A looooong time since i posted.

Christmas night, Kirstyn or Shawna (I can't remember which) got a text from cousin Amy saying that she and her family had finally arrived in CA on their way to go visit the redwoods the next morning. That, of course, got the wheels spinning in everyone's heads, so at quarter after 11, we got into the car, and drove all night to meet them and drive around with them. The last minuteness of it all posed a couple problems, one being the dogs that we were babysitting for dad. We managed to get a hold of grandma and grandpa, and they said that they could take care of them over night (dad would be back the next day). So we scrambled, and managed to deliver them by midnight. And then we were on our way. Of course, I zonked out about 30 minutes past grandma's, and it was surprisingly comfortable. We had three people squeezed into the back seat of a California Refund Value (CRV) but we made to most of it and piled on top of each other with the occasional pillow/blanket in between layers. We slept most of the way, and we arrived at Denny's in McKinleyville. After a while of sitting in the car (the reason was never made known to me). Finally, me, Shawna, and Stephanie went in for breakfast, since mom and Kirstyn were feeling sickish. We finished, and went back out to the car. Awhile later, mom got some McDonalds (and how, exactly, that helped the sick part, i don't know) and we went on our way. We drove along the coast, kinda meandering a bit, and finally met Amber and family on the side of the road a couple hours later. We spent a few minutes doing the whole huggy thing, hugging everyone that piled out of their clown car, and anyone else who crossed our path, no matter if they came from our car or not. We're kinda odd that way. Then we went and drove through the redwoods and much later, we went to the ocean and spent probably 20 minutes numbing our feet in the foot numbing water. it was a lot of fun. we finally went to the hotel and i dumped my stuff off in amber/amy/emily/sarah's room and we watched tv until the parents came to inform us that they were going to a seafood restaurant. i passed on that. logan, sarah, and shawna went to the pool a while later, and our pizza showed up a little after that. (the adults had ordered it before they left and gave emily a credit card to pay with) it turned out that the delivery guy needed an ID or something for the card. of course we didn't have one, but we wanted our pizza anyway, so we went diggin through all of our stuff and managed to come up with just enough. shawna actually had more than enough in mom's room, but as luck would have it, that was the one room we didn't have a key for. bugger. we left the next morning at about 11. we only drove for a few hours, though, before we stopped at another hotel. mom didn't feel like driving in the snow. so we watched more TV...mainly friends. and ice age. we finally got home the next day at 3ish. finally.

that was the excitement for that week. the next week, we went to san fransisco with dad, carol and the boys. we actually went to santa barbara first, for a whale watching tour. it was a lot of fun, except that we only saw 3 whales in the three hours that we were out there. bummer day. but the rest of the time, we hogged the front of the ship, and got soaked. thankfully, all my clothes were waterproof. except my shoes, but those dried out soon enough. when we were finally done with that we went to the hotel, where Steph and i realized that no one had brought shampoo or conditioner. but carol had. so we got to use a tiny bit of it. at least we got the salt water off. gross. After that i just wanted to sit around in my PJs and watch TV, but dad wanted us to go and eat. i opted for pizza delivery, but that didn't go over so well. instead, we went to this saturn restaurant. turns out that it was vegan. all over the place. seriously, in the menu, it said that they had fakin bacon, and artificial chicken. everything else was just tofu. i was scared to ask what the bacon was made of. i was definately wierded out. so i got chili free. without "meat". it was pretty tasty. their shakes were definately scoffable too. it tasted like someone had just half frozen a shaklee shakeshake. pretty darned nasty. so i gave it to maverick and he ate it right along with his.

then we went to a store (it was either that or go to a movie and not many ppl wanted to)so we stocked up on junk food. i got fruity mentos, junior mints, and a 2-liter bottle of dr. pepper. for me. i managed to drink it in about 3 days. kinda pathetic, i know. but it was good while it lasted. so because it was new year's eve, we tried to stay up until midnight. we only made it to 11, 'cause that's when the family guy marathon ended. it was cool though, because steph and i had our own room. that meant that we could stay up as late as we wanted. but of course, we had to pick that night to be tired. figures.

