Beautiful Noise

Possibly My New Favorite Song

2012-01-02T09:24:00.003-05:00

Our family has this homemade cd that has just about the best combination of love songs ever. They're pretty much all songs recorded pre-2000 (ok, at least pre-2005) and I like basically every single one of them, which seems to me to be a rare occurance with somebody else's wedding cd. Usually, the bride and groom like every song and the guests may like 1 or 2 out of the 17 or so on there.

The funny thing about this particular wedding cd, is that we hardly know the bride and groom. In fact, I'm positive the groom doesn't know me, and I'd be very surprised if the bride remembered me. They're a couple my aunts knew from Steubenville and we did not attend their wedding; somehow, one of my aunts passed the cd on to us. I don't know if she had extras or simply didn't share their fabulous taste.

Anyway, I recently downloaded the cd to my itunes and have been enjoying the songs ever since. I'll admit, not many people of my generation would genuinely enjoy listening to John Denver or Etta James (oh man, is she an amazing vocalist though!), let alone Loreena McKennit (and you're saying who??) or Allison Krauss...ok, let's be honest, I don't really enjoy listening the two particular Allison Krauss songs this couple chose all that much, but hers are probably my least favorite on there and I don't even mind them too much.

Some of my preferred artists and songs include but are not limited to, Jack Johnson-Bubble Toes, a few different selections by Dave Matthews Band, Rufus Wainwright-Hallelujah, and my new favorite: Nickel Creek-When You Come Back Down.

This last one is a song I've heard a bunch of times by now (we've had the cd since I was about 10), but it wasn't until recently that I really began to appreciate it. I'm not sure if it's lyrics like, "I'll be the harmony to every lonely song That you learn to play" and "Angel, you were born to fly, If you get too high I'll catch you when you fall" that make it special or if I just like the soothing accoustic guitar sound and folksy fiddle solos sprinkled throughout, but, either way, I'm almost decided that this is my new favorite song. :)

So take a listen and read the lyrics and let me know what you think.

My Love/Hate Relationship With Track

2011-12-21T13:37:00.004-05:00

Well, it's that time of year again...for track training.

Now, let's get one thing straight, right up front: I hate running but love being in shape. (I also love winning, but that is hardly a big enough reason to run track.)

My track career began freshman year. I was thrilled to be trying a new sport, especially one that involved the only aspect of other sports that I was any good at: running. I soon discovered, however, that running against other people that actually trained to run was a lot more stressful and painful than I had expected. While, in basketball, I could sometimes manage to outsprint other players on fast breaks and, in soccer, I could keep up enough endurance to make a decent mid-fielder, but track was different. I had to push myself to run much faster and much longer than I was used to in order to do well against other competitors in a race.

One thing I did not learn freshman year...well, actually, I did learn it, but chose to ignore it, (much to my detriment) was that, to be a good runner, you actually have to work hard. Really hard..and not just at the meets themselves but every single day of the season. Like, I said, I chose to ignore that fact all through freshman year, and my final meet had me huffing and puffing (and crying, my mother likes to teasingly remind me) as I desperately scraped a 6th place ribbon in the 800m.

The pain and shame of that last race were probably the sole reason I decided to quit track. Well....at least, for the next two years, but, as people (particularly guys who are annoyed with my persistant efforts to beat them in one thing or another) like to point out, I am extremely competitive. In fact, I'm not sure it's healthy to be as competitive as I am, but anyway, as soon as my best friend, Laura beat my PR (personal record) in the 800, I had to give track another try.

So, senior year had me back on the track, this time training like a madwoman to beat the new Dominion Academy 800m record. I was terrified of the thought that Laura might beat me in a race and I relentlessly trained, even traveling down to Kentucky with Laura for a week of two-a-day training sessions and personal instruction from her aunts who had both gone to state in track.

Long story short, I worked pretty hard last season and really did reap the rewards. I was stronger, faster, and healthier than ever before.....But still, every meet had me stressing about the next race and, whether or not my nerves helped me race well, they certainly made me remember why I quit track. I guess I'm just bi-polar when it comes to track. I can't seem to decide if I love it or hate it, whether the benefits outweigh the sacrifice..

But, here I am, beginning my training for the track season at Franciscan. Yes, I'm running intercollegiate track. My mother thinks I've lost my mind. Maybe I have. I know that I'm going to have to train harder than last season in order to even get personal records, let alone prove competition enough to place well, but something in me won't let the sport go. God has given me a small measure of talent but a large amount of determination. What can I do but give my best to His glory?

.....and really, this whole post was a big stalling tactic because I don't want to go outside and run in the rain.

..but it's still raining.

..so I better get out and run.

But at least maybe you all understand my track complex now.

When you're a newly licensed driver...

2011-12-20T20:40:00.005-05:00

...make sure you really do know how to get gas at the gas station before taking the car out on empty.

...do not allow your 7 year old brother to wave his hand frantically out the window at passing police cars.

...MAKE SURE YOUR LIGHTS ARE OFF BEFORE LEAVING THE CAR!

...do not sing opera, as this will tend to make you gesture wildly, thus making you look certifiably insane and causing you to step hard on the gas when attempting to hit notes far above and beyond the range God intended you to have.

...watch out for random ladies who like to drive on the wrong side of the road for no apparent reason.

...expect to be sent on an errand of some kind at least once a day.

...do not listen to Charlotte Church if you are inclined to sing along, as this will cause you to attempt feats both your vocal chords and the car cannot handle (^ see "singing opera" above ^)

...do not expect to be graciously accepted into the left lane. It is a priviledge that you must either earn or demand...there are no polite requests involved.

...if you back out of the driveway via the grass and curb, your father may explain to you a new meaning of the term "lawn job"...and then proceed to make you feel utterly foolish for a good 15 minutes.

...if you drive the speed limit you will be passed by everyone, even truckers. Accept this now or learn to drive at least 15 above.

...when in downtown Dayton, keep in mind that questionable-looking personages have been known to meander aimlessly across the middle of the road for no apparent reason.

...drive-thru's are for experienced drivers...driving close enough to the window to reach your food is harder than it looks.

...driving in 4-6 inch heels is not advised but has been done.

...learn to become deaf to all shouting, screaming, fighting, scuffling, complaining, singing, and excessive laughing from the back seat...or otherwise expect to lose your mind.

and finally...

...pray every time you get in the car. Pray that God take mercy on your newly acquired skills, pray for the well-being of all those driving around you, and pray for no accidents...with the car............or in your pants.

C.S. Lewis blows my mind yet again

2011-12-08T00:07:00.005-05:00

"....This process of surrender--this movement full speed astern--is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. in fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person-- and he would not need it."
~C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity'

Ahh...I love that man.. :)

The effects of adoration on sleep deprived individuals

2011-10-08T00:23:00.005-05:00

The Portiuncula on campus (aka my favorite place in the whole world) has 24hour adoration, which has been such a blessing. I don't know if I've ever been so at peace in any other place. This week, at my hour slot on Wednesday afternoon, however, I was having an incredibly difficult time concentrating. My mind simply could not stay focused...the result? This rather amateur attempt at poetry:

Listening leaves me satisfied;
My words just confuse me,
But, of hearing you, I am denied,
And so my thoughts bemuse me.

In this chapel, defiantly
Praying till I burst,
But, of these pray-ers silently,
I know I am the worst.

Wand'ring thoughts, uncontained:
Wild, independent things.
With them my spotless soul is stained,
Lending Evil wings

To build up walls five feet thick,
Through which I cannot find you,
And, without your healing touch I'm sick
with fears and worries anew.

Gracious Love, can you reach me yet,
Though walls and wings deny
Entrance to a crown with thorns set,
Heedless of my cry?

I'm waiting, pacing back and forth
Within my towered cell.
Yet, lost in dark, which way is North
From whence I think I fell?

Still deeper than the dark which grips
Me close in cold embrace
Are reflections in sweet, crystal tears
That softly grace your face.

You see me here, so tightly bound,
Hopelessly out of reach;
And know that I hear not a sound,
Nor understand your speech.

So save me now, why do you wait
To burst through lock and chain?
And relieve me from this sorry state:
Relinquish all my pain.

But now, a smile, yet barely that,
So sadly it appears
To me, deaf sinner, gazing at
Your visage marked with tears.

And though not a sound or echo
Do I hear in stillness blank,
Your lips form words of sorrow
I find I cannot mistake.

Beautiful Child," First you call;
Then, "How sadly you're mistaken.
If you just believed these walls
Their foundations would be shaken.

For only one can let me in:
One not of evil's make,
Who has listened to the lies of sin,
Into whose heart I will not break."

"Where is he, this power has?"
I frantically replied,
And pounded on the barred glass
To reach His face behind.

Then, "Hush, Be Still," He said,
In tones so rich, and soft and deep,
"Why did you let your fears be fed
By lies so plan and cheap?"

For, all the while you knocked and cried
Yet could not hear my voice,
I waited there, not satisfied
Until you made a choice.

To let me in was yours alone
And no one else could do,
So at your window rocks I've thrown
Until you let me through."

I think I'm in love...

2011-09-15T22:12:00.006-05:00

With Robert Frost. I got a book of his poems from the library here the other day and can't get enough of them. I'm pretty sure my appreciation of poetry has tripled just since I checked out this book. It definitely helps that the book is old, not ancient..but old enough to be dignified looking. It smells like a quality kind of book too. (am I the only one who smells books?)

Anyway, I don't have time to really go into any more about this book (not that it'd be interesting to read if I did), but I just wanted to post the first poem I saw when I opened the book the other day in the library: the poem that made me get the book in the first place.

