You're Singing Country

When met with this question the other day my immediate reaction was "What? I'm singing?" and then "NO I'M NOT!!" So on Christmas I retreated to my room with a headache sometime during the "First shift" of family as grandpa Butch called it. I sat on my bed making a scrapbook page of that Rock Band Teen Event and trying to ignore the ever present babble still clearly heard from the living room. Aunt Debbie eventually came and found me on my bed, but stopped only to take a picture and then left me to solitude... I bet some people wish they'd been able to hide out in their room this Christmas when they couldn't ;)). When I emerged to say goodbye to everyone Tina was playing three way Nuts with Lexie and Kate. Then the second batch of family arrived. Grandpa Moore, Aunt Andrea Moore, Anajoy, uncle Brandon, and aunt Lisa. They brought even more presents and fun. It was much easier to hang out with them because they're just altogether more laid back, especially Brandon and Lisa, they're so sweet and funny and fun. LOL My mom offered something to drink to Lisa and uncle Brandon said "What are you her boyfriend now? Trying to show me up, huh?" We always make fun of each other. Brandon and Lisa got us all gifts from Bath and Body Works which my mom was excited about - she loves that place. But eventually I began to regain my headache and returned to my bedroom until dinner. We didn't eat turkey or any of the usual stuff, we ate steak... Steak that my dad had... uh I think I'll leave out the details here actually. Anyways Anajoy and aunt Andrea stayed the night that night and Anajoy stayed again the next night. My mom and sister and I went shopping with our new cards after that. We went into Forever 21 and it took FOREVER. Lex looked good in pretty much the first thing she tried on and bought it. I tried on what my mom described as "half the stuff in the store" (although if you've seen the place you'd know there's no way in heck anyone, particularly ME could have). And finally found something and we went to the counter. "You know you can get something free right?" asked the lady, "this is a buy one get something free item..." So we went back and scoured the area for SOMETHING ELSE. Like I said it took forever. And it was a nightmare, before we'd gone to Forever 21 we'd picked up Allison and Lex and Allison wandered around the store alone together. They were so loud and kept saying things like "Who would WEAR that?!" I mean it was mainly true but they had to be so loud IN the store where they were selling it?! Blah. Anyways we finally left and went home. The next day Lex and Allison were in the kitchen making grilled cheese for all the kids and I was in there washing dishes when Allison said "I went Rocky-mountain climbin!" I suddenly exclaimed "NO! NOOOOOOOOO! NO! COUNTRY!" I realized I had done what I have been doing lately - I had begun singing without realizing it. Yep I'm a nerd, I start singing without conscioussly wanting to sing, I just sing. "HOW DID KRIS ALLEN TURN INTO TIM MCGRAW?!?!?!" I shouted turning. I then commenced singing Rock Star. "You're singing country," Allison announced snickering as if she'd just said something extremely clever and had won a point in some game. "NO I'M NOT!" I protested, "It's Rock Star by Nickelback!" "Oh." she replied, diseheveled at her loss of making fun. Anyways Maddi will be here soonish and I have to go take a shower and I feel the need to announce to everyone that the last blog was my seventy fifth!! So this is Seventy six... Lex just started singing "Walkin On Sunshine"... Oh no. Laterz:D

You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch

This is the first day I've gotten online in several days! Ah the holiday season! On Christmas Eve my mom, Lex and I went into town for some last things we needed. We stopped at Food Max and Walmart and the Dollar Store. Traffic was amazingly not bad at all! We picked up the things we needed taking a few hours. By the time we were finished we got a call from grandma saying they were already eating pizza without us at her house! I was starving and so as we walked through the Dollar Store, our last stop, I looked at nearly every food item lustfully and incessantly said "Oooohh!" or "Yum!", "I'm starving!" or "We should get that." It was rather pathetic dragging myself through the little place looking for paper plates and other last minute things. Mom and Lex thought it was pretty funny. "HALIE!" they finally announced, "NEVER shop hungry!!" Or with money in my wallet, I thought... But despite my likely exagerated hunger we laughed and had a good time as usual! So we finally made it to grandma's, great grandma and grandpa Coldenhoff were there, and great aunt and uncle Debbie and Crawford, as well as aunt Tina were over at grandma and grandpa Hunley's. Most of them had already eaten pizza but I think I ate like four pieces.... I ate a lot! They were big pieces. We just hung out for a few hours before heading home. I mostly sat in an old creaky rocking chair and wrote... The kids were promptly put to bed, but first we all opened a present early. As is custom we all got a pair of pajamas to wear that night and Lex and I stayed up with mom for the first time on Christmas night. I helped wrap more presents. The day before I'd spent all morning in there assisting her wrap presents - my legs had been so cramped and ouchhh! But I knew most of what the kids were getting before they got it. I wasn't allowed to wrap or see any of my own of course, but there is no way any one person could've wrapped all those! I must admit my wrapping skills are very bad! My perfectly meticulous sister Lexie, of course was a present wrapping prodigy while I struggled to get my ends to meet. I am not good at guesstimating paper size... Anyways when the presents were wrapped I arranged the presents around the tree. I took a picture with my cell phone - there were soo many! I guess that goes along with all the kids but it was truly amazing lol! All the variety in paper color and pattern and size, it took up quite a space, I'd try to give a rough estimate but as I've already established I'm rather bad at guesstimating sizes!! It took be quite awhile to get them all in and then I went to the kitchen to help mom. I made russian tea cakes and helped her make ginger snaps. Baking was fun, not at all like wrapping presents - you don't have to guess anything, you just put in the right amounts, follow the directions correctly and it's a black and white thing. Either you did it right and everything's perfect or you did it wrong and you FAIL! Pretty much the same with cooking. There are exact measures and easily followed recipes and read and follow the right way and you can't go wrong! It reminds me of life oddly. Have faith and believe God has a plan, the best plan, try your best and you really can't go wrong. Once the cookies were done we stuffed stockings. Lexie helped with this mainly and I just sat and joked and tried to fix one of Lexie's majorly failed Christmas projects. After that Lex was tired and went to bed but I stayed up with mom and helped her made chocolate covered pretzel sticks and clean up before I finally crashed. The next morning the kids were up at 4 AM. They kept coming into my room and being rowdy and loud and nervous until about 6 AM when they finally worked up the nerve to go wake up our parents. Then we all crawled out of our warm beds into the living room. Sam wouldn't quit jumping, he had a LOT of energy for someone who was up at 4 AM! We all sat on the floor and filled the living room floor and began opening. I got so many cool things! I got three Vampire Diaries books, a Vampire Diaries bag, a Grinch doll, an oil painting kit, a cookbook that was so cool, you do all the decorating and recipe adding yourself so it's almost like a scrapbook cookbook, lots of lotion (Ha ha mom, ha ha), and a tooth brush! Then we cleaned the place up a lot, listening to the radio, Kate and I jumped all around the living room singing the entire "His Favorite Christmas Story" song. Grandpa Butch, Grandma Kathy, Great Grandma Rose, Great Grandpa Al, Great Aunt Debbie, Great Uncle Crawford, and cousin Tina came over for breakfast. Quiche, sausage, croissants, etc. They had brought presents for us too, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Crawford and cousin Tina got me some makeup from Sephora, grandma and grandpa Hunley got me a gift card to Forever 21 and some soft peppermint sticks (she know those are my favorite Christmas candy!!) Every year I look forward to soft peppermint sticks, but this year I couldn't find them!! Grandma found them though! I went to my room after awhile, I was getting a headache. Blah I'm tired! I'll finish later! We had MORE relatives over later! Laterz!!

A New Low on Clumsy

This evening to get my 45 minutes of PE I tried my mom's new treadmill for the first time. We took turns trying speeds. I just went higher and higher, "Try 10! Try 10!" Cheered mom and Lex, there were buttons all the way up from 1 - 10 MPH. So I pressed the 10 MPH button... The speed increased VERY rapidly and so did I but I was running by the time it got up to 10 "WHOA!" I yelled running and laughing and trying to keep ballance as my mom and sister laughed hysterically, tripping and imagining Adam from Mythbusters when he got drunk and tried the treadmill. But I laughed too hard and am too klutzy - I fell off the treadmill, hitting my left knee on the way off and landing in a shaking laughing heap on the floor. And yet I still got back on and walked 55 minutes, except on a more leisurely stroll at 3.5 MPH. I cleaned out our fridge today - it was quite the expedition! I scrubbed shelves and drawers and did all those other wonderful things taking the occasional break to watch a few minutes of Sonny with a Chance, among other things. "When I called you a dim wit... I was wrong - you just take your own time at things and think them through. Not like me, I just babble on and I could hit myself afterwards..." Anne Frank just said on this show we're watching! It's an interesting movie. BLAH I'm not thinking much... So goodbye then!

Muffling My Frenzied Laughter

MMFL... It's me, that annoyingly outspoken mudbrown eyed girl here again to do what I do best... Talk! I am a Chattin after all! I remember once looking some things about the name "Chattin" with my dad and finding that the family motto is "A friend to all". That is a motto I would love to live up to! Today we didn't actually get to have an orientation meeting at the O'Neills' because Zach got sick! I got a text last night from Maddi saying he'd gotten offline feeling tired and sick but I'd hoped it wouldn't evolve into a full on flu, instead being a kind of brief odd feeling. Nope. So today we went to music lessons and Emily and I (I blowing off my history test...) went outside and made a few videos with her camera. We played ninja and talked and laughed and I came to further realize how annoyingly my face won't quit moving in weird ways and my eyes rolling to the point where it nearly looks like I'm twitching! Here are a few weird things I learned today: the yo-yo was originally a weapon used in the Philippine jungles, Coca Cola was originally green, the human thigh bone is stronger than concrete and ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine... Most lipstick contains fish scales, in Kentucky it's law that a person must take a bath once a year, the oldest goldfish was 41 and named Fred, by raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot sink in quicksand and lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet! I got to babysit for the Dahms today it was soo fun! They're such good kids and we had a blast. Let me tell you - first time I have played Twister in years!! We ate soup and quesadillas. I actually ate pork.. Because Simon made the quesadillas with pork in them and didn't know I don't eat pork so of course I didn't say anything, because it was technically served to me in someone else's house without knowledge of my eating style. They were good, Simon can make a good quesadilla, but let me just say, despite people's ravings over pork I just don't get it. It's altogether unappealing to me. I played Connect Four with Bryan - he is so adorable! We tied every game and inserted every chip every round! We watched "Planet's Funniest Home Videos" and "The New Jackie Chan Adventures". The Jackie Chan adventures is soo funny! I read Bryan several Blue's Clues books! Bryan, Becca and I played with clay while Simon sat with us and observed. He was extremely amused when I sang "The Saga Begins" and we had many discussions over the hilarity of iCarly. Especially Spencer - I mean that guy is soo funny! I was enlightened to one of Brenten's comments in reply to my "There's a hobo in the bathtub!!" by Simon who knew the episode well. "I've got candy!!" "OOOHH!" "OH BLECH UCK GROSS! This isn't candy!" "Oh yeah I forgot.. It's soap..." When Spencer stole that guy's ice cream, when he kept falling off the top of the taxi! "HAH! I'm wearing a SECOND TOWEL!" "You CHIPPED Freddy?!?!" I can just hear him again screaming "You ate my enchilada!!" I am so excited about Christmas! I love this time of year! And the days are flying so fast now it's unbelievable. The days typically drag by in December, but this year I am just happy to be. Happy to be living, breathing, experiencing life and able to sing constantly, think endlessly, be blessed with so many things and people! To be considerate and think of things that others would enjoy instead of wrapped up in problems. Things aren't too difficult and I feel as though I could conquer just about anything. The kids are excited and chipper and busy too. I can't wait to see their faces Christmas morning! I now love to crochet hats! I don't know what it is but I had to learn three new stitches and how to read a pattern before beginning and now I can do the pattern by heart. Zach's hat was actually my first and Em's my second so I wore them around my house (mainly Zach's I liked his especially oddly). I finally made my own, it's blue. My dad walked into our house today and saw me wearing it, "Is that EM'S hat now?!" He asked. "No!" I laughed, "This one's mine!" Apparently the kids like them because about two kids from my family at least have asked me for one for Christmas! LOL. School is so good, I'm getting good grades so I'm happy with it. Anyways I am TIRED so night! Get well Zach!