we left the next day for san fran. we spent the day in china town, buying fortune cookies and (in my case)purses and chopsticks. Cayman got a huge knife that shouldn't even be legal. he spent the next day testing it on (full) water bottles and a cardboard box. when he wasn't doing that, he would leave it on the floor in the family room or den or kitchen, and go off to do whatever else he does. now do ya see why it should be illegal for a kid to have that big of a knife? oyness. about half an hour after we got home, though, we left again to go see gramma who had recently been sent to the hospital because of a couple little heart attacks. we saw her for a few minutes and left again after that. seriously. an hour and a half of driving, and ten minutes to see her..but oh well. it was cool.

wednesday night gramma went into bypass surgery. of course, we went to see her. i went, armed with dvd player, many dvds, and my new chinatown purse that was loaded with notebook, pencils, candy canes and cellphone. i was set. it turned out that i actually needed all of it. by the time we got there, it was grandpa, dad and carol, mom, aunt sharon, and chantal, sierra, phoebe and trevor. kevin came a little later. we spent the five hours that gramma was in surgery watching pride and prejudice and mash. of course, startling the nurses with our large numbers was a lot of fun too. sierra and i watched the door for a while looking for cute guys...i spotted one, but he got away before i could point him out. we moved to a smaller waiting room a little later, because we were also scaring away other people who probably would've liked a seat. the second one was a bit more convienient, mostly because the plug in for my dvd player was slightly closer to the chairs. it's always a good thing. we finally left at 11:30 with sierra in tow. we watched another movie when we got home, and finally went to bed at 3ish, sometime after soemone called to tell us that grandma had gone back into surgery because of some sort of complications. we spent the day being bored. that night we stayed up until 2:30 watching movies and exclaiming about how adorable/gorgeous/hunky/cute david arquette was. he really is. we woke up with no power because of 70 mph winds. wonderful. we got so bored that we even played a game of monopoly. that is, we played until chantal got bored and layed down on the bored. that pretty much ended it. when we went to the hospital that day, we just went home with mom, in the hopes that she might have power. no such luck, but she did have hot water, a gas stove, and a huge supply of kerosene lamps and top ramen. yay. we partayed. kinda.

anyway, that's all i'm gonna type for now. 'cause i'm tired of writing. and i should probably get ready for meeting. ttfn

It is official

I am a spoiled brat. And proud of it. We had a ton of fun yesterday night. We started opening presents at 9ish, which was way late in my opinion, and dad and Carol decided that we each had to open our presents one kid at a time. It took so incredibly long, because for every present, we had to read off the name of who it was from, then unwrap it, and all that, and most of the kids had to examine each toy thoroughly before moving onto the next one. It didn't help any that dad kept encouraging them to do that. It really didn't help that they made me go last. Grr. But anyway, I did get a DVD player, and 5 DVDs and a CD case to hold them, and two CD's (Rascal Flatts and Colbie Callait) and a case for my DVD player. It turned out that it came with one, so dad offered to take it back so I could get more DVDs. I think I shall. And now I'm done posting, 'cause I don't feel like writing anymore. So tata

Did you know...

That it is actually humanly possible to eat ice cream with chop sticks? I just found that out tonight. So, starting from the beginning...

This morning, I woke up at quarter to five, because some idiot sister forgot to mention that she had left her alarm clock on. Gah. So, I turned it off after a few tries, and went back to sleep until 8. It was wonderful. I woke up and pretty much every bird within an acre of the house was just as happy for Winter Break as I am. They were chirping all over the place. So I got up. And bummed around for the whole day. And now I have a headache from all the TV. Not smart, I know, but I had to celebrate somehow.

Finally, dad and Carol both managed to get home at the same time, so we went to this new buffet in some town on some road. It was pretty good, but I wasn't all that hungry, so Cayman and I had sword fights with our chop sticks. It was a ton of fun, but I'm surprised that dad and/or Carol didn't stop us, 'cause the main point of the game was to try and make the other person show some verbal sign of pain. I'm pretty sure that I won. Then, I went and got a bowl of that soft serve ice cream that practically every buffet has and decided that I wanted to try and eat it with my chop sticks. I was successfull, I am proud to say. I got brain freeze after a minute though, and it just added to my headache, so I gave up after a minute.

