Totally Addicted

So these social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. are JUST for hooking up with old and new friends right? Wrong. Now there are all of these applications and games for people to start playing with their friends in their free time rather then spending their time elsewhere. I am totally hooked on this game called Cafe World on Facebook. You build up your own cafe and buy stoves, tables, serving tables, and decorations to make customers come to your place to buy food. It gives you a cook book of items to bake and how much time the item will take. This can range from 3 minutes to 5 days. You buy the food that you want to cook and then wait for the amount of time it gives you then go back and get the food to serve it to get more money to expand your cafe. This all seems kind of confusing but I assure you, once you get started, it is so hard to stop. I really wish that I would have never even started playing that game because now when I get home I worry about if I need to get on the computer and take my food off of the stove or if the food is spoiled. But I don't want to quit is the thing. Because it is kind of entertaining. But I really should stop. I told myself that I was going to stop but that totally failed and I started playing again. A lot of my friends play it too which probably makes it even harder to quit because everyone will be talking about it and it just makes you want to play it too.
Oh wow. How lame do I sound right now? But it's completely true. I'm so addicted to this game. I'll sit here on the computer when I should be upstairs doing my homework or helping my mom with things around the house. These new technology things are interfering with kid's work. Like cell phones totally distract me when I'm trying to do my homework. And computers definitely do too. If your getting on the computer to do your homework, usually you can't resist the urge to get on Facebook and check to see if you have a new notification. But really it isn't that important. We all just need to focus more! But it is not that easy.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Christmas tree!

It's that time of year when everyone seems happy and filled with joy. People are out shopping for their families presents. Everyone's houses smell of cookies. Families gather together and decorations are put out. It's definitely Christmas time.
Our family loves to decorate around the house with new decorations and old decorations. Of course we always have a Christmas tree. What's Christmas without one? We also have random decorations here and there. Our stockings are hung above the fireplace. There are candles and angels put out on tables that only get put out once every year. Although things are put away all year and we only take them out every once in a while, its still fun to see everything because personally, I forget about a lot of things that we have stored in our basement. We have box after box after box filled with decorations, half of which we do not even use. But they are still there because we can't get rid of them. Like I said in an earlier blog. It's really hard for me to get rid of things that I've had for a long time. I guess I get that trait from my family because they are the exact same way. Actually it might just be from my dad. He likes to collect computers. I mean really out of all the things in the world you choose a big thing? Anyways, we have probably 15-20 computers in our house, but only four actually work. 5 are all the same kind, they don't work, and the others are just, old. But anyways, we have all of these decorations sitting around in our basement for each holiday. Now I don't mean crazy decorations like you see when you drive on Old Marion Rd. and there is that one house with the blow up decorations in their front yard. I just mean little things to make the house look different. Well anyway, today we put up our Christmas tree. We got out the 5 boxes of ornaments that we have and started putting them onto the tree. My parents still have a lot of ornaments from when they were little but my mom has this one egg that her grandmother gave her when she was little and she is crazy about how it is taken care of. It's a real egg shell, she says, and its very fragile. She already told me that I better take care of it when she dies and I have to take care of her things. Of course I have a lot of ornaments that I received as gifts when I was little. We have the entire set that says My first Christmas, My second Christmas, etc. We didn't really put any of those up this year because they don't mean as much as some of the other ornaments that we have. We also have a lot of "ornaments" that I made when I was little. They are little cheap things that I made at church or school that my mom has kept because I would've gotten mad at her for getting rid of them before. But most of those we didn't put up either because they're pretty tacky. We put up a lot of the ones that are super meaningful to our family because we have so many. Putting up this Christmas tree and picking out which ornaments to put on probably took forever this year because we have acquired so many random ones that we don't even know where they are from. We found this cow and we do not know where it came from or what it is for or why anyone would even want a cow on our Christmas tree? But we're getting rid of that haha.
The end result is always the best after this long process. You step back and take a glance at the beautiful tree you just put together with all of your memories bound into one spot. If you look at a certain ornament, you can remember the experience you had with it. It's pretty cool actually.

That Red Bucket

You know those people who stand outside of stores like Wal Mart, Target, HyVee, and other big stores that have that red bucket with the salvation army sticker on the side of it. Sometimes the people sing carols to make others put a little change into the bucket. Sometimes people wear costumes or ring a bell. And every little bit of money counts. Well two or three years ago my friend and I went to Lowe's and rang the bell for about 4 hours in the blistering cold trying to do something good for the community. Needless to say our toes and fingers and noses were completely frozen, but it was for a good cause. This year on Saturday another friend of mine and I are going to Wal Mart and ringing the bell. But this time only for an hour because it is going to be a lot colder this year. Maybe we'll sing some carols to attract people and get some money. Or maybe we'll just stand there next to each other, ring a little bell, and wait. And wait. And wait. Not many people give to the Salvation Army anymore and so most of the time that you stand there ringing the bell, you wait for people to put in some money, but it might take awhile.