Two of My Best Friends

The other day when Zach and Em weren't at music I was doing school. Yeah I know - "Oh she's going to talk about school again! No!" But read just a little longer because I think this one might actually be interesting to you guys! So I had a writing assignment - one paragraph and I got to pick from 6 topics. One of them that I picked was "Two of your best friends". I was to write a compare and contrast paragraph so I did. It was on Zach and Brenten...




"Two of my best friends are Zach and Brenten. Although they have similar interests the two are very different. Both are very knowledgable about a lot of things and always up for a challenge. But while Brenten's loud, energetic and funny Zach is usually more quiet, thoughtful and laid back. Both are confident in whatever they do and always ready to back up a friend in need. Zach likes fencing, Brenten likes gymnastics, but both agree airsoft is great! Zach is ever the scientist, theorizing and building while Brenten is more likely to want to get out and try EVERYTHING. Brenten likes rock music, Zach prefers classical. When facing an obstacle Zach thinks, "How can I change the situation to get someone to to this for me?" Brenten thinks, "How much dynamite will it take to blow this thing up?" So in the end they have very similar interests - just different ways of achieving them."

Just one paragraph was the assignment and it was mainly a small accumulation of facts, but I personally loved it. Best assignment I've ever had to do, I mean writing about my friends? Piece of cake! Anyways so it's Christmas time again. The time of year I absolutely love but am also kind of a scrooge. Ever watch those movies where everyone's sitting there reading "The Night Before Christmas" and some old grandfather pipes up "There's no such thing as Santa Clause!" Well I'm that grandfather. I just can't stand the whole Santa Clause thing! I mean it's not like I go around telling kids Santa's not real, but I can't stand it when I siblings get into all that. Lexie, on the other hand, is completely on board with the whole Santa thing. She talks about him and tells the kids about it and reads that stupid story. I always tell the kids, "Santa's not real." (They are the only kids I say that to of course!). I don't like lying and I don't like telling about Santa around Christmas. I'm sorry, I just naturally reject it. The kids of course already knew Santa wasn't real. I always read them the Christmas story and I love Christmas, I totally get into it and we always have lots of fun! Don't think I don't like Christmas or I want to make the kids sad... I just don't like Santa. Anyways tomorrow is going to be so fun! I can't wait! Today I was texting Madison when she texted "I guess Brenten broke his arm..." "WHAT? HOW?" "Yeah I just saw he had been talking to Em and said he broke his arm... He was riding his bike and he swerved to miss a skunk..." "Seriously? Is he okay? His BIKE? You mean the motor bikes?!" "I guess so, I was talking to him earlier." "He was on the computer?!!" "Halie, it's a BROKEN ARM. He still has one arm." "So he types with one arm? Do you have any idea how hard that is?!?!" I still have no idea whether or not his arm is broken but I bought the story wholeheartedly as you can see... I have a feeling this is an 'Atlantis' moment... I wrote my "Sam" description again a couple weeks ago - I think I only showed Lex and Em so I'll have to show Zach tomorrow. I keep forgetting, it's the new improved Sam description where he actually has blue eyes... Yeah Brenten Zach has officially joined the ranks of people who I forgot a key facial feature color when writing a description for their character. Yes I now realize Brenten has red hair. Yes I now remember Zach has blue eyes. Oh yes and Brenten, just in case you decide to temporarily abandon the life Zach says you have and makes you too good to check my blog - I cannot believe you! I mean really! You are SO going to get it my friend! Anyways I don't think I'll jeopardize the non sleeping tomorrow night by going for a two night in a row all nighters when everyone else went to bed so early to protect tomorrow's... Good night!

Well I Met Her Up in Delaware in 1937

She was wearing red lipstick,
To match her pretty dress,
December twenty-fourth,
At a quarter to eleven's
When I finally got the courage,
To ask her to dance...

Ten years later,
As he took his last breath,
It was a cold Christmas morning,
In a hospital bed,
The children were grown,
He had nobody left,
But the little old nurse,
Who was holding his hand,
'Ma'am could ya spread,
A little holiday cheer?',
A simple Christmas story's,
All he wanted to hear,
But his eyes filled with tears,
At the words she spoke,
Because his favorite,
Christmas story was the one that she told.

She said:
I met him up in Delaware,
In nineteen-thirty-seven,
But I never caught his name,
He was a traveling man,
December twenty fourth,
At a quarter to eleven,
I'm so glad he got the courage,
To ask me to dance.



This Christmas song is so awesome, I have been waiting for Air 1 to play it all season and finally they are! Today my dad's friend came to visit us. His name is Max and he's worked in both California and Alaska with my dad, they get along really well. So he's still here just hanging out. Blah! I have to go! Never enough time! Well I got the main point across right?? LOL

With Every Step You Climb Another Mountain

With every breath it's harder to believe! You make it through the pain. Another hurricane - there are no boundaries!

Last night, or this morning, rather, I stayed up until 3 AM with my now good friend Napoleon. I've been tired all day and met with my ES. The meeting went alright, but afterwards I hadn't eaten so we went out and got a Hot N Ready. Yum, yum. We stopped by a store on Lexie's request and I, of course, blew my money. I didn't have anything for Lexie for Christmas, so I was looking. I was taking a stroll down the CD isle when I saw displayed on top the new Taylor Swift CDs, "Speak Now". There were only two left and I knew this was what I'd been looking for. I grabbed a few CDs, stacking them in my hand: ACDC's Back in Black and an REO Speedwagon to hide both sides of the Taylor Swift CD. I walked out of the store with a Taylor Swift CD, and REO Speedwagon and a spool of black thread for my other Christmas projects. I promised the B word story, so I'll give it. But I'm even more reluctant now that I've rechecked the definitions of the word. Yeah, it's not good. So one holiday we were in Alaska, my grandparents were visiting and we went out to breakfast. At this time Bradley was the baby. He wouldn't stop crying and crying in the middle of the small family resteraunt and my mom kept gently shushing him. "Bradley," said toddler Kate, not at all aware of what she was saying, "Ya little _____!" Her eyes lit up and everyone at our table (aside from me, even at this age I was oblivious and missed it manily) gasped and covered their mouths. But laughs soon broke out, the people at the table next to us, however, kept glancing over after that and we didn't stay long. I am tired. Way tired. I need to sleep. Like more than 4 or 5 hours. Like more than 8 or 10 in 48 hours... I still have to finish my report on Napoleon, so I'll have more work to do on that soon as well as a few other things to finish up the semester. School isn't very difficult for me right now - thank you, God. I might go into Algebra 2 this year, but I think that depends a lot on whether a certain curriculum makes it. Also I've found I probably won't even have my permit for at LEAST another six months due to numerous classes. I need 30 hours, but must the classes be so spaced? Tiffany and Derek went to the same academy I'm considering and I am feeling rather downtrodden about the whole thing. I still have to call both them and Miladi's for a price quote since that burden's on my shoulders now apparently... Anwyays I gotta sleep. Laterz is becoming soo old. Blah. So GGGGOOOOOOOODDDDBYYYYYYYYYYYEE!!!

Black Cat

Nine lives, short days long nights - livin' on the edge, not afraid to die! Heart beat real strongbut not for long! Ya better watch your step or you're gonna die!

Madison, apparently despises this song, but it's been stuck in my head all day so she's going to have to deal with it! I made the mistake of turning on Band Hero this morning and singing this song. It was stuck all day. And worse, my younger sister, Abbie, always gets that one stuck in her head so with prompting it was ten times worse as we BOTH walked around humming, tapping and singing it. Today I procrastinated my 5 page report for history I have to do. That right, have - I'm still working on it. I had decided to do it on the Industrial Revolution, despite the fact that I consulted my friends and two of them didn't understand what I was talking about and the third wholeheartedly suggested Napoleon. But it turns out other than the locomotive and the cotton mill not only is it hard to find innovative creations, but it's also difficult to decipher the first and second Industrial Revolutions' information. If anyone is wondering why I am talking kind of unusual it's because I'm still in report mode and everything has to be perfectly grammatically correct and make sense unlike my usual posts of grammatical incorrectness and random senseless rambling. Now It's all boring sensible rambling.. Isn't that better? Anyways so I eventually came to the conclusion that the Industrial Revolution, while it yielded factories and the discovery of coal as fuel was lame and not particularly interesting to write a 25 paragraph report on. So I Googled Napoleon, just to see how much info it would bring up... It was a gold mine. Not only was Napoleon a freaking military genius, but his life was so amazingly eventful between him and his 7 siblings including his favorite, his sister Pauline with one of the most horrible reputations on the planet. His father died when he was 15. He joined the Militaire and completed a program in one year that usually took others three years to complete. This was supposedly spurred on by his father's death. They had to flee his home in the middle of the night in 1793 because his brother Lucien made bad comments in a public area. His life was just filled with inumerable things that make it so easy to write about! With this in mind it was a no brainer to change my topic to Napoleon. Yeah I should've listened to Zach... I made my party invites tonght! Gotta work on my report - Laterz!!

Can't Buy Me Love

Love, Can't buy me love! I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright! I'll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright! 'Cause I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love.