The ride home was definately interesting...Steph and I had had the bucket seats on the way there, so Dakota and Maverick got them on the way back. That meant that it was me, Steph, and Cayman in the back seat, and since he was the smallest, he got to sit in the middle. We spent the whole ride torturing him. It was so much fun. We were all cracking up the whole time.

And now, we're about to go open presents. Yay. I'll have to update a little later. I'm pretty sure i'm getting a portable DVD player...which i completely did not expect. I kinda figured it out for sure when I questioned dad about it...he's horrid at trying to lead people off in a different direction. He kept saying that the good ones cost upwards of $250...funny. I've seen them from $50 to $80. But anyway, we shall have to see. Ttfn

And again,

I post. That's odd. I just posted yesterday. Oh well. I never said I was a perfect procrastinator. I'll just have to work on it, I suppose. Anyway, we had our final chorale rehearsal today. I think that Baggot was getting pre-concert jitters or something, because he was kinda getting a little bit ticked at us. Well, I can't really truthfully say us, because it was just the guys that he yelled at. :D He ended up making four of them stand in the middle of the semi-circle so that we could all laugh at them. I doubt that was actually his intent, but it still worked out that way, and the rest of us had no problem with it. That was also 6th period, though, so I'm pretty sure that he was kinda sick of us by then. Wait, again, I didn't mean us, just the guys. :P

Backtracking about four hours, in first period, we discovered yet again that we don't really know all the words to one of our songs. We still, don't, actually. It's definately not good, you know? I have a feeling that it's not going be pretty when we get to that specific part. The rest of our songs are ok, though, except for the lo how a rose ere blooming. I absolutely detest that song. It'll be interesting to see how the bells turn out, and to see if we accidentally cut off when we shouldn't, as seems to happen rather often. Hmmm.

so lately,

Nothing much has happened. That lack of excitement can be atributed to why I haven't written in so long. let's see...the 29th to the 9th. 10 days or something, right? Oh well.

School's actually been fun lately. Or as fun as school can get, anyway. We've got our Christmas Concert next Tuesday and Thursday, so last Thursday and Friday, we've had chorale rehearsals. Thursday, it was during first period...which is my normal choir period, so there was no conflicts there involving getting out of class for it. It was a lot of fun. We were all crowded into the choir room which is probably not meant to hold more than say 60 people comfortably, but we had at least 150. So, we sweltered. And then, Baggot told us all to sit down. Yeah right. Joyful.

Friday, the rehearsal was planned for 7th period...all good by me, 'cause i didn't feel like going to Bio. But first period, we all went to the D.B.Theater and started lugging around insanely heavy bits of risers (I think that there were about 80, and each of them weigehed a ton) in an attempt to set up the stage for a couple more rehearsals and finally, our performance. By the time we were done (yes, we did it all in an hour)we were pretty sure that we rocked. An all 9th and 10th grade girls' choir had just set up the stage without help from mens' chorus or anything. yay us! So we left.

I went to English. I really didn't want to go that day, because the whole class except for me and Katie and a few other people were going to go on a field trip to see some play that I really didn't want to go to. Of course, they weren't planning to go until about a quarter after nine, so all of my teacher's classes got to hang out in the room, talking and all that. I actually had a bit of fun doing that...I got to test out my new camera on Katie and Kali and their friends. I've got some great ones. Then everyone left, and we watched the first 20 minutes of To Kill a Mockingbird. That was the low part of the day. Or one of them, at least.

Then math...one of the most boring classes ever. But, when I got there, I remembered that we had a quiz planned for that day, so I asked the teacher if I could go to the choir room when I finished it. He said yes because I was "a perfect candidate" because I "always get everything done". I beg to differ, but oh well. I still haven't done last week's homework. :P So I went back to the choir room, and helped the TA's finish setting up the risers. Actually, it was really just me and another chick from Chamber who set them up. The other two just sat and ate their cup 'o noodles. Then the bell rang.

Then French. The other low point of the day. I got my most recent test back and found out that I got a B on it. I was kinda bummed, because when I saw the mistakes I made, I realized that they were really stupid mistakes. Grr. On to lunch...

