Hello people

Updating time has rolled around again--and by that I mean "time free enough to update." Yes, most of my computer time has been dominated by e-mail wars--me against my full inbox. It's probably one of the most enjoyable wars I've ever fought. :-D I'm glad I get to talk to people throughout the week.

Um. What's going on in my life. Oh yeah, tomorrow is the Celtic ball. A bunch of homeschoolers get together and learn these celtic dances that are quite fun, and then get dresssed up in formal dresses and do them. So it's kind of like homecoming except less pointless, because you dance. But I've never been to homecoming, so I can't really say. But it's going to be fun, this morning we tried on our dresses, and mom shortened the straps on mine, and then tonight we're doing facials and nails and stuff. Hannah's going too this year. So. I'll have to post lots of pictures!

Um, what else. OH IF ANY OF YOU ARE IN HIGHSCHOOL, YOU HAVE TO FIND OUT IF YOU CAN GO ON THE RETREAT IN APRIL!!OR ELSE WE'RE GOING TO END UP NOT GOING AND THEN EVERYONE'S GOING TO BE DISAPPOINTED AND WONDER WHY WE DIDN'T GO. SO FIND OUT!

Thank you. Ok. Moving on. I watched Harry Potter 1 some in spanish today, which I don't remember doing recently, and it's quite fun because I can understand what they're saying. Although, I'm thinking at this point I'd better continue doing spanish next year (maybe as a postsecondary?) because I'm not going to get it down pat in 12 weeks.

Yes, that's right, 12 more weeks of school. We're 2/3 of the way done! which is freaky and exciting at the same time. Like, in 12 weeks, I could be considered a Junior!!! Oh my word! Ok, moving on VERY quickly!

Let's see--to what, though...I don't know, tell me a funny story. Like, today I got paint in my hair (and I'm not making that up!) Today in art class the paintbrush just flipped out of my hand and onto my shirt. Except that my hair's so long, none of it got on my shirt. So I almost had pink highlights on the ends.

Oh yeah, and I'm getting a haircut. The question is: Should I just get a trim, because I've waited so long to grow my hair out (two years, I think--almost 3 now) or should I go shorter, like Kara's hair or Hannah's, because all the length is getting really split-endy and a little stringy? There are all the people on these makeover shows that have the long, stringy (or even just long, style-less) hair "style" going on. One false move and that could be me. lol. But I don't know, I still have a lot of thinking to do before I decide--but if I have to untangle too many more knots, it's all coming off! (By that I mean it's going to turn normal. :-D)

Well, I'm hungry, and the best way to get dinner ready faster is to read a good book. No, I'm kidding, I'm gonna go help. ;)

Oh yeah, and notice the new LT countdown, thanks to Meghan! :-D

Sorry guys! It's been TOO LONG!

OH MY WORD I can't believe I haven't posted in all of February! It doesn't seem that long...and yet the trip to Florida seems REALLY long ago, even though we were there a week ago. We were probably playing euchre. I now know how to play euchre, even if I'm terrible at it. :-D

Let's see, we did so many things. For instance, I petted a very fat skunk and a possum, which was surprisingly cute. We saw a million manatees (ok, how bout 20 or so?), and even ran over one. But we don't think it got hurt, and there was no way we could've avoided it--we were barely moving. We think it just got bumped by the propeller guard. So that was exciting--also on that trip in the boat, we saw an alligator. That was sweet. We went on a nature walk and saw lots of weird plants that we just don't have here, and TWO pileated woodpeckers. These things are the size of crows and have a red crest and black and white spots and stripes. That was pretty neat. The Florida landscape is so different--palm trees, swamps, sand and snakes. And geckos and regrets--with a silent R, of course!

We had so much fun--those were the things we saw, this is what we did: I got to drive the golf cart around the neighborhood every night, which was good practice, annnnd, we played bocci and read books and got to relax and be warm! And we got to see our grandparents for a whole week, which was probably the best part. The cooking was amazing too--I have never eaten so much good food in one week! Unless it was a birthday week...but I don't know. The food definitely rocked. And we got to walk every day, which was also great.

And then we came back to Ohio and 30 and below temperatures...my feet feel like chunks of ice.... The first week back at school wasn't too bad, though.

I'm so excited for 40 days of community! And I'm really really hoping that we can go on the retreat in april!!!!! !!! !!!!

Ummm, I think I'll go running now. Sorry this was kind of short, for not having written for so long, but I don't have very many words in my head at the moment! Well, I know SOME of you won't mind...lol *cough* *james*...ok looking back it's not all that short, but I don't feel like I said anything. Oh well. see you all later!

Ramblings of a very sleepy person

Ok, so we're driving down the road on the way home from Columbus, and I get the brilliant idea--yes, that was semisarcastic-- to blog. So my techno geek dad hooks me all up with his pocket pc and keyboard. Major eprops to him, by the way. Oh, and fyi everyone, I read in some book somewhere that that's how dads love: by doing crazy things like driving sixtyfive mph mostly with knees and elbows to get out stuff so that you can blog at ten at night. Eprops to dads everywhere! (the good ones, anyway).

