Golden and Sunny

At the beginning of last week Lexie, my mom, baby Lily and I packed up the car and dropped the kids off at grandma Kathy's for a week they'd been looking forward to for a long time. They were spending the week. We, on the other hand, had much different plans as we drove off into the sunset heading for warm and sunny San Diego. It was with optimism we began the hours long drive, loaded down with water bottles, granola bars and CDs. For maybe the first half hour I read aloud from my Drivers' Handbook, etching into my brain all the things I'd only just finished going over in my Drivers' Ed class which had been completed the day before. When my mom could take no more driving rules I put the book away and we drove on, listening to some random radio station until I convinced her to listen to a Weird Al CD. I am actually quite amazed that we made it through the entire first CD, although I couldn't get her to put in the second. We stopped at the grapvine and were shocked at the progress that had been made there. I mean they had an Ikea for goodness' sake! They had a Chipotle, and an In N Out Burger too, which we took advantage of. My mom got a salad at Chipotle and my sister and I got burgers at In N Out. Then we continued on our way, I played my birthday playlist CD and the two Maddi made for me for my birthday and then we switched back to the radio and finally we made it. When we go there we walked in to find my uncle Bryan at the table, working on a project, aunt Amanda at work, aunt Stacy still asleep, grandma Holly helping Bryan and my grandpa off at work too. No one had been expecting us this early! "Where is everyone?" asked Bryan, getting up. "It's just us," replied mom, "Me and Halie and Lexie and Lil. We left everyone else at Kathy's." "Oh come one REALLY? You left the boys? I wanted to play with a BOY!" "OOOOOHHHHHH!!" I said, laughing and shaking my head with a mock glare. The rest of the day we just hung out together. Later after my uncle and his girlfriend, Nicole had gone we watched a movie my mom and brought and I texted Maddi and Brenten on his mom's phone until we went to bed. The second day we went to visit my great grandma Paukovits at her house. We picked her up at her house and went out to lunch at a place called Savannah Grill. It was nice and we were served by a really cool waiter who suggested we go climb the Helix "You can see all the way over into Mexico from there! It's beautiful!" We had a good time then went to her house. We sat in the living room talking and then I moved to the kitchen so I could sit and write and finally I ended up downstairs with Lexie and Lily. My grandma has a bathroom downstairs in her house, and it's a nice size room, but most of the walls either are or are covered in mirrors. It's super cool but also a little odd! When you walk in you see yourself from every angle, which is something I'm definitely not used to! We stayed for dinner, which she cooked us, and it was really good! Finally we went back to my grandma Holly's for the night and played Scattergories with the family. The third day we went out and took my aunt Amanda around to apply for several jobs around the area. My grandma Holly took us into Costco to buy candy and movie tickets for that evening. Amanda decided against going with us so Lex and I called my uncle Bryan on my grandma's cell. "Hii uncle Bryan! We want you to come to a movie with us!" I said. "We got you a ticket!" Lexie added. "No, you got AMANDA a ticket!" Bryan corrected, amused. "No, it was yours," Lexie lied sweetly. "Pleeeease?!" I said. "You guys! You're just trying to sucker me into going to the movies with you! Let me talk to grandma." Grandma finally convinced him to come, telling him we had lots of candy and really wanted him to come! So we met up with him there and watched "Just Go With It," or as we kept calling it, because the name kept escaping us, "The Adam Sandler One". It was really great to go with just my grandma and uncle, and we had a good time. We picked up some pizzas on the way home from Marechiaro's and came home where grandpa Joe had finally come home from where he was working away for several days and Bryan and Nicole were already waiting. It was some really great pizza! I loved it! (To be continued...)

