spoooooky

So it is Halloween today and I thought it would be appropriate to put up a picture of some girls in costumes.
This picture is from our dance recital last year and our song was a bunch of songs from batman put together. So naturally, we wore batman costumes. They were skin tight leather unitards with capes and masks to go along with. It was a very interesting dance and people in the audience really couldn't tell who was who.

So with today being Halloween I might revisit this costume and wear it out trick or treating tonight just to get a scare outta some kids. Or I might put it on and sit at home and hand out the candy to the little munchkins. It's actually quite cool seeing all of the little kids in their different costumes. You can tell which ones got to pick out their own costume and which ones their parents picked out for them. When I was little I always wanted to be a princess and so my mom let me for a couple years. Then she started making me these really tight costumes like one year she made me an entire hippie costume, and the next a pirate and just so many more. Shes not the best sewer around town but she managed to whip something out and make it look good.

My favorite part of Halloween was always all of the candy. My neighbor and I would always fight to see who could get the most candy while trick-or-treating. But then you had to watch out for the candy that could be old or has some drugs in it because it looks like it's open or something. My neighbor would always dress up as the same thing: Brett Favre. But I think that's why I always won because my costume would change and people would remember him and not remember me. But whatever it was still a good childhood memory. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Cellular Devices

Cell phones are such a distraction, but yet they are so addicting. In school your teachers nag at you to "turn your phone off" or "no texting in class," because they want you to pay attention. And there is a logical explination for that. When your texting or focusing yourself to your phone, your brain cant focus on what the teacher is saying. However, I think that the teachers shouldn't care about the texting in class because it should be your decision if you want to pay attention or not. You know that if you don't pay attention, you won't do good in that class.

The other day I was sitting with my mom and we were just talking. I got a text and I started reading it and then responded. During that time, my mom had asked me a question (that I didn't hear) and was expecting an answer. She got kinda mad that I wasn't paying attention to her at all. When I'm doing my homework I have to turn my phone on silent and not answer to it if I get a text because I absolutely cannot pay attention. Of course I take breaks inbetween to check a text or two but then it's back to homework.

Now that I have gotten a new phone and have unlimited texting, my parents have been seeing how much I text lately and they think that I'm getting a little over obsessed with texting. But it's not really that, it's just addicting and sometimes you don't even realize that you could be texting that much. But I know I'm not the only teenager who does it. All of my friends text a lot and it's just something that everyone does. Our parents think it's weird because they never had all of this technology when they were young. They were good little kids always getting their homework done. Well I hate to break it to yah parents, but our lives are changin!

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

SURPRISE

Today was my aunt's 40th birthday and my family and my dad's other sister's family decided to go to Illinois for a surprise birthday party. We arrived in town and waited for the other car to catch up with us. As we were driving to their house, we saw my aunt walking to her house and we quickly stopped, otherwise it would ruin the surprise. She walked inside her house and we jumped at the opportunity to pull into the driveway. We walked inside and yelled, "SURPRISE!" She had absolutely no idea we were coming and she was in sweatpants and sweatshirt. My uncle had some food ready for us to eat and then she opened presents while we watched the Steelers Vikings game on tv.

This reminded me of last year when my parents threw me a surprise party for my 16th birthday and I had absolutely no idea at all. All my friends were there and I thought my mom was going to Elmcrest to look at something really quick on the way to our family pictures. So I was all dressed up thinking that we're going to get pictures taken. But then I saw my friends cars parked in the driveway, and my friend walking outside to my car and I was like what the heck are you doing here?! They had me completely surprised.

I love little surprises even if they are really stupid I still get really worked up over them. And I would love you forever if you ever did surprise me. I'm one of those people who appreciate the little things when someone does them for you. I just recently got out of a relationship and I've realized that you don't need one person to make you happy. There are so many people out there that care about you just as much. I guess this post is supposed to explain that you should appreciate the people around you and the little things that they do for you. My parents were talking to me this weekend as well and they said they will always support me no matter what my decision is. They will always be on my side, and it was cool cause I know they will always be here for me.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Memories

So the other day I went through my entire closet and tried to get rid of clothes that somehow seem to keep accumulating rapidly enough that there is no more room for anything. There were several things that I've bought and never worn (which my mom wasn't to happy about) and a bunch of things that have seen their days. My mom and I cleared out an entire half of the closet, just so we could put new clothes I haven't worn, in.

