January 31, 2012

Today is my last day of being 17!!!!!!!  Exciting stuff!!!!  If I had to choose one picture to capture my 17-ness it would NOT be this one cause I look like I'm ten hahaha...but, my camera's been having trouble not being blurry during self-timer pictures and this was the only one that turned out so OH WELL!  Only about two more hours left!!  Let's count down together :)  I'll probably be awake cause I didn't finish my homework before dance, and by homework I mean the two tests I have to study for...boo.  So what did I do today?  Well, here's a mysterious picture that I'm not going to explain what it's about until next Tuesday:

Anyway, I did poorly on a test in math today and that's pretty much the only exciting thing that happened in school!  Then I came home and did my psych study guide and we ate dinner and then I helped Kelley edit her essay which is pretty hard to do through Facebook....then I went to dance and when I came home, Justin was here face timing Kelley!!! Yay!!  Now I'm going to go jump in the shower so that I can straighten my hair tomorrow for my special day!!! Yippee!!!!
P.S. ten bucks if you can find the cute little fluffer owlie in this picture :)  He's watching you :)

January 30, 2012

I helped time at the boys' swim meet today!  And they won!!  Hoorah!  This is a picture of the white board creation by me and Meghan :)  Basically, I wanted to time lane 4 so I wrote my name and then she threw a fit :) so I said I would time lane 5 so I wrote my name again but since the pool doesn't have any erasers, we just wrote her name next to mine and she wanted me to add "hahaha" because she's weird...then, she found out that our team was swimming in lane 5 so we had to repeat the process over again haha :)  (that story didn't really make any sense...)  And then I took a picture :)
Today was fine except I have a test tomorrow and then two of my teachers decided to give a test on Wednesday, which, for those who don't know, is the day of my birth!!!  I'm sad :(  It's also a late start on Wednesday which is another reason why we shouldn't have any tests!!!  Here's an awesome text I sent Katie when I tried to explain this scenario to her while walking :)  It probably doesn't make any sense but props to you if you can interpret it :) :

Katie was absolutely unfazed by my incoherency in her response haha :)  My favorite part is probably "having a tea in psych" and "mr sock" hahaha :)  I crack myself up :) Tomorrow's my last day of being 17!!!

January 29, 2012

Yes, I do indeed have a strange family :)  Yesterday, Mom was vacuuming a moose and today Dad was carrying a laundry basket full of Beanie Babies hahaha :)  I once again did nothing today except homework and read.  I also worked on a scholarship that I've been putting off for forever!  Hoorah!  Now I only have the essay left to write!  I also finished Brave New World which was really strange and I feel like it wasn't very much of a story...but now I've started Jane Eyre!  Woo!  I've been excited to read this since I saw the play last year and since a lot of people told me the book was really good!  So far I like it!  Yay!  Next on the list of  "Books I Own That I Should Probably Read Before I Take The AP Test" (we'll call it BIOTISPRBITTAPT for short :)) is either 1984 or The Color Purple, I haven't decided yet...
So the reason Dad is carrying a laundry basket full of Beanie Babies is that they moved a cabinet downstairs yesterday and the contents of that cabinet consisted of Beanie Babies and other paraphernalia and Dad was in the midst of bringing the stuff downstairs when I asked if I could take a picture!  :)  I also did my laundry today!  Yay!  And pondered over the mystery of why my feet are always cold...hmmm...Anyway, school's tomorrow.  I'm helping time the boys' swim meet once again!

January 28, 2012

I did absolutely nothing today!  Haha :)  I slept until 8ish and then I woke up because I was super anxious about the papers I have to write currently in my life.  Ughh :(  Since we started the dream unit in psych, I've been remembering my dreams but I didn't last night which makes me sad :( boo.  Anyway, when I woke up, Mom was already in the process of cleaning her old room so that she could paint it!!  I caught her in the act of vacuuming her moose and decided to take a picture, hence the above picture :)  Then I spent the rest of my day trying to find freaking articles that would fit my Atlas Shrugged paper and reading Brave New World and A Tale of Two Cities.  At some point I took a brief nap and then I finished my paper!! Woo!  It's such a relief to have one of them done already even though it's a piece...OH WELL!  After I finished my paper, I did some psychology homework and that was pretty much my whole day!  I don't have a life :(  Mom made chilli for dinner and it was super delicious!  I guess that's all!