A Late Walk
by Robert Frost

When I go up through the mowing field,
The headless aftermath,
Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
Half closes the garden path.

And when I come to the garden ground,
The whir of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds
Is sadder than any words

A tree beside the wall stands bare,
But a leaf that lingered brown,
Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
Comes softly rattling down.

I end not far from my going forth
By picking the faded blue
Of the last remaining aster flower
To carry again to you.

Blessings

2011-07-05T00:01:00.007-05:00

Lately, I've been learning that so many things in life don't live up to your expectations of them. It's not always easy to be happy on average types of days where there isn't much going on but an overflowing laundry basket and an entire anatomy and physiology book waiting to be completed before August--The days where nothing tragic happens, but nothing especially exciting does either; when thoughts grow stale from being tossed around in your head for too long and you just can't seem to find a song to listen to that doesn't rub you the wrong way or make you depressed.

At the end of a day like this, I usually end up at the piano. Somehow, I can always manage to find a way to vent through music, and sometimes maybe even discover some new melody or set of verses that I couldn't find before. If I'm not in a completely uncooperative mood, I can usually allow myself to get caught up in the music and by 2am or so, my slow, monotonous day is forgotten and I'm not nearly as gloomy.

There are the days when even the piano doesn't help to remove the little cloud though, and then I pray. It's funny, how that's a last resort, isn't it? But I guess God probably gets a lot of last resort prayers, because they seem to be not uncommon things..in my life anyway.

Fortunately, today wasn't one of those days, and tonight I got to go to adoration, something I used to find long and rather unenjoyable until Steubenville retreats completely changed my idea of it. Thanks to them, I now am able to view it as what it truly is--complete closeness to God, the chance to be in His presence, uninterrupted and unfettered-- and enjoy every minute of it. Tonight, I prayed for a while, but I seem to have a problem listening to God when I pray...I do most of the talking, so I decided to read the Bible, thinking maybe the things God wanted to say would be put more clearly in front of my face there.

While I did not find the clear-cut message I was hoping for--something along the lines of, "You will build houses for starving orphans in the Congo and marry a tribal warrior you will fall in love with there." (ok, that's not exactly what I wanted to hear, but some straightforwardness would have been nice), I did find a chapter in Sirach that I really liked. It's labeled 'Joy and Miseries of Life' and had a lot of nice, proverbial-sounding advice on the important things in life. My favorite verse was 27...

"The fear of God is a paradise of blessings; it's canopy, all that is glorious" (Sirach 40:27)

When I first read it, I admired the wording for it's musicality--paradise and canopy are so visually descriptive...It wasn't until later that I began thinking more deeply about it's meaning, and how it applies to my life. The concept of blessings coming in fear is somewhat foreign to me. Probably, this isn't even what the verse meant; When it refers to 'fear of God' it most likely means respect and appreciation for Him as our Creator and Redeemer. But still, the usage of the word 'fear' sparked a something in my brain and reminded me of a song I've been hearing on the radio recently. It's called 'Blessings' and is by an artist I didn't know of until lately, named Laura Story.

'Cause what if your Blessings come through raindrops?
What if your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know you're near

What if trials in this life
Are your mercies in disguise?'

In the chorus, she too suggests the idea of blessings through pain, of knowing the love of God only most fully through the completeness of life: the unhappy moments along with the joy.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything especially profound of my own to add to this, but it did strike me after reading this verse and listening to this song a few times tonight, that maybe even the little trials, the agonizingly slow days, the lack of clarity in my life----maybe all of it has a purpose. Maybe all of these things...are Blessings.

Extreme Weather

2011-05-31T06:26:00.002-05:00

After one of the coldest and snowy-est winters I've ever known, and the wettest spring (seriously, was there a track meet not affected by rain in some way?), we're apparently on to one of the hottest summers. Unfortunately, in Ohio, due to the lovely humidity, this means that it's hot nearly 24/7, not just during the day: Perfect swimming weather for people who have regular access to a pool :-l, and for everyone else? Well...let's just say it's going to be a long summer.

....and for me?

....It's going to be a long summer.

Camp Death (arrival)

2011-03-22T23:04:00.003-05:00

Well, I seem to have lost my mind and allowed my friend Laura (basketball best friend, and the person who harrassed me into doing track again) to convince me to spend my entire Spring Break in Louisville, Kentucky, intensely training for the upcoming track season.

We'll be spending the week at Laura's Aunt Pam's house, learning from her wealth of track/physical training experience (she went to state for sprints!).

So far, we're settled comfortably into the basement, my new laptop (yay!) is set up and working, and Laura is snoring on a nearby air mattress. I got the chaise lounge. :)

That's about all for now, because we're apparently getting up at 6:30 for our first workout. yippee........

And this is why we call it..

Camp Death

I've never been much of a gardener...

2011-01-26T17:49:00.009-05:00

"I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." -Matthew 9:13

If I learned anything from AP Poetry last year, it was to recognize a metaphor when I saw one. Although we spent hours memorizing the definitions of countless literary devices, that particular one was pounded into our poor Advanced Placement heads until every other sentence we made turned into a comparison of some sort (most of which were not nearly profound enough to count as metaphors...but I attribute that to the poor eating and sleeping habits of DA students). Since then I may not have improved my eating or sleeping habits, but I do occasionally still attempt to make a metaphor. Whether they have become more profound is highly questionable, but that doesn't detract from the fun of trying to be creative. :)

Lately, I've been messing with the idea of finding a metaphor for the soul. It seems as though such an abstract concept should have some way of materializing in our limited brains, and, according to every poetry class I attended, the way to do that is by comparing it to a more tangible concept. Well, I've finally found one that I like: A garden. Imagine every soul as it's own private garden, beautifully unique to that person. Just like fingerprints and the way we see rainbows, no two gardens would be completely alike, and of course, just as God has so perfectly planned out our lives, each would be laid out in a specific way. And I'm going to go even further (ooh, Mrs. Mac would be proud..an extended metaphor!). While the various types of plants themselves reflect the personality of the person, the state of the plants reflects the state of the person's soul. With the added weight of each sin, the leaves and flowers droop more and more, eventually wilting altogether. When overcome with sin, our gardens become veritable wastelands--the remnants of our beautiful plants now turned to brittle twigs, mere skeletons of their former glory. But it doesn't end there, otherwise nobody would have much of a garden left at all. This is where repentance and forgiveness enter in.

For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.-Psalm 86:5

How wonderful that we are not left alone to destroy these gardens, but God provides a gardener-- a sort of clean up crew-- in the form of Confession, to clear away the dead parts of our soul and coax it into growth again. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says,

"Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Become new. That phrase means that we are given the grace to renew our souls each time we confess our sins and beg for forgiveness. It means that God has promised to not only forgive our sins--not only to clear away the wilted flowers-- but also to make us new. The most powerful part of the Passion movie for me (aka, the scene/line that made me cry the most) was when Jesus falls (I forget which time) and His mother goes running towards him. He slowly lifts his head, and in the midst of all his pain and exhaustion says, "Behold, I make all things new." Woah. That part really hit me hard..made me realize exactly what His Passion was all about. Of course, I always knew what it was about, but that one line, spoken quietly to Mary in the middle of a jeering mob of soldiers really drove it home.

So, back to the garden, because I'm not quite ready to let this metaphor thing go yet. ;) If you really want to extend it (and I really do, because I'd like to see how far I can take this), think about what happens to the dead remains of our garden. Well, I've never been much of a gardener, but having killed many potted plants in my life, I do know where dead flowers go: the compost (At least in our family they do, because we are just that cool that we have a compost.). And in the compost, they decay and become very nutrient-filled fertilizer, which we then spread on our garden to feed the plants and help them grow. Even in our little metaphorical garden the dead flowers have a purpose. God often uses these sins of ours that seemingly destroy to bring about new life. Like when people say we'll learn from our mistakes. Obviously we don't want to make the mistakes to start with, but once it's been done, we, at the very least, learn the negative consequences, often we even benefit from the bad experiences because they help us with choices later on. And this is all because God keeps His promise of renewing our soul in Confession.

Not that I like confession any more than I like gardening. Pulling up ugly memories of unkind words, jealous feelings, and all the sins I've committed since the last time: namely, dead plants, is a dirty, smelly business (metaphorically speaking, that is..unless I forgot to put on deodorant that day ;). But when it's over and they're swept neatly away into the compost, I can feel the new seeds planted and they promise to bring on a garden even more beautiful than before. And, taking everything into account, it seems as though, while we may have been cast out of the Garden of Eden, we have never really become too far removed from that garden. We carry a little piece of it inside us, and when we finally manage to get our own little plots in order, we'll be allowed back in to the real Garden.

There, I believe I've exhausted my ramblings on gardens, both heavenly and earthly, metaphorically and physically. :) Coincidentally, I also have a song to add that really just fits with the theme of the post. It's a kind of dorky video...the lyrics sort of spasmodically jump in and out of the screen at parts, but the song itself is beautiful. It's by Christian artist, Matt Maher.

