I'm back!

Hello readers! Yes, it's true; I'm back! Hopefully I won't neglect you all as shamefully as I was before. :) School is pretty busy, but with only 44 days left until summer, life seems pretty good right now. Spring break was a few weeks ago, and we went to Charleston for a 4-day vacation. It was lots of fun, especially jumping in the ocean and finding an amazing pizza place called La Pizzeria. How very original. :) My sixteenth birthday also happened during my blogging hiatus. My older siblings were able to come down for a few days which meant so much! So that's a brief synopsis of the last four months of my life; how about you all?

P.S. I hope to get back to (semi) regular posting soon, so check back in the next few days. Oh, and if you're reading this, will you please leave me a comment? I like to know who's here. :)

Indiana vacation

My mom and I spent three lovely days with my older sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. Jen recently got a compression fracture in her back from a whale-watch [look out for those zodiacs! :)], so we thought we'd go up and spend some time with her. We met at a beautiful lavender farm to pick lavender to make wands, an oh-so-fun and easy project. We also enjoyed watching the 4th of July fireworks in downtown Indianapolis and eating scrumptious barbecue wings. :) Yesterday we spent the morning shopping, visiting multiple yarn stores, Penzeys Spices, and the ever-popular Trader Joe's, which sadly we don't have here and are therefore required to stock up on their products whenever we frequent a TJ's store. They do have the most delicious chocolate mints. :) Mom and I also got to see Jen's Outdoor Learning Center, a cabin from the 1800's. So much fun!

Massachussets trip!

On Tuesday, I got home from having spent five days with my older brother and sister in MA. It was such a wonderful time! Their dog Selchie had eight puppies in mid-February, four girls and four boys. Last July, they had invited me out to stay for a few days, and thanks to Frequent Flyer Miles, I made it out there. :) Most puppies are cute, but I think Irish Water Spaniels are among the cutest. With curly dark hair all over and the sweetest eyes ever, these puppies were probably the most adorable I've ever seen. On this trip, I.....

• got to spend awesome time with my older siblings
• cuddled the puppies!!
• experienced the frenzy of feeding eight small puppies
• cleaned up more poop than you would think eight pups can produce
• flew about 1000 miles by myself
• saw the pups on their second trip outside; they absolutely love the outdoors!
• did crafty stuff, such as making zipper pulls and putting together binders for the new puppy owners
• went to Flatbreads, the BEST pizza place in the entire world
• throughly enjoyed myself: Jer and Kim, thanks for such an awesome time!!!!!

Since I didn't take the camera with me, I have no pictures to show you, but if you click this link, you can see plenty of puppy pictures!

Nashville

On Tuesday, my family and I were able to go to Nashville to see my older sister and my nephew. We had quite a wonderful time visiting Trader Joe's, the Parthenon, and Noshville, a delicious restaurant. We also got to hear the band Barefoot Truth; they were quite good!

My brother, historical guru that he is, informed me that the steps of the Parthenon are purposefully designed to be a bit of a stretch for the average person so that one bows as they go up the step. Who knew?

No school!

Due to H1N1 (and others), Berean Christian School has closed for the week! While I am sorry for those that are sick, I am so glad to have 4 days of freedom. :) I do have some work and a project due on Sudan that I will have to work on by myself as my partner has swine flu. Oh well. It's going to be a good week......

Vacation pictures!

For those of you who didn't know, my family and I went on a trip to the Northeast, specifically Maine. We returned Thursday after a wonderful time with family. Some friends asked me to post pictures, so here goes! Here's a narrative of events first:

On Wednesday, we arrived in Portland and explored some lighthouses. We also went to an excellent restaurant, Espo's Trattoria. The food was great, the portions, HUGE! Thursday we saw my grandparents in Freeport and shared a meal. We also visited the famous L.L. Bean, which is incredibly impressive! :) On Friday, when the rain poured buckets, we drove to Beals Island, where we met my brother and sister-in-law. We spent three wonderful days with them! Saturday the six of us went to Jasper Beach. It's named Jasper Beach because of the rocks filled with jasper that make up the amazing stone beach. The weather was great! Sunny and cool, with a breeze. After spending most of the day there, we just managed to beat the fog back to Beals Island. Unfortunately, the fog stayed over the island for the remainder of our trip. That night, we did something neither Ev nor I had ever done before; we cooked lobsters. Dad and Kim were the only people who ate them, but to my credit, I did try some. Personally, I thought it was chewy and tasted kind of strange. Like my mom said, it's like eating rubber bands. But to each his own! Sunday we hiked 2 1/2 miles to a beach, but the fog lay over everything, so we just smelled the ocean smells and and stuck our hands in the cold water. We saw a whale's head, or what was left of it. Jer, Kim, Ev, and I went out later and threw bumpers for Jer and Kim's dogs. It was so much fun!! The dogs were usually right on target, so it was very fun to watch! Oh, and early the next morning, at about 4:30 am or 5:00 am, the lobster men went out and then the Coast Guard tested all their very loud equipment. I think fewer people slept well that night. Monday we parted ways with Jer and Kim and then drove down to Bar Harbor, the home of Acadia National Park. But the fog was settled over Acadia too, so we drove back to Freeport. Tuesday we explored Freeport, but Wednesday Dad, Ev, and I went skeet-shooting. My only comment: it's a little harder then it looks, and I'm not going to do it again. My shoulder is still recovering. Thursday was just flying home, which sounds easy, but wasn't. We were delayed about an hour and a half out of Portland, and the Atlanta airport was backed up due to heavy thunderstorms earlier in the day. We finally made it home at 8:00pm. Our checked bags, however, didn't make it to our house until Friday morning. Happily they are now in our possession! Vacation was great! I hope you enjoy the pictures! (I'm sorry, but they're not in chronological order.)

Ev skeet-shooting.

Me, also skeet-shooting.

Two boats coming in after a day at sea....

Portland Head Light: beautiful!

Dad and me, starting our hike back from the beach...in the fog!

Mom sitting on a rock at the beach.

The whale's head.

Dad and Kim...and the lobsters!

Jer putting the lobsters in the pot.

Ev holding a lobster.

Jasper Beach: gorgeous!

Ev and Jer examining some rocks.

Family picture!

Back to school

Tomorrow it's back to school. I just counted the days, and since I believe school lets out for summer on May 22, there are just about 44 days of school left. So six weeks and two days, roughly; but of course, there are weekends which I didn't count, so it's actually more time than that. Did any of what I just said make sense? Probably not. Never mind.

I had a wonderful spring break. I got to bake, sew, go shopping, play with friends, and hang out with no school to worry about! Yesterday's softball practice went like a dream; I have a good team this year, I think, as well as the best of coaches. First game is on Saturday, and someone has to win the game, so it might as well be our team!

Today's weather has been gorgeous; I took Bono for a walk-which he loved-, and now I think I'll go read in the shade......

A Few Disappointments.... Oh well, I'll be just as busy!

Well, it looks like my "jam-packed" week isn't going to be so jam-packed. I probably won't get to go riding, and I'm not babysitting. Sigh. Oh well. I get to clean tomorrow. Yippee. But, then some friends are coming over, so that will be awesome fun. And then I get to go visit another friend, later in the week. First softball practice is coming up over the weekend too; I can not wait!!! I've got my favorite coaches EVER! They make so much sense, and practices are always so much fun. Yay! Oh, today was my shopping day with Mom. We had a lot of fun; got new clothes, found fun stuff, and I bought a donut tin so I can make donuts tomorrow morning for breakfast! So that was a lot of fun. I'm going to sleep well tonight, but for now, I'm going to go organize my drawers and watch a Christy with Mom!

The First Official Day of Spring Break!

Today, Monday, March 16, 2009, begins Spring Break! I'm really happy to have a whole week of freedom. But of course, it's jam-packed with activities. The most exciting ones will be shopping with Mom, getting together with a friend, babysitting, horseback riding, a little dog training ; everything I guess! I also want to do some baking, especially cookies. Oh, I also have a buyer for Kaya, the American Girl doll I am selling. Yippee! I'm going to try to arrange a meeting today, tomorrow at the latest. This morning I baked a coffee cake, but I don't know how it turned out, since I think I forgot to put the butter in. Oops. Maybe I'd better go test it.......