January 27, 2012

I'm going to try to explain what's happening here by telling the story how it happened to me so it might be a little confusing hahaha :)  I'll start by saying Korinne was determined to be in my POD today which is ultimately how this happened :)  So, it was the beginning of gym today and I was sad because Collin and Carlee both mysteriously disappeared even though I had seen them an hour before at lunch.  I was about to pick up my packet when I heard Collin say my name and I turned around to see him hold out a pass with a note on it that he wanted me to read.  The gist of the note was something along the lines of "Lisa's excused from class to come with to the nurse" or something like that, signed by the nurse.  I was really confused but Collin led me out to our gym teacher to hand him the note.  Our teacher smiled a little like it was a joke and then asked who wrote it cause it was a very odd note hahaha.  We said it was from the nurse so he let us go, still confused, but I really don't think he cared anyway hahaha :)  This gym teacher = approved by me :)  Anyway, as we were walking away, Collin was like, "Do you have your camera?!"  And I told him I would get it.  So I did cause he said he had a POD for me :).  On our way to the nurse I was trying to guess what could possibly be in the nurse's office and those guesses consisted of something disgusting and a BABY!  But sadly (for the baby part) neither of these were correct hahaha :)  Instead, when we walked in, I saw Katie sitting in the chair with someone trying to get a brush out of her hair with a pen hahaha.  Her hair was literally a nest.  Here's a closer picture (if you click on it, it gets bigger) :

So apparently what happened was that Collin was brushing Katie's hair in choir and decided he wanted to curl it haha, so he curled her hair around the brush all the way to the top of her head and then tired to pull it down buttttt, surprise, surprise, it didn't come out hahaha.  Their best solution to this problem was to go to the nurse and then they called in a lady who was a hairstylist who said it would take her TWO HOURS to take it out!!!! HOLY!  AND THEN!, apparently they were all like "Lisa should be here so she can take a picture for her blog!" and the nurse was all, "OKAY!" and wrote down the aforementioned note :))  When I went to take the picture, someone suggested Collin should hold the brush but then someone screamed NO! haha so the lady who was trying to get it out ducked and held it which is why there's an extra hand if you look close enough :)  Korinne was happy to be in my POD and Carlee said, "Why am I always in the pictures involving hair?!" :)  After this, we were sent back to our classes after Collin went back to choir for his backpack only to remember it was in the nurse's office so by the time we got back to gym, there was no reason to do anything so I did 10 pull-ups then stood around haha  When we got back, our gym teacher was confused at how Carlee got involved but I don't think anyone bothered to tell him haha :)  And Katie made it back in time for econ, brushless!  Hoorah!!
Today we had shortened periods because we had a pep assembly for winter formal so that's how I ended my day!  It was a great Friday in my opinion :) I love my friends! :)

January 26, 2012

So last week-ish Mr. Wooderson assigned three papers that we will have to write in the near future for Atlas Shrugged.  The point is to connect each section of the book with things happening in recent times by picking out three news articles that relate to Atlas Shrugged for each section of the book.  Today, he said he highlighted sections of the Wall Street Journal and we could take a chunk if we wanted to...so I did.  Luckily, the chunk I took has about five highlighted sections so hopefully I'll have good ones to choose from!!!  So here is a picture of me reading from the Wall Street Journal, something I never fancied myself doing.  (Side note: I'm not actually reading it!)
Thursdays are my day off so I didn't do anything today!  I did the small amount of homework I had and then I started reading Brave New World.  Earlier this week, Mrs. Van gave us a list of all the books that have appeared on lists for AP prompts and I realized that I owned many of those books and that I should probably start reading them so that I'm better prepared for the AP test!  So I started with Brave New World which is somewhat creepy so far...
Tomorrow's Friday, woo!

January 25, 2012

I'm going to be completely honest, I took this picture yesterday :)  But I thought it needed its own day and didn't deserve to be a smaller picture on yesterday's blog hahaha.  So yesterday, we were in the locker room and a girl pulled her backpack out of an unused locker that she was keeping it in and this GIGANTIC hairball came out with it hahaha.  This picture does not do it justice!  It was seriously the size of a baseball!!!  I said I wanted to take a picture of it and Carlee wanted to be in it so here is the product of that!  Afterwards, someone knocked it on the ground and swept it under the bench haha :)
Anyway, today was a late start so I got to sleep in an extra hour!  Hoorah!  Then we did the usual during school and nothing interesting really happened.  The econ test I decided not to study for ended up becoming a take home test since it was a shortened period hahaha; good call by Lisa for not studying :)  Then there was a NHS meeting after school and we had pizza and talked and then I went home to head off to tumbling!  They worked on floor the whole time so I spent the time on tramp until my feet started getting sore then I moved to double mini for the last 15 minutes!  Yay!  Now I'm going to finish my econ test and read a chapter in A Tale of Two Cities!