Oh, and look, someone else was on the same track with the whole garden theme. :D

"Truly charity has no limit; for the love of God has been poured into our hearts
by His Spirit dwelling in each one of us, calling us to a life of devotion and inviting us to bloom in the garden where He has planted and directing us to radiate the beauty and spread the fragrance of His Providence."- St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

Christmassy goings on

2010-12-28T22:29:00.002-05:00

Celebrating with family: Aunt Kiki's on Christmas, Aunt Missy's this week :)
Having fun with my aunts and uncles and learning to play Euchre
Reading because I'm on break: The Zion Chronicles and Mansfield Park (Good books!)
Industriously working on a senior project that involves lots of writing and music
Singing with a few of my favorite artists: Relient K, Tenth Avenue North, Michael Buble, JJ Heller
Trying to remember the reason for the season and appreciate the many good things in my life
Memories with Rosa: watching the Tourist, Tim Hortons, and boys with large Adam's apples ;)
Acceptance letter to Steubenville and scholarship ;) yay!
Salvation and Joy: two Christmas words that should be pondered

Halloween!

2010-11-17T00:02:00.008-05:00

Yeah, that's right, we are a pretty fantastic group of halloween costumes. Aunt Kiki is responsible for all of them except mine. :) They were amazing!

A little short, but very cute ;)

lil wayne and his friend never had such a gangsta look ;)

my buddies :)

And it's too bad I don't have pictures from the other two nights I dressed up. (yeah, i milked this last halloween for all it was worth ;) I was audrey hepburn for a school festival and maya, valya, and I were the three muskateers in Tipp City. Both costumes were pretty legit...

...well except for ppl kept thinking the muskateers were like pirates or something. O.O

Dayton's finest artistic talent ;)

2010-08-31T23:15:00.002-05:00

Only in California...

2010-07-30T13:19:00.003-05:00

Dance at Grandpa's

2010-07-30T11:47:00.007-05:00

I remember my dad reading Little House in the Big Woods to me when I was about 4 years old. The chapter in it that shares the title of this post was one of my favorites. It tells the story of how, in the middle of the winter, Pa, Ma, Mary, Laura, and Baby Carrie bundle into the wagon and drive to Grandpa and Grandma's house. All the family is gathered there and there is fiddle music (from Pa of course), dancing, lots of good food, and fun times with all the extended family. It sounded a lot like some of our family gatherings (both my parents have huge families), but we don't usually dance. Well, this sunday, for the 3rd time in the last 8 years, my grandparents (and this time, my uncle Steve and aunt Carissa, who now live in my grandparents' old house) hosted a hoe down (i have no idea how to spell that..or what it even means) for all the family who could make it. Almost all the aunts and uncles were here and lots of other California family. We ate way to much, swam in the pool, made new friends, and danced until our feet were sore (really...my legs were killing me that night). My grandpa found a square dance caller who was willing to put up with the chaos of the 30some kids here, plus the adults that are somwhat...directionally challenged. ;) It was so much fun! Everyone danced with everyone else and no one was ever without a partner for long. One of the good things about the Luke family is that there is a fairly even number of guy and girl cousins, so dancing is made easy and only a few girls had to dance the guy parts. The whole evening was full of silliness, laughter, and family...overall, the best combination of fun. :D

Jesse got a reaallly interesting tan *cough* burn..

and daddy likes to pick at the leftovers before the party even ends ;)

Uncle Steve is too cool for the pool..or anything else for that matter

Braxton: one of my other california cousins and the most interesting,

if not best, dance partner I had haha ..i never knew you could move your hips while square dancing ;)

Aunt Carissa and her family (minus uncle steve..who's still being cool at this point):

the hostess of all our family reunion activities and one of the most amazing, fun, hard-working, loving ladies I know :)

Watch out! More posts to come!! :D

Fun in the Sun~ Beach Edition

2010-07-30T10:46:00.011-05:00

We finally made it to the beach on a sunny day! At around 4 in the afternoon we packed our towels and blankets and drove half an hour to the nearby beach of Refugio (the locals call it re-foo-fee-oh). Just another one of those strange spanish pronunciations, we thought..but no, the mexicans don't know why it's called that either. Anyway, if you want to be cool with the locals you pronounce the G as an F sound. The beach was beautiful. The sun was warm but not enough to burn us, so some of us lay out on the blanket while others let themselves played in the waves. Later on we saw seals jumping a little ways out. I'm reading 'The Great Gatsby', so I mostly stayed on the blanket, but the whole evening was very peaceful and enjoyable. :)

Here is just a little bit of the fun we had:

yes, she is the only one who accomplishes anything on vacation :)

cousins and bffs

Not quite Hawaii..

Kylie: the only one brave enough to be fully buried alive

food always tastes better at the beach

It got a little intense when Charlie saw that the seals were coming closer ;)

My beautiful cousin Taye

Grandma and Grandpa's Paradise

2010-07-24T18:12:00.005-05:00

I've been visiting my grandparents here in Buellton, California since I was a tiny little girl with blond hair, but I guess my familiarity with the place dulled my sensitivity to just how beautiful it is here. My grandparents and aunt and uncle live in two lovely houses, built in the typical southern california style: reddish-orange roofs, terra cotta (ok, not really..but it looks like it) walls, and surrounded by very exotic, tropical looking plants that my grandma tends daily.
They're tucked up in the rolling hills, only a few minutes away from the town, and only about 10 more from the bigger tourist attraction, Solvang, but their house is secluded enough that they're frequently visited by all varieties of wild animals. For instance, my grandpa is jokingly referred to by close family members, as the 'Great White Hunter' after his encounter with a wild pig. He got the pig, but the gun got him, and one of the cousin's baptism pictures features grandpa with several bruises and a big white bandage on his forehead. ;) Coyotes can be heard in the growing dusk and Grandma fights a constant battle with the deer over her beloved rose bushes. Tiny lizards sun themselves on the black top and are often terrorized by all visiting children (many of them are without tails...the lizards..well i guess the children are without tails too ;). There are even bobcat pawprints crossing the driveway. It's unusual to have so much nature surrounding a house and still be within reach of civilization. I don't know what makes me appreciate it so much this visit, but even after touring Europe and living in or visiting almost every state in the country, I still think this place holds its own.

Fun in the Sun- Pool edition

2010-07-24T17:59:00.002-05:00

Choo choo!!

What's that in the water??

Oh lovely. A baby mouse :-O

Taye is sooo cute!

Brody!

Hey! where am I supposed to sleep?

2010-07-16T14:27:00.002-05:00

The Other Lukes or The Begginning of My Stay in Sunny CA

2010-07-13T23:59:00.005-05:00

The first part of our stay in California was spent with my Uncle Dave, Aunt Dina, and their kids: Brendan, Gracie, Hailey, Joe, William, and newborn baby Patrick. Aunt Dina's mom was staying there too, and she was either constantly cleaning or holding a baby. While we were there, we went to the beach once (although, I think my family went once before I got there too), to Knott's Berry Farm (our family's favorite amusement park, had dinner with other cousins and extended family, and pretty much just fooled around with our cousins. We hadn't seen them since two Christmas's before, but our families get along perfectly, so it was no problem fitting right back in to where we'd left off.

Choo choo with her rock collection at the beach

bestest buddies :)

Scary driver

I swear I've never seen a merry-go-round this fast

Knott's Berry Farm!

William!! aww he's so cutee <3>

and that's only the beginning.......

The Flight of Neverending Hunger pt 2

2010-07-12T14:30:00.001-05:00

Thankfully, by the time we reached Dallas, the rain had stopped...and so had the baby. :) Our captain informed us that there was a plane in our gate, so I used the 20 minutes it took for us to taxi in to our gate to call my parents and figure out the ticket situation. Because I was 2 hours late, I missed my flight, so my dad called in and booked me on another flight. He gave me detailed instructions on how to get my new ticket and even told me the gate number. Finally, after about 5 hours (which really isn't that bad after flying to china ;) I exited the first plane. I was, at this point --10:30pm, Dayton time--, more than ready to eat.

As I scanned the screen of departures to make sure my flight was leaving out of the gate my dad had told me, my phone began to ring.

Me-hello?
My mom- Hi, you need to hurry. Daddy switched your flight. You're flying out of a different gate now. Here's the ticket number. When you get there...
Me- He already called, I'm going, and he told me what to do.
My mom- Oh. Well, hurry! They're already boarding!

Ugh. With the word "hurry!" echoing in my ears, I sped up and rushed to the new gate. The man didn't even ask for my old boarding pass, but found my new one and handed it to me with a, "Here you are sweetie. You better board now."

So I boarded. Without food. Alas.

Thankfully, American Airlines assigns seats, so it was easy to find mine. Getting my bag into the overhead compartment was a little harder. I'm not really that short --5'4"-- but these overhead bins are pretty high. I had to stand on my seat and use my strong basketball muscles to swing the bag wildly up over my head and into the bin. Luckily, I didn't hit anyone's heads, but I probably looked pretty pathetic. Once settled in my seat..

"Excuse me, this is your captain speaking,"

Oh no, not him again. (ok, this was a different one, but these announcements didn't seem to ever result in anything positive)

"We have passengers flying in on another plane, so we'll need to wait for them to get off that plane and board this one." *sighs throughout the plane*

An older couple sat next to me. The husband was sleeping when I boarded. I have no idea how he did it sitting straight up, with his chin drooping onto his chest, but he slept the entire way. The wife and I exchanged our woeful airplane stories.

"Yes we usually fly South West," she muttered confidentially, casting the nearest stewardess a dark glance, "and this is why!"

I agreed with her, feeling it was safest not to be on the receiving end of one of her angry looks, and added that I thought the video repeating itself over and over on the tv screen above was kind of annoying.

"Yes," she said, "I guess it's supposed to be peaceful, with the picturesque scenes and flute music, but that flute is getting on my nerves."

"I've seen those salmon jump up the river about four times now," I commented.

"I know," she agreed, "And I like flowers, but I don't want to be one" she exclaimed, as the camera did an extremely close-up tour of the inside of a flower, accompanied by several spasmodic trills of the flute.