This day eleven years ago my second closest in age sister, Katlyn was born. Yes, that's right, today was Kate's birthday. That means we woke up to cinamon rolls and drove an hour or two to get to Roseville, where we met up with grandma and grandpa for lunch at John's Incredible Pizza. John's, if you've never been there, is sort of like a Chuck E. Cheese's for bigger kids, of course it still has games for younger kids, but the point is - it also has cooler ones for larger kids ;). They have waay better pizza though (As in edible, as in not having the consistency of cardboard). Not only that, they have a pizza/salad/pasta buffet. So we ate and then entered the wild noisy game area each group of three armed with a 150 credit card (they use credits on a card as opposed to tokens, you just swipe your card through any game and it take the credits or even adds your tickets to the card if you want). They have Guitar Hero with two guitars for warring, it's better to get your own but hey! They had Dance Dance Revolution, and no this did not teach me to dance so I'm still in a tight spot here. I didn't even get to try because Lex didn't want to do it and when I went to do it with Kate then I was pulled away to this tiny train roller coaster for little kids to ride with my bro Sam in the very front row. And let me tell you, that thing goes very fast and whips around those corners!! We went to the mini bowling ally and had some fun there. We did a lot! And by the time we were finnished we were all very tired! We stopped off on the way home and bought a Christmas tree, so as soon as Kate's birthday's officially over we can set it up. And drag out all those ornaments from the shed and... ouch. Tis the season. It's funny in any household really, how you can tell what was done by each member just by looking at the circumstances of a mess, or object or project when you live there. A very simple example would be that the other day my sister came to me clutching a handful of papers. "Here, I thinkthese are yours." "Why do you think those are mine?" "Well I didn't check the handwriting but... It's a bunch of papers... with a lot of handwriting on it..." I checked, they were mine... It leaves me to wonder exactly how predictable I am, or if it's just because we're siblings. The past few days I've been excitedly getting together things to send out invitations to my party. My mom mentioned yesterday something about Allison and my party in the same sentence. Immediately my reaction was, "MOM I do NOT want her there. She can't come." I was then told the story of how she wanted to not only come, but bring her newest boyfriend. My mom started, "I know shared birthdays with her in the past have been bad but this won't be shared... This is all yours... Well actually..." It was agreed in the end, Allison and especially her newest greatest boyfriend aren't coming. So you're all safe. For now. In fact to avoid future problems and annoyance at spelling her name I'll cal her by her character's name that I made for her.. Dana... Better. Tolerable. I'm too tired to either make sense or be of any improvement to anyone's lives... In fact I just made a mean joke at two of my best friends' expense. Not at all like me. Sorry guys! Laterz

It's Not Over!

Cause part of me is dead and in the ground! This love is killin' me but you're the only one! It's not over!

I was recently enlightened further to more of the lyrics of this song namely by the O'Neills' Wii Karoke... Hm. Thank you Maddi, for your opinion on what you've seen of my story ;)), I'll get more over to you as I type it onto the computer and start to edit. Derek and I have agreed he can read it as well when it's all edited and be the test person, and editor and also that everyone is going to buy it and we will be rich... So moving on. It was brought to my attention by several people that I have no blog posts for December, and that, apparently, is a crime. Plus Zach was persuaded to make a blog post to remove my excuse that he wasn't posting anything on HIS blog so now both my excuses have been destroyed and I am in the spot where I am void of an excuse... So here goes nothing! Tuesday was our end-of-legos party. We went to Brenten's house and met in the noticeably different looking lego room. As we pulled up I was still struggling to create an iTunes account on my mom's new iPhone with the touch screen. The biggest difference was probably the lack of an obstacle table and hardly any legos around. Before we moved on to more omportant things (getting lung workouts from laughing so hard) we were given and end of the year challenge. We each were given a lego set and told to find someone younger and shorter than us and to explain to them what FIRST is. Also we build the set with them and write an essay which we then send to Mrs. Fillmore. Whilst this was being explained my mom had a sudden idea she shared with me. To take videos and pictures before, after and during the construction and explanation, make them a video with cool music and effects and everything else. I loved it! But I'll probably do the essay as well just to make sure I'm fulfilling requirements and because I've always been a goody two shoes like that. Now I just need to pick a single song (that will probably be the most difficult part for me...) and the rest is cake. After that it was announced that they had lego rock band set up that we got to play! I sat the first song out and listened to Andrew and Ben on guitars, Derek on drums and Brenten singing - "The Final Countdown"!! After that Brenten wanted to go to his favored Rock Band instrument, guitar. Andrew gave up his guitar, but could not be convinced to sing. "Who wants to sing?" asked Brenten, "Andrew?" "No. Want to sing Halie?" he replied quietly. "Well... okay. Yeah! I'll sing." Brenten: "Lexie?" "NO!" Lexie replied, eyes widening in horror. "I'll sing," I repeated. "YOU'LL sing?" Brenten asked loudly, smirking. Derek turned to face me at his drums with an impish grin and a cackle, "You will?! I'm going to play like this so I can watch the entire time!" They continued, but I ignored the teasing from that point on, "What are we playing?" "You Give Love A Bad Name," Brenten said turning again just to grin condescendingly. "Oh thanks guys! Thank you for the encouragement! I'm REALLY confident now!" "Don't listen to them, Halie," Andrew said, "You'll do great!" "Thanks Andrew." For the record we did not fail. "See?!" I said aloud, "I didn't totally bomb!" After that we played a few more songs before everyone switched instruments. Well almost everyone, I didn't. Brenten gave up the guitar to Lexie and took over my controller, choosing the songs mainly. Lexie and he had some control issues... But the one song they mutually agreed on was "Life is a Highway". I held the mic out, "Wanna sing?" B: "Do you want to sing?" Me: "I don't know do you?" B: "Do you NOT want to?" "Well no, but you can if you want, you-" and the singing part began. LOL. At one point Derek said "We have a co-singer!" because Brenten was singing too and then Brenten pretended to be the backup singer! A while later Brenten had me sing this song that 1. I'd never heard before, 2. Was very high and 3. Computer voice-y. Three strikes, I thought as I started, I'm so out... Brenten knew pretty much every word. I sang "Free Fallin'" when it began the first three notes my mom shouted "Tom Petty!!". After lots and lots of songs we unanimously agreed to go play ninja. It was dark, when the most animated games occur! I explained to Ben how to play but he got out pretty quickly and as soon as he did I suddenly realized why, "OH! Ben! I'm so sorry! I forgot to tell you! You can dodge when someone's going for your hand! I'm so sorry, Ben!" We played a LOT. I admittedly elbowed Brenten in the back kind of hard. And that was mean. But how can I refrain when he turns his back to me over and over and over and OVER?! Once everyone left we, (Lex, Brenten and I) walked to the end of the driveway in the dark. It's always so fun when we get to do that! But we waited for awhile and decided to walk back. We were about halfway there when Mr. Fillmore pulled up in the car and stopped next to us. He gave us coats, but allowed us to continue walking in the dark after many assurances from us three that not only were we not cold and didn't need coats, but were having tons of fun! There was a lot of talking and it was VERY random as usual. We can talk in song in case anyone didn't know. Yesterday Alexis and I went to the airsoft game at Zach and Emily's house. We totally need it, I spent the two days prior to that doing school all day both days. We had to get our school done before we could go and I had thought it was the last week in the semester.. On the bright side I have finnished my Geometry and Language for the semester two weeks early... Anyways we played airsoft for a time span I'm not really sure of because I'm terrible at keeping track of time, especially with my friends! It was so fun! Taylor, Andrew L., Derek, Andrew V., and of course Zach, Em, Lex and I were there. We played and played and I'm not bothering to describe it until we went in for lunch. By "Went in for lunch" I mean, as Mrs. O'Neill said, "8 teenagers... swarmed my kitchen table for lunch like hungry locusts..." After lunch we played Capture the Flag, and the last teams were pretty evenly matched, taking turns gaining and losing ground until my team won because Em disappeared. We were all on the porch when she walked out from the house, "Oooh you're in trou-ble!" I said. "Yes you ARE!" Andrew V said, turning, "You were supposed to be guarding! Why did you go in the house?!" Emily: "You told me to circle around to the back! And I did, but I got killed and so I went in the house for a drink!" "Why didn't you revive yourself at base?!" "I was thirsty!!" By this time the Laws had left in the middle of the game and since we were having trouble deciding on our next game when Andrew V questioned, "Why don't we play ninja?" Everyone shouted "YEAH!" and immediately began shedding camo and jumping off the porch onto the lawn. We played ninja until Derek's mom picked him and Andrew V. up. Then we went inside and found some very sudden news that my mom had called about.. We tried making elf hats because it had been in the description for the elf party. And I pulled out some pictures I'd recently gotten (in all reality we only looked at about 1/3 of the ones I had) and about 1/2 of them were originally taken from Em's camera... Apparently I take Em's pics a lot. And I had not gone through them very well which is why we found the one of me wearing the multicolored velcro suit... Have you ever wondered what it would be like to put on a velcro suit and throw yourself at a velcro wall? I asked several times. "Yeah!" Said Zach. Well I was at this fair type thingy when I found that and I had actually wondered about that before! So I just HAD to try it, so I put on the colorful suit and humiliatingly had my picture taken both before and while I was stuck to the wall. LOL. I began practically chanting "Let's play Speed!" Em: "You're obsessed with Speed." "Let's play Karoke!" Em: "You're obsessed with Karoke." But eventually I got them to play karoke ;)). It was really fun, we all sang two songs and then decided to walk to a nearby park. Zach said it was about a half mile walk. We walked there and played tag while singing Weird Al songs, especially "Grapefruit Diet" and "Fat". Okay I mostly sang those two alone... We played tag so long that we had to hurry home so we'd be there before my mom arrived to pick us up. We got there before my mom. When we got there Marissa, Megan and Derek were already there. Derek was still in camo pants, as I pointed out several times, he consistently answered "Well I already changed once today, why change again?" Others soon arrived, the next time there was a knock at the door everyone rushed over, "Can I answer your door?" I asked Savannah. "Yeah," she laughed. I threw it open, "Welcome!!" It was Hannah and Ben (Payne)! They brought Lucky Charms. After that Taylor, Andrew and Mrs. Law arrived. There was a lot of excited chatter and everyone talked to everyone. I made sure ;)) I even introduced Hannah to Zach and Derek. They didn't talk much, but they talked. I was so happy to be there where I knew everyone so well! Brenten wasn't there, which sucked, but it was definitely one of our best events! I'm so glad Savannah actually acted on our idea! She's emosewa. It was not long before the spaghetti was done. Everyone eyed the kitchen quietly. I happened to be close to the kitchen. Megan pushed me forward, sending me stumbling into the kitchen, "Go first, Halie!" "I don't know if I'm that hungry... Why couldn't you go first Megan?! You were closest!" "I don't do things first." "Okay!" I stepped up and got some noodles. Turning to go to the barful of candy I saw the line had built behind me. As I reached the bar my mom asked, "You're really going to do it, Halie?!" "OH YEAH!" We all got pretty much everything and tried it I think. At first it was good, then the lucky charms and pop tarts soaked up the syrup and the M&Ms turned the noodles first candy coating colors and then chocolate brown! Ben started: "It's actually good! I like it!" 3 seconds later "AUGH I'm gonna barf! It's disgusting!" So in the end it's alright - you just have to eat fast!! Once we'd all stomached as much as we could of our Elf spaghetti we moved on the the living room for the movie. Most of us got on the couch, Marissa, Savannah and Taylor didn't though, they sat elsewhere... I think the original order was something like Lexie, Megan, Emily, Derek, Zach, Andrew, Me, Hannah and Ben. We all sqeezed in lol. And so the movie began, and as usual it was hilarious, especially with friends! People kept getting up for snacks, Zach got up and Megan ran over to take his spot. When he returned he sat on both Megan and Andrew until Andrew relinquished his spot and Zach sat there, Megan left I think and Andrew took Zach's old spot and lots of other switches as people got up! The order changed to Lexie, Derek, Emily, Megan, Andrew, Zach, Me, Hannah and Ben. This put Zach in the perfect position to tickle both Andrew and I when Em decided to announce to the whole room that I'm extremely ticklish and then everyone tried it on everyone and it was discovered so were Andrew, and Megan! "TICKLE FIGHT!" Rang throughout the room... Thaaaanks Buddy! Zach kept torturing Andrew and I with tickling throughout the movie!! When the movie ended we were picking up the rug (Mrs. Anderson made LOTS of popcorn!) and Andrew announced "Brenten has this spot in his ribs where if you poke him he like flys three feet in the air!!" I only half heard his words while picking popcorn out of the rug and Zach unhesitantly leaned over and poked me in the ribs. "AUGH!" I flew back as far as into the couch, spilling popcorn everywhere. "OH my gosh!" I sputtered, "I didn't believe it! Oh my gosh! That was insane! It was... unbelievably ticklish! I didn't believe it! It actually worked!!" Immediately Zach and Andrew's eyes had widened, there was a pause before they both cracked up laughing! After that I was necessarily cautious of both my knees AND my ribs! Once the popcorn was all picked up Taylor said, "Let's go outside and play ninja!" "Can we?" Everyone turned to the moms. "One game," my mom agreed. We all pulled on our shoes, threw on coats and ran out into the pouring rain. I was too slow and as I ran out everyone ws already beginning, "Hey what am I, the ticklish chopped liver?!" I shouted. They restarted for me, because they're all so nice like that. We all played, running and chopping in the rain before ducking into the garage and squeaking our shoes on the floor, twisting them back and forth. We were the last to leave, a picture was taken of Emily, Lex, Morgan, Savannah, Zach and I in elf hats in the garage! Em got lots of pictures too! I can't wait to see! I didn't see ANY! Zach picked up some random kitten, it was soaking wet and tiny. Once he put it down he wiped his hands, "Man it was wet! It was a nice cat." "It probably had rabies," I said, ever optimistic. We had a very long, very awesome, very ticklish car ride and sang lots of Weird Al too! By the way Zach, I still have your elf hat lol, I'll return it ASAP!! Anyways I'm all blogged out! So Laaateeeerrrzz!!!

