE MAFIA! WE NEED YOU TO TRACK DOWN THE NEFARIOUS VILLIAN WHO HAS COMMITTED THIS FOUL DEED! GO TO http://www.xanga.com/kidabyte, READ THE FACTS AND VOTE--EITHER TO KILL OR SLEEP! WE CANNOT LET EVIL PEOPLE ROAM OUR CYBERSPACE! LET YOUR VOTE BE HEARD! http://www.xanga.com/kidabyte! GO GO GO!

Replying to allayall's comments

It's so nice to get an Inbox full of comments! so:

James: We've missed you at youth group! I feel like I haven't talked to you for ages and ages, just cuz you haven't posted on your blog or been online at the same time as me. I'm pretty much on ...well I haven't been on a lot lately but I can pretty much guarantee that I'm on between 8 and 9 when I am on.

Erin, ok, I'll go comment on your xanga...

Caleb, what's your xanga's address? I bet you've told me...

Meg, have you had a qt? :-D Can't wait to see you again, I was sorry we didn't get to talk more on Sunday. E-mail me! And yes, your xanga post is rockin awesome, chills-down-the-spine and all that good stuff. xanga.com/scifi_cutie, check it out!

So tonight I sort of spent three pointless hours in the Falls, one and a half studying for history and doing Sudoku, during Hannah's piano lesson, and then half and hour talking to Emma and Erin, which was the only not pointless part, and then we did tumbling and it was really short and I pretty much didn't do anything. Barely worked up a sweat. Did not get any exercise. Oh well, can't help it. At least I won't be sore tomorrow for the last day of ROAD. We're going to take a disposable camera and ask the teachers if we can take pictures for 0ur last day. Hope lots of them say yes.

Farewell! Comment more, post on your stuff, etc etc and now I'll go read everyone's stuff.

Survival, Living, Existing

I was just reading back over my old posts because I was bored and slightly depressed. I only get depressed when I'm tired. I'm tired. I can't think why. Too many just slightly late nights in a row. But then I was reading all these funny posts and comments and remembered how blessed I am and I'm cheered up a little now. Like, now I think I can do it. Do it = live. Why is life still a struggle for survival when you have a roof over your head and four walls around you and warm air blowing from the central heating system and all the food you could possibly want and awesome friends and a great family and really couldn't ask for anything more? And I still have to fight to survive? I don't have to struggle to exist, that's for sure, but it's always a struggle to live. The family and friends help the most with that. By making me laugh. And reading my blog. And staying in touch. And posting on their blogs. (ahem, James and Caleb...lol) And laughing at my not-funny jokes...that wasn't a joke, however, y'all haven't posted forever. :-)

So I'm kinda bored...I think I've used that title before

I'm watching Cinderella story again. We watched it last night. I love fairy tales. I'm typing this without looking so forgive my mistakes. It's at my favorite part when they're like playing 20 questions at the Halloween Dance. Oh. I didn't make any mistakes. This IMing thing is really good for teaching you to type. Fairy tales and happy endings are all so romantic.

So tonight's the White elephant gift exchange/Christmas party. And I should probably check my to-do list. Make sure I've done everything. Oyyyyyy ummmmmmmm ehhhhhhhhhhh weeeeeeeeelllllllll i'lllllllllll...just watch cinderella story now.

Oh, but I had a really good birthday. Kara and Warren did some nice stuff for our birthdays, and the food was so good....I ate so much good food this past week, I probably gained weight...like I care.

Ya know what I really like about Cinderella Story? The prince in shining armor is actually polite and respectful and nice!

Ummmmmmmm oyyyyy I'll stop now. buhbye....

Finally, a whopper of a post coming right up...

Ok, I have not posted for ages!! Which means I have tons to post about. First of all,