Criticizing the "Peace and Relaxation" video occupied us for the next 20 minutes, while the other passengers boarded and took their seats. The video then switched over the safety instructions, which was almost a relief after the flute. Finally, when everyone had been thoroughly prepared for any type of emergency..

"This is your captain speaking," loud groans echoed, unchecked from nearly everyone on board, "It seems we have a mechanical issue that must be taken care of before we take off," more groans, "We thank you for your patience (ha yeah right), and once again apologize for the delay."

It seemed only fitting that the day end with a bang, (hopefully not literally) so I was not surprised by the extra delay and did not join the groans. My stomach, however, was less accepting. It groaned loudly as I explained to the lady sitting next to me that I hadn't eaten for almost 12 hours. She nodded sympathetically, but her concern was not deeply rooted. I could see the bag of fritos she had stored in the pocket in front of her. We eventually did take off, but I had a 3 1/2 hour flight still ahead of me. The only thing that gave me comfort during these three hours of empty cravings was the man across the aisle behind me. He had bright, clean, yellow high tops on. They made me happy. Yellow is my happy color. These shoes almost made me smile, which was a pretty big deal, at this point in the day.

I arrived at 12am, California time -- 3am, Dayton time. Both my parents were there to meet me. It's nice to be missed :) And my dad, always practical, and very much against wasting money on fast food *sigh*, brought cold pizza. Having not eaten for the last 15 hours, I was not especially particular, however, and I wolfed down several pieces, then immediately fell asleep.

When we got to Uncle Dave and Aunt Dina's at 1am, the house was dark and still. I could see my cousin Brendan was sleeping on the couch. Feeling deserving of a slightly more exciting welcome, I poked him several times in the head and finally dripped water on his face until he woke up and gave me a hug. Then I went upstairs and to sleep. I was in California! :)

The Flight of Neverending Hunger pt 1

2010-07-11T22:36:00.005-05:00

The day after our return from Steubenville I spent with one of my other bff's, Maya. I only stayed the one night, but her family spoiled me with Dairy Queen, pancakes with whipped cream for breakfast, and non-homogenized milk ;) (that means there's cream floating around in it yum!) They also did everything possible to make sure I was completely ready for my flight Monday evening. Maya and I slept in (which was really very lovely after a crazy weekend) and spent the rest of the day fooling around with the editing of our next film. It's as yet unnamed,

but I can assure you it is a masterpiece, and I'm not the only one who plays a guy this time! ;)

That afternoon her family took me to the airport and walked me to security, where I waved goodbye and walked through without any problems. Having traveled before (ha, understatement), I made it to my gate without any problems and started reading a book that Maya let me borrow.
That was the peaceful, enjoyable beginning of my travels. (insert ominous sound effect here)

As soon as we were all boarded, had learned (for my millionth time) how to use the flotation device, "locate the nearest exit", and fasten our seat belts, there came an announcement over the loudspeaker,

"This is your captain speaking. Welcome aboard."

If only he had stopped there.

"I'm afraid we're unable to depart at this time due to heavy rains in Dallas (our destination). We've been asked to delay one hour. You're welcome to exit the plane, but remember, if you do so, even to grab a bite to eat, you must take all carryon items with you."

I wasn't about to get my dufflebag, which was practically bursting at the seams (see 'California Here I Come!') out of the overhead bin. I had barely gotten the thing in there to begin with. Plus, Maya's mom had made that huge breakfast of pancakes and whipped cream at noon, so I really wasn't hungry yet. I unbuckled my seatbelt, made myself more comfortable and kept reading.

An hour later:

"This is your captain speaking. Well, heavy rains are still falling in Dallas, and I'm afraid we're going to have to delay things another hour. If you need to leave the plane and make other arrangements, feel free to do so at this time."

A lot of people in the seats around me began gathering up their things to go get something to eat. The family in front of me left completely, one of the kids wailing to his mother, "does this mean we can't go home?"

This is where I should have gotten off and gotten something to eat, but, being the extremely lazy person that I am, I put up the arm rest of the vacant seat next to me, spread out and kept reading my book.
The wait wouldn't really have been that bad, almost comfortable, actually. I had a book, room to put my feet on the other seat, and it wasn't too cold on the plane. I had forgotten what it was like to travel with a baby. About 5 rows behind me, there was, indeed, a baby. A screaming baby. But this screaming baby was unlike any other screaming baby I have ever had to endure. I can block out most screams and cries and read in peace, thanks to long car trips with small siblings, but this child was different. This baby shrieked with joy. I'm not kidding. High-pitched, deafening shrieks of joy. I could tell it was a happy baby from the shrieks and from the fact that the mother didn't nothing to make it stop. However, I was sympathetic to the parents, because, in my experience (which isn't vast, but decent), there's not much you can do with a baby as far as happy noises go. I therefore tried to block the unearthly, bloodcurdling, noises of terror from my aching ears and keep reading.

Unfortunately, the couple behind me was less immune to the sounds. This couple, who I had already come to know as "Babe" and "Babe" from overhearing their loud conversations to one another, simply could not tolerate the shrieks of a happy baby. Every time there was a shriek, it was immediately accompanied by an "Oh god" from Babe(female) and a grunt of assent from Babe(male). As the screams continued to occur, the ejaculations grew in intensity and color. They were probably more obnoxious than the screams. At one point, Babe(female) was heard to remark pointedly (and rather loudly, probably in the hopes of making an impression on the helpless mother of Baby) to Babe(male), "Babe, when we have kids......."
Unfortunately I didn't catch the last bit as it was drowned in yet another joyous outburst from the baby in the back, but heaven help their future kids.

We finally did take off from Dayton, and the mood became less tense, as Baby became less happy and cried: a much more soothing noise to our raw ears. Babe and Babe were still annoying, frequently kissing loudly, and conversing in unmuted tones, but, after learning to block out shrieks of joy, I was able to block them out too and concentrate on my book. I also wrote a little poem. No, I'm not going to share it with you. This one is too ridiculous even for me. It started out as melodramatic musings about the plane and the carpet of clouds...and ended up being an annoyed account of my flight, including lines like, "some perpetually kissing in the row behind" and "a baby screams with joy and my ears flinch" and,

"So I'll sit
And wait
And chew my ancient gum
While dreaming of food
And ignoring the gnawing in my stomach"

Yes, this "poem", was hardly something that could be commended for literary merit, but maybe it will bring back memories and make me laugh some day.

You can see though, that I was already becoming hungry. I reassured myself, however, that I would get something to eat in Dallas....

But would I?
(to be continued)

Steubie U pix

2010-07-11T00:53:00.007-05:00

Two of our lovely car buddies: Jeremy and Paul

Our Earrings all match! (living proof of the fabulous outfit's!)

Some new friends we made (never decide to make new friends that are sitting at the top of the bleachers..it's really awkward climbing towards them, with them staring down at you like, "what are you freaks doing?")

Besties! <3>

Betsy, Jenny, and Bethany! enjoying the retreat :)

Peter pretending to be meditating on something holy
..but secretly catching up on the sleep he didn't get last night

Rosie and Me! BFFs and future HMDs

what is life without silly pictures?
(there are at least 4 more..the kid in front of us was staring..
which made us do even sillier faces =)

Maya and Isabel!

Rosie, Me, and Jimmy
Retreat Buddies :)

Steubenville 2010!

2010-07-11T00:48:00.001-05:00

First things first..I have to start at the beginning of my travels, which would be Tuesday, July 22nd, the night I left home to stay at the Araya's house. Rosa and I then spent the next few days, shopping with her sister Isabel and our best friend Maya, watching thrilling episodes of Monk late into the night, desperately trying to get somewhat tan, and advising each other on which clothes to bring on our trip to Steubenville --this last one took quite a lot of time because there are so many different factors that add up to the finished product: fantastically fabulous outfits :D .

Somehow, in those 3 days of silliness, crazy schemes, laughter, and late night rendezvous we managed to grab the few hours of sleep we knew we'd need to survive the Steubenville conference. Since, this was my 3rd year, Rosie's 4th, and Isabel's 2nd, and because we all know how long it takes us to get into the car on time, we planned well in advance, packing our clothes the day before (or in Isabel's case, in the middle of the night before) and, on Thursday night, planning out who would shower when (it's quite a challenge for 3 girls with long hair and a tendency to dramatically increase the heating and water bill to each shower in one morning). Although, there were a few minor hitches (no breakfast *sigh*), we made it into the car and to Emmanuel on time..or..mostly on time.

From there we joined the rest of the youth group and split into various vehicles (ooh alliteration!). Rosa and I were forced into a car with our youth group buddies Jimmy and Paul and spent the entire ride either with Jimmy's feet in our faces (he claimed to be cramping from football camp) or listening to half a song before one of them would decide that that was enough of that song and change it. Thankfully, both Rosie and I are extremely low maintenance and easy going people (well ok, rosa is) and we managed to not only bear the ride, we enjoyed it. :) Actually, we all had a ton of fun and talked or sang or fooled around most of the way there.

Upon arriving *gasp* IN TIME FOR DINNER!!! (a very rare occurrence for our group), we ate. It was yummy and I saved my swiss cake rolls for a midnight snack. :)

Then we entered the field house and laughed and cried in turns as several really amazing speakers took the stage to welcome us and prepare us for adoration. Bob Rice was leading the music, and he was as awesome as ever. (when is the music there not awesome with Bob leading?)

Then Adoration.