It seems that no matter how soon I get to the lunch place (which takes me a lot longer now, thanks to the construction on the cafeteria and the fact that they moved all the food to the wrestling gym.) they are always out of cookies, unless I go before 4th lunch on my way to french. Why do they do this to us!!!! The world may never know. Grr.

Then P.E. We played basketball instead of volleyball for some reason. No one in our class was very happy about it, because we all stink at playing it. of course, the TA's loved it. from time to time, they would join up with our team and start playig for us. Whenever they did, though, they would just pass it over our heads to the other TAs so much that we would never get the ball, so we just stood around and talked. Of course, that got us in trouble, because it's supposed to be PE. Ahh who cares. Thankfully that period ended soon.

Then I ran up to Bio, informed my teacher that I was there, and walked back to DB Theater with some other chick from Bel Canto. We had a lot of fun singing for another hour. Half of the Women's choir people were gone for fittings of their new dresses. They definately look a lot better than the old cranberry dresses that they used to have. Now, Bel Canto is the only choir left with completely outdated dresses. I think that ours have been around since Baggot Sr! They actually used to be the Concert choir dresses, but no longer. Now we are the ones who get to look like plums. Isn't it wonderful? Anway, we sang through all of our green folder pieces, and all the alto's realized that they hadn't learned their parts very well on the halleluja chorus. We actually had to stop singing for a few seconds to figure out what we were supposed to be singing. Of course, when we got that figured out and jumped back in, we jumped in wrong, and came in about a second behind the sopranos. Oy. it's confusing business. We all had a good laugh about it though.

And that was the end of my Friday. Saturday, we left dad's at 11 and went to Ross before meeting mom and Kirstyn to go to Aunt Alice's 90th b-day partay. I got a couple of absolutely adorable jeanskirts. The party was ok...there was almost no one my age there after uncle mel left with most of his kids. Kirstyn, me and steph went home around 4:30 after trying unsuccessfully to find something that we could help with. I leftfor my babysitting job at the Muir's about an hour later. It was one of the tamest jobs i've ever had there. I just read books to the kids for an hour and a half, and then we played legos in Kelly's room until he decided that he wanted to go to bed...at quarter after 7. It was wonderful. So I settled down with my book and read until twenty to 10. I only stopped then because My book ended. I had brought a movie in case that happened, but I figured that it would take me at least 20 minutes to figure out how to set up their TV, so I just sat on the couch and waited for them. They were actually home on time, which was very nice...I was definately ready to get home. So, Mrs. Muir took me home after finding a scone recipie for mr. muir to make while she was gone. I got home around 10:15 and went to bed at 11. And that's Saturday.

today is still Sunday, so there's not much to say about it, except that I had to miss the potluck after meeting because I felt sick, and mom didn't want me to get everyone else sick. I just hope that I get better before my concert. eek. I could barely sing in mtg, so I don't know what's going to happen.

stupidstupidstupid

I was gonna post this last night...but I got fed up with the computer and gave up for the time being. I am re-pursuing it in the hopes that someone will actually read it and make it worthwhile. so help me out here people...

I didn't sleep very well last night, which may very well have everything to do what happened this morning. I didn't get to sleep until lateish, and i kept waking up for the oddest reasons. Actually, there was no reason at all for my waking up. I just did, about once every hour from midnight to three or so. Each time I would wake up enough to figure out what time it was, which is difficult when you don't have a digital clock. Grr. I woke up again after getting a bit more sleep, and I glanced at my clock...actually, i studied it for a few minutes before I realized that it said quarter after. I couldn't figure out why my alarm clock hadn't gone off, but i didn't think about it too long, cause i had to get ready for school. Normally, it doesn't take too long to do, but we were fresh out of milk for cereal, so I had to make muffins. I scurried. The muffins got out just in time for me to grab a couple to eat as I walked to the bus stop. I went to tell mom that I was leaving, and then...I realized that I had not realized exactly what quarter after it was. I did not actually have to leave at 6, just like I didn't have to get up at quarter after five. GAHHHHHH! So,I was tired all day. More than normal, anyway.