Wednesday

Dance class was very interesting. I am in no way the best dancer, but as I think I've said before I try really hard. So Amy gives us this combination and there was this weird arm waving thing in it. Have I mentioned before that she gives us very interesting similes of what we should look like? Like, petting a cat--a very tall cat. This one she said, "like, you're asking God to come down and help you. Okay?" She demonstrated the arms as she said that and then went to turn on the music. I always stand close to the music player, where she is, and I said, "I think I do that for just about every combination." She said, "What, ask God to help you? (haha) How's that going for you (more laughs)." Not mean laughs, just laughing laughs. So I said (to God), "Ok God, ya hear that? Help!" So I did the combination going to one end of the stage, and then we always do it coming back. Going was ok, coming back I actually did it. Pretty rare for me. So, then, shock of my life, Amy says, "Katie, go down there and do that again." Shock of my life! She does that when someone does something really well, she has them do it again for us to see what it looks like. But it's usually the older girls, juniors and seniors, and NEVER me. So I go down to the other end again, trying not to look too happy with myself, and say (to God), "Ok, I really need to do this well so she'll see that it works to ask you to help," and sure enough, can you say FLAWLESS??!! I was sooo thrilled. And her point was about the crazy arm thing, that it didn't look forced (not about the other two things in it, which I did not excel at). So I went back to my spot and said to Amy, "I think it worked." And she said, "yeah, God helped you with that combination." (more laughing laughs). But I was soooo excited.

Thursday

Hannah and I played piano in the background for a cocktail party on Friday, and so on Thursday I played through my songs. We had an hour to play, so half an hour each. I played through my songs, timing them, and it only came out to fifteen minutes. I was like, Oh, No. It ended up not being too big of a deal, I just repeated things a lot, but I was kind of depressed the rest of the day.

Friday

was Doreeeeee's Birthday, mostly devoted to school and piano. We got all dressed up and went to the Martin's Center, it was absolutley gorgeous, and we got to play on a gorgeous (baby?) grand piano for half an hour each. I had fun, made lots of mistakes but I didn't stress out about them so that was good. And then we had lots of fun celebrating Dorreeee's birthday.

Saturday

was the big day--my Sixteenth Birthday Party. And Doree's party too. In the morning, first, I babysat an adorable 1 year old named Emily. She is sooooooooo cute. So I had fun and earned some money. Then I went home and just had fun! We just talked for a looong time first--that's what we girls do, after all! Then we played Mafia for ages. Then we made pizzas. And played movie charades, very informally, but we had fun. I won't discuss all the minor details, but I will just say we had tons of fun. Soooooo much fun. We watched the Perfect Man, which abyack is currently rewatching, and I french-braided's Bea's hair and discovered that I'm not too bad at it. By the end of Christmas break I want to be able to do my own hair.

We ate lots of yummy food and stayed up late having yummy conversations. And all of a sudden it was Sunday and everyone got to see me in my sunday morning hyper glory--except Meg and Hannah, of course, who had to leave early so that they could go to the Brown's game on Sunday.

Sunday wasn't teriffically exciting--well, it was, just not more than usual.

MONDAY, however, was just about the most exciting day I've had in my entire life. First, Dad calls and plays a clip on the answering machine of him on the radio winning a 42 inch plasma TV. OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!! We left him a voicemail of us just screaming and screaming. That was the first exciting thing. The second thing was getting a postcard saying that the PSAT scores are coming! The third thing was, they came!!!!!!!! I was sooooo fumbling trying to open the envelope, then Hannah was fumbling getting out the scissors, and then finally there it was. I had a Hermione moment--well, I didn't then, I am currently about the PLAN--"It seemed to go well at the time, but looking back I know I failed everything!" But I didn't! I did--pretty well, actually. Especially with the word stuff, just OK with the math. But I did better in everything than I did when I practiced the weekend before the real thing. So I was realllly happy.

And now it's Tuesday. And my dance class is canceled and reschedueled for during the homeschool group Christmas party, so I won't be able to go. But I have to go get ready to go to dance and stuff now. I did wake up early this morning and took advantage of it by getting school started and finished early so that I could blog and e-mail people. Tada! I got it all done, amazingly, but I really gotta run now.
Catch ya later! lol bye

So I'm kinda bored...

I'm bored and my head hurts. Like, OWWW! Cuz I've got a sinus infection AGAIN. But I'm taking the leftover antibiotics from last time so hopefully I'll be feeling better soon. I think I type better with my eyes closed. Anyway, today we went Christmas shopping. SO tired. It was tiring. I didn't have all that much energy to begin with. So I'm pretty exhausted. My whole face hurts from my wretched sinuses. I should start a IHMS club: I Hate My Sinuses. Or IHMWS, see above. Or I Hate My Painful Sinuses. Or I Strongly Dislike My Painful Sinuses. Ok, I'll stop rambling/complaining now. I got most of my christmas shopping done at least.