Um If You Missed It

If anyone didn't realize it there is a post you may have missed because it posted it in the past month because I began the draft way back when and only just finished it. Anyways it's called "A Paper Dinosaur Fail" and if you missed it.. Search it and read it!!
<3 Halie

I Learn To Weld

So the other day a couple of my best friends, Zach and Emily, picked me up from my house and drove me to our Maker club meeting. Well technically Zach's and my Maker meeting, because Emily's group of Makers is focusing on their own project, an elaborate cake. Mine, consisting of my best friends Brenten, Derek, Zach and I are fixing a go cart and mounting an airsoft gun. Emily, however, was invited along because Zach, her brother, was already going and she had nothing better to do, and of course we love having her. Also she'd been invited by Brenten, whose house we're holding the meetings at, or at least we have been so far. Brenten was thoroughly teased by Zach for this due to the fact that it happened to be "Hug a Tall Person Day" and both Brenten and Zach are known for being awfully tall! But I just kind of blew off the made up Facebook holiday and didn't hug anyone. We arrived at the meeting after Derek. Firstly we cut this piece of metal with both an older cutter (wowza I forgot the name of it) and then the newer, more efficient plasma cutter. It was really fun! Then we took the pieces back and sanded them on electric sanders. Doing that was ineteresting because you have to get all the extra slag off, and as you press it to the sander sparks fly up. But they don't really hurt, even if they land on your face accidentally, they're incredibly mild. Then lastly we tried our hands at welding. Each of us had two pieces of metal and Derek went first. Then Zach, Brenten and lastly Em and I fought over who had to go first until Mr. Fillmore called her over and had her do it. "Now I want you to put a big 'E' right there," h demanded. She laughed, "Yeah right!" "No!" he replied, smiling, "I'm serious! put an 'E' on there!" "OOOOOOHH" teased Brenten. "That's what you get for going last." someone said. "I'm not last," reminded Emily, "Halie hasn't gone yet." "Oooooooohhh!! He's gonna make YOU sign your WHOLE name!" Brenten and Derek laughed. Emily put an E on the pieces of metal she'd just welded. Then I inevitably and nervously took my own turn, stepping forward and putting on the helmet and gloves. I welded it, but had to go for a second try to get it right - ish, and then Mr. Fillmore said "Alright now put an "H" on!" "In CURSIVE!" added Brenten malignantly. "I actually started writing in cursive..." I replied. "Really?" I pulled the mask down and tried, keeping my hand as steady as I could and giving it my signature curve at the beginning and not picking it up or stopping. Then I stopped and looked down at what I'd done. Everyone else pulled their masks off too. "And in CURSIVE too!" Mr. Fillmore laughed. They looked in, as we all had on everyone else's welds. "Hey! Nicely done, kid!" Brenten said. We took a look at the go cart after that, or mostly the others did and Em and I stood back being goofballs and repeating over and over, "You're warm.. I like that in a friend," because it was cold. Then as we were leaving I approached Brenten and held out my hand to hand him something. He couldn't see what it was because I held my initialed weld over it, but he held out his own hand anyway and I dropped in the infamous and dreaded clothespin before turning and running to the car. I slid in next to Em, past Derek, who we were taking home. Then Derek slid in next to me, all the while we kept throwing the pin out of the car and Brenten hastily launched it back in, determined not to be stuck with it. I thought we'd gotten him until we were halfway down the driveway and Emily triumphantly held up the clothespin. "EM!!" I scolded, "We were supposed to leave it!! If we'd just gotten it out of the car, he would've been stuck with it!!" We dropped Derek off at his house and then they drove me to my oh so interesting Drivers' Ed class and dropped me off. A very awesome Maker meeting!!

And.. This.

Over the past few days I've endured Drivers' Ed. I've sat through the gory crash videos, the cursing attendees, and the two redheaded guys I always end up sitting between who obsessively crack their knuckles throughout the five hour period. It's been an interesting class to be sure, I was even offered five bucks from the redhead on my right, Chad, to slap another guy in the class, Anthony. I didn't take up the offer, but Anthony's friends nearly took it themselves! One guy, who dislikes his name, Josh, insists laughingly that we call him "Joe-Bob". I've learned a lot though. And I've been doing a lot of thinking too. I love my life right now. I have been blessed so much, and my friends and family are all so supportive that I couldn't complain even if I wanted to! And... I am tired... So this should fulfill my promise right?? lol!! Zach? Right? I wrote? I wrote right?