We got three box loads of clothes that I didn't want anymore. It really was not easy at all because there are several clothes that have memories attached to them. Is that weird? Maybe that's just what girls do because I feel like a bunch of my friends are that way too. But we took these three boxes to Plato's Closet, a store that will pay you for your used clothes and then sell them to other people. We dropped off the boxes and cam back an hour later to find out that they wanted one and a half boxes full of stuff and were going to give me $120 for it! It was so neat because it's like getting use out of your clothes and getting paid to do so. So we took the rest of the clothes back home to give to other little girls who would love them.

There are a lot of things that are really hard for me to get rid of if they have a memory attached to them. My room has a whole bunch of toys and things from when I was little that I would play with over and over again, and I just can't give them up. Like there is this little rechargeable racing car I have that I used to always play with, and I cannot give it up. There are just so many memories in my room, and it will be hard for me to go to college when it's time.

It will also be hard to let go of all the friends I've met in high school and I don't even want to think about having to leave them behind. This year, I'm friends with like all of the seniors so it is going to completely suck when they all have to leave at the end of the year. I was also looking back at pictures from like preschool elementary school years, and realized how simple life was back then. Your mom picked out your outfit (which nobody made fun of), you had snack and nap time, you didn't have enemies, and there was no homework. I miss those days of messing and playing around without anyone caring about what you were doing.
This picture is from preschool with my friend Sarah. My mom took this picture.


That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Saying the Final Goodbye

I just recently found out that my voice lesson teacher's housband (who also teaches students how to sing) has stage 4 cancer or something severe like that. Which means he is probably going to die within the next 6 months, and I don't think any of us involved with that family is ready for that.

My friend who takes lessons from him was at a lesson one night and then came over afterwards, crying. He had found out that Mr. Elliot had cancer and was in the last stage. If you know the Elliot's you know how gracious and kind they are, and how much they affect our vocal program. Losing him would completely devestate the students in school. Last weekend, there was a magic show here at school and all the extra money that we made was supposed to go to the family to help them pay for the treatment. Of course they both still work hard, teaching many students every week, but that's not enough to pay the bills that add up when you have cancer.

It's such a depressing thing if you think about it. First, they find cancer in your body and diagnose you with it, which off the start is bad. Then you would keep trying different medicines and techniques to help you become better, but they don't work. So the cancer becomes worse and you start to get sicker and sicker. Then finally they tell you that you are in the worse stage and that there is not that much longer to live. What would you do? If someone told me that I only had a certain amount of time to live, I would try to experience everything that I have ever wanted to in that amount of time. Spending every last minute with my closest friends and family to get the chance to say goodbye to them. In the movie, "My Sister's Keeper" the little girl with leukemia goes out with her healthy sister and enjoys herself in her last years of life. I totally and completely bawled throughout that entire movie.

I really hope that Mr. Elliot can get better, or at least live his life to the fullest before his time is past, because even though I don't know him all that well, I know his wife and I know what she would be like if she lost him. Only time will tell what will happen. I hope that I can get to say goodbye to him if he does go, and explain to him how much he has helped our showchoir, choir, and the overall personality of some people here.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

This Weekend was Wicked

This weekend I experienced the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. My mom, dad, aunt, uncle, and friend went to see the performance of Wicked in Des Moines.

I've seen the show before (in like 6th grade) but we were too far away to see any facial expressions or costumes. All you could see was oh that person is wearing pink, oh and she's green! So we decided to go again so we could experience the show in full effect.

The story of Wicked explains the whole meaning to the Wizard of Oz. There are a bunch of little jokes about the Wizard of Oz in the musical that most people don't catch the first time, but going a second time, we could catch all of the little details. This time we went, it was the second national tour and there were different actors then before. And the acting was WAY better then before, but the first time the singing was a lot better. It was way easy to pick which one was better then the other because, in my opinion, the way you act out the scene is more important then the quality of the singing. The girl that played the good witch Glinda was absolutely hilarious. She took her character to a whole new level, and that's what makes a good actor. The other girl who played Elphaba (the bad witch) had an amazing singing voice and it made me want to try harder to be a better singer. Seriously i got goosebumps when I heard her sing for the first time. It was amazing. Even the people in the chorus were SOOOO good at singing. The sound they produced was incredible. Okay so I should stop obsessing now, but it was such a good show, and I would tell anyone to go and see it. Even my dad liked it, who usually falls asleep during those types of things.