Come Together

Right now!... This morning I was woken up between 3 and 4 AM... My mom poked her head in my doorway and said "Hey if you want to go with me you'd better get up!" So I got up and threw on some clothes and shoes. When my mom checked me a few minutes later I was searching my dark room for my wallet... Lex was still asleep in our room so I was in the dark, my dog sprawled out on my bed still asleep and me on the ground crawling around looking for my wallet. "What are you doing?" "I'm looking for my wallet." She laughed, "You lost your wallet? Halie that is so you! Only you, only you..." I didn't find it so we charged out into the 4 AM cold and into the car. Our first stop was a Walmart to look for a Band Hero. They had JUST sold the last one right before we got there. So we went to another Walmart and couldn't find them. When we asked a sales clerk in the electronics she said she hadn't seen one all day. She looked and looked at all these maps and things and finally found out that someone had set up a Rock Band display in the Bakery!!! So we went to the Bakery and there was this big stack of them - apparently not many people had noticed them there. We found two Wii ones and hurriedly got one and carried it immediately over to the registers - I felt almost thieflike carrying the big thing with my mom in such a hurry. We then went to Toys R Us. Most of the kids' Christmas lists had been made up of toys from this store. I would turn to piles of toys and recognize them (I being the Christmas list writer) and shout "Kate wanted that!" or "Sam asked for that TWICE and cried when I refused to write it on his list twice!" we left with a basket full of toys when I wouldn't quit saying "This place is filling up... We should go...." We saw the electronic section on the way out. They actually had a section walled off with two exits and security at each one! We didn't go in the line was big. Next was Kohl's. People at this store were actually way more mild mannered than at the other stores! As in hordes of people weren't rushing around - the hordes were a little more laid back and dignified... If that's possible.. Upon entering we met up with two of my mom's friends Esther and Sonya. We didn't buy anything when we saw the HUGE line for the registers that we thought stretched around the store (We didn't stay to find out...). We went to Big Lots because I wanted to see if they still had a slicK so I could check it out but when we got there they had no MP3 players at all! The lady there said that the first wave of customers had wiped them out as soon as they opened the doors! We then realized that was really the only reason we'd gone to that store so we left. My mom said "Why don't we go into Big 5?" trying to cheer me up a little so we did. This poor guy's job was to stand in the door and greet people. He was wearing a short sleeved shirt for work and it was freezing cold but he still greeted everyone really nicely! We went and looked at the airsoft things (See what my teacher did to me way back when?!?! I automatically [That's A-U-T-O-M-A-T-I-C-A-L-L-Y Brenten ;))] shy away from saying "Stuff" and instead say "things"). But we were really hungry so we left before too long. Then my mom and I, after admiring the RISING OF THE SUN (seeing as it had been down before this) went to eat. I voted for Denny's - it reminded me of my great granfather Franz (Yes Franz, he was born in Switzerland). My great grandpa (grossfadi LOL) Franz loves Denny's. Once when we went on a trip to San Diego (Awesome hilarious trip I'll have to write about it later) the only places we stopped at were Denny's'. So anyways my mom got a Grand Slam and I built my own slam because I didn't want to eat the pork bacon. I got pancakes, eggs, hash browns and turkey bacon and I was barely able to finish it! I actually didn't finish my eggs... Then I convinced my mom to take me to Radio Shack since it could be seen from the Denny's window - it was that close. SO we went and she ended up buying a Wii rechargeable battery station and a new phone for Lex and I and some other 'things'. The phone was really cool! The girl who was helping us had an accent and she kept saying "thas a rreally goodeal" rolling her r's. Then we went home and played lotsa Band Hero. My mom let us open it early as an early Christmas present. We still need a third Wii controller for the drums which I think mom and dad are getting today. The drum set is really cool because it has all five colors because it has three drums to hit and two cymbals above to hit. I can do the singing and guitar pretty well. Kate likes "Paralyzer" and my mom likes it when I sing "Bring Me To Life" which I also love singing. I like singing period.. My mom was kidding with me earlier that day because some guy on the radio said "I think in song now!" and I repeated it and my mom laughed and said "Halie! You're all 'That's not normal? I've done it since I was born!'". I really particularly like singing a song on there by Cheap Trick that I keep forgetting the name of... It has three Taylor Swift songs and Dirty Little Secret too. We've been playing a lot of Band Hero since Friday. I got to talk to Maddi via text and Andrew via Facebook. In fact Andrew said "I gtg Taylor and Brenten want me." and I said "You guys are lucky to live so close!" Andrew: "Who?" Me: "You guys and the Fillmores." Andrew: "Oh. Yeah. Brenten and Brenna are over. It's nice." then he left. I texted Maddi immediately "Brenten and Brenna are at the Laws'. I'm jealous. Wish we lived closer." I felt bad after that. Jealousy sucks. And I had no right to be jealous at all! Soooo if any of you read this that I just mentioned I'm sorry I tainted your thoughts with my jealousy. Annnnyways I remembered right after that that we live pretty close to the O'Neills so that's a definite he UGE plus ;)). But I'm getting tired and boring and would rather chat and write my story so I'll go. Laterz!!

Twist and Shout

Shake it up baby! (Shake it up baby) Twist and shout! (Twist and shout!) I really love this song but that's nothing new. The Beatles are awesome. Exactly why I looked like an idiot cleaning up my yard the other day chanting "I am the walrus! Koo koo kitchoo!" (Or however it is that you're supposed to spell that...). So two really exciting things happened yesterday. I mean among the other awesome exciting things of course because this house never stops! But Dad came home yesterday! He flew in in the morning from Alaska and my mom picked him up and brought him home. The kids were so funny, Kate was afraid to leave the house. "Kate!" I said laughing, "Go hug your dad!!" They warmed up quick and then found the Cooking Mama disk for our Wii. Did I ever mention my dislike for Cooking Mama? I really really don't like it! Plus my siblings got it for Nintendo DS so they can now take it anywhere and I'm convinced that it was created expressly for the purpose of HAUNTING ME WITH THE SOUND EFFECTS WHEREVER I GO. So anyways they got on that and I chrocheted and then Katlyn again asked me to teach her to chrochet. "Fine." I finally agreed, she'd been asking for ages! So that led, as previously suspected, to Abbie asking me to teach her, which led (hilariously enough) to Bradley asking if I would teach him... "Bradley," said Kate, "You want to learn to chrochet? Chrocheting's for gi- oh!" The "OH" signifies about the point where I signed for her to shut up. "Chrocheting is SO not just for girls, Kate! That's such a... stereotype? Nah something else. Bradley can learn, I'll teach him." So when Dad got home from an errand he'd run with mom the first thing Bradley said to him was, "Hey dad guess what? I'm learning to chrochet! I'm getting really fast! It's really fun! Do you want to learn dad?" Dad: "Well ah... Frankly I'd rather go dig a hole in the backyard or something Bradley... But I guess if I got really bored I could chrochet..." I sat in the corner smirking and trying to keep a straight face. I am responsible for teaching my brother to chrochet, and I don't think it's going to hurt the kid. I am personally going to make sure that boy can cook before he gets out of this house too. Having many skills never hurt anyone. Anyways so all that day we just hung out. And also I got a major creative streak. For me that means writing! In fact I've had my creative streak all week and I've been ignoring it. My creativity gets low sometimes and I end up not writing for long periods of time but when it comes back it comes back with a bang! I NEED to write and I get tons of interesting ideas and think of odd things I wouldn't think of when I was thinking less creatively. So finally yesterday I couldn't ignore it a second longer. I was sitting on the couch doing something when I just jumped up randomly and ran down the hall shouting "I need a pen and some paper! Guys, guys where's a pen?! My creative streak's here!" I sat on my bed writing for a looong time. Lex hates it because I read her pieces and I loooovee cliffhangers, meaning she's left to wonder what goes next when it's not even written yet. Anyways today my mom and I drove around to like three convenience stores before we found one with newspapers. We bought two he UGE newspapers and went home. All day we've been looking through them. I was put officially in charge of Christmas wish lists. THAT was hectic. All the kids surrounded me - I told them "You have to show me the exact ad! I want the name, price and at what store." Sam went totally crazy, he wants everything... I was looking at all the MP3 players. They look cool. I'm comparing stores brands and prices. I'm still not entirely convinced I shouldn't hold out and save for an iPod just because they're so awesome and durable, but I'm looking. I found one called a slicK. It's only a 4GB but it looked interesting (not as great as iPod of course) so we'll see what happens. Lex was really wanting a Literati which is like another eReader like a Nook. I liked the Nook, but there's just too many cool things to see in technology ;)). I have to admit though, the Nook did look cool, definitely a "Look into it more" type of thing. I have a lot of those right now thanks to the ads... But we had an awesome dinner and all ate lots and got to visit with my grandma and grandpa Hunley and great aunt and uncle Bruce and Karen. We watched the movie "How to Train Your Dragon". Or in my case most of it. I was late in coming but it was cute. Funny. My grandfather the Marine referred to it as "That brainwashing show" but then again he refers to most TV shows like that that aren't on the hunting or History channels or the like... LOL. By the way, Em, I MIGHT have declared it Beatles Appreciation Month because you said you didn't like them.... But come on! They're awesome! You'll see. They rock ;). Anyways I'm going Black Friday shopping with my mom tomorrow. It's going to be insane so I'd better go to bed now! Laterz!!