Ok, so I haven't blogged in, like, ever! But there were lots of things that I meant to do this week that didn't get done, unfortunately. Therefore, I think I can officially label this past week as the week of laziness. Not that I got nothing done, I got lots of schoolwork done, in working ahead for our trip to Florida next week. Sorry everyone! But it's not like we just get to go skipping off to Florida. We're paying for it now in doing 3 weeks of work in 2 weeks. This mainly involves lots and lots of reading. If reading wasn't my thing, I'd be sunk deeper than Davy Jones' locker.

Wow, for all this typing, I haven't written much. I'm now using this jump style of typing. It's fairly easy to pick up on--I bet I'd be a whiz at it by now if I weren't so sleepy. As it is, it's making me choose my words with care. And I might regret not sleeping when I had the chance, but too late now! *the verdict is in: she's crazy.*

We went to an old friend's 40th b-day party today, for which I had to miss youth group. But it was for a very good cause, and once I had some time to adjust to the idea of missing youth group, it was fine. You all better appreciate that: 1, something happened to me that took more than 3 seconds for me to adjust to, 2, I like youth group enough that missing it caused an attitude adjustment, and 3, my parents did something that required one! I don't hold it against you. :)

HI PEOPLE YOU HAVEN'T READ MY OTHER POST BUT OH WELL, I'M POSTING ANYWAY!

It wasn't much to read. I'll try to keep this one within a reasonable length.

So, I'm the only one left with a blog, seeing as everyone else has DESERTED ME! lol. just teasing. I was the first one with a blog and the last one, and I'm going to keep it so y'all had better keep checking it! I check everyone's everything everyday. Which is probably unintellegeble. Which is spelled rong. Which is probably rong. :-p

Can y'all tell I'm a little hyper? I'm just really really super extrememly superlatively happy because tomorrow's sunday!!! And I get to see all my friends! I have said it before, and I will say it again, and again, and again, I LOVE SUNDAYS! I have an extremely Katie-ish outfit for tomorrow. I'm sure you'll agree once you see it. I have a feeling even the guys will notice it, because it sort of jumps out at you. I'm sure no one will check this tonight, so I'll tell what it is: bright yellow (like, highlighter yellow) and Bright green (like, neon green) and then a slightly more muted hot pink. And those are the most beauteous colors. Which I think I'll post in. Cuz those are, like, officially my colors, with some red, orange and neon blue thrown in occasionally.

Well, it's been awhile, but once again I'm posting about running. I ran tuesday night after tumbling, cuz it was really easy, and I was like, wait, I've got my exercise clothes on and I'm about to take a shower after supposedly getting a workout, but I'm missing something: The workout. And I had tons of energy, so I took Relient K and a boombox downstairs and ran. It was actually fun. Then today I was thinking I should probably work off all the doughnuts I ate at the discovering Grace Summit class this morning, so I went running again, and dancing and stretching and foozball playing, all of which took up the entire CD of two lefts don't make a right but three do. Even the silly shoe song after Jefferson Aeroplane. So that was fun. And I watched two episodes of Monk, did two brown belt sudokus (29 and 40 mins, approx.), talked to my grandma on the telefone from Florida, where it is 80 degrees (two more weeks!).

AND I ALMOST FORGOT TO MENTION SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT: IN SIX MONTHS EXACTLY TODAY WE WILL BE LEAVING FOR LT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And there are only 26 more sundays until the one that we'll be there. Yippeee!

Thanks for reading, I'll let you stop now. :-D Post back soon! :-DD

Hay there

Wow, I really posted only four days ago? Weird. I wonder why time goes so fast and yet so slowly? I'm still trying to figure that out. Maybe it's cuz life changes so fast when you're a teenager. I have no clue.

So, in other news, I'm really happy cuz I'm done with school for the week!! Party time! ha...as if...lol. Too bad this isn't one of those blogs where the writer can say "call me up and we'll do something..."

Oh lookee, I gotta stop now. But personally, I like it when people post short posts often. Or, even better, long posts often.

Hello faithful readers

Ok, so, apparently they've decided to take away my rich text formatting options. What did I do to deserve such treatment! No more colors! No more html tweaking! Why? Why??? WHY????

Moving on, my life is terrific. Except *sniff* my formatting options are gone. But that's the biggest of my worries, except for worrying about my friends. In a manner of speaking. I don't ever really worry, so what I really mean is "concerned. But that's not the same thing." Aha! I've figured out how I can still do rich text. Okay. Everything's hunky-dory. Yay! We'll see how this works.

Oh, if you ever want a cool tattoo that'll last approximately 2 days, with careful handling, draw with a ballpoint pen for outlines and with highlighters for color. It's cool. I've had a butterfly picture on my hand for two days now. :-D I bet that'll come as a surprise to some of my family. *cough* *dad* :-D jk.

Well, I guess I'll keep this short, to make formatting easier. I love you guys, I'm praying for you. :-D <3!>

And boom. I go to edit, and it's working. Sweet. I guess I'll just leave it like this.

What is the deal???

Life is back to normal, weekend festivities over, and I'm dropping a quick line before dance because I was going to do it tonight but we have a meeting after dance, so we're going to be gone for about 5 hours straight.