I was going to buy a sweatshirt that like says the name of the show on the front, but they were $65 and I was not going to waste my money on that, because that's freaking rediculous! But whatever it was still worth going. We also had really good meals this weekend and I feel like I've gained about twenty pounds! The Cheesecake Factory is always a crowd favorite, and this morning we had Cracker Barrel for breakfast and I almost fell over. It was so good. Oh and not to mention the little shop that they have outside of the dining area is really cool. They have like old candies and stuff there that were popular a really long time ago. We got some Fruit Stripes gum that my mom was craving because I guess that was the thing to have when she was little. It's weird how things change like that, and yet we still crave and want them.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

It's finally here

In recent news, everyone has been talking about swine flu and how bad it is going to affect our world. Just a couple weeks ago there were only two known cases of swine flu in Iowa. And now I'm here to tell you, it's at our school.

The first case of swine flu that I knew about was this Monday, when a couple of sophomores in our prep show choir had gotten it. I then found out another guy in our showchoir came down with the sickness and now probably 18 or so people have it. It's rapidly spreading and I predict that at least half of the school will have it by next week. Some of my closest friends now have it, which means that sometime soon I'll probably get it.

But I think it's a good thing that our school is getting it now, before the hard winter starts, before showchoir season, before dance competitions, before any winter school activity has really started. We knew that the flu was coming, we just didn't know when or if we would have any time to protect ourselves from it before it arrived. But now it's here and we're going to have to deal with it.

Supposedly, the symptoms are a sore throat, coughing, a fever, an achey body, and a runny nose. My friends haven't really been throwing up or anything, which is good if everyone here is going to get it. What would be really neat is if they cancelled school because there were so many students and teachers gone for a couple days, and it would just be safer to not go and so people didn't have to make up so much work. There are schools around Kennedy that are now getting the swine flu as well. Hundreds of students are out of school now, imagine what can happen in a matter of days.

There are always going to be sicknesses going around that affect the student body rapidly, and I don't know why everyone is freaking out about the swine flu. It's just like the flu and people can get over it easily. I guess it just scares people that they can die, but any virus can kill you if you leave it long enough. The key is to go to the doctor and get treated before anything major happens.

Can't wait for the swine flu to hit me. Not.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

happy birthday

So, yesterday was my birthday and it was probably not the best one ever. Usually you think of a birthday dinner, presents, etc. But none of that happened......

To start off the day, neither of my parents got up before I left the house for school to say happy birthday, or even good morning for that matter. I was kinda surprised at that because usually that's something they would do. Anyways, I went outside to my car and my windshield was iced over. So i got out my scraper and started scraping away. It's October 13th, I should not have to be scraping ice off my car!

The school day was alright. Nothing really eventful happened just a couple happy birthday's here and there. I went to McDonald's for lunch, I suppose you could call that a "birthday dinner" if you really wanted to. During 6th hour I had a couple of friends come over to hang out before we had to go back to school for the dreaded Spirit Clinic.

We headed back to school at 3:30 and started to set up the gym and foyer for elementary students to come in and dance and cheer. At around 4:30 our first girls arrived and we went down to the gym to play games like simon says, duck duck goose, little sally walker, etc. It was a complete nightmare. I was working with the 2nd and 3rd graders which there were the most of. 51 little girls were running around full with energy. It came to be 5pm and we went upstairs to start teaching these little girls a dance that we had prepared for them. We were rapidly teaching them when one had to go to the bathroom. So a cheerleader took her to the bathroom. But then more and more then realized they also had to go to the bathroom. Eventually all of them needed to go so we took 10 at a time while everyone else learned the dance. I about lost my voice last night because I was counting and yelling so loud. This Spirit Clinic lasted until about 8:30 and included a performance by the dance team. It was just dandy.

Finally when that was concluded, I checked my phone and found out a bunch of my family and friends had called to wish me a happy birthday and I needed to call them all back. But I also had a lot of homework. It was a pretty rough night but I guess as you get older it's not all about the princess birthday parties and the millions of presents people gave you. Sooner or later we all have to realize that the kid in us is partially gone, I'm just not ready to give that up yet.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

oh this weekend..

So Tuesday is my birthday and I'm busy tomorrow and Tuesday night, my parents decided to celebrate tonight. My mom made us a really good homemade dinner and cake with ice cream. Then we opened presents, except I already knew half of them because it's kinda hard for my mom to buy stuff for me.