Love, Love Me Do

You know I love you! I'll always be true, so love, love me do! Alright so yesterday I got up at about 5:30… That’s right AM, lol. I did my whole “Ready in 10 minutes - wait where’s…?” thing and then entered the dark kitchen, an unusual sight for me when it’s supposed to be MORNING. I got out one of my most favoritest things to eat – a homemade pita with and egg, butter and cheese inside. Doesn’t that sound so healthy? My mom didn’t have anything to do with this one, after I started making pitas I decided I liked pitas but I didn’t like hummus so I eat other things in them. This is one of my favorites that I came up with along with something like a meatball sandwich pita style. I like them just with pizza sauce and parmesan because I’m not a big meatball person and don’t really mind their absence. Anyways so we ran around getting everything together, people kept running through the kitchen as I just sat there eating my pita thingy happily. Mom and Lex applied makeup – I ate breakfast ;). On further reflection I think their plan all along was to get donuts later but whatever. Kate, Lil, Lex, mom and I got in the car, I opened the gate as usual, it was really cold and I remember advising Alexis to put on a bigger warmer coat because it was cold, but she ignored me because she loves her black and white jacket. We got a call from Mrs. Fillmore, I answered my mom’s phone unwillingly, “Hello?” “Hey Tanya, we’re just-” “It’s Halie… Umm.. Here’s my mom…”. Anyone who’d only talked to me on the phone would really think I was mean! And illiterate. I should fix that. So anyways we dropped Katie and Lil off at grandma’s house and started off for 7Eleven where we were meeting the Fillmores. I tried to get my mom to let Brenten ride in our car, but I was still asleep and my persuasive skills were mediocre so it was a no. Mom and Lex got donuts in 7Eleven, I sat in the car trying not to fall asleep until Mrs. Fillmore brought me this elevator speech Brenten and Mr. Fillmore had written up to me. It was a long ride there, we turned up the radio (Which mom turned from 98.5 to Air 1, I almost always change it to 98.5 although I think Air 1’s epic). As I said before I was still asleep so my singing was horrible! Even worse than usual, but I loved it and it was really fun. It’s one of my newest things with my mom because she bought a pair of sunglasses she likes and one she’s decided she dislikes, so when she puts on hers I put on the other pair just for laughs. I’ve never worn them outside the car. So I wore the sunglasses and sang and sang and sang…. Yeah Air 1’s awesome ;). We finally arrived and the Ewens pulled up right behind us. It was still cold but we were all good. “Good morning, how are you today?” asked Mr. Ewen. I laughed, “Good morning! Me? I’m still asleep!” He laughed too and replied, “It doesn’t look like it - you’re smiling and talking.” SO apparently I wasn’t as slow looking as I was in my mind. The whole day was a blur really, we had the competition in a school gym and only 12 teams were there. We wandered around looking at other teams' projects but it wasn't long before Brenten realized a piece of their board was different from ours and when we tested our regular working programs it was clear that this was a fatal mistake. We had to rewrite several parts and our runs didn't go so well - several of our pieces were noncooperative or malfunctional and we scored 100 even for our first run. We were very optimistic though, we didn't let it get to us, we focused on the small victories one by one smiling and kidding around and high fiving. We went to Project where we encountered a very skeptic judge who was unimpressed by our play and kept talking about the similarities between our project and Obamacare and privacy issues. We forgot to say it was HIPPA compliant and we didn't actually have a trifold or handouts which I think might've helped our case, but we had fun doing the skit even if I stumbled over one of my more recently added lines and caused an awkward pause before I tried to correct myself in the line. It was actually kind of more like he was grilling us and the second juge only asked like one question. Then we went to Teamwork which we aced because we four are such good friends ;)). I mean really, I look at my friendships with a few of my friends like Brenten, Derek, Emily, Zach and such and it just makes other perfectly good friendships look almost akward because we're just so much ourselves together. Then we went to Robot Design, that went pretty well except one of our programs we were trying to show the judges had issues and destroyed one of the obstacles, I laughed nervously, "Ah we'll have to fix that, guys." and picked it up. They were really interested in one Derek built for the stent, funny that was Derek's favorite too. We should've showed it to them. Mrs. Fillmore made us wear our costumes around for the rest of the day. We had a LOT of fun!! And we shared lots of jokes, learned a lot and had an overall great time. I totally expected to be passed on to the next level but we weren't. We all did the YMCA, I did the motions at least, nothing more despite promting from various people - I just can't do things like that! There's no set way to do it so I have no confidence whatsoever that whatever it is that I'm doing is right... Anyways our team got the Judges' Award for as they said "Pretty much everything that could go wrong on the board for this team did, but they faced it all optimistically and with a smile." It was very true and I was being pessimistic when I said "So pretty much we failed everything optimistically..." because no, we didn't. We did really well and grew and improved our lives in my opinion (I almost just typed 'lices' instead of 'lives'.. "We improved our lices" that's horrible!). Afterwards I was disappointed to be leaving my friends even after spending the whole day with them! And we didn't even get to follow the Fillmores back "I think they're hooking up with friends" said my mom, thus dooming us to wander around without certainty where exactly we were until we finally used our GPS and found an In N Out Burger. Yumm. Then we stopped by Winco because my mom apparently knew what Tim Tams were and wanted some. We didn't find any but we bought some other cookies and went home. This time we listened to both 98.5 and 99.1 and by the time we got to grandma's to pick up the kids I was pretty much dead on my feet. I grouchily helped get the kids in the car and we went home where I joined the family for prayers before falling into bed and sleeping like a log until this morning when I realized I forgot to change my alarms from super loud waking me up at 5: 30... NOOOOOOO!!! Anyways Laterz!!

They Say it Sounds Insane

We say that we've been changed by the power of CRAZY LOVE! The world, they look at us like we're rediculous, maybe it's all because of CRAZY LOVE!! I'm watching Psych and chrocheting a scarf right now... This weekend was sooo boring I had total, as Brenten said cabin fever. I didn't really think of it as Cabin Fever because it's so much worse in Alaska! In the Summer it's one of the most amazing places to be! But in the Winter, if you don't have tons of awesome toys and get yourself out and about you'll go totally insane. So I rode with my mom to pick Sam up from his class because it was going on the third day in a row I hadn't left the house. We ended up stopping by Walmart on the way home and I went looking in the Sporting Goods for airsoft because Madison had said something about seeing it there reminding me that the guys always said it was there but I'd never seen it. Anyways I found it... The stock was pretty pitiful, one small shelf (And that's counting the half that was BB guns...). I was looking for awhile and then mom and Sam found me. I was looking at this Colt, "Is it made in the USA?" Mom asked. I checked it out, on the front it said USA in big letters but my mom looked it over suspiciously. "What do you think it's made in Usa?" I asked grinning. My grandfather told us about this place he discovered in China called Usa (he said it like "oosa") it's spelled like USA so when it's printed on packaging it looks like that's made in the USA but actually it's made in Usa China. Printed on the side of the bow was "Made in China". My mom and I had a good laugh. Today we got to hang out with Zach and Emily. We played 10,000, or at least they tried to teach me but I couldn't get the point system. I was going to teach them Bunco, but I forgot the points system on that too... So we just chilled out and talked and Zach and Em tried to walk on the RAILING and Zach repeatedly walked up the wall with his hands and feet in this smallish tunnely thing. I did my lesson and Mr. Johnson aked "You wanna start learning some Christmas songs?" "OH yeah!" I replied. I picked out two to start on, "Angels on High" or something like that that I always forget and "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree". Then we went to legos and recorded our skit. It was really funny and super fun! Lots of fumbling and stuttering and it turned out really great. I'll have to post it on my Facebook ASAP. I've still got a lot of touch ups to do after we move on to the second tier ;)). But for now it's pretty good for a starter. And now it's time to focus on the robot and work like mad!! Lex and I got to stay late at the Fillmore's because my mom was doing some fundraiser and they were awesome enough to keep us over awhile. We had lotsa fun, edited the video forever and then Mrs. Fillmore walked over and did in a few minutes what we three had been working on forever. We played ninja and ran around and got the tour (Apparently we were the 'Beta testers' ROFL) Lex and I kept signing to each other whenever B had his back turned. It was really funny he would whip his head back and forth and just as he had his back to one of us that one would start signing but the second he looked at them they'd stop and the other would start! Lex said "What ever major loser" once lol. He turned his head once just in time to see the end of my "Crazy" sign and grinned, "Thaaaanks". Then my mom got there and we walked to the end of the driveway. It was really fun and it was so nice out! So we walked and talked tons and when we got to the end we just waited. Lex kept jumping out on the road and pretending to be a hitch hiker, but not when anyone was driving by us thank goodness, I have no idea what we would've done if someone pulled over! I have officially declared the rest of November my "Beatles Appreciation Month". Which here means I'll have a new Beatles song of the day every day. A couple days ago it was "Love Me Do". Today my song will be "Hey Jude" because it's been stuck in my head so often lately... Anyways I'm tired and we're doing the Mural thing. Soooo today was totally awesome and I LOVED it! But I gotta go. Like I said. I'm tired. Laterz everyone!