January 24, 2012

Grr I just erased this whole blog post so I will have to write it again :(  Here goes:
Unfortunately, Arzu could not be in my POD today but we will have one before the year is over!!  Today was a completely normal day except that I was suuupppper busy after school!  Luckily none of my teachers assigned any homework except for we have a stupid econ test tomorrow...First, Mom and I both had dentist appointments at 4:15 which was a total joy (not) and we got home at 5:30ish.  Then, I quickly finished the book I was reading and we headed to the board meeting which started at 7!  A couple weeks ago, I got a letter saying that I was going to be recognized at a board meeting for being an Illinois State Scholar and for scoring a 30 or higher on the ACT!  The best part of the night was when the lady was talking about the ACT and how it stood for American College Test and at the exact same time in the exact same tone, Dad and I both said "That's what that stands for!!" hahaha We're funny :)  So this is a picture of Sarah, Cari, and me after we have been awarded!  We were in a small crevice so, like I said, Arzu couldn't be part of the picture :(  Here is a picture of everybody who was an Illinois State Scholar (Dad's finger got in the way):

There were also a lot of other people there because the eighth grade basketball team was being recognized and so were the people who were in In and Out of the Garbage Pail (so basically almost everybody I keep company with was there tonight!)  We had to leave the board meeting early so that I could make it to dance which started at 8!  Now I'm home and deciding NOT to study for econ! hahaha oh well!  Late start tomorrow! Woo!

January 23, 2012

Today I woke up 30 minutes later than I was supposed to :( boo.  It's strange because normally I always wake up the best on Mondays since I had a nice, restful weekend.  It's also kind of ironic cause I just read this weekend in psych about sleep and how we need more hahaha oops :)  I had to rush around this morning to get ready but I made it to school on time.  Our driveway was supppper icy and my car was out of control but I managed :)  Also, it was 40 degrees this morning?!?!  Excuse me?!?!!  It's January 23rd...not okay.  Speaking of psych, we used the whole day to talk about strange things that happen to us when we sleep hahaha.  It was super fun and interesting and a nice waste of a class :)  Also, since I get written on in permanent marker for tumbling, my number was still on my hand and somebody thought it said "lose" hahaha so here is the number 3501 upside down, spelling out "lose" :)

So that's all that happened today...


Just kitting :)  I came home from school with a letter from the Office of Admissions at the University of Iowa and I started getting really nervous because I couldn't think of any other reason they would have written me other than if it was about the scholarship!  But I wasn't supposed to hear about the scholarship until early February.  I opened it and it said that I got the Old Gold Scholarship!!!  YAYY!!!  It's $3,000 a year up to four years (total of $12,000!) and 350 people were selected, BUT, out of those 350, 20 people get the Presidential Scholarship which is an extra $10,000 a year up to four years (total of $52,000 with them combined!!!) and those people will find out in March!  I'm happy to get just the first scholarship but the second one would make my life :) 
So the POD today is me praising the wondrous letter I got today!  I also like the nice light that is shining down on it, making it glow :)  Overall, today was great :)

January 22, 2012

I had my first tumbling meet of the year today!!  HOORAH!  Now since it's just me competing, we didn't have to be there all day and instead we left home at 1:45 and got back at 8:30!!  It was crazy to actually have a life before we set out!  I got third on tramp which I was happy about since I only did my pass about three times so far this year hahaha :)  I think there were five or six of us total competing so I'm happy with what I got.  Also, the tramp was super bouncy because the gym hosting the meet decided to use new equipment :(  Lani and I were both shaking once we got off of it which is not okay.  I got sixth out of seven on double mini because I stopped after my spotter back :(  Sue and I predicted me being around second or third if I would have completed my pass but that's okay!  I haven't really been doing that pass at the gym so I was kind of expecting to stop.  I gave up floor this year because 1. I always hated practicing/competing it, 2. I wasn't going anywhere in life, and 3. I sucked.  So now my usual three trophies is down to two :(  Lani and I also reminisced about nationals and how we should have won synchro hahaha :)  We'll never forgive those judges...
After the meet, we went to Applebee's and I was starving because I realized I hadn't eaten since breakfast!  Mom had made eggs, toast, and corned beef hash from the leftover corned beef from the Reubens for breakfast.  Dinner was great but now I'm really full!!  Too bad we didn't eat at the McHenry one or maybe I would have seen my favorite Applebee's waitress...?