I guess I can't really talk. Most of the time when I see a Salvation Army bucket, I don't really put any money into it. I just walk by ashamed that I don't have enough change with me to even make a difference, or it's too cold so I don't want to stop. But what is a couple of seconds to help someone in need going to do to you? Think about the people standing outside in the cold ringing that bell. They're giving their time to do something special. So you can probably give twentyfive cents out of your pocket for someone that needs it.

So the next time you see that red bucket and those people standing out in the blistering cold, think to yourself, "can I give just a couple of coins to make someone else's day?" If yes, then great! If no, then thats fine too. But just think about it.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Glee

What makes us want to watch the same TV show over and over again each week? Everyone has their favorite shows that they're hooked on and anticipate all week long.
For weeks and weeks now I have heard people talking about this new TV show called Glee. And I had never really thought it was that interesting or would even be worth my while so I didn't watch it nor want anything to do with it. But one night I was doing my friend's hair for a dance competition and we started watching it. Ever since then I've been addicted to it. Except there were only two more episodes left in the season once I started watching it. I don't even know what is so great about it? Maybe its the drama that makes you think about your own school situations. Maybe its the love and romance throughout that makes you wish you had someone of your own. Or perhaps its the amazing singing every single week that totally blows your mind away. Yes its definitely a combination of all of those things. But especially the last thing.

Who doesn't like to watch and listen to some amazing singers performing some of the greatest songs ever made? It makes you want to sing along with them and wish you were that good so you could be on TV too.

Our school's showchoir is really good. And we aspire to be the best that we can be. We don't look for first place prizes. We strive to perform our best show ever and make the audience happy. That's why we're called Happiness. We want to excite the crowd and make them love us.

We don't necessarily look up to groups like the ones in Glee, because they involve a lot of drama, but we do want to be the best we can be and that's what they do too. Our group can't wait to get up onto the stage and start doing our best and pleasing the crowd. We're working our hardest to perfect our show but most of all we just want to have fun.

So maybe we're watching Glee because it reminds us of our own showchoir and how we want to be just as good as they are, but maybe even better. Maybe it's something that is a persons dream so they watch to try and achieve that goal. Or maybe we just all need a break from life every once and awhile so we sit down in front of the TV and watch.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

NEW WEBCAM

So this year for Christmas, my dad decided it would be a good idea to get our entire side of his family, webcams so that we can all chat with each other. It's kind of a weird concept when you could just pick up a phone and have the same conversation with the person without actually looking at them, but I guess it's more fun that way. So I was messing around with the one that we got the other day and figured out there are a bunch of different settings that can make your face messed up. My friends and I were playing around and got some big laughs out of it.

There is also this new thing called Skype. It's like a calling messaging thing on the computer that lets you video chat with your friends and family. It's actually really cool. My friend Mack T and I video chatted each other for 2 hours the other night and, surprisingly, it was so much fun. We just talked about random things and then put on some music and started dancing. Now we are both totally obsessed with our webcams and use them all the time. Last night in fact we were at a friends house and she has a webcam on her computer so we snuck up onto her computer and took some pictures on it!
For this picture we used an effect called pinch and it like pinches in the middle of the screen and it makes it look like we're kissing each other haha.

The world of technology is advancing faster and faster each day. Soon cars are going to be able to drive themselves and we're going to have robots doing everything for us. It's cool but kinda scary at the same time. We've lived the same way for so many years and with new inventions coming out, people are becoming lazier and lazier which leads to health problems and loneliness. Times are definitely changing quickly! New technology makes things fun and everyone wants the latest gadgets. But people should really enjoy what they have now. What happens when the thing you start using becomes a problem or breaks fast because they haven't had time to really see how long it will last.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Snow Days!

A perfect way to start off December is with a foot of snow and a couple of snow days. It just kinda sucks that we have to make them up in June. And I'm anticipating that we are going to get a lot of snow this year, which means a shorter summer! But on days like today when there is no school, we get to sleep in and be lazy all day, I love watching a bunch of movies and eating junk food. I just flip through HBO and see what looks good and watch that movie and when its over I flip through again and see what else can be on. Then when there is nothing good left on TV its time to flip through the old movies in the cupboard and pick out one to watch. Right now I'm watching Enchanted. It is probably my favorite movie ever. It has really cute songs and April Adams does a really good job in this movie of acting just like a princess.