Go here, it's good--it really is last week's even though it says Oct.16. ...ok...? go here ooh lookie, I changed it so now you can't tell where you're going! ha! Curiousity will get the best of you!! I suggest you read it through. No, this isn't the national treatise on the care of cacti, don't worry. I love having a limited amount of HTML knowledge. :-D Well, I gotta go. So much to do and so little time to do it in! lol

cute or funny pix --of people this time

Pictures from the piano recital...
Ok, just for the record, Erin and I did NOT know that this was supposed to be a silly picture!
A picture from Xmas day--Abby and Doreeeee with their new hats

More Xmas day. My face shines like a beacon over the picture. LOL.

Nails

Here we have the double whammy of my nails and my ring! Tada! The pink nailpolish I got on the date with mom too. OPI for 2 bucks rocks! and the top picture's my present nails. You can kind of tell.

My ring

And here we have my gorgeous ring, which you can see in person. I'm having trouble making a habit of wearing it, though, for instance last night I had the perfect outfit to wear it with, to Jeni's shower I mean, and I forgot! I was rather disappointed. There's always next time!

New addition to the family....

Here it is, the newest member of the family! This one is affectionately known as "The Brown One" and is the same basic type of cactus as the white and yellow ones. Which, I discovered, is Mamarillia, or somthing like that. I wrote it down somewhere. But here it is! I'll try and get a pic of all of them together. :-D

Responding to Gloomy Ruminations

Y'all got pretty lucky there, didja know that? I don't often feel like that and even less often do I display feeling gloomy like that. I don't think the actual post is quite as gloomy as I was. If you ever feel like life's going by too fast and there's nothing you can do about it, smother it with a good dose of Ecclesiastes (meaning read the whole book in one sitting, or at least the first 3 chapters) and Matthew 6:20something-to-the-end and Romans 8:28. It's kind of oxymoronic that when you most feel like it's so important to enjoy life, you end up worrying about not enjoying it and that's not at all enjoyable. :-D

I find it interesting that in y'alls comments, James can't wait to be 17 and Caleb dreads turning 15. I'm sure there's some deep psychological meaning to that, but I'm sure I don't know it, unless it's that maybe Caleb really likes being 14, and is happy with how life is going, and James doesn't like being 16 and doesn't like how life's going. But how am I supposed to know!

Ok then, James, Kara and Bea are going to be seniors next year, except KnB don't really count because they're not in highschool anymore.

I think feeling like life's slipping away too fast makes it more important to make sure you're on the right track and you're not wasting time that you're going to have to go back and do over. that doesn't make sense. I guess I mean it's important to learn the lessons you're supposed to learn now and not have to go back and relearn it later.

OK, ENOUGH philosophy for the day or week or month, I will now return to realms of solid life and my normal blogging topics.

Like TOMORROW IS MY FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK!!!! SUNDAY, CHA CHA CHA! SUNDAY, CHA CHA CHA! SING WITH ME NOW! Youth group starts back up, I can't wait to see what everyone's up to, James and Gina are probably coming, although who knows what we're doing for Sunday School. I guess if worst comes to worst and Matt didn't get a sub (which I consider highly unlikely) we can just HANG OUT!!!

I should probably get dressed now. Or NOT. Ha!

New Year's Ruminations

So, it's like, 2006, and it's the next to last day of firsts--first Monday, first Tuesday, you get the idea.

I made lots of nifty resolutions, most of which have actually made it through the week. Mostly. I have a checklist I go through at night, whcih might possibly make it through next week. I aim low.

What's really on my mind at the moment, however, is how fast time is going. Which I've told like 3 people already tonight, but it's forming such a definite blah blah balh thing in my mind (yeah, I call that definite!) that I decided to blog about it. Oh! Oh! the word I want is list, it's forming a definite list in my mind of all the ways time is flying.

• It's 2006, for heaven's sakes.
• Sophia is a little girl and not a large baby.
• James and Isaiah are going to be seniors next year.
• Doreeeeeee, Bruce, and Fishy are coming to LT.
• I'm learning to drive in a few months.
• I'm sixteen, for heaven's sakes.
• Tonight we went to Jeni's bridal shower, and I realized that there will be very very few of them in between hers and my friends'. Or mine, even scarier.

But, bridal showers don't happen every day, or even every 6 months, so, I'm overfreaking a little bit. But it's still scary how the days turn into weeks turn into years and it's just gone! Well, there I go overfreaking again, but you know what I mean. Oh, Doreeeee just reminded me that I've already done a post like this. But it's merited.

I think I'm scared, like Bailey, of time, and not having enough of it, even though I'm not going to die anytime soon, Lord willin and the crik don't rise.

And on that slightly depressing note, I will close.

Links

I'd like to draw everyone's attention to the fact that I've updated my links list way down at the bottom of the page (why does it do that?)

I'd also like to point out some games: an LT answer game on Meg's xanga, and a currently tied Mafia game on caleb's. Go to those!

Also, I really am going to post about New Year's resolutions and all that. Really. Really really.

no, really.

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!