My Life's Roller Coaster

Lately I've been through a lot in my life. I've been through friend drama, boy drama, and then there was just that happy reassurance from God that everything was going exactly according to plan and that I'd be fine, this was a test that I could and, as I decided determinedly, would survive. Two of my very best friends are Zach O'Neill and Brenten Fillmore, but lately they've been very tense. This kills me seeing my two best friends not getting along. Of course I understand the usual disagreement between friends, but lately they've just been not getting along well at all and while I understand both of them are very different, they can hardly be expected to agree on every point! Still it just stinks to see the twosome that used to get along better now in a near constant state of disagreement. Then there's the boy drama I mentioned, while what I just mentioned happened to be two boys I have not yet reached the extent of what I'd like to express. Boys have shown an interest in me lately, which is something I hadn't really expected. You know, I'd somehow always assumed I'd be somewhat of the older brother figure, watching out for my wonderfully beautiful younger siblings and keeping those boys in line. And I still do. Of course I expected that someday I'd meet someone, but I never expected to have interest like this, and certainly not from more than one guy. But at this point in my life I really am not ready for that! I am really close to some of my friends and I love them even, a lot. But I just know I'm not ready for that kind of thing, that kind of interest, and certainly not expressing it in return. So I've told them. I've let them know what I must, that I am not ready for that, that I'm only interested in the wonderful friendships we've built and are still building, and continuing in the project of building up. I've been honest, and I haven't tried to maneuver around anything, I do think I've handled it in the most correct way there is possible for me, although I think there's no way that's really THE right way. What I really hope is that I haven't hurt anyone It was never my intent to hurt anyone, only to give them what they deserve as the faithful and amazing friends they've been to me for years. The truth. Truly it tears me to even think I might've hurt any one of my friends, but I have to be true to who I am, and to do that I must be honest. My friends really are unusually supportive and wonderful. Not in a million years would I trade them, and not for a second would I even consider it. Each of them is incredibly important to me and an essential in the making of who I am now. I really love to spend time with them doing anything at all. We just get together for hours at a time with no particular plans in mind and end up having a blast. There's sensible, genius Zach, hilarious, unpredictable Brenten, enthusiastic, reasonable Derek, talkative, fun loving Madison, crazy, photographer Emily. There's friendly, easy to talk to Andrew, imaginative, quiet Taylor and many more. We all have crazy nicknames and when together hardly make any sense at all. But do we really have to? If you watch, the point is clear - happiness. We are happy together and if you can gain that you hardly need an excuse for any ethical means you use to attain it. This inexplicable feeling that we're filled with and can't be bought. I treasure it most highly of anything else, which is why I treasure and regard my friends so highly. They are loyal and a great light in my life. Which is why in return I want to be loyal, honest, and a joy to them as much as I can. And this, I suspect, is why our little tightly knit group had to be hit by some drama - we are simply too happy. It's just God reminding us "Hey! You're still on Earth. It's not your home, and you're not supposed to be completely blissful. That's Heaven. You're not there yet. Keep trying, here's a test!" But this cannot dampen my faith in our friendships, the strength we have between us. So maybe I had to tell some guys I wasn't ready for anything but friendship and wanted to just relax and enjoy life how it is right now. So maybe I hurt them, which I surely didn't want to. It's all part of the plan, and I have to just sit back and remember this is God's ride, not mine. I have no control, but I can ride if I want to. I can appreciate the thrill of the roller coaster if I'm willing to deal with the butterflies as it turns the unanticipated loops. I want to hold on for all I'm worth and cling to the great and wonderful people who are willing to sit there next to me and endure it too. Everyone who's going to sit there loyally, throwing their arms in the air and screaming with me, who'll help me through, who can wait and appreciate that I'm not ready to sit in the front row cart yet, who can just be there, I would love to return the favor and to be my best Halie. To wait on them, to appreciate them, to counsel them as best I can and to be totally honest and loyal pulling them through with me to the end where we meet the operator of the wonderful ride. I'm not ready to move up to the next cart yet. I just want to enjoy the one I'm in and thank God for every second he allows me to continue riding.