Adoration at Steubenville Youth Conferences is pretty much the most incredible thing that will ever happen to anyone that attends. It's nothing like going to holy hour at home, in that you are not quietly, privately praying in an attempt to grow closer to God. In Steubenville, you practically shout out praises. You plead out loud, in song, tears, tongues, whatever way you can communicate most fully with God. And many people receive answers. Although you know Christ is truly present in the Eucharist at home. You know it here. When the priests process with the monstrance throughout the field house, people fall to their knees, some even fall prostrate on the floor, overcome by the power and love that pours forth from the Holy Spirit. Adoration is the climax of both Friday and Saturday night: the culmination of all the messages the speakers have been giving us in both talk sessions and prayer. For those truly open to hearing God speak to them --and for some who really aren't open, but whom he opens ;) -- adoration is the best part of the weekend. It's the core of what the entire conference is all about.

The rest of the time there is really fun too though. We've become accustomed to the meals (which are highly processed and the same every year) and manage to survive on zebra cakes and pizza, which the youth group leaders are kind enough to sometimes buy for us. Even the questionable hamburger and the chemicals-dyed-orange juice add a certain, shall we say, flavor to the weekend.

The other cool thing about the Steubenville conference is the amount of teens there that are really, truly in love with their faith, and not afraid to show it. Even the ones who are less demonstrative, open up completely in the crazy, friendly atmosphere. During the few moments of free time (mostly after adoration, before bed) little groups will run around campus, greeting other groups with a, "hey, where are you from?". It's this, along with the adoration, fantastic speakers (the ones this year were the best I've ever seen/heard), and great music that makes Steubenville so unique.

Finally, Sunday, it was time to go home. This may have been the happiest I've been on an end of retreat car ride home, but, then again, I'm not usually flying to California the next day. Jeremy, another one of our friends, who had met the group there, joined our car, and this time, the 5 of us really did just go crazy on the drive. Rosa and I have come to realize that the combination of a retreat high, practically no sleep for the past 3 days, and an excessive amount of sugar usually has a very.....interesting effect on us, but luckily, the boys didn't seem to mind and we sang veggie tales at the top of our lungs, made silly faces for the camera, and laughed until our stomachs hurt (or maybe that was the "hamburger" burning a hole in our intestines, who knows?). When it was over, we were all pretty dead, but with hugs and promises to carpool to youth group, we split up in the church parking lot, forever changed..ok corny, how about..strengthened by the weekend and ready to face life once again. :)

Elena
p.s. pictures next post :)

I'm Here!!!

2010-07-11T00:33:00.001-05:00

Actually, I've been here, in California, for almost two weeks now, but, as usual, procrastinated and made myself busy with other things until finally realizing I couldn't leave you all in suspense any longer, I took pity upon this poor, neglected blog and decided to post a few pictures and tell a few stories about my life on the road. ;)

So here it goes...Be prepared! In the next few posts, I will drown you in silly pictures, grueling accounts of never ending plane rides, and long winded discourses on the controversial topic of illegal immigration. (ok..just kidding about the last one..like i have a clue about it or want to talk about anything serious on here)

In the meantime I remain, forever yours,
Elena ;)

California Here I come!!

2010-06-21T19:43:00.004-05:00

Who knew duffle/gym bags could hold so much?

It's a skill, really. I have an entire wardrobe stuffed into various small corners of that bag, and there's still more to go in it, but I'll make it fit, because it has to.

After the Steubenville retreat this weekend I'll be on a plane to california...and the beach..and family...and being tan :)

So, altogether, what with spiritual growth, hanging out with friends, and dancing in the waves of the Pacific, this promises to be a lovely summer.

Seahorses

2010-04-12T22:48:00.005-05:00

Swimming up through waves of green and gold
getting lost in reefs of coral
forests of mahogany and yellow
they wonder why it's always dark at the bottom of the ocean.
The water carries them gently
a lilting motion
eddying waves with foam on top
where the seahorses cannot see.
They swim down, down to the bottom
and float softly through the swaying green that ripples in the wind
the wind of the sea.
Suddenly, a light pierces the always gloomy murk.
Gently, it sends a shaft that colors all it touches with soft golden sheen.
The seahorses are surrounded and bathed in the glow.
They dance and gleam in the light
but only for a moment
the sun sinks lower in the western sky
the shaft moves farther and farther away
and then
gone
and the seahorses roam again in the darkening gloom
soon forgetting their dance and the sun
seeing only what they saw before
only now it is not enough
not the same
forever tarnished by the warmth of a moment never again repeated.

Thunder, Lightning, and Sharks

2010-04-05T20:07:00.007-05:00

It's thunderstorming here and the streaks of lightning are both exciting and terrifying. Thunderstorms didn't use to scare me but in the last few years, for some odd reason, the clash of thunder is enough to make me cringe when I think of the possibility of being electrocuted. This is probably something we call irrational fear. I'm not afraid of electrocution itself..more the idea of it, and if I sit down and consider the chances of bing electrocuted, I'm not actually afraid of that either.

The statistic I've heard regarding shark attacks and being struck by lightning isn't very comforting either. Apparently, more people are struck by lightning every year than are attacked by sharks. This statement is meant to comfort one when going to the beach, but for some reason I usually remember it when there's a thunderstorm. During a storm, all the memories and images I have of shark attacks and people with missing limbs who survived only to return to surfing (I never did understand that girl..) come flooding back and I realize that shark attacks do happen, and obviously if they happen..so does electrocution.

Actually, I think what really made me begin to fear thunderstorms was a night last year. I went to sleep with the window open because it was a humid summer night (common to Ohio) and the rain wasn't coming in, or maybe it wasn't even raining when I went to sleep. I was awakened at about 3am by the loudest clap of thunder I've ever heard in my life. I'm not exaggerating. It woke me up, and if you know the kinds of things I sleep through --my siblings screaming bloody murder in the carseat next to me only one of many examples-- that fact would prove how loud this clap of thunder was. It was accompanied --that's right, accompanied..not proceeded by-- a blinding flash of lightning (ok, so this might be an exaggeration because I was half asleep), and a burnt smell. I don't know if it's possible to smell lightning, but I swear I smelled something burning. It was really like waking up to the end of the world, probably in part because I was groggy and not thinking straight, which is evidenced by the fact that I immediately jumped out of bed, ran to my parents' room and whispered urgently in my fathers ear, "Daddy, was the house struck by lightning?"

If I had been thinking straight, I would have realized that it would have been slightly more obvious if the house had actually been struck by lightning, but, again, I blame all this on a brain only half-awake. Whatever the reason for my actions, that memory of waking up to what seemed like a very terrifying 'end of the world' is very vivid and seems to have sparked some kind of irrational fear of thunder storms: nothing too dramatic. I'm not terrified of them and I can dance in the rain while watching lightning, but, all the same, it does make me cringe when the forked tongues slice across the sky and a loud clap of thunder splits the air, especially within a few seconds of the lightning, which, thanks to my 9th grade online science class, I now can convert to the approximate number of miles away from us that the lightning is striking.

Of course, according to this website, more people die by eletrocution from Christmas tree lights per year than by shark attacks....so maybe being struck by lightning isn't that common after all.
;)

Trust

2010-04-02T22:58:00.009-05:00

Trust is an interesting thing, so easily given, so quickly lost. It takes about a second and a half to say the words "I trust you" and still they form bonds that promise to hold under the most intense pressure. Yet, in less than a second and a half the bonds can be shattered, discarded, and mangled beyond recognition. It's been said that a wise man trusts only those he knows he can put faith in, but never gives up his trust, even when his strength is tested by suspicions and doubts. A foolish man, on the other hand, loses his trust as easily as he gives it, and with the first signs of danger he is gone.

Trust is ironic too. When one's trust in another falters, it is likely that the other will lose trust in return. If you promise to trust even in hard times and as soon as they come, lose your trust, was it trust at all? It's a mutual bond connecting two people and if one person finds fault in it, the bond is hurt for both people.

Trust, for some, requires great effort to maintain, for others it comes as naturally as walking. Jesus, when he said that we must become like a little child to enter the kingdom of God, meant that we must trust him blindly like a child, for, like a child with its parents, we have no choice. He is our only means of safety and our only sure way to happiness. If we try to trust those we love it will gradually become more and more easy to do and improve our friendships, with those around us and also with God.

Trust is tricky and elusive, but, once caught, it brightens life and sheds beautiful light on what before was covered over in doubt and darkness.

"We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy." ~Walter Anderson

Blog Revival

2010-03-31T09:12:00.003-05:00

After over a year of not posting I randomly decided to revive this blog, touch it up, rename it, and try to get it going again. I have no idea what sparked this sudden revival, but I guess I'll just enjoy it while it lasts and see how long that is.

So many things have changed since December of 2008 (the last time I posted) that I won't even try to fill you in, but we'll just start from right now in my life -- the middle of my junior year-- actually, the middle of the rhetoric essay that I've been avoiding while fixing up the blog, but which I need to go finish now, lest I invoke the wrath of my rhetoric teacher, who is actually the same Mrs. Mac of last year's history class (one of the best teachers I've ever known).

So, welcome back :) I hope to be posting more sometime soon.

itunes thingy

2008-12-03T19:51:00.002-05:00

From Emily

1. Put your iTunes on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Be My Escape- Relient K

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Me and Jesus- Stellar Kart heehee

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
She's Not Just a Pretty Face- Shania Twain wow...special

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
The Scene and the Herd- Relient K hmmmm what?

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Redemption- Switchfoot dude........creepy

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Mountain of God - Third Day

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Tied Down - Colbie Caillat hmm really? *sigh* maybe I'm am kind of tied down with everything that I have going on lately.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Homesick- MercyMe oh please.......