This Is How You Remind Me

Of what I really am! Gosh Nickelback's so awesome! "SIMBAA! I AM YOUR FATHER!.. Star Wars, Mufasa, whatever..." Psych is soo hilarious! "So just lead us the way!" Yesterday we had a super long play practice because it's the last practice before the actual play. It's going to be at the Thankful Day Potluck and like 100 people are attending. But luckily for me only about 4 teens are coming, Claire, Maddy, Christian, and Savannah. No one who actually knows me well enough to read my blog or anything... So we had the long long play practice because there are so many little kids in the thing and it was really cute. I love our pilgrims! We have two pilgrims, a girl and a boy who are siblings. But they are so funny! They fit their parts well. The boy plays the negative one and the girl plays the optimistic one. They have two songs and the girl's tiny and sings extraodinarily well. The boy's bigger naturally, and pretty much tone deaf! But he's so adorable and together they're just the best. After that we went to Home Depot, Walmart and home again. I was tired... Last night I was restricted from the computer so I finnished this semester's literature and then laid on my couch alone and watched 21 Jump Street until 12:30 AM... I realized I should really go to bed when I was sitting there flipping through the New Arrivals and noticed I wasn't even reading the titles any more, I was just doing it to feel the vibrations in the remote. Today we shampooed every carpet in our house... Funnnn. I got to read a lot and since I had to clean out my entire room it's probably cleaner than it's been in... awhile. Books are still all over my bed, school books, tons of composition pads, puzzle books, and just general books from my bookcase. Very fun to look through. I even found a Sherlock Holmes book on my shelf! Not the full works, but a few of the stories, I believe I have the full works in Alaska. I always wonder what it would look like if I had all of my books from both California and Alaska together. It would be a lot of books, I'll tell you that much! Despite what I thought yesterday, today my mom said "Maybe" we could go to the airsoft game at Derek's tomorrow. I'm hoping, hoping, but in the end we'll just have to wait and see. "I know, you know that I'm not telling the truth! I know, you know we just don't have any proof..." Again, Psych is soo hilarious! I got to play chess with Zach this evening, which was a relief from scrubbing and cleaning everything down. Zach was sore all over from playing at Diamond Corps. (Ohhh noooo! Lexie just put on Cake Boss! That show sucks, I've really grown to hate it...). I'm really excited about my 16th birthday, my mom brought it up recently. She wants to start thinking everything over because she wants me to have an awesome memorable 16th. We're actually planning it on the 8th, Derek's birthday instead of the 6th, mine. We asked Derek of course, because of course I want Derek there, and it's his birthday! He's willing to let me have my party on his birthday because he's awesome like that so we can share some I guess, me, my party and he, his actual birthday. My mom's thinking we'll go to the Ranch, and instead of the usual barn we use we'll use another one there. We're thinking Rock Band and we'll hook it up to really loud speakers so you can hear it all over the barn. Another thing is my mom mentioned something about some new trend called "Glam shots". It's pretty much just really good (professional) photos taken at parties when everyone's really dressed up. So either it's going to be everyone dress up nice or like rock stars or what my mom decribes as "Glam Rock". And we were thinking we'd have my aunt Linsie take pictures (She's really good!) but now we're leaning towards uncle Jeremy, her husband (Who's also supposed to be really good lol) . And I can invite whoever and as many people as I want! But in the end if all of this fails I'll probably have an airsoft game at the Ranch which is also awesome. LOL. I really want to do the Rock Band thing though, it sounds super awesome so maybe I can convince my mom to let us do some airsoft too? Just thinking out loud no one call me on this! But maybe I can pull the "But it's D's birthday and he'd love it!" card. I've already mentioned something similar, but my mom's thing is she wants everyone dressed up... not in camo... I said they can bring their camo along too and dress up and her new concern was time.. Soooo the odds are looking a little bad, but maybe. Maybe. Laterz!!

How Can You See Into My Eyes Like Open Doors

Today we went over to the O'Neills' to put together our idea for the Mural contest. Lex and I arrived first, Abb accompanying us with her brand new DS. Grandma promised to get her a DS for her birthday, but she just now got it today, it's red. When she came back the first thing I asked was "Didja get Donkey Kong?" "Nooo...." "Aww, why not?" "They didn't have it... I looked..." "Aww you did? Way to go, that's awesome!" So we went and shortly after Megan and Derek pulled up, Derek driving. Which of course reminded me that I can take my classes after legos ends and I'm still dying to take my permit classes... Anyways we went in and got to work, I had a few pages of pictures I'd printed from online and Megan, Em and Derek had an awesome idea. Turns out Derek and Megan are the most artistic among us so they set to work making the perfect cancel sign to go around some awesome looking drugs that Megan drew (Wow I know that sounds wrong) and on the outside each of us drew things we liked to do. Derek's reflected perfectly I think - he drew an entire picnic bench with a picnic on it!! LOL. I just drew a rudimentary looking baseball bat and baseball. Megan drew caligraphy, and I frankly don't know what else was on there... But we had a lot of brownies and pumpkin chocolate chip bars. Megan cut the pumpkin chocolate chip bars and ya know what? Megan can cut some seriously straight lines!! Anyways we got one big copy drawn up as our rough draft and it needs a little work (like enlarging the objects encircling the cancel sign) but it looks pretty cool! Megan was an absolute perfectionist about her shading so it took a little while and during that time we got plenty of interesting conversation. Em drew an airsoft gun that Zach and Derek said looked like a hair dryer with an extra long barrel... They were laughing their heads off! "No seriously!" They said, showing it to me. I have to admit... it did look like a hair dryer... So they kept tweaking it, adding things and making it look so funny. Derek suggested that if it were real it would have the power to blow in the wall. Zach replied "Huh! The neighbors' wall!!" Anyways Megan finnished her shading and we all went out to play some ninja! Jeni arrived after we'd been out a few minutes so I got to hang out with her. I held her and when I asked her if she had had fun swimming she gave a very enthused "YEAH!" She was really talkative and as usual just adorable so I just chilled with her until she told me she wanted her mom and I took her in. I played some ninja and then the Ewens had to go. We only played a little ninja after that before we also had to go. Earlier today my brother Bradley walked up to me and said "Hey Halie." Me: "What?" Bradley: "Look!" He held up his gameboy and switched it on, as I took it from him I noticed the game in the back - Donkey Kong. "You can play it." He said. Me: "Oh my gosh Bradley seriously? I love you, dude! Thank you!" He grinned, "You're welcome." That was when I remembered hearing him earlier that day. His Gamboy had been taken away until he cleaned his room and he'd finally gotten the place spotless, he went to mom right away and said "Hey mom can I have my gameboy? I just found Donkey Kong and Halie really wants to play it!" He's such a sweet little brother to not only humor my Donkey Kong addiction, but think of me first when he gets his gameboy back! Later on I was on my bed sitting next to the literature I should have been doing playing Donkey Kong. Bradley walks in and sets two silver batteries next to me - "Here Halie, here's two batteries in case it dies so you can keep playing." "Aww thank you Bradley! You're so awesome!" It was about this time that I suspected he might want something from me, but that's the thing about Bradley. He almost never does things for people just so he can get something in return, and this was no exception, he was just being my awesome little brother. Of course later on when I was actually doing that literature in the living room he came for the gameboy which I relinquished knowing that I'd be able to get it back (one way or another!) to play Donkey Kong... Gosh.. You don't think I'm obsessed do you? Just kidding. I've got some work to do on the Sherlock Holmes skit so I have to get off. Laterz!!