Paper Dinosaur Fail Etc

Yesterday I went to a Young Maker's meeting for my Young Makers' group. It's a kind of a competition, but there are no rules! You can make anything, pretty much anything at all and it qualifies. In fact our teen group was split into two separate groups. One consists of Lexie, and our friends Emily and Megan and the other, mine, consists of me of course, and then my friends Brenten, Derek and Zach. The girls are planning to make a nice sized cake in the form of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. My group is fixing up a go cart and mounting a second seat as well as possibly an airsoft gun. So this was our first meeting, just our group and we decided that the motor bike we'd originally had in mind was a bit more of a project than we had anticipated and went, instead, with the go cart. I rode there with Zach and his grandpa, so it was just the four of us (It was at Brenten's house) for awhile. After some rummaging around for tools and other interesting things we weren't getting far. About that time Derek arrived and we decided to look for a new spark plug. It's quite an adventure trying to find anything in that place, let me tell you! I doubt there's anything they DON'T have in there! Derek even noticed an old Ford. We found not one, but a whole bowful of spark plugs and brought them back. Right away after he put in the new spark plug he was able to get it started. We were all a little surprised I think, but definitely quick to grasp it and Derek insisted on trying it first. He drove it around a few times and then returned and Brenten took over. Brenten went nuts on the turns, skidding around and spraying up rocks, making sharp turns and finally returning. On of the rims had come out of the tires! Derek and I approached, examining the minor damage. "Well how'd you do that?!" Derek asked. "Are you kidding?" I replied, "Did you just SEE him?" "Thaaanks for your suport, Halie." Brenten said, grinning and shaking his head. Zach didn't want to get on at all. Something tells me he doesn't plan to either - Zach is very safety oriented, especially with vehicles. And I opted out as well, for that time anyway. We found a car seat, which Brenten compliantly tried to buckle himself into - notice the "tried". Yes he was a bit big. Brenten and Zach are both awfully... I'll say "tall" but I was very tempted to put "skyscraperish"!! Derek is closer to my own height, in fact we are pretty nearly the same height, which I find ironic considering how close our birthdays are. He was born exactly two days after me. Anyways towards the end I recieved a text from my mom asking if I wanted to go to a concert with some of my other friends, the Abshiers. I was definitely excited for that so we rushed home, and I barely got in a quesadilla and changed before we were running out the door. We met them in the parking lot of a fast food place and Lex and I piled into their car. The long ride up was filled with Christian in the front seat blasting a Relient K CD. It was at a church and upon looking around we discovered the entrance was a side door to this church which led into a room. The room wasn't really small, it was just unnexpectededly small for a concert and not what we'd been expecting. It filled as we entered and we stood near the front. Couches and a few chairs lined the walls, but whenever a new band got up they shouted encouargingly to get everyone up to the front. First we watched Blood and Water, then Jacob Thomas, News From Verona, Adhara and Jaxx. We found the concert had accidentally been overbooked because they hadn't been sure which bands would show, but a lot had showed up! Claire, Maddy, Christian, Alyssa, Lexie and I went out into the parking lot for a little while as Jaxx started. It was kind of stuffy in the concert room, lots of sweaty bands now sitting in their booths lined along the walls of one half of the room, the crowd of people and of course the band up front, playing and sweating away. My favorites were probably Blood and Water and News From Verona. Adhara was interesting. It was an all girls' band but they were each wearing an extreme style, and yet managing to differ in their extremes. The drummer was wearing a black T, had dyed her hair black and shaved it short and spiked it. The singer looked like a short Avril Lavigne wannabe, her hair bleach blond with brown under and a few fake looking pink streaks and the back looked like she was wearing a bump it. Her jeans were pale and washed out and the shirt tight fitting. One guitarist was asian and she had dyed her hair an unnatural flaming red with that pinkish tint. Her guitar was bright red too. The other guitarist was the least extreme, she actually kind of reminded me a bit of myself except for the fact that she was shorter and way skinnier. She wore a lot of black and dark makeup which contrasted with her glaring white V shaped guitar. Their music wasn't even christian which struck me as odd among all the christian bands. In the parking lot a couple of the bands were chilling after they'd finished playing. News From Verona and Blood and Water especially. They were too funny, hanging out and talking to the