WHAT IS 2+2?
For the Band- Relient K

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Made to Worship- Chris Tomlin

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Entertaining Angels- Newsboys yeah...right..my siblings are anything but angels ;-) jkjk

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
The Call- Regina Spektor uhh i'm confused :-/

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Breakfast- Newsboys heehee that's funny, because despite my love for food, that's the only meal I consistently don't eat.

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
S.O.S.- Jonas Bros. HAHAHA! That would be funny!

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
A Whisper Heard Around the World- Bryan Duncan huh? I've never actually listened to this song..it was on an old WOW cd that i put on itunes a while ago.

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
The Only Thing Worse Than Beating a Dead Horse is Betting on One- Relient K uhh i guess in a twisted way that could mean horsebackriding?

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Ordinary Day- Vanessa Carlton Yes..but you never know what i DO on ordinary days..do you?

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Cartoons-Chris Rice heehee

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
On My Own- Les Miserables oooh! That is SO true! I'm such an extrovert!

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
This Man-Jeremy Camp ummm creepy?

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
ABBA- Rebecca St.James huh?

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
The Stenographer- Relient K

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
I'm Taking You With Me - Relient K can you tell I like Relient K? lol

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Deathbed-Relient K ummm a bit morbid?

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Up and Up- Relient K this is ridiculous I don't have THAT many of their CD's

YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Wherever We Go- Newsboys ummm?

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Take You Back- Jeremy Camp weird O.o

ANY LAST WORDS?
Frank Dies-HP4 soundtrack

hmm the beginning was kind of funny, but it just got random and boring towards the end.

I'm sorry...

2008-11-13T13:12:00.003-05:00

...for neglecting you so horribly. But I've just been so busy lately! I won't list my schedule because it really isn't that interesting..only painfully full. Happy Veteran's Day! (late..) It was nice to have the day off...

Actually, our school doesn't give us Veteran's day off (unfortunately), but I took it off anyway, to get sleep and try and get rid of this accursed cold/hacking cough/sore throat thing. It's still hanging around, but I'm not miserable, only slightly annoyed, because I have a concert on Sunday. So, yes, I played hooky (sp??) and have since decided that it really doesn't pay. I had to run through school on Wednesday, trying to find my teachers and ask about hw and turn stuff in. Technically I have until next Tuesday to get the stuff turned in, but I felt like making their jobs easier and turning in stuff so they could grade it over the weekend. Anyway, I couldn't find one of the teachers, so I put my hw in her almost completely full mail box. I kind of doubt that she'll even find it. ;-)

I know I've already warned you all to avoid AP history..well...yes, it's true, but at least Mrs. Mac (despite her love of crushing us with excessive hw) tries to make it interesting. Yesterday Mrs. Leckleider (sp?) , one of the math teachers, held a Japanese tea ceremony in class (she's a missionary to Japan). It was really fascinating! I have no idea how they sit on their ankles for hours at a time. It's pretty painful, so we cheated and crossed our legs about half-way through the class.

I have to go now, I've got a lot to do, but I promised not to give my schedule..so I won't tell you exactly what it is I'm going to do..just think along the lines of Latin hw and grammar and chemistry tests......

Oh, one more thing...I've made it through the first quarter of school! I got my report card the other day..It's really quite exciting to get a report card..esp because it was so encouraging to know that all this homework nonsense has paid off.

My results were:
Grammar 97%
Composition 95%
Literature 95%
History 89%

overall a 4.25 average...which is weird..because I thought you really couldn't go above a 4. lol It must be the AP history.. I'm kind of shocked that grammar is 97% because I think it's one of my more challenging classes. I've never liked grammar..it all seems a bit pointless. I'm glad this is my last year. Also, for chemistry I don't know what my average is, but I'm sure it's going to go down after I take this test....ugh..I really don't like moles..so confusing!

Hopefully, I'll be able to post again soon. I want to make one of those video things about our trip to Pike Lake...

But goodbye for now! May your grammar grades flourish, may your history teacher assign small amounts of homework, and always remember to balance your equations!

Just so you know...I'm not dead

2008-09-25T11:45:00.003-05:00

yet.

Never let Mrs. Mc (or any other teacher for that matter) convince you that AP History is good.

It's evil! REALLY evil!

And the amount of homework between Monday and Wednesday (which also happen to be the days I'm stuck trying to finish Chemistry homework that's due Wednesday) classes is absurd! We've already had like 3 quizzes and a test!

On the bright side though..Honors Lit is super easy. Why even call it honors?

First day..ok week...ok...more like first few weeks at school

2008-09-15T21:55:00.004-05:00

Here's me (on the left) and Valya (she was insane enough to get up when I did even though she didn't have to!) on the first day of school. This pic was taken at no later than 7:15am!!! I'm SO proud of myself! I got up at 6:30! Anyway, it's still pretty easy to wake up for school because it's all so new and exciting, but I'm sure that will wear off soon. :-/

P.S. The homework stinks. Never let your teacher convince you that you're smart enough to take an AP class. She's not the one taking the test.

Auditions!

2008-09-05T23:12:00.002-05:00

I had to audition for 'Singing in the Rain' today! People auditioning for the main parts had to do a dance, a monologue, and a song. So.....since I tried out for Lina Lamont first, Kathy Selden second, and some obscure character third (now watch, after saying that, I'll probably get the obscure character ;-) ).

For my song: I could've danced all night

It really fit my voice, but I had to sing it Acapella because I couldn't find any karaoke versions in the key of B flat. It was fine. I had my friend hit the key on the piano for me, and I know I did eventually get off key, because halfway through she hit the B flat again, and I had to keep going in the key I was in, because it was so off I couldn't go down to the B flat. It would have been too noticable, but I asked a bunch of people, and none of them noticed me changing keys. Oh well. We can't all be pitch perfect.

For my dance: I did part of my library scene dance from last year, with a few new things added. Joseph came all the way from college to do the dance with me! It was so nice of him! We practiced for about 10 minutes in the parking lot..in the rain..and I was barefoot, because it's hard enough to dance in flip flops..it's even harder to do it in the rain. Yes, we were 'dancing in the rain'. ;-) The dance went ok..He almost dropped me on the full lift, because, A: I haven't been playing sports all summer and I've probably gained a few pounds, B: We're both a little rusty with our dancing, and C (probably the main reason): his shoes were slippery from outside. Dumb rain. Oh well, the rest of the dance went ok. Pretty good actually, considering we went over it for 10 minutes, and actually finished choreographing the thing during those 10 minutes.

For my monologue: I did the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. (Y'know..the part where she says rapturously, "O Romeo, Romeo!")

In Lina Lamont's voice. ;-) I think people liked it....everyone laughed, and I got a few compliments.

So, we'll see how things turn out..I did my best. Next week we're supposed to go back. The director is going to see how people look next to each other ( I mean, we don't want a midget Don and a giant Kathy or anything like that) and have us read some lines for different parts. I hope that goes well. She said that she wants to have finished casting the mains next Friday. Keep your fingers crossed...no I guess just pray to St. Genesius. :-D

Saphira!

2008-08-31T22:26:00.007-05:00

My new parakeet that I got a few weeks ago.

The Zoo

2008-08-29T23:18:00.001-05:00

On Thursday some families from our homeschool group went to the Columbus zoo. I had to do my latin class that morning at a Panera in Columbus, so I missed the 1st hour and a half of the zoo, but during the 2nd hour and a half I got some really sweet pictures!

I know I'm kind of obsessed with these onetruemedia video's lately, but it's the easiest way to put a lot of pics on one post, and I have so much trouble picking which ones to post otherwise!

So here's a video of our trip to the zoo. The 1st one is a cool pic of my two friends and my shoes. If I ever make an album..that'll be the cover. ;-)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Stubenville Day 1

2008-08-29T23:00:00.001-05:00

I got to go this year!! (and yes. This is VERY LATE!)

But I'm still going to post all about it. By request of Aunt Sarah.

Friday morning I woke up..I think I actually woke up! I wasn't woken up! Anyway, I hurriedly packed the rest of my stuff into my duffle bag and crammed my purse full of stuff. We drove over to Emmanuel at about 11:30. There were a lot more kids going than I had expected, and I only knew like 2 of them. I quickly found my friend Rosa and met a group of girls (Allison, Celia, Mary Kate, and Maddie) that I ended up hanging out with the entire weekend.
It was pretty chaotic in the youth group room, but eventually they got us all outside and our bags in the vans. Then they made us get a big circle and pray..welll..they didn't make us pray. Then we had to go around and introduce ourselves. Next they assigned vans to people. I was lucky because I ended up in a mini-van with Rosa, her cousin Mary Kate, a leader, and two girls named Brenna and Amanda. It would have been kind of special if I'd had to ride with a bunch of people I didn't know. Anyway...we started driving, but were quickly interrupted because the youth group leader, Mr. Popp had to stop and get something at his house.

The drive there was pretty boring. We sang with the one girl's ipod, stopped at McDonalds for lunch, got gas, stopped to give motrin to someone in another car...and FINALLY....got there!!

We were late, so we had missed mass and some of the opening talks. The leaders in our group gave us wristbands and happened to make mine really tight. (Oh well..it was pretty loose by the end of the weekend.) We tried to remain inconspicuous when we entered the fieldhouse, but heads turned and stared. The students helping with the conference quickly found us seats in the VERY back, but that was ok, because we were right by a door, and we could see just fine.