I cooked breakfast (with Hannah) and dinner today. Nothing fancy. Just pancakes and ham and leftover muffins and peel your own clementines for breakfast--oh, chocolate chip pancakes!! And grilled cheese and chips and salsa and bananas with cheerios for dinner. Not cheerios with bananas. The other way around. So that's probably the most I've ever "cooked" in one day in my life. OH but don't let me forget my helpers--Hannah actually cooked the pancakes mostly, and Hannah and Abby cleaned up dinner.

Would someone hurry up and get online so I can talk to you??

wow, that was kinda cool. Ten minutes later I'm talking to 3 people. And ten minutes after that I have to get off. Oh well.

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

The bad news: My dance class was canceled last night.
The good news: WE WENT TO SEE HP4!!!

It was amazing!!! My first thoughts were, "Wow, this is soooo fast paced!" And then I thought, "oh, it has to be, doesn't it?" There was absolutely no extraneous material--and I don't mean the funny bits, I mean actually plot line things. There were plenty of funny things, but I didn't get the feeling that I did in HP3 that, "OK, enough of this, why didn't you cut it and put THIS in?" Everything in the movie was very cool.

SPOILERS:
There was no:
Ludo Bagman
Winky
Mrs. Weasley
Mr. Roberts
The Durslys
Ministry refusal to believe dear old baldywart was back (we're going to be murdered in our beds) (ha) (or NOT)
Dobby

Those were the main things, I think. And there was pretty much nobody but Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Like, there was, but there were tons of minor characters. Fred, George and Neville took greater prominance. And Filch. IT"S SNOWING!!!! Anyway...there was practically no Sirius. But they did have the school song! We loved that!

I always imagined the Priori Incantatem to be more quietly intense, not so chaotic. And the echo people were not as JK described them and therefore I don't think they were how anyone imagined them.

In the lake was pretty cool--sufficiently creepy. The dragon was sweet. Anddddd.....I think I'll go eat monkey bread or something.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I'm hoping to post later! :-)

i guesss i won't post anyway (no caps allowed)

i feel like eating ice cream now but I just have a few things to say...

i have a cold and a horrible pressure headache
despite that, i had a ton of fun rockin with my sisters to "meant to live" and the mood ring song (cuz we would rock and then pretend to be emotional girls)
and...i like switchfoot but i think reliant k has to grow on me, not extremely rhythmic

and i'm going to go eat something cold and soothing...or go to bed early...either way i'm "going going gone...like frank sinatra's mom...or somthing..."

Un otra vez, aquí estoy, preguntando qué hacer para los últimos minutos de Español. Yo pregunto si hay programas donde puede hablas en otra lenguas con gente que habla eso lengua. Así un amigo de pluma. Yo podría escribir a mis primos que está aprendiendo Español.

Nadie necesita leer eso, sólo estoy aburrido y no estoy motivado. Estoy enfermero. Y muy, muy, muy cansado. Yo tenido muchas noches demasiado tarde. Lo será interesante ver qué esto dice. Babelfish no es muy confiable, pero es mejor que sólo un diccionario. Y ahora, veremos. Y verás.

I am again, here, asking what to do for the last minutes of Spanish. I ask actually I wonderif there are programs where she can you you can speak in another languages with people who speak that language. Thus like a pen friend. I could write to my cousins who are learning Spanish.

Nobody needs to read that, I am only boring BOREDand I am not motivated. I am nurse sick. And very, very, very tired. I had many nights too much late. He will be it interesting it will be interesting to see what this says. Babelfish is not very reliable, hence all the pinkbut it is better than only a dictionary. And now, we will see. And you will see. Y ahora, tú ves! And now, you see! And now I´m done with Spanish!

HI I'M SO HYPER!!

I"m hyper a lot of the time actually, like every other day, although this time I think it's owing to the delicious piece of spice cake with amazing muy rico caramel frosting that I just ate.

So today's the big day, Nov. 18th. HP IS OUT!!!! Dad really wanted to go see it today, and I did kinda too, and I think just the two of us could've made it but the other three couldn't. Mom's not feeling well, Abby's seeing a movie tonight, and Hannah had too much school. And of course it wouldn't be as much fun to see it not as a family. But we'll see it soon. If you've seen it...I'm not as strict about not finding out what happens with the movies because we already know what happens. But don't tell me anything anyway, anything more than what you thought of it! We might see it next Wednesday after ROAD.