fans, kidding around, they took turns picking up these huge orange traffic cones and yelling through them. The first time it happened one band member startled another completely by standing behind him with the larger end of the cone directed at his back and screaming through. There were was this big wall lined with humongous cement tubes that several of the band members and fans kept climbing around in. News From Verona was going to Chili's and invited us, among other fans to come along. So we waited until all of the bands had finished playing and then left, the band in their big touring van with a trailer and then two carfuls aside from ours. We all got in the car and started driving, following the three cars ahead since we didn't know where it was. We were having a great time now, talking and joking and laughing. We noticed right away, some fireworks being fired a ways away. "What are those for??" asked Claire. "I don't know!" I replied, watching tentatively. After a pause I grinned, "Oh they're for us," I said. "Yeah!" Agreed Claire, "For us going to Chili's with News From Verona!" At Chili's no one was really hungry, it was about nine PM by now and so we just had water and ordered appetizers. There wasn't enough room in the place for everyone to sit together so the band members periodicaly switched around and sat at different people's tables. Alyssa, Christian then Claire sat on one side of our six chaired table and Maddy, then Lexie, then me on the other. So whenever a band member came to sit with us they pulled a chair from another table into the walkway and sat at the head of our table! We had a great time and Claire, Christian and I competed, taking out our steak knives and cutting the small paper slips that originally held our silverware together into small shapes. Claire had started it and they began doing dinosaurs. Mine failed miserably, Claire's somewhat resmbled one, but if she asked someone who hadn't been witness or told they always guessed it was a cow. Christian's looked like a guy... Wih a tail... And mine was worst of all, misshapen and odd. The band members were really funny and kidded around with us. They were really down to earth and we had a great time. The Abshiers had already met them several times apparently. So we just chilled and had a great time and didn't leave until 11:30! Time really flew! As we left the building though we became aware of a prank Alyssa and a few others had played on the band, News From Verona. They took window pens and wrote on the windows "Come back to YC soon!!" and on the other "WE HEART JUSTIN BEIBER!" And one other joke that's hard to explain. But we got hugs all around and got in our car and as we were pulling out we kind of stalled to see their reactions. Then one of the guys ran out and jumped in front of our car that wasn't moving very fast due to our stalling. We stopped and he ran over to my side of the car, flings open the door and hugs me, the climbs in over me and hugs everyone else in the car! Christian held his hand up from the front seat for a high five and the guy said "Oh come on Christian! Give a real hug! Don't be a wimp! HA! You tried to get away with just a high five!" and hugged him. Then we burst out, unable to hold in our laughs any longer. "Did you see your van? Go look at your van!!!" I jumped out of the car, into the street and he quickly followed at a run. "OUR VAN? WHAT DID YOU DO TO OUR VAN??! YOU DORKS!!! And he ran over. He stood in front of the less offending side, reading "Come back to YC soon!!!" And smiled. "Look at the other side!" shouted Christian, grinning back evilly. He ran to the other side, out of sight and we heard clearly "AUUGH! OH! Ohhh ho ho! NICE." He walked back out into view shaking his head at us. We left laughing hysterically. The drive home was so much shorter and about halfway Claire and Maddy, unable to take another replay of the Relient K CD, revealed to their brother the two giant CD cases beside his seat and he obligingly put on a Disciple CD instead, after a playful threaten to put on another Relient K CD that was in the case. We pulled up to an Applebee's where my mom was somewhere around midnight and my mom drove us home. I fell into bed, glancing at my clock to see the 1 AM. We'd driven into our driveway at about 12:50. Wowza!! It was a reeeeally great time!

It's Just My Nature to...

Love God,
Adopt new siblings daily,
Trip on air,
Try my best,
Ignore negativity,
Be gullible,
Try to convince you I AM right,
Call you an idiot when it becomes clear I'm WRONG,
Be gullible,
Shout things randomly,
Do what I must because I can,
Sing constantly,
Write like an excited nerd,
Sing your least favorite song softly while grinning evilly just to get on your nerves,
Be extremely ticklish in all areas,
Want to try something new,
Wear unmatching socks,
Be white and nerdy,
Read - A LOT,
Add "ish" or "ness" to the end of words,
Love kids,
Act like an older sister,
Hate phones,
Use a lot of sarcasm,
Talk to myself,
Become sickened by the sound of cracking knuckles,
Be generally responsible,
Enjoy life the way it is NOW,
Poke people,
To be boistrously, unashamedly, gratefully, blessedly, insanely, unmistakably Halie