It's My Life

I don't wanna live forever - I just wanna live while I'm alive! Today I went to the O'Neills' house earlier than usual, at about 11. My mom had some errands to run so I asked the O'Neills if I could go chill at their house early. We didn't get any replies from them until about 10 minutes before we walked out the door and Mrs. O'Neill called my mom to say we (it was originally Alexis and I) could come over. Turns out they'd been having some phone and internet trouble... Then Lex decided to go with mom to meet grandma Barbara and not to go to the O'Neills with me. So my mom dropped me off and Mr. and Mrs. O'Neill were out front trying to get cell reception. "Go on in," Mr. O'Neill invited. So I went into the silent place and walked back to Em's room and knocked on the door. It was opened and she didn't look very surprised although Mrs. O'Neill had told me they didn't know I was coming over. "Hey! You're... a little early?" I got to hold Jeni and talk to her, she's such a sweetie! I love her! Then Zach appeared, and we played some Speed. Speed is soo fun! I played both him and Em until their dad said they should go eat. Then we waited a little longer because their mom was making spaghetti. They tried to get me to eat and it looked good and everything, but I really wasn't hungry. I still can't remember if I'd eaten lunch before I left my house but I don't think so, I just wasn't hungry. Anyways, one thing I think is so neat that I've discovered from sleeping over at their house, is that the O'Neills sing their grace. Is that not just one of the coolest things ever?! So after lunch we left to go the O'Neills' music lessons, they got lessons with the same guy we did, and they got their lessons right before we take our lessons!! So we walked there and my (50 lb!! ROFL!) backpack really kept me back. You see my excuses? I blame my slowness on the backpack! Em and Zach ran almost the whole way, I ran in short spurts between walking and shouted up to them "My baseball coach would just about kill me if he saw this!" Anyways we finally made it to Em's lesson a few minutes late and she started. After their mom arrived to sit in and watch the first lesson Zach and I stood in the back of the church and watched for a few seconds before I said "Wanna play Speed?" "Sure." We sat cross legged behind the last pew in the church and played game after game after game of Speed while Em took her piano lesson. Then Zach took his guitar lesson and Em and I played Speed. She tried to teach me Rummy but I totally failed as a student and Em said "Well why don't we just wait until Zach's done and then he can help..." and then shuffled the cards for another game of Speed. Once Zach's lesson was done at Emily's request we went outside and for the few minutes before my lesson began we spun in circles in front of the church. We found every little dip and overlap in that pavement. Then Zach, looking at his watch said, "Okay you should go in now.. You should stop spinning." So I tried... It didn't end well, I couldn't stand straight up and ended up falling on my side in the grass after stumbling all over and just barely avoiding a landing on the road. Then I went in and took my lesson. Zach and Em sat through my lesson with Kate and Abb, who arrived about mid lesson looking bored. All four of them looked bored. Then I finnished and we went outside, "Let's spin!" Suggested Em. "Okay!" I agreed and we began. "The first person to stop spinning has to carry the backpack to my house!!" Emily had earlier picked up my backpack from inside when we went out between lessons and declared it weighed "like fifty pounds!!". "Oh it's not that heavy! It's probably not even twenty." I replied grinning. When Zach joined us outside he spun for awhile but quit after a while. We exclaimed over losing brain cells, and in my case losing my head and my breakfast... Then when the front of the church got boring I began to walk and turn at the same time - we circled the church a few times, entered and exited the parking lot and then went back to circling the church. We (or maybe just me ;) kept yelling things we saw like "Oh there's a white car! I won't run in to it. I'll watch out. Oh! TWO white cars! I won't run into either of them!" Of course I ran into one accidentally... "Ow! Oops! I just ran into the white car! Sorry! To whoever owns that car! Zach! Leave a note on the car! Tell them I'm sorry! Oh look! A tree! Grass.. So... much grass.. it's surrounding me.... AUGH! Don't look at the grass! DON'T LOOK AT THE SKY!! Ohhhh gosh I'm going to throw up! Augh! Look the blacktop! Oh - bar watch out for the - CLANG! - OUCH! bar! The bar hurts!!" Zach: "It's not a bar... it's railing..." "Okay well watch out for the railing... it hurts. Oh Em! Watch out for all those little metal poles! And the telelphone pole! I almost hit the telphone pole!" The list goes on - we continued spinning for at least half an hour nonstop without any pauses. Zach followed us grinning and saying "Okay guys, calm down... I think you need to stop spinning now... Are we going to walk home now?" Abbie even came out and watched for awhile. I shouted once mid spin "Hey Em! We could call this 'Halie and Emily's Weight Loss Program' - we could make tons of money!" She was collapsed against a metal gate laughing hysterically as Zach stood over her. Then I finally quit, it was something like this - "OH! Bench! I like benches! When I get home I'm going to go on Facebook and like benches! I'm going to sit down on this bench Emily!!" Yes I pretty much voiced everything I did. It was annoying. But it kept my mind off the endless rotations. Em came and sat next to me and layed over on me then I shouted "OH! Bathroom! I have to use the bathroom!!" And jumped up and ran off to the nearest bathroom. Em dashed off after me and we were panting and laughing hysterically, my sister Abigail joined us in the bathroom and Em said "Hey Abbie, go tell Zach we're in here barfing!" "Okay!" agreed devious little Abbie and she ran out. She returned shortly after saying "He says he believes it." Then we left the bathroom and walked in as straight a line as we were capable. "Deep breaths! Deep breaths!" Em and I put our arms on each other's shoulders and staggered along singing hoarsely "Put one foot in front of the other..." She ran me into a brick wall and it ricocheted and I crashed into her into a brick wall on the other side and my braces hit her head hard so that she announced "YOU BIT MY SKULL!!!" Zach just followed his routine and followed us around. We ended up on another big blue bench in the back of the church after much walking in straight lines and breating deeply and singing put one foot in front of the other. Then Abbie and Zach started turning on poles after Abb tried it once, purely for her own fun and I said "Augh circular motion! Stop!" Zach found the nearest pole and swung himself around it repeatedly. I squeezed my eyes shut and shouted "Oh I can hear it! Augh my stomach!!" We eventually decided to walk back to the O'Neills' house and Em helped me CARRY Abb back into the church so she wouldn't stay outside and get me into trouble. Just then Mrs. O'Neill pulled up - we hadn't told her we'd be staying longer than Zach and Em's lessons so it had been over an hour she thought we'd been gone. She thought Zach and Em had been kidnapped. She drove us to her house and there Em and I laid on her bed on our backs until Em had to sit up because our stomachs disliked that position. Eventually the big discomfort wore off and Em began asking me if she could draw on my arms, legs, hand etc... I refused, stole her pencil and then insisted we play a game. So finally after much prompting she broke out "Life". "We don't have Life," said Zach, "We lost it." Em grinned, "Yes we do - I hid it." She took it out and we set it up and we started before Emily decided "Life is a weird game." So we quit. Then my mom called Mrs. O'Neill and told her to send me over to the church because she was stuck in traffic and would be there soon. She drove me back to the church and Em accompanied us, but Zach stayed home. After my mom picked us up we stopped by Taco Bell. I was starving but I only actually ate about five bites before I was full and couldn't eat any more - my stomach still wasn't settled. We went to legos, and man I tell ya - it was SUCH a relief to get back to the lego room and be a part of the team. Mrs. Fillmore's special team improvement ideas put us all on tasks we hardly knew anything about all the while we were trying mints for our decisions on who got what job depending on who could guess the color of the mint put in their mouth. I ended up on programming. I really want to learn programming, but I never learn so I'm thinking I'm mentally challenged as far as programming goes... I eventually ended up back on skit which is, of course what I wanted and I got right to work on that. We're going to have to work out a few kinks but I think I'll get it done soon. It was Andrew's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!!!) so he brought cupcakes and seemed really happy. (Yeah I ate a cupcake, yeah I get the irony...) I was just so pleased to be back surrounded by my team working on the project. Anyways got lots to do!!! Laterz!!

I Beg To Dream and Differ From the Hollow Rise

This is the timing of the rest of our lives! On Holiday. Friday I met with my ES and we had play practice.. I mainly did geometry throughout the play practice until my three line part came on when I'd rush in with my brothers. They throw a football, I run in and get them together and then say our few lines. The play practice was long and cute, but I was getting a headache when we went home.. Yesterday mom, Lex, Kate, Lily and I woke up at 6 AM and went to drop off Kate and Lil at grandma's. Then we drove to Sutter's Fort so mom could do training. We're going there to spend the night and do all the workshops and tons of educational things in February and my mom offered to be one of the helper parents so this was her training. She's going to help in the kitchen. Lex and I just stuck around doing nothing really.. I mean literally - she tried doing her biology but after about three seconds I realized I wasn't going to be able to focus and put my biology book away. I laid on my back on a wooden bench and... slept... In the middle of all the training chaos. Finally after a couple hours my back felt really bad and we left to go get lunch. They had offered lunch from Blimpie's at the training but mom wanted to get out and eat. So we did, we went around (got lost because we're really bad in Sacramento) and then just went to Blimpie's which was like across the street from Sutter's Fort. Wow. We sat parked on the side of the street eating and when we looked to our right some lady was standing in front of this church in a long leather jacket that went to her ankles with a grocery bag of something... And she was talking and pacing and waving her arms and staring at the sky... Then we saw some teenage guy launch himself off of this tree outside Sutter's Fort onto the ground and roll uphill before turning and running across the huge road's crosswalk. Mom suggested I ask if he was doing parkour. "But where is he?" I asked. We didn't know... So we went back into Sutter's Fort and mom went to the kitchen and Lex and I wandered around. We had an eeenteresting sisterly conversation and then we realized... We were in Sutter's Fort! People went there to check it out! It's a historical landmark! What had we been thinking?!?! We could explore! We went around to all the rooms and listened to the recordings about guns and John Sutter and the people who lived there. It was soo cool! And then we went to watch the blacksmith, he was making mini horse shoes for kids who visited. It was so so cool to watch and he just said "Come in! Come in!". So we did and we watched with some others, I loved it! He makes over 100 things. One man said "Blacksmithing is a lost art." "No it's not!" Replied the blacksmith, "I'm blacksmithing right now! That's the worst thing you could say to a blacksmith!" He continued to advise Alexis and I that if when we got married if a guy couldn't blacksmith we should consider our other options... LOL. Then we were going through these rooms reading all these things about John Sutter when my mom finnished her training and we had to go to the mall to meet for Hannah's birthday party. So we met up with her and then we all went into the mall. Twelve girls entered the mall, I saw us on the security monitor and it looked insane! I knew a few of the girls - Claire, Maddy, Sarah and Katherine. We went to the food court where it was announced that we were having a scavenger hunt in the mall. We split into two even teams of 6 from random choosing and were handed a bag that contained everything we needed. A whole bunch of clues, money for certain things we had to do and a pen. There were tons of things we had to do and we were assured they were embarrassing. And so they were! My team was Lexie, Claire, Sarah, a girl named Sydney, a girl named Julia and I. We RAN through the mall (and no one even stopped us lol!). We weaved in and out of people and ran up and down escalaltors. We went into the Vans store and took a picture of all of our left feet in our favorite shoes there. We realized why it was our LEFT foot when we got there and saw the wall full of RIGHT tennis shoes! And then a worker there took forever to bring out 6 boxes of size 8 shoes. We didn't all wear 8 but we were trying to be fast.... We rode the carousel and got the attendant's signature. We got three different pieces of candy from the row of 16 red candy machines. We each bought another team member a truffle from Godiva and had to accept it emotionally as if it were the best gift we'd ever recieved. We went into the Lego store and built something that represented our team (and had to explain why we picked it) and buy it (Our team chose the shape of 1 lol). We found the store with the working clock next to it's name and drew the face of it. We found the symbol on the side of a very certain tea box in one store. We bought "Happy Birthday Stickers" from Papyrus. We laid on the ground and took a pic of us all on the ground in front of one store but some crabby lady wouldn't let us! We found a specific brand and kind of eyeliner at Sephora and bought it. Funny thing is, we asked one lady where this brand was and she said they didn't have it there. A few seconds later a man asked if he could help us, we asked about the brand and he told us exactly where it was!! And then he hurried the people in line so we could get on with our hunt. And several other things. The most embarrassing thing we had to do was go to "The Calendar Store and find the 2011 Jusin Bieber calendar, one team member had to kiss the cover while the rest of the team screamed "I have Bieber Fever!!" (For the rest of the time we were running around people kept saying "Look it's Justin Bieber! Where's Justin Bieber? or I love Justin Bieber!" Awful awful! And our moms made us have them on speaker phone while we did it!! My team won! Then we went to "The Melting Pot". The car ride over was really funny, I rode with Claire, Maddy and Katherine. The place was really.... fancy. It was all fondue we ordered and had to specify like EVERYTHING lol. It was good, but sadly in my opinion not my favorite by any means. The dessert was the best, we had chocolate fondue of course and tons of things to dip in, it was the FOURTH course! lol. I got to sit with pretty much everyone because we did seat swapping and there was tons of talking. Mainly with Claire, Maddy, Katherine, Lexie and oddly Hannah's 'grammy'. We played ninja in front of the Melting Pot!! It was hilarious and super fun! And I even got to visit with my aunt Shannon later. By the time we went home it was lllaaaatee! We picked up the kids, I carried in my little brother, tucked him in and went to bed. It was soo great! Before I fell asleep I wondered what all my friends were doing that day... Then I passed out... LOL Laterz!