Tonight my mom and I are going to make Christmas cookies for the annual Cocoa and Carols this Saturday. It's where all of our school's showchoirs host a concert for the middle school and elementary school showchoirs so they can experience what it is like to be on stage. We also teach them our version of Roudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

I absolutely love Christmas time with all of the food, decorations, and joy. Everyone always seems to be in a good mood when it comes to a holiday season. I love spending time with my family too. We put up decorations together, watch movies, play games and just have a good time together. OH I almost forgot to mention all the Christmas songs. I love to sing along and listen to them in the car. Christmas cookies are also the best thing ever. My mom makes the best ones ever and she's going to pass the recipes onto me so that I can make them for my kids when I get older. That's kinda how our family works with recipes. My grandma passed them onto my mom and her siblings and then so on. All of the food we have is so good I could probably go on forever about it.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

HyVee Chinese PLEASE

So I've finally realized that I'm totally obsessed with HyVee Chinese food. I always crave it and I really don't know why. Actually its just any Chinese food there is, it doesn't even have to be from HyVee.
Although I do perfer HyVee over anything else because you can get a lot of different kinds there especially if you order the buffet. Except I always end up getting the same kind. I really have no idea why I crave Chinese food or why I'm blogging about it. Probably because I really want to go to HyVee right now and get some because I've been craving it all day long. Why do people have cravings for certain foods? Some days I really really want chocolate. Others it'll be McDonald's. Some days its shrimp. Does it have to do something with your taste buds? I really do not know and I might go look that up on Google when I'm done writing this blog but if anyone would love to tell me that'd be great too!:)

(By the way this picture is from HyVee's website)

I don't even know how my friends and I started going to HyVee Chinese or why the thought occurred to us that it would be good, we just ended up going there one day and I'm really glad that we did because it's so good! But my family and I also like to go to this place called Ting's Red Lantern. It is also very good and cheap and you get a lot of food for your money! The lady waitress there even knows our order by memory because we go there so often! She always repeats to us what we want and we're like yep how do you even remember that?! But it's always super good I would definately recommend that to anyone who loves good Chinese! I've gotten a lot of people hooked on that place because I've told them to go there and they end up loving it!

Now that I've been sitting here talking about all the foods that I crave, I really want all of them and I just need to go to bed before my mouth starts watering.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Dance Team!

This weekend dance team traveled to Des Moines to compete in the Iowa State Dance Championships. We worked really hard this year to try to be the best we can be. Our rivals are always Linn Mar and they are sooooo good. But I don't think its about how we placed, I think it's how well we performed and both our pom and jazz dances were the best that we have ever done them. When you get up on the stage and start to perform, the feeling is great. You don't realize what around you and you just dance your heart out. Two weekends ago the dance team competed at Prairie.
Cathy Thompson took this picture of us two weekends ago after we won with our pom dance and placed second with our jazz dance. This weekend we placed 2nd in our pom and 4th in our jazz which is really good! We got to stay in hotel rooms and party all night which was probably the most fun part because it gives us time to bond with the other girls on dance team. This week we are learning our Christmas Kick routine which is a fundraiser where people guess how many kicks there is in the dance and pay money for a guess. We perform it at the boys basketball game on Friday. It's pretty fun.

I love all of the girls on dance team and we're pretty much like sisters because we spend so much time together. Sure we're all girls and can get really mean and at each others throats sometimes but at the end of the day everyone puts aside their differences and dances it out. We're going to Nationals in February and it's the first time the dance team has ever gone so we're pretty excited to go and compete and have fun. Some girls have never been to Disney World and so it will be cool to see their faces when they first go in. Just being in Disney World with all of those girls will be the experience of a lifetime. We're trying to work really hard so we can do really good but that's not really the point of the whole thing. Its just an experience that we will never forget!

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.

Obsessed Much?

It may sound kinda lame, but me and my friends always sit on the computer and find hilarious videos on youtube. We'll find one and then watch it 5 times and find the funniest things within it and laugh for hours. I really don't even know how we find the things we find. Sometimes we just type in a random topic and see what comes up and then find out if it's funny. We get entertained really easily, and that might not be a bad thing. Sometimes it's nice to just sit back on the couch and watch other people laugh and make a fool out of themselves for your pleasure.

There are a couple videos that have cats in them that are probably our favorites.


This one is about cats flushing toilets and I don't really know why but it got us on the floor pretty much crying. You can judge it for yourself.


This is another video about a cat but I really don't know why it's so funny either. It's just a song that a cat is supposedly singing.

Because we are obsessed with these cat videos, my friend got me cat earrings for my birthday and I love them! They are kinda weird but they still look tight and everyone likes them.

There is another series of videos that we found one day as well. I don't know why people even made these in the first place, but of course i've asked that about a lot of videos on youtube. Here's a couple of them:



Like I said I really don't know why we are obsessed with laughing until we cry, and I don't know why these videos do that. Maybe it's because everyone is always so focused on school, work, or our lives that they don't have any time to enjoy themselves and have a good laugh. Everyone needs to forget about things sometimes and just let their inner laughing box out. We all have a funny side, it's just that some people's are harder to find. My friends and I, well we are always ready for a good laugh.

That's all for now my fellow bloggers.