January 21, 2012

Today I helped time the boys' swim meet!  It was their Woodstock Invite so there were a lot of teams there and Woodstock ended up placing second!!!!  Yay!  Sarah, Meghan, Alli, and Brooke also helped time today so here is a picture of all of us with Shannon, reunited! :)  I miss them :(  Emily was missing today, though, otherwise it would have been perfect :)  We took the picture in this weird room on the deck because I felt awkward out by the pool and I didn't want people staring at us.  Anyway, my legs got super soaked from all the swimmers that found it necessary to splash when coming into the wall...that was an issue.  Shanahan bought us pizza during the meet and then after the meet, we went to Culver's and got ice cream and then we all parted ways :(  I got 3 hours for NHS though!  Woo!
When I came home, I worked on homework then we had Reubens for dinner!  They were DE-licious!  Now Mom and Dad are busy moving their bed into the other room and I am doing more homework.  Jersey has coped with the change but that's because she's happy as long as there is a bed :)

January 20, 2012

Today in econ, Arzu some how managed to get Mr. Wooderson to not teach and instead let us watch the Atlas Shrugged movie.  Katie and I both didn't want to watch it because Katie doesn't want to ruin the book and I already saw the beginning and it was crap and didn't feel like watching it again or ever.  So instead we asked if we could go to the library and we did!  We worked on a little bit of psych because we had a funny debate today about whether or not there are negative effects to homosexual parenting.  While working on it, we brought out our recent tests to laugh at the stuff we wrote and Katie showed me her study guide she turned in that Mr. Stock gave back after writing "You have issues" at the top hahaha so I asked her to pose with her paper and now she is my POD!
During school it started snowing blazes up in here!  I swear the roads were not even plowed on the way home!  I drove 35 mph the entire time!!  Then when I got home, Dad was already home and he said we should call Mom to let her know we're safe and he said he wanted to tell her he was in a ditch somewhere and I told him to use the house phone as a joke to see if she would notice but when she answered he felt mean and didn't say that he was in a ditch hahaha.  Then tumbling called and told me my class was moved forward so I enjoyed a class of prepubescent kids today!  Then I came home and ate dinner and I just organized some of my pictures on my computer because they were making me anxious :(  I plan on reading for the rest of the night.
Tomorrow is supposed to be the boys' Woodstock Invite so let's hope it doesn't get canceled!! I want a picture with my girlies!

January 19, 2012

Dad has been talking about making tortilla soup forever and so finally he decided to make it today!  He and mom both made it from scratch and it took awhile but it was really good!  Here is them in the kitchen, putting the ingredients together.  Aren't they cute?! :)  Here is a picture of the final product and all the toppings that could be added to it if we so desired:

So the most exciting/frustrating thing that happened to me today was that there were two, yes TWO, freaking accidents on the way to school this morning.  Keep it in mind that I only live about 6 miles away.  Both of them created major traffic backup and school even had to excuse all kids that were late today because of it.  I got to school five minutes before the bell rang and left twenty-five minutes before school starts...not okay.  Also, the second one involved buses or something so all the kids on those buses had to get off and walk to school but luckily it was on the same road as the school anyway.  The good news is that it didn't seem like anybody got hurt.  After school I came home and finished the book I was reading and then did some homework.  Then we ate and now I'm blogging!  Yay!  And tomorrow it's supposed to snow again...yay?

January 18, 2012

It has officially begun where nothing happened in my life today so instead I took a picture of things...:)  Well, today Janelle's copy of The Fault in Our Stars came in the mailio so that's why the book is once again reappearing!  She, sadly, did not get an awesome copy either so my life is incomplete :(  Also, I got some cash monies from swimmers for their t-shirts!  Emily paid me all in singles so that's why there are a billion singles sitting there :)  And yesterday Collin gave me the owlie stickers!  Hahaha they're so cute!  I already took off my two favorite ones and put them on my agenda :)
Today, after school, I went and got gas and it was soooo cold outside!!!  I don't want this cold weather unless it will give me snow days!!!  After that, I came home and read and then I had to go off to tumbling!!  Yay!  Now I'm back and Dad's watching the auditions for American Idol and it's distracting me from homework...so is blogging...hahaha.  Anyway, that's all that happened today!  Hopefully tomorrow will be more exciting on the picture front!