I'm taking a half hour break before piano because I feel like it, GOSH. :-D

I'm listening to switchfoot, the Beautiful Letdown. Got it from the library to see if I want it for Christmas. Abby got to it first and decided even if I don't want it, she does. And I got 2 Reliant K cds.

NEXT WEEK IS THANKSGIVING! IT SNOWED! 19 DAYS OF BEING 15 YEARS OLD LEFT! Oh, and it's so funny, cuz Dad always prays on our birthday that the next year would be even better than the year before, but I'm not totally sure that's possible. Fifteen has been a reeeeeaaally good year. hhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm-hhhhhhhhhhmmmmmm...

WOW. I THINK I LIKE THIS CD. {WE WERE MEANT TO LIVE FOR SO MUCH MORE} Or maybe it's just the electric guitar. I think electric is one of the things I thrive on. OH AND GUESS WHAT!! My dance song has ELECTRIC GUITAR in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited when I heard it!

I think I'd better stop shouting now. HAVE A GOOD LIFE!

So life's goin' pretty well...if not great...

Tonight I did a back walkover off the hassock (little round heavy footstool type thing) and seeing as I have never kicked over off anything that is a big improvement. Also I really need to learn how to do it cuz there's only a few of us in my class who can't do it (rock ON fishy!!!). Annnnnd...Sunday was of course terrific, we played Balderdash the whole two hours of youth group. I laughed so hard!!!!! SO hard. And Brittani P and I won. Blonde Brittani, not Brunette Brittani. And...I've only got a little bit here...oh, don't let me make it sound like life is all of a sudden peachy and relaxed, it's actually peachy and INSANE! I don't know how I do it except maybe owing it to my morning routine and my wonderful boyfriend...lol!!! :-) Routine being wake up to Ordinary Day, the lyrics of which I will post sometime...hey, why not now...

Woke up this morning, went to the window, saw a rainy day
Feeling the pressure from all of the things I gotta face today
All of my days are totally crazy
Can't do nothing right
It's an ordinary day

Every minute feels like an hour slowly creeping by
All of this stress, but I do my best to take it all in stride
I need to decidde need to unwind all these things are on my mind
It's an ordinary day

Things are crazy but it's alright
You make me feel alive again
When it rains You are the sunshine
That lights me up from deep within
I can finally treasure this love beyond a measure
You've given me the pleasure of an ordinary day

And also I blink along to the music, which is a new addition to keep my eyes open while I read my One Year Bibble. lol. Sure, Bibble. yeah. So where was I going with that? OH, that's how I make it through life in general. :-D Well I'll get off now so abby can have some time before the biggest loser.

Meet Tiddlywinks

Say hi to Tiddlywinks. I don't know how I got her where she is, it was sheer dumb luck (and I mean the dumb part, I know next to nothing about HTML). WARNING: DO NOT WASTE TIME PLAYING WITH TIDDLYWINKS THAT SHOULD BE SPENT DOING SOMETHING MEANINGFUL WITH YOUR LIFE!!!! It's very easy to do. Cuz she's so cute! :)

Diez mas minutos de Español

Decidió ya que tengo diez mas minutos de español puedo escribir en mi...blog. Ñ'= oh, he olvidado que no puedo escribir caras que sonrir cuando tengo los adjustos de español.

Estoy seguro que nada de esto es claro, pero puedo entender español más mejor que puedo escribo o hablo.

Cinco más minutos. Me crees voy a traducer este en altavista.com.

It decided since I have ten but minutes of Spanish I can write in my... blog. Ñ' = oh, I have forgotten that I cannot write expensive that to sonrir when I have the adjustos of Spanish. I am sure that nothing of this is sure but can understand Spanish better than I can I write or I speak. Five more minutes. You create to me I am going to traducer this in altavista.com.

Wow, fue terrible.

Decidió ya que tengo diez mas minutos de español puedo escribir en mi...blog. Ñ'= oh, he olvidado que no puedo escribir caras con sonrisas cuando tengo los ajustes de español.

Estoy seguro que nada de esto es correcto, pero puedo entender español más mejor que yo puedo escribirlo o hablarlo.

Cinco más minutos. Pienso voy a traducir este en altavista.com.

Ok, that time it came out better. Time´s up! Supongo necesito más que un computadora saber si este es correcto o no.