The MC talked for a while and then we sang a little bit. Next they started Eucharistic Adoration. It was really powerful. The group in front of us were dropping like flies; being Slain in the Spirit. Only, I didn't know what being slain in the Spirit was, so I thought we had a special needs group kneeling (well actually laying) in front of us. There was this one guy who fell over, was given smelling salts, taken away in a wheelchair, and came walking back perfectly fine....only to fall over again when the Eucharist passed us in Adoration.

After Adoration, they let us go for the night. We got some pizza because we had missed dinner, and then we went to our dorms. The girls all had to crowd into one dorm room..well..two bedrooms, 4 beds, a little living space, all hard floors, and about 30 girls. I slept on the floor. And that was the end of Day 1!

School, sleepovers, and skinny jeans

2008-08-29T22:31:00.000-05:00

I can't believe school is about to start! It's ridiculous! I mean..I haven't even finished last year's work! Latin started last week, so I've been busy trying to remember how to decline nouns. grr. School starts this Tuesday, and we went to orientation last Monday. It was a lot of fun! I got my uniforms!!! (I need to stop using exclamation marks..I think I'm just a little too excited about starting school)

Anyway, after orientation..I went to a good friend's house for our 1st annual 'BM back to school bash'. (BM stands for Best Mate..unless you're a member and you know the secret meaning) We made t-shirts and died...no...dyed our hair with kool aid. It was fun..even if I had to sleep with tin foil in my hair all night..and even though I had to wash my hair right away the next morning because it was so sticky and greasy from the conditioner/kool aid mixture. Maybe next year we'll use real hair dye..but a week before school starts is not a good time to streak your hair red when the dress code says "No unnatural hair colors". We felt safer using kool aid, after being assured by several friends and cousins that it would rinse out on the first try. (and the BM budget couldn't afford real hair dye) Anyways, the only place it really showed up was my freakishly blond streak in the front..left over from my blond days (when I was little..).

And you might be wondering why the title contains 'skinny jeans'..some of you may remember, and I confess that I have been heard to say "I hate skinny jeans", "I'll never wear those", and even"We should start a flare rebellion against skinny jeans and wear flares even when they go out of style, which will hopefully be never!". *sigh* Yes, I did, in fact, say all of those things. And I'm paying for it now. I've been teased, tormented, and stared at (ok..maybe not the last two). But, while I was in VA..I broke down..and...and...and...I got a pair of skinny jeans. And the worst part is..I LIKE THEM! Anyways..you'll probably see pictures of me in them later, but I'm not a model (despite all my self pics in costumes) and I refuse to post pics of me in them specifically for the purpose of showing off my skinny jeans. HA. (if you look carefully in the upcoming "zoo" post, you'll see me wearing them.

So, now I'm off to keep writing up new posts (I got over a blogger's block all of a sudden and have about 50 posts planned for the next few days before school starts..oh....I guess that'd be only a day. *sigh*), but not before I post a few pics of the BM t-shirt I made. (pics of my uniform will appear sporadically throughout the year, I'm sure)

And the 2nd half..

2008-08-29T22:30:00.000-05:00

of our trip was when we went to the Clancy's house. Everyone (except me) was pretty homesick by now, so Mommy drove home with them after day at the Clancy's and I stayed a whole extra week! I got to spend a lot of time with two of my best friends, Caitie and Allison (well, not a lot of time with Allison, but a day and night) and I got to see some other great friends.

Here are some pictures:

Us at the Clancy's right before my mom and siblings left. Mei mei wouldn't appear for the pic because she was mad that I got to stay an extra week.
The National Shrine/Basilica that we saw on a field trip with Caitie's Youth Group

Christina, Me, and Caitie in front of the Shrine

Caitie and I, and our failed attempt at a self-pic. Actually, we did have some where it wasn't off-center, but we both look best in this one.

Allison and I had better luck with our self pic.

So remember..I went on a trip

2008-08-29T11:05:00.004-05:00

Well, I've got lotsa pics. Here's a slide show from our trip to Aunt Ali and Uncle Sean's.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The property

2008-08-29T10:53:00.009-05:00

So they're building a new bridge on the property now. (We still don't know if we're moving there, but the owner needs a bridge anyway) We went there last weekend and I took some pictures...

The beginning of the bridge

Choo choo, Charlie, and Nastia inspecting the bridge

A little fishing hole created when they dammed up the stream

The driveway

Chaser likes it there..no electric fences

I got a...

2008-08-19T16:25:00.000-05:00

cell phone! Yay!

Riddles

2008-08-05T23:24:00.004-05:00

Here are a few riddles Caitie and I found while looking on this site.

I have hands that wave at you,

But I never say "Goodbye."

It's cool for you to be with me,

Especially when I say, "HI."

What am I?

The man who made it doesn't want it. The man who bought it doesn't need it. The man who needs it doesn't know it.

I am weightless but you can see me. Put me in a bucket and I make it lighter. What am I?

You do not want to have me

But when you have me

You do not want to lose me.

What am I?

5. Take away the whole and still be left with some. What is it?

Answers

1. electric fan (hee hee ;-D)

2. a coffin

3. A hole

4. a lawsuit (haha)

5. The word wholesome

Survey thingy from Emily

2008-08-03T16:24:00.004-05:00

Name: Eomer, son of Eomund

Age: 24ish

August is: A time when spiders infest my sister's bedroom and I am constantly having to go assist in the squishing of them.

Crocodiles or Alligators: These outlandish sounding names seem rather Haradrim-ish.

New obsession: Staring at my amazingly handsome face in the mirror for hours on end.

People always say to me: "Eomer, thou art the most handsome and brave Rohirrim ever to ride the plains Rohan."

I wish: I had a mirror with real glass instead of burnished silver.

I love: Gazing at my reflection.

I want it to be: Spring, so I can hunt for Warg meat. (my sister doesn't like it, but I think it has a nice healthy dirt taste to it)

I don't have: A purpose in life.

Money is: What exactly is that?

Jenny is: ummm...some type of exotic plant?

Emily is: Orc-ish for Stinky Foot.

Nailpolish is: A kind of fluid mixed by the elves and used to polish the iron nails that hold their boats together, when they're tired of singing Gregorian-like chants and acting strange and mystical.

A/C are: some kind of crude dwarf runes.

Icebreakers are: large axe-like objects that are used by the strange people of the freezing North, to break their drinks into bite size pieces.

The Yankees are: more unusual dwarf runes, which, unless I'm much mistaken, mean "overlong fingers."

Who will repost this: My good friend, the unfortunate plain faced, Aragorn.

That's my Momma

2008-07-27T20:33:00.005-05:00

So we've been staying at Aunt Ali's while my mom took off to spend the weekend with some of her online buddies at the homeschooling conference in PA.

My mom (in remembrance of her childhood nickname, Diana Banana) has been going by Chiquita.

Or Chiq for short.

Apparently she took this a little too literally when she actually became Chiquita Banana when going to pick up her friends at the airport last Friday.

Warning!
To any fans of Journey of a Mother's Heart and the supposed calm and insightful Diane..Brace yourselves! The following picture may come as a bit of a shock.

Bye!

2008-07-24T19:08:00.003-05:00

Guess where I'm going on vacation!! Is it here?

Or here?

Or maybe..... Here?

Nope, it's even better...

I'm going HERE!!!!!

Actually, I'm already here..posting on my aunt's computer. Pics when I get home...

And after a week here..we're going HERE!! Yay!

So if I disappear from the internet for like 2 weeks..you'll know I wasn't kidnapped or anything.

2 new cd's

2008-07-17T08:47:00.002-05:00

My mom got Switchfoot's 'Beautiful Letdown' and Relient K's 'Five Score and Seven Years ago'. They're both really good. I think I like the Relient K one better, because the lyrics are really clever, but Switchfoot is awesome too.

My favorite songs from the Switchfoot album are probably 'Ammunition' and 'Redemption'. But that's mostly because I've heard 'Gone' and 'Dare You to Move' so many times it's not even funny.

And from the Relient K album...I like pretty much all of them. I've always liked 'Best Thing' and 'Must Have Done Something Right'..but I've listened to those way too much. ;-)

My new favorites are: 'I'm Taking You With Me' and 'Faking My Own Suicide'.

'Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care' is fabulous though. ;-D

I actually like 'Death Bed' a lot too.

See..I can't choose a favorite. ;-)

...

2008-07-16T09:52:00.001-05:00

Remember this? It's still being used.

Only now it has a pom pom.

Eldest Child Tip #79

2008-07-16T09:50:00.004-05:00

Always check your rollerblades before you put your foot in....

Someone may have left an ax in there.... :-O

Take me out to the ball game..

2008-07-16T09:31:00.013-05:00

I've gone to 2 Dayton Dragon's games in the past 2 or 3 weeks. Here are some pics from the first one. :)

First: The Game

Next: Who I went with

And most importantly: What we did for 6 hours (besides eating)

Only ONE word?!

2008-07-15T21:13:00.003-05:00

The One Word Meme

One?!

1.Where is your cell phone? dreams
2.Your significant other? none
3.Your hair? exasperating
4.Your mother? amazing
5. Your father? wonderful
6. Your favorite thing? laughter
7. Your dream last night? sweet
8. Your favorite drink? drpepper
9. Your dream/goal? Heaven
10. The room you’re in? dining
11. Your church? Emmanuel
12. Your fear? spiders
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? college
14. Where were you last night? couch
15. What you’re not? angel
16. Muffins? yum!
17. One of your wish list items? converse
18. Where you grew up? everywhere
19. The last thing you did? read
20. What are you wearing? clothes
21. Your TV? channeless
22. Your pets? Chaskerploplunk
23. Your computer? MacBook
24. Your life? great
25. Your mood? content
26. Missing someone? yup
27. Your car? future
28. Something you’re not wearing? contacts
29. Favorite store? Michaels
30. Your summer? gone
31. Like(love) someone? yes
32. Your favorite color? blue
33. Last time you laughed? recently
34. Last time you cried? tonight
35. Who will re post this? Emily?