January 17, 2012

Today I went back to school after a nice long weekend.  I came home, finished Atlas Shrugged, ate dinner, then went to dance.  WAIT, WAIT, WAIT...I finished Atlas Shrugged?  The 1069 paged Atlas Shrugged?  The Atlas Shrugged that I started reading on freaking NOVEMBER 8th?  Yes.  Yes I did.  I feel like I shouldn't even continue on since that's all that needs to be written to make this day worth it to me! :)
So we picked up the book for econ back in November and I was very unenthused to read it since it has size five font and paper as thin as skin and can still be used to knock someone unconscious.  Mr. Wooderson, at one point, suggested reading 15 pages a night and I just decided to do that since it was doable!  And now, my friends, I am donezo!  I liked it but mainly because I read books for their stories and not really what they're trying to teach hahaha which probably isn't the way to go.  Anyway, some points of the book I found valid but then other points I found extremely extreme and very redundant but it's a nice book to have read for reference I guess and I still can't get over the fact that it was written by someone who moved from freaking RUSSIA!  Also, I noticed my political views are very malleable depending on who's talking to me cause I don't really understand all that much which is not good news bears!  I need to learn me some politics.
Anyway, Happy Finish The Gigantic Book You've Been Reading For 3 Months Day!  I hope yours was as satisfying as mine :)

January 16, 2012

Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day!  I hope you spent it well!  Kelley went back to school today so I am once again an only child :(  Here is Justin packing her beautiful pink suitcase (that is actually mine) into his trunk!  Justin took her back since today was the only day she could go back and Dad had to work.  Today I did more homework and put my laundry away!  Yay for overcoming my fear of putting laundry away!  It feels nice to get it off my floor :)  

I also finished The Fault in Our Stars.  I liked the book a lot but it was very sad and almost made me cry but I didn't cry because I don't like crying...anyway it's probably my second favorite John Green book after Looking for Alaska.  I've only read Looking For Alaska once but I always say it's my favorite book when asked even though I've read better, more intellectual ones that I also thoroughly enjoy.  I've also kind of felt bad every time I said Looking For Alaska is my favorite book because of the fact that I've read better books and because the reason I like it so much is because I like John Green so much.  Anyway, there's a part in The Fault in Our Stars when the narrator is talking about her favorite book and says that she doesn't necessarily like the book because it's great but because she likes the author and that part reminded me of me because that's exactly how I feel.  I just hope that if I ever got a chance to meet John Green (for more than a couple seconds) he wouldn't be a total douche like the guy in the book.  

I like John Green for many reasons but the two top reasons why I like him is because he is a YA author but doesn't write like typical YA authors because his books are about teenagers but they're about teenagers with brains.  The second reason I like him is that it takes a while for him to write a new book so you know he spent time on it and actually put feeling behind it.

That's all for my rant!  Happy MLK Jr. day again and happy school tomorrow!

January 15, 2012

I did pretty much the same thing today as I did yesterday except minus the going to McHenry and watching a movie and doing my laundry...okay so pretty much the only thing that is the same is that I did more of my never ending homework (I also misspelled laundry again like I did yesterday so maybe that could count for something...?)  I love having three day weekends cause you can space out your homework and yet still feel accomplished even if you don't get it all done!  Yay! We should celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday every day!  Side note:  The original Martin Luther was a very ugly guy.  Maybe that's why he became a monk...?

For the past 11ish years we have been in the state of remodeling our house (that's since we moved in b-t-dubs) and Mom and Dad have just started finally working on their bedroom!  There's a lot of very complicated plans swirling around at the moment but the one real plan is that it's going to be the greenish color that Mom painted in Kelley's old room today!  Above is a picture while she painted and Dad pondered her wonderful artwork.
I started The Fault in Our Stars today and it is great!!! I'm already on page 209 so it will probably be finished by tomorrow/tonight.
For no reason, Kelley and I decided to pile all of Jersey's toys in the center of the living room and then blame it on her so here is a nice picture depicting that:

I just realized that this is the first appearance Jersey had made in the blogs.  Welcome, Jersey, where have you been for the past two weeks of my life?  I think this is the longest she has ever NOT been a POD.  

Anyway, Kelley goes back tomorrow and I will miss her very much :(  Fingers crossies she will visit around my birthday time!!

January 14, 2012

In my agenda that I have for school, it says that today is Dress Up Your Pet Day, so Happy Dress Up Your Pet Day!!!!  I hope it was a blast :)  Today, I did a lot of un-enjoyable things.  I had a chiro appointment at 10:45 this morning and I had to sit in the waiting room for half an hour which sucked.  But then I came home and was productive!  Hoorah!  I did massive amounts of laundry because mine was literally spilling over, and then I did some homework which was not that fun but it felt good to get some of it done.  We ate a weird assortment of food for dinner since Mom went to a birthday party and was not hungry, and then Mom, Kelley, and I went to McHenry to use up some gift cards!  We ended up succeeding in that task.  After that, the fam and I decided to watch the Social Network which was just as good and douche baggy as the first time I watched it :)
So here is a picture of me after I have successfully overtaken all my laundry.  I still have to put it away though...that's the worst part :(  I decided to take this picture from a different angle because I was sick of all my pictures being  in the same spot :)  If you look close enough, you can see the first POD in the background :)