Get Your Back Off the Wall

So I had several boring hours of aloneness today. Legos is so much longer when you're not there... I sat at my kitchen table and did lesson after lesson of math. I did at least 10 math lessons today, and to some of you that might not seem like much, but for me that is a lot of math! I began listening to Family Force 5 while working, and it helped because it put me in a good mood. Get Your Back Off the Wall, Drama Queen, Love Addict, Numb, Earthquake and Watcha Gonna Do With It were all good for grins. Then I went to 1234, and a few others. I sang a LOT. Even after I started to get a headache from listening to so much FF5 I couldn't quit singing. Seriously. Several hours of "WAAAAOOWW! LIVIN ON A PRAYER!" I walk this empty street... "I play for keeps! Cuz I might not make it back!" etc... Probably to fill the empty air? I'm altogether too used to being surrounded by people all the time. So many siblings, so many awesome friends. And now for once in a blue moon I was totally alone. Of course I spent the main part of my time doing Geometry, but I couldn't, as usual, quit singing. I think I got everything from "Never Never Land" to "My Heart Will Go On," which frankly I only knew because I learned to play it on the piano. I haven't seen the Titanic. I've heard it's good, but I've also heard it's super long and sad and a romance so I'm not really all the anxious to see it. Kind of like people keep telling me to watch "The Notebook". What people don't realize is that "Tear Jerker" and "Romance" are about the worst things they could say to try to get me to watch a movie. They're their own worst enemy. LOL. So finally I've announced to my mom, "Mother, I don't think I can absorb any more knowledge today. I'm finnished for today!" I'll bet everyone thinks it's odd that I call my mom "Mother". It actually started as a joke! I would say "Mother" because it souded so funny and formal, but then it stuck... So now I subconscioussly call my mom 'Mother' sometimes and the rest of the time just the normal average 'mom'. Anyways I have to get some sleep! Plenty more math to get done tomorrow I;m sure. Love ya guys! Laterz!

I Was Only Kidding

When I said that I'd be faithful
When I promised I'd be true
When I swore that I could never
Be with anyone but you
When I told you that I loved you
With those tender words I spoke
I was only kidding
Now, can't you take a joke?
When I said that I need you, baby
When I told you that I really care
When I said that I can't live without you
When I said I'd follow you anywhere
When I said you could always trust me
When I said I'd never leave you flat
Well, guess what?
I was only kidding, baby
I can't believe you fell for that
You're so gullible (I was only kidding)
I was only kidding (I was only kidding)
You thought that was for real?
I was only kidding
Now I'm sorry if you misunderstood,
but the fact remains (I was only kidding)
I was only kidding (I was only kidding)
Baby, baby, I was (I was) only kidding
Well, I guess I got you pretty good
Now listen
When I said that I love you, baby
From the very bottom of my heart
When I said that I miss you so badly
Every second that we're apart
When I swore that you're just getting more and more
Beautiful every day
Well, I was only kidding, honey
What's the matter with you anyway?
Let me tell you something (I was only kidding)
I was only kidding (I was only kidding)
You understand, don't ya?
I was only kidding
Well, I guess it probably hurt you a lot,
but you gotta know (I was only kidding)
I was only kidding (I was only kidding)
Come on now, get a clue
I was only kidding
I really love you
NOT!
When I said you oughta marry me
When I said that we should settle down
Well, I was pullin' your leg there, honey
I was just foolin' around!
You see,
II never meant to upset you, darlin'
I never meant to hurt anyone
I was only kidding, baby
Why don't you just put down that gun?
Let's talk this over (I was only kidding)
I was only kidding (I was only kidding)
Watch where you point that thing (I was only kidding)
Hey, I'm sorry if your heart is broke;
you gotta realize (I was only kidding)
I was only kidding (I was only kidding)
Aww, yeah
I was only kidding
Now honey, can't you take a joke? (I was only kidding)
I was only kidding (I was only kidding)
I was only kidding (I was only kidding)
I was only kidding (I was only kidding)
I was only kidding (I was only kidding)
I didn't lie to you
I was only kidding
Yes indeed (I was only kidding)
Baby, baby, you know (I was only kidding)
Hey!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EASaX0Zm6Lo


Yep I posted these lyrics because I was feeling absolutely horrible and that, apparently, my mind associated with this song... Nice right? Guess this song is pretty terrible. And I hate sad songs so I couldn't think of ONE when I finally needed one. Today I've been doing Geometry all day and about halfway through I realized that I was NOT going to be able to get it all done in time to make it to legos. It was about that time that my mind went "WHAT? AUGH I'm not working with you anymore!" I snuck off somewhere that I usually go when I get upset enough to actually not be able to ignore it anymore and I cried... Unusual. No I wasn't crying only because of the lego meeting, although admittedly that was most of it. I was just stressed out. Which is pretty much the only time I'll actually be driven to tears. When I'm extremely stressed. I mean honestly, who decided moody teenagers should go to high school anyway? And they pack those four grades with so much darn work that extracurricular activity is pretty much impossible. Seriously - who cares if Halie answered two pages of questions about "The Masque of the Red Death"? And besides how can anyone enjoy Edgar Allen Poe's stories anyways?!?! (Sorry Claire, but I just don't get it!). Who reads depressing things like that and says "Oh that was so enjoyable!"? Not I. Which is where my extreme dislike of sad songs stems from. I don't like to read or listen to depressing things because it doesn't make me feel good inside, or excited, or hopeful or anything except mean and grouchy. Lucky for me my mind naturally tries to resist and block out unhappy things so pretty much after I get myself all sad or something then shortly after my mind goes, "Well it's not the end of the world. Obviously there's a reason that was in God's plan. And life goes on, there's so many things to look forward to in the future, like...etc". All I can say is it really sucked that I missed the lego meeting and I'm going to work my hardest to ensure that I have all my work done in the future. I'm feeling better already. I'm weird right? And also I'm thinking maybe I shoudn't stay up SO late watching Heroes, and that I should eat something. I'm starving... How was I supposed to think on an empty stomach anyway? I won't be at the lego meeting tomorrow. I'm not at all sure what's going on, I think tomorrow's Hannah's birthday party at the mall and I might be going to that even though I've got no money to blow. Which is probably best in my case ;). Holy cow I feel soo much better! It's almost a lightheaded feeling now... I love it! The words on the page of my Teaching Textbooks Geometry book no longer look squished, incomprehensible and evil (That's right they lost their evil grins ;). So I think I can safely pop in the disk of torture and listen to that one thing in that one lesson that I just wasn't getting and then finnish the rest of my lessons to catch up before my ES comes tomorrow. I'll probably write more later. Laterz!

We Are Young!

Heartache by heartache we stand! Love is a battlefield... Aaarrgh 13 Going on 30! Why couldn't I get Thriller stuck in my head instead of THIS?? Yesterday I went to music lessons and then sat outside on the front lawn of the church with my mom, Lex and Lily. Lexie was doing Biology and mom was assisting so it was left mainly to me to chase Lil around. She's crazy! Mom didn't want us to go to the O'Neills' so we didn't. We just chilled. Then we went to legos and mom took the younger girls to the park. We did some things to the robot I think, but I'm not actually quite sure if anything was improved because I was working on the powerpoint mostly. I had to re un purple the slides, the text boxes weren't cooperating and I could hardly get anything on sliderocket to work with me! But eventually we got a powerpoint open which I worked on. Afterwards we went home and scoured the house... This morning we further cleaned the house because our ES was coming. She came and stayed a while and I just stayed in my bedroom doing Geometry on my bed. I was going on lesson 7 when I switched on my radio for a second and out blasted "DON'T STOP BELIEVIN!" I shut it off faster than I'd flipped it on, how had the volume gotten so loud?! It's always loudest when quiet is what you're going for! Math was enjoyable as usual. After our ES left we cleaned up the house some more, this place gets messy again in no time flat. Grandpa Moore came over and snaked our sink out because it's been having trouble lately. It's so much better now! Take it from me, the dish washer. Some Fed Ex guy dropped off a package for mom today, it was her new phone! It's called a backflip and it's soo awesome. It has a touch screen and full keyboard, it goes online and gets facebook updates. I love the thing! I've been playing with it every chance I get. I did not pause to pull out the instruction manuel and read the spanish half in my best mexican accent... This also means Lex and I get an old flip phone we have and they're adding a line for us. We probably won't talk much, as anyone might've noticed I'm not much of a phone person. But there's unlimited texting so I'd love to try that out. My friends, (largely Madison, Rachel and Emily Watson) have consistently encouraged my buying a phone and getting texting soo... Maybe. Mom went to get a sim card for her phone and I stayed at home to wash dishes and watch "Jackie Chan Adventures" with the kids, their newest favorite show. But when mom returned I realized I'd been put in charge of taking a cake out of the oven when a certain timer went off... I'd not only forgotten but missed the timer. The cakes were black! And so I was made to bake another cake to replace the one I'd neglected. Grandma Kathy and grandpa Butch were coming over for dinner since it's grandma's 57th birthday. Mom made enchiladas, which is always welcome here! Then grandma and grandpa arrived and we began to eat. We also watched a movie we got from netflix, 13 Going On 30 sound familiar Em? That's what we watched. I sat next to my grandfather the retired marine and watched this girly chick flick and, as my grandpa announced, "I still haven't seen a ninja." We ate double chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream and grandma opened her presents and we just hung out in general. Then they left and I picked up my mom's phone. I flipped to the facebook update section and it said "Brenten Fillmore updated: I lost the game!!!!!!!!!! 6 minutes ago". I announced aloud, "Oh COME ON! I lost the game." Lexie glanced over my shoulder, laughed, and said quietly "I lost the game." After the kids all went to bed mom called tech support to try and get her phone hooked up to our house's WiFi while Lex and I watched an episode of Monk. Then we switched over to Heroes. We watched several episodes and are still watching it... It's creepy at times, but it gets better I think. My dad used to have like all the seasons and we watched some once I remember. Besides I remember a few weird things about chillin with my dad. I remember once when I was littler he took me to some little convenience store when I was sick to get some Seven Up. We were walking up and down the isles trying to find it and my stomach was feeling worse and worse and finally we had to settle for Twist. And then... I vomited on the floor... Some poor young guy who worked there had to clean it up and we hurried out of there with our bottle of Twist and.. weird that I'd remember but... Jurassic Park 3. It had just come out and we were dying to watch it so my dad bought it. The case was all silvery and I was ecstatic. My stomach felt better immediately but I shall forever feel bad for that poor young guy who worked there... And Jurassic Park 3 was a hit I think. After watching it it was no longer my stomach that needed concern, it was probably my ever more easily frightened little sister Lexie. She was always easy to scare.. Yes I know that because I've taken advantage of it on occasion, why do you ask? I've had "Second Chance" by Shinedown stuck in my head a lot lately.. I always get that one stuck because it has my name in it somewhat lol. Anyways this has wound down into a spiraling ramble so I'll go watch some more Heroes and try to edit the Sherlock Holmes skit which I recently realized mainly consisted of information on various electronic devices and I have to take all that out and touch up the info on Barcode Scanners. I'll probably end up sending it to my email so we can edit at legos tomorrow together and I can go chill... Laterz!