On Friday night I celebrated my birthday by having some friends stay the night. We had some "major events" happen to us. First, we were playing Ouija board. Now I know that everyone says that game is just a myth and people move it around and stuff, but it can still be really scary if someone says something freaky. Anyways, we were sitting around the board with a candle burning that Dallas had gotten me. We turned down the lights and started chanting a phrase from the song that we're singing in choir just for fun. Then we just started asking the board random questions like how old they were, if it was a girl or boy, what their name was, and then finally how they died. It answered by fire, and we all realized that we were sitting by a burning candle. We completely freaked out and all screamed and made Liz turn on the lights. She did and I felt behind my ear and there was something wet. I looked at my finger and it was covered in blood and Dallas screams YOUR BLEEDING! There was blood running from my ear all the way down under my chin. That did it. Everyone was freaking out and screaming even louder and I ran upstairs to get it off. Liz had to leave then and about 5 minutes later, we got her twitter update saying she just got a bloody nose. And that's why we're never playing Ouija again or ever singing that part in the song in choir ever again.

Our next event was a surprise from some guys we hang out with. I got a phone call saying we should go outside and look at our cars. They had Saran Wrap all around them and shaving cream covered the windows. Just when everyone was trying to clean up their cars, some boys only wearing thongs come out of their car down the street playing the song "What is love." By that time my dad was outside and he told them to leave. But they left some of their stuff in the street so they had to come back and get it. So when they came back, these four boys lets just say their names are Pam, Piston, Pobert, and Pars; they started to come back out of their cars, naked, and playing the same song. This time they came up to the house and they were trying to get up on us haha. It was probably the funniest thing I've ever witnessed. Even though my dad was kinda mad at the time, he got over it because he understands that they're just teenage guys and he used to do the same thing. This weekend was probably the most eventful one in a long time.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Food, Fitness, and Fun

So, yesterday my mom and I went to the US Cellular center to go to Hyvee's Food, Fitness and Fun thing they were putting on. There were a bunch of different stands set up all around with different businesses giving away a bunch of free things. We got a free t-shirt, pencils, pens, drinks, food, magnets, and so much more. It was pretty cool. Then, we went up into the stands and prepared ourselves to watch Shawn Johnson perform or at least do something special.

The time came and she paraded out with a bunch of little kids from local gymnastics centers and my mom and I both looked at each other like...what..the...heck. She got up on stage and these gymnasts who were my age and younger started doing a bunch of flips and tricks over and over again. Shawn Johnson was just standing there watching them and we were expecting her to start doing something but she never did. After about 15-20 minutes of the little kids performing, they brought out a podium for Shawn to talk. She faced away from us, had the whole speech in a book, the surround sound system was really crappy, and she talked way to fast. I really didn't get a lot of the stuff she said because I couldn't understand her. All I got was that people should go out and work out more then sit on the computer or their phones. Then a lady from KCRG went on stage and started asking her a bunch of questions and such. Me and mom left after that.

I'm not trying to put down Shawn at all. Because it was really cool to get to see her and be that close to her; she has won gold medals! I just wish that she would've done something cool or impressive for Cedar Rapids to experience.

But, with all of those stands around that had healthy foods and people promoting a better lifestyle, it made me want to try to watch what I eat and try to be more healthy. I guess because I'm dancing all the time, I have to eat all the time because I'm constantly hungry. But that doesn't mean you have to eat bad foods for a snack. Eating healthy can give you more energy and feel better about yourself.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

It's getting annoying

So there is this girl that goes to our school, let's just call her Betty. She is involved in activities that I'm in as well so I see her a lot, which is very unfortunate.

See this girl is a compulsive liar who strives for attention from others. She makes up stories and lies to tell other people to get them to like her, which I really don't understand at all. Once, she told my friend's mom a made up story just to get her in trouble for doing nothing. This girl is also one of the most lazy people I have ever met. She skips practice all the time because her toe hurts or she doesn't feel good, which doesn't make our team any better.

She also has an anxiety problem, and is very self-conscious of herself. Which, I think, is why she does all these things to make people notice her. It's really annoying, but I know she doesn't mean to do it.

There are several people at our school who have these problems, and I know a couple of them. They aren't the most popular people, because others are sick of their attitude. They aren't the most friendly people, because they want the cool people to like them.

It's just kind of annoying me lately and so I'd thought I'd write about it. Because it happens everyday. But I understand that she isn't meaning to do so.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Family Sam's Club Night!