January 13, 2012

Warning: This blog post will probably be lengthy!
Happy Friday the 13th!!!  Yesterday when we were talking about snow days in calc, my math teacher said we wouldn't have a snow day because it was Friday the 13th and boy was he right!!  I woke up in disbelief that there was still school but I guess I was just hoping too much :(  The only bad part of driving was getting out of my driveway hahaha and the road that my school is on refuses to be plowed which is dumb since there are so many teenage drivers that traverse that road!  I mean, seriously!!  Anyway, I was able to get through the day with the expectation of movie night with Collin and Katie!!!  After school I came home and went to tumbling and then we had movie night at my house!  Kelley was supposed to join us but she went to the Walsdorfs' house and those times conflicted so next time she will have to join us!  Now, story time begins!

First off, let me tell you how hard it was to take a picture!  We could not get a good one for the life of us and we're still not happy.  For one, I, for some unknown reason, am fifteen feet away from Collin in this picture even though I felt that I was right next to him when it was taken...Anyway, here are some of the other ones we took:

                                                                                                           

  I don't think I need to explain why the first one is bad... The second one, we can't figure out what is going on with Katie's hair and Collin says he has women legs hahaha, in the third one, Collin tried not to have women legs so now he looks awkward and Katie thought she looked like she was pooping :)  And the fourth one, we were laughing hysterically...

We watched the movie Departures which I will talk about in a second, but since the movie is in Japanese, I wanted the bamboo plant in the picture to get the feel of the setting :)

Now I will tell you about the best day of my life...and when I say that, I'm not over exaggerating, I literally mean the best day of my life.  When I was a sophomore, Herr Brill told me about the foreign film festival that our movie theater puts on and he told me that there was a German movie playing that I should go see.  I thought it sounded interesting so I asked Katie and Collin if they wanted to come with since they were also in German.  We ended up spending a whole day together that consisted of some type of music thing at school, Borders/Wendy's, and then the movie.  Before we went to the movie, I tried to look it up online but I couldn't really find any information about it and I didn't know what it was called so we decided to show up and just see what was playing (I did end up finding one German movie that was about an hour long but I wasn't sure if it was playing).  When we went to the ticket counter to ask about a German movie, the ticket lady said they weren't playing any German movies but there was a Japanese one that we could watch.  We laughed because we thought it was funny and then we bought the tickets because we were there to see a movie and that was the one that was playing.  Then we realized we had to see how long it was since this was back in the day when we had to be driven places.  The lady then told us that it was freaking TWO AND A HALF hours long.  That was double the movie I looked up online.  I remember crying from laughing so hard at the fact that we just bought tickets to see a two hour Japanese movie.  Since we already bought the tickets, we decided to watch it so we went inside.  The theater was filled with people whose average age, not joking, was 80.  We were the youngest people in there by fifty years which made the situation even better.  When we looked behind us, all we saw was graying hair and glasses.  Then, to top it off, before the movie started, a man walked to the front of the theater and told us at the end of the movie we were going to discuss what we saw and Collin, Katie, and I started freaking out but then the guy said that that would happen at the cafe near by.  Long story short, the movie we saw, Departures, ended up being the best movie ever created by man.  It was so touching and beautiful and life changing that buying those tickets was the best decision I ever made :)  It has also been a moment the three of us has bonded over since :)  You don't even feel like it's two hours long and by the end, you don't even realize it's in a different language.
I asked for the movie for Christmas and the three of us decided to get to together and watch it again.  It was just as great the second time but I feel like our experience from the first time makes it that much better.
Here's the movie:

If you are ever in the mood for a movie that makes you laugh and cry and contemplate the meaning of death and forgivness, then you should definitely see it!  It also has the best cello music ever created!  And it has won the best foreign film award...I could go on forever about it...
Hope you had as great as a Friday the 13th as I did :)

January 12, 2012

The Fault in Our Stars came today!!!!! HOORAH!!!!  Kelley texted me while I was in school today and told me that my book arrived!!  And then I texted back all excited...don't worry, there was only about five minutes left of school, so I wasn't breaking the rules that bad :)  I think I might start the book tonight depending on if I finish my homework early but I'm procrastinating in hope of a snow day tomorrow!!!  BECAUSE, good news bears, IT SNOWED TODAY!!!!! It was the first legit snow of the winter finally!  I normally hate the snow cause I'm a very cold person :(, however, this year I want as many snow days as I can rake in cause I don't have to make them up!!! Yay for being a senior!!  The roads were slippery on the way home but I made it back safe by going about 2 mph haha.  I was kind of sad though because I was going to help time the boys' swim meet tonight with Sarah and I was really looking forward to it, but it got canceled :(  Instead I came home and Kelley and I took pictures in the snowfall!  Here's one of our favorites:

We like this picture for many reasons:

1. We are wearing the most joyful expressions anybody could ever wish to have

2. Kelley looks like she's praising the snow god

3. I look like a skipping yahoo

4. My hair looks like it belongs in a different decade

5. Did I mention I look like a skipping yahoo?

We couldn't really control ourselves after we took this picture and the one Kelley took for her POD is much better/classier :)  (And no, this self timer picture was not taken in my bedroom like all the other self timer pictures, in case you were wondering) 

Another exciting thing that happened to me today was that my athletic director wrote me a letter of recommendation for a scholarship and I was given it today during 8th hour.  It was incredibly nice and made me sound 10x better of a person than I actually am hahaha

Oh yes, and I also finished The Great Gatsby during study hall today!  Hooray!  As much as I liked Gatsby as a character, I was happy with how it ended.  I don't think the ending could have been any more perfect because 1. It was realistic in a sense and 2. It needed to happen...I don't want to spoil anything, so that's all I'll say :)
Happy first real day of winter and drive safe!!

January 11, 2012

I was so excited to come home today with a copy of my The Fault in Our Stars on our front doorstep so that I could have an amazing POD.  Sadly, my copy is still in transit :(  But fingers crossies for tomorrow!!!!  Hopefully I get an awesome autograph also, but any autograph would be just fine for me :)  Nothing overly interesting happened to me today until I came home from tumbling and Mom told me that Iowa sent her an e-mail saying they increased my scholarship!  That's always good news!  Even though the reason for them increasing it is probably because tuition went up, but at least my scholarship went up also!  I then went on my computer and found out they sent me the same e-mail!  So here is a picture of my giant hand and the nice e-mail that Iowa sent me.  Since I live out of state, tuition is almost double that of an in-state tuition which is crazy!  Our goal is to get down to in-state tuition from scholarships!  Thank you, Iowa, for getting me closer!  Iowa also sent me a nice sized envelope full of information about the English department there...that was nice of them :)

January 10, 2012

Every year Kelley and I have a combined birthday celebration for some family members.  This year, we had Grandma Sullivan, Grandma Hartung, Uncle Jerry, Mindy, Judy, and Butch over and it was definitely a partay!  That's more people than Christmas!!  Mom made a delicious cake that was incredibly delicious!  The frosting tasted like the Valentine candy heart things.  Here's the cake and the party guests:

The K in Kelley is knitting needles in a ball of yarn and my side is a picture of a girl reading.  There were pictures of us blowing out the candles but that didn't turn out that great :(  We also had ice cream cake from Culver's and ice cream!  Yay for sugar!!!!!!!  After cake, we opened presents which was super exciting!!!  I got these chocolate things from Butch and Judy that have a picture of a swimmer on them but I thought they were dancers when I first opened them hahaha:

I also got that pearl bracelet I'm wearing in the picture from my grandma!  Thank you all for everything!!  After that, we all played Left, Right, Center (I think that's what it is called...) Even though I'm not legally allowed to gamble, the ages said it was for ages 5 to 105 which even included my great-grandma who is 92!  And plus, we just played for fun so technically it wasn't gambling.  Here is the game in action:

As you can see, it's super intense hahaha After a couple rounds, we ended up playing four rounds without a winner and then we decided to give up and everybody decided to go home haha  Overall, it was a very tiring night but it was great to see everybody!!!  And luckily it's a late start tomorrow :)!!

January 9, 2012

So Kelley wore her Iowa shirt that I got her for her birthday today!  Hoorah!  I wanted to take a picture of us while she wore her Iowa shirt and I wore my Illinois shirt cause I think it's funny.  Anyway, I did not wear my Illinois shirt today but I changed into it just for this picture!!  The crazy part was that when I was changing my t-shirts we realized we were wearing the same tank tops!  Woah!!!!  We're practically twins :) Kelley had an amazing idea to look like dinosaurs (although she said she was acting out a lion when she first showed me) and I said sure!  So then we set the camera on timer and I made myself look like a dinosaur and she tried but then laughed so she ended up looking normal while I looked insane.  Mom asked why I was making that face hahaha
So what happened today?  Nothing really.  I went to school and I thought I was going to pass out all day cause I went to bed at 2ish and woke up 6:30 but that's okay because the only class that actually required thought today was calc!  And I guess psych but we just took notes. Hooray for teachers not doing anything!  Then I came home and Kelley and I took this magnificent picture!
Sidenote: yes, we do take all our pictures in the same spot hahaha...and yes, I do have the most awesome slippers ever :)