More news, I finally know a few people on my new bus. One of them is in my math class...he's cool. I don't know him very well, but whatever works. Another is a girl that I met after I sat in one of her friend's seats. That was entertaining. I had just sat in a random seat, and this guy comes along and says, "Some random person is sitting in my seat!" So I just kinda smiled, and said, "That's too bad."So he went off looking for another seat, and another guy came along and said pretty much the same thing...I think that they normally sit together in the seat I had claimed. So they spent a few minutes trying out different seats, deciding that they didn't want to sit on one side of the bus, and one seat wasn't wide enough...etc. I finally relented and gave them back their seat and sat in front of another girl who had been watching the whole thing and kinda laughing. she invited me to sit with her, so i did, and we spent the whole ride making fun of a guy up in the front of the bus who apparently hadn't undergone puberty. And he didn't realize it apparently, since he was shouting a ton. some people will never learn. the girl (i have no idea what her name is...can't you tell how close we are?)apparently got a headache from a combination of that and some guy that apparently smelled like weed. I have a cold, so i couldn't really smell anything at all. I was considered lucky.

And that's my news folks....ttfn

CAPINCS

I got to go with capincs (a puppet show group that teaches kids about stranger danger and red light green light touches and all that) to do a puppet show at a local preschool. on the way over, lynne, the director of the whole thing, was telling us that the more we moved the puppets, the more we would get the attention of the kids, because they are easily distracted by movement. no kidding. the minute we walked into the door, almost every eye was on us. the kids were in another room putting away their toys but a few of them (all girls for some reason) came to watch us set up the stage and all. when we were all done setting up and everyone came in, the three of us sat behind the stage, (very uncomfortably, i might add. it's not easy to fit three people that closely together.) and listened to the beginning parts of it. lynne was asking the kids questions that got some hilarious answers, like
"who can tell me what a stranger is?"
"a bear!"
"well, i suppose a bear would be a stranger if you didn't know him..."
we were all lauging histerically behnd the curtain. it was kinda hard though, because we weren't allowed to make any noise. hmm. i'm pretty sure that none of the questions got answered right. sometimes, a kid, when called on by the color of his shirt or something, would go into a long story about how he had gotten his shirt when he went shopping with his grandma and he saw a doggy that was taller than he was...etc, etc. it was insanely funny. we managed to make it through the show, with a few cramped shoulders from holding our arms in one position for so long with nothing to lean it against. i think we did ok.

btw, we are officially moved in now. i just have to unpack a ton. i stayed up until 11 last night working on it. that may actually be why i was really tired today. hmmm.....

The amusement of a pair of crutches

I was just sitting there eating a piece of pie when Cayman walked in on crutches. No reason for them, of course, but the cruthes were present nonetheless. So, I chuckled and went back to eating my pie. And then, for some reason, which is still unknown to me, I made the suggestion that he turn them upside down and step on th handles, turning them into stilts. He, of course loved the idea. Carol, not so much. After his first attempt (during which he nearly took out the dog) she left, claiming that she didn't want to experience the death of her child. I don't really blame her, actually. From then on, I couldn't get another piece of my pie down without half-choking to death, because I was laughing so hard at Cayman's insane stunts. Most of his feats just involved actually getting onto the crutches, but some of the others included faceplants, balancing acts, and more near-takeouts of various dogs and siblings. It was an entertaining evening.

Thanksgiving Part 2

Ya, not much happened since the last time I posted. I ate a bunch of pumpkin pie, all the kids went out to the garage to watch TV, and Vanessa ran into something that made her cry for 10 or 15 minutes. I had been listening to her crying for a while, and then decided that I was tired of watching TV, so I went out to the kitchen for (what else) more pie. Big Ruben was out there holding Vanessa and trying to get her quiet. When she saw me, she slid off her dad's lap and came over to me wanting up. No objections on my part. So, I picked her up, and she decided that she wanted some of my pie. It was fine with Ruben, so I gave her a little at a time until she didn't want any more. Then she just leaned her head on my shoulder and went to sleep. I sat on the couch with her in my lap for an hour and a half. Ya, I like Vanessa, but I'm pretty sure that I prefer her conscious. She finally woke up at around 7:45 and then she was off like a rocket again.Wonderful. Now, everyone's out in the garage again, watching TV. And playing with our new puppy. Oh ya, I forgot to mention that. Uncle Don just gave us one of his newest puppies from Japan. It's an Achida and it's soooooo cute. She's about the size of Katie right now, so they've been playing for a while. We haven't decided what to name her yet, but I'm kinda rooting for Mika. It works really well for her. But, dad and Carol are gonna name her because they don't want the hassle of having a vote with an even number of kids. I don't blame them. But I really hope that they name her Mika. *crosses fingers*