Today, my mom and I went on an adventure to Sam's Club. As you may know, you can basically buy anything you want to there. They have plasma tv's, toilets, frozen foods, wine, everything. And it all comes in an upgraded huge size. I think it's supposed to be for businesses and big families (which we are not), but we always go there about once a week. We have like a family night at Sam's.

My parents and I are really close. I can talk to them about anything and they're really cool about the stuff I do. I like to spend time with them, is that lame? Of course my dad is one of those who says hi to every person he doesn't know, and he'll say things just to embarrass me, but whose dad doesn't? It would be weird if my dad was cool and we hung out all the time like friends. Um. No thank you. I don't like to admit it, but he really has taught me a lot of things, mostly about being yourself and not caring what people think. My grandpa and him are basically the same exact person. They are kind and considerate of EVERYONE and they don't judge people. I cannot ever think of a time my dad has voiced a bad opinion about someone and was dead serious. I don't know where they learned it from but it's really neat actually. I used to think it was totally embarrassing, but now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, I realize how legit my dad really is.

Don't even get me started about my mom. She would do anything for me. She is involved in so many different organizations and clubs for my activities that aren't necessary. I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that she helps out with all of the food for the showchoir invitational each year. And she volunteers to work and sell tickets at freezing cold football games for the Booster club. Okay so I don't love her just because she helps out. But you get the point.

I'm fortunate to have two parents that love and care for me so much, because I know some people only have one, none, or some that could care less. I love my parents and would be devestated if anything ever happened to them.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Minnesota

This summer, I went to Minnesota with Rachel for a week to go fishing, tubing, and just spend time with her family. It was super fun getting to know all of her relatives and friends. And it was the first time I have ever been fishing, which was an experience itself.

See, at the lake we were at, there are docks that you can go bobber fishing off of in the morning or at night to catch little fish. And we did that most of the time because we're not old enough to take the boat out by ourselves. So we're fishing off the dock at the very end of the resort thing, and Rachel feels a tug on her line and starts reeling it in. We realize that she has a fish, but not just a little fish, its kind of a medium size. Neither of us know how to take the fish off the hook, well maybe we do but it's really disgusting and gross so we don't really want to do it. Rachel is freaking out because the fish swallowed the hook and there is absolutely nobody around because it's late at night. So I ran all the way up to our cabin and got Rachel's parents to come down while she is down at the dock with a fish on her line that is flopping all over the place. They finally arrive and take the fish off the hook and, it was dead. We didn't really know what else to do so we just threw it back into the water to see if it would swim, but, it didn't.Later that night I caught a fish about the same size as Rachel's was. It was the first one that I've ever caught! A couple days later, her dad took us out in the boat to go fishing and I got a bite on my line. I started reeling it in, but it was really heavy and then I saw a really big fish on my hook. I was freaking out because I've never caught a fish on a boat before so I did not know what I was doing. I tried to pull the fish up out of the water, but I didn't keep the tip of the rod up so the fish got loose and we never saw it again. I was really disappointed because I wanted to catch that fish! But oh well.

I guess what I'm trying to say in this blog is, know what your doing before you start it because it could turn out bad for you.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Um...Is It Winter?

Today, the forecast was rain and a high of 50 degrees, which means pants and sweatshirts. And there are those occasional few people who think it's still summer and wear shorts and a t-shirt. Where did the summer go? It seems like there was not so many hot days during the 3 months of break, but more of just warm weather. Now it's starting to get cooler faster?

It's October 2nd and it feels like it's December! Maybe it's just because one day it was really warm and then suddenly became cold but who knows. All I know is that it's the in-between weather that's hitting everyone. No doubt about it, fall is probably my favorite season. The leaves are falling off the trees and the landscape of what used to be green grass, is now orange, red, and brown.

When I was little, in art class we would pick up leaves from the ground outside and trace it onto a piece of paper and then color the designs of the leaf on the paper. These memories were during the fall when the weather was nice ten years ago at this time. But now it's all rainy and cold outside and I'm wondering if other little kids can get to experience some of the same things that our generation did.

I love sweatpants and blanket weather, which is what it feels like now, but usually it happens in the winter! I should probably not be complaining right now because this is my favorite time of year, but it's just so dang cold. I'm sitting here and my toes are about to fall off.

Global warming is kicking in to our society, changing the temperature everywhere. The icebergs are melting at the top of the globe and the affect is rubbing off on everyone else. Soon the changes will be more noticeable here and hurt us in different ways. Of course it wont be until thousands maybe millions of years later, but people should take action now to help protect our planet. It's just getting so dang cold so quick!

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.