January 8, 2012

 

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY KELLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So today was Kelley's 21st birthday in case anybody forgot :)  We woke up and mom made French toast for breakfast which was actually sort of lunch because it was at 11 o'clock hahaha.  Then, she opened her presents!!!  I gave her an Iowa t-shirt cause I'm a jerk :) and mom and dad got her dresses, a camera, wine, and flowers!  She didn't want me to post pictures of her opening presents because she looked like a yahoo but here's my favorite one anyways ;) :

After presents we both took showers and I read a little bit and then we all reconvened again to eat some cake!  My mom made the awesome cake because she is awesome.  Here is Kelley blowing out her candles as a twenty-one year old!:

After we ate cake, we "chilled" for a little while and headed for Houl-i-hans! It's a restaurant in the Algonquinish area that had 1/2 off drinks or something and that was super cheap if we got their meali(o) deali(o)!  Kelley, Mom, Dad, Justin, and Kyle all got drinks and I was afraid I would be the one driving but it all ended up okay!  Kelley also got two free shots of vodka because it was her birthday and Kyle took the second one with her.  I took a picture of the moment but it's super blurry so it's not that amazing.  But here is all the legal drinkers clinking their glasses:

Her first (legal) drink :)

After dinner, Kelley and Justin went home and Dad, Mom, Kyle, and I drove Kyle back to the city.  I fell asleep on the way home and now I'm back!  Kelley and Justin are watching Bridesmaids and drinking wine and I think I'm going to bed haha
Goodnight and Happy Birthday Kelley!!!

January 7, 2012

I did absolutely nothing today.  We stayed up watching Crazy, Stupid, Love last night and then I stayed up until one listening to music so I woke up at 9:30ish this morning!  Mom and Dad went up to Wisconsin to get wood for Kyle who came home today to build speakers for his roommates.  I read all day and then Kelley and I decided to go to McHenry to get some stuff.  I got hand lotion because my hands are the driest things ever and also men's deodorant because I'm the sweatiest thing ever hahaha ew.  Anyway, we also got some candles because Kelley's birthday is tomorrow!!!!!!!  And mine is in a few weeks!!!!!!  And we're having a combined partay on Tuesday with some grandmas!!! Hooray!!! This year is an exciting year for both me and Kelley cause she's turning 21 and I'm turning 18!  Hoorah for adulthood/drinking-age-hood!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm done with the exclamations now.

January 6, 2012

We are starting to read The Great Gatsby in English class next week but I read the first chapter today during study hall because there was nothing else to do.  I'm super pumped about this for many reasons:

1. John Green really likes this book

2. Katie really likes this book

3. The aforementioned people are some of my favorite people ever and I trust their opinions

4. It's a classic

5. The first chapter is pretty good
6. On my copy of this book somebody wrote "DIE" in pencil and it makes me laugh every time I look at it

Hopefully I'll like it because it pops up a lot!  But I don't really hate books that often so I think it won't be a problem :)

Today was a great day because I kept thinking that it was Tuesday since this has only been our second day of school, but then people kept reminding me it was Friday and I got super excited for the weekend!  I literally did nothing all day except write a paper on Wuthering Heights in English and do some math problems in calc.  I wish every day was like today!  January is gonna go super fast!  I can feel it!

The shirt I'm wearing in this picture is another new one that I got from Old Navy.  It's kind of awkward and looks like a wall of fabric but I wore a necklace and a lot of people told me they liked it on me so I guess it's fine!

January 5, 2012

First day back to school means wearing new clothes!!!  For Christmas I got a billion dollars in gift cards to Old Navy so a couple days after Christmas Kelley and I went shopping and bought loads.  The sales were amazing!  I got this tank top and cardigan and Kelley got the grey sweater she is wearing!  We also got the light blue cardigan we are wearing in Day 1 and a bunch of other cute things!  Old Navy is pretty much the best place ever!
School was pretty okay except I felt like falling asleep the whole day...I probably should have fallen asleep earlier last night...oh well!  I took a 30 minute nap when I got home though!  Kelley went with Jill for her first day back with her chillins which is why she dressed up so teachery and cute!  Yay for new outfits!
P.S.  This picture took me and Kelley literally 50 times to get because we had an issue of not looking great...