Thanksgiving

Today's Thanksgiving. Betcha didn't know that. But I did. So there. We had Julie and Ruben, along with Marlissa, Alicia, Vanessa, and baby Ruben over, plus the boys' grandma, and our Uncle Don with his three newest puppies. No one really got here until 1:45 or so, and we had been expecting them at around 1. The last person showed at around 3 or so, so that pretty much designated our eating time. So, we pretty much just got done with food. The whole meal was quite an escapade.

Starting at the beginning...My fun started when the Cruizes showed up. I now had two babies (Baby Ruben and Vanessa) to play with. And then came Stephanie. So, I got to hold Ruben, at least while Steph went and played with Vanessa. It was fun playing with Ruben, but I kinda wished that I had gotten to play with a kid that had a bit more of a personality. But, it didn't really work out that way, so..oh well. I thought that I had gotten luck when Uncle Don came with his three newest puppies. Two had come from Japan just a couple days ago. That caught everyone's attention, so I thought that I would have more time to spend with Vanessa. No such luck. She wanted to see the doggies even more that the other kids. Grr. So I played with Ruben a little more. I got rid of him eventually (I think he was needing a nap or something) so I went and played the piano. (I really need to find someone who can sing the songs while I play them. I found out that I can't multi-task to that extreme)And then "lunch" was served. The reason for the " things is that we didn't actually eat until close to 3:30. That hardly qualifies as lunch. Lupper, maybe, or sunch, but not lunch.

So we all sat down. Or that's what was supposed to happen. Most of the kids got their food, then went and sat down. Soon after that, though, they were called to "come give Grammy a glass of that sparkling cider" or "do you think that you could get me a plate of food, sweetie?" and so on and so on. Finally, we all got settled: The girls at the table, the adults in the living room, and the boys in the garage (?). About 5 minutes after we had gotten our food, Maverick came back in, set his glass on the counter next to the bottle of cider, then promptly upturned the bottle into his glass. The rest of us, needless to say, thought that that was completely unnecessary, and that he was being a cow (ok, maybe that last part was just me, but still!). We made the appropriate exclamations of horror (that also may have just been me, but i'm pretty sure that I had support of my actions)then went back to our food as soon as he went back to the garage. Another 5 minutes later, he showed up again. This time, though, he asked his mom if he could have some more. I thought she was going to say no, considering the amount he had already had, the amounts the rest of us had already not had, and the amount of cider left. (out of the six bottles we had started out with, we had half of one left)But, no, she let him, as long as he had a glass of water first. With a smug grin on his face, he walked over to the sink, filled his glass with water, and glugged it in just a few seconds. Oh. My. Word. He then repeated his earlier performance, nearly emptying the bottle, but this time he left about an inch in the bottom. "See? I didn't take all of it!" He was therefore banned from drinking any more of it, which didn't do much good, considering it was gone. We told dad that, and he went over to the fridge and brought out another bottle. And found another one in the pantry from last Christmas. I don't think that I'll be drinking any of the old stuff, but still, it was neat to know that we had it. Then, we all decided that we were full, and we left. After drinking none of our hard-earned cider. We can be fickle sometimes, I suppose. Then the boys came in from the garage, laughing their heads off. Apparently, nature had called the puppies in the extreme while they were out there. Great. So, Uncle Don said to take them for a walk. So they went. I made it up the driveway and then decided that I didn't want to go after the people who had gone up ahead. Too much exercise. Eew. And now I have to go and experience the rest of my holiday, since it's only a quarter after 4.