These past few days

Ok, so Thursday was the worst day I've had in MONTHS. I woke up, watched my hamster die, and then the day kind of just went downhill from there. I wasn't actually too sad about the hamster, he's pretty old and now I don't have to take care of him for nothing in return (like getting to get him out and play with him sometimes would be all the return I would need, but we never had time). But watching your hamster dying isn't a good way to start your day, I don't recommend it. Then I had a million algebra problems and the whole thing was just really annoying becuase I took 3 review tests and then I took form A of the test and there were so many questions that I didn't know how to do. You'd think that when you're getting tested on two years' worth of material they'd give you decent review sheets! So Mom said that I didn't have to relearn all the stuff, I just had to go back through and find out how to do the problems I didn't know how to do, and do them. So I spent the entire morning doing that, plus a little reading when my brain was about to burst. "The entire morning"=9-1, so 4 hours of algebra. That'll put anyone in a bad mood. And then my grandparents arrived, but we still had work to do. I did get to go on a lovely walk with Mom, the weather was really nice. But I finished school at like 7 something, which included dinner and a walk, but still! That was a depressing day. But I was kinda proud of myself once I got un-depressed enough to notice that I actually accomplished a lot. Just a little bit.

Then yesterday we did school in the morning, but we got it all done in time to go see Dreamer with my grandpa at 12:45. It was pretty good. Not one of my favorites, because it's one of those horse stories that 10 year old girls love but are really predictable. Speaking of predictable, I'm going to be really surprised if the sister in Kira-Kira, which I just got from the libray, makes it to the end of the book. I'm just saying it now so that when she ends up dying I have proof that I thought of it before I read it. :-D Anyway, we went to Outback for Mom's birthday dinner, which was really nice (and really delicious!) My grandma just gushed about how I was eating vegetables. "I never thought I'd see the day!" Et cetera. That was funny. I'm thinking, as she's gushing: I'm almost sixteen, I have to eat vegetables sometime! Actually I really like veggies with rice and chicken. SO good. I still don't like salad though. :-)

Then this morning I totally wore myself out by raking leaves and then playing in them with Daniel and Tyler H, who were over cuz their dad was chopping up firewood. It was Tyler's idea to make a pile of leaves, and I wasn't too enthusiastic at first, but I'm like, he probably doesn't have that many trees in his yard, I'll make one (we have sooo many leaves and trees), and then I ended up having more fun than he did! So now I'm tired and blogging and then I'm going to call some friends...or not, cuz we're watching a movie, but we still have long distance tomorrow, so whatever!

And...anything else going on? Tomorrow's sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE SUNDAY! So...we're going to watch the second Indiana Jones, I think. Oh, and on the subject of movies, we saw a trailer for Narnia, and it looks really good. I don't often look forward to movies and I don't often really want to see movies before they come out on DVD and we can get them from the library, but I now I've got two: Harry potter, which is a given, and Narnia, which looks amazing. AND it's coming out close to my birthday, so I might ask to go see it as a present. I'm having trouble thinking up presents. Oh, do you have any CD suggestions, like Reliant K or Switchfoot? I put beautiful letdown and mmhmm and happy (mat. west) on hold at the library, to see if I'll like them. So, if you have any CDs that you think I'd like comment on them. :-D I'm leaving now. :-) Oh, and guess what *cracking up at myself* we didn't really have dinner, because we were so full of outback leftovers from lunch that we just got Dairy Queen (not real food, ice cream) and now we'll just have some snacky thing.

After 2 mil postscripts, I'm really stopping! Extra KT pts if you read the whole thing. Don't ask what kt pts are cuz I don't know.

WHERE DOES ALL THE TIME GO?

Tyler H. can read, Leah Hr. is in Sunday School, next month is Thanksgiving, which is when we put up the Christmas decorations, and in between Christmas and Thanksgiving I'm turning sixteen and I'm going to be learning to drive soon, half my friends are turning seventeen shortly after the new year (isn't Kailee L supposed to be 17? She's part of the older crowd of the highschoolers in my homeschool group). Doreeee's starting highschool, we have a job, the half of my friends that are turning 17 is also graduating from highschool at the end of next year (aren't Patrick and Adam doing that?). I just don't get the teenagers who can't wait to be adults or 18 or 21 because time flies just fine all by itself without us blowing on it.