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!!!