Summer Fun!

2008-07-14T10:15:00.000-05:00

Photography on the last two pictures done by Charlie.

The 4th of July!

2008-07-06T10:07:00.000-05:00

Was a lot of fun! We went to our friends house for a party on the 5th, but these are pictures from the night before.

Rome Commercial

2008-06-24T13:20:00.004-05:00

I made this for Latin class last fall. I never actually got it on youtube in time for the class and sent it to the teacher on cd. But now that it's summer and I have more time to waste......

The sound isn't all that great..but I did FINALLY get on the internet!

Some Music Man Rehearsal pics

2008-06-15T16:13:00.008-05:00

Here are some pics from the Music Man dress rehearsals..the 1st one of 3 I think. ;-)

Harold Hill and Elizabeth doing their foot dance during 76 trombones

Trouble!!! I'm the 2nd from the left with the pink bow.

More Trouble..

The end of the Shipoopi dance. Tommy and I

Waiting to act.. (I'm on the far right)

The boy's dance at the end of the Shipoopi

More pictures of the actual performance to follow!! (hopefully)

Fruits of Labor..sorta

2008-06-15T14:12:00.002-05:00

People were really generous and thoughtful after the 4th and final performance of the Music Man (I'll be posting tons of pictures from the performance and dress rehearsals soon!). The flowers on the left are from Joseph (my dance partner..aka Tommy) and Rebecca (aka Marian). The ones on the right are from my family.

My friend Mary (aka the other Marian) gave a bunch of us balloons, which was really sweet!

Thanks to everyone who came to the play!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-14T20:01:00.003-05:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! Mommy came up with the idea and I made the video.

Love, Elena

Yip Yip Yippeeeeeeee!!!

2008-06-11T22:53:00.006-05:00

I just finished my Science exam!!!! (literally like 30sec ago) It took exactly 1 hour, 39 minutes, and 20.21 seconds (but I wouldn't have been counting the seconds down until it was over if I hadn't had a 2 hour time limit) WAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!! SCHOOL is OUTTTTTT!!!!!!!

.......................Ok, except for Religion, History, Health, and Math which I have to finish over the summer, but we all know that those are EASY subjects..and they don't have exams! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!

The Lit exam yesterday was ok, actually it was pretty decent as far as exams go. No full essays! Just 10 short ones, but they didn't require a ton of research, because he gave us passages from random works similar to the ones we'd read this year (but not from stuff we had read), and we had to try to figure out what it was from..approx..that was kind of fun. WAY more fun than all the research I did for my Science essays! Ok..actually I put off all studying for the Science essay until about ummmm *steels self for shocked outcry of shock from mother when she reads this* about 9pm last night. Yup...9pm..and I took it 25 hours later..at 10pm tonight. If I get an A, I think that I should have some kind of a record for the craziest amount of time cramming ever! Because it wasn't like I was studying all of those 25 hours... I went to Aunt Kiki's and went swimming for a few hours..not to mention sleeping last night (well..most of last night...) I really need to work on my study technique.

It went something like this: Find out there's going to be an exam about 3 weeks before I get it by email. Put it out of my head for 3 weeks. Get the exam by email with a weeks time limit to complete it in approx. 1 1/2 -2 1/2 hours (depending on the exam). Put of studying....put of studying some more....put off stu....WAIT!!! It's the DAY before the exam!!! EEEGADDDSS!!!! Grab the laptop and frantically think about making a study plan. Take a break to eat and come back..get distracted by something and spend about an hour doing something other that studying. At midnight the night before the deadline day for the exam, break down in tears and sob out my woes, apologize, and promise to reform my sinful studying ways to a somewhat sympathetic mother who listens, remonstrates, spends a few minutes criticizing the class, then calmly takes the computer to check the email while I pull my hair out, desperately trying to think of a way to write the essay plan I was supposed to write weeks ago. She then tells me that I'm not going to Aunt Kiki's tomorrow and that I'm going to go to bed right now, study all day tomorrow, and do my best on the test tomorrow night. Pull myself together, close the laptop, go to sleep and dream of textbooks chasing me around a calendar marked with exam deadlines (ok... so the dream part was made up...but it totally fit). Wake up with the resolve to go to Aunt Kiki's. Frantically grab the laptop, hurriedly finish the last of the Science study outlines, send them to the other computer, print them out, paperclip them together and grab a Science encyclopedia. Announce that I'm going to Aunt Kiki's. Memorize the timeline on the hour drive there. Get there, eat lunch, go swimming, guiltily get out the history part of the exam study outline, memorize the people and their accomplishments. On the drive home, go through about a third of the actual Science stuff I was supposed to study. Memorize my essay outlines and the main points in them very very fast. Take the exam at 10pm. Finish it half an hour earlier than I needed to. And yeah..that's how this exam went. I doubt I'll be proud enough of the results to post them, but we'll see. ;-)

I don't recommend this way of studying..it's hard on the nerves.

And yes, most of my exams do go like this. :-O

My feelings exactly!

2008-06-09T19:58:00.000-05:00

Ok..so I'm just doing a Lit final tomorrow morning, but I feel just about as great as this guy does!

zzzzz

2008-05-31T13:59:00.003-05:00

This is pretty much what I looked like after the dress rehearsal last night.....minus the ears...and add a tangled sticky hairspray-filled mass of what used to be ringlets.

And this is why I'm not a chef...

2008-05-28T18:17:00.002-05:00

Here's my celebration of my 100 posts as a blogger.. *cough* ..at least it tastes good!

My 100th post!!

2008-05-27T23:00:00.001-05:00

This is my 100th post! I have no drafts (I went back and published them, just to be sure), and I have been posting since January 30th 2007.

So I thought I'd celebrate with a bunch of quizzes and a birthday cake! I'm going to bake the cake tomorrow though.

Apparently my blog is rated G. Obviously!

This Page is Rated
G
www.windrider93.blogspot.com

Uh..ok. Whatever. And what IS the music of Love??

53%

Yeah..pretty much. ;-)

Your Fashion Style is Classic

You like what's stood the test of time...

Simple, well styled clothes that don't scream trendy

You stay updated and modern, but your clothes stay in style for a while

You wouldn't be caught in animal prints, fake fur, or super bright colors

What Kind of Fashionable Woman Are You?

Ok..sort of..but I DO wear animal prints..well..zebra stripes anway.

You Are 7 Up

Understated and subtle, people warm up to you slowly.

But once they're hooked, they can't imagine going back to anyone else!

Your best soda match: Diet Coke

Stay away from: Mountain Dew

What Kind of Soda Are You?

Sorry Uncle Sean, but I'm guessing you're Mountain Dew..

You Will Be a Cool Parent

You seem to naturally know a lot about parenting, and you know what kids need.

You can tell when it's time to let kids off the hook, and when it's time to lay down the law.

While your parenting is modern and hip, it's not over the top.

You know that there's nothing cool about a parent who acts like a teenager... or a drill sergeant!

Would You Be a Cool Parent?

Ok, this was a little weird, but apparently I've learned a lot..

You Are 25% Left Brained, 75% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning.

Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others.

If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic.

Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet.

The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility.

Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way.

If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art.

Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

No surprises here!

You Are Changing Leaves

Pretty, but soon dead.

What Part of Fall Are You?

LOL!! This one cracked me up!

You Are Noon

You are upbeat, ambitious, and never at loss for energy.

You have a lot that drives you in life. The desire to be the best, and a secret hope of fame and power.

And while you definitely have a Type A personality, you are still fun to be around.

You have a ton of charisma and a genuine interest in others. You are adored by many.

What Time Of Day Are You?

It makes me sound kind of hyper.

You Are An Intro-Extrovert!

Sometimes you're social - sometimes you're shy

You've got a bit of an Introvert / Extrovert split going on

You enjoy all sorts of situations. Parties, small groups, and alone time.

Too much of one, and you'll long for the other. You need variety!

Chances are, you've got both serious and fun friends - and they don't get along.

Are You An Extroverted or Introverted Girl?

Definietly.

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"Nice doggy."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

I wonder what other people get when they take this quiz.....

You Should Own a Beagle

Low maintenance, very friendly, and sturdy.

What Kind of Dog Should You Have?

That would be why the two dogs I've had were both part beagle. ;-)

You Are 77% Impulsive

You are impulsive, which at times leads to irresponsibility.

It's hard for you to say no to all but the most insane propositions.

But you could care less. While your impulsive ways have gotten you in a little trouble - they've made for a very exciting life!

Are You Impulsive?

Yup!

You Are an Optimist

You definitely see the sunny side of life, even when things aren't going so great.

And while you may not be a realist, your optimism has really improved your quality of life.

You have the energy to take charge, solve your problems, and enjoy life for what it is.

Optimists are happier and healthier - so keep thinking positive!

Are You An Optimist or Pessimist?

I'm not sure Mommy would agree....

You Are a Drama Princess (or Prince)

You're not over the top dramatic, but you have your moments.

You know how to steal the spotlight...

And how to act out to get your way.

People around you know that you're good for a laugh.

But at times, your drama gets a bit too much for everyone.

Tone it down a tad, and you'll still be the center of attention.

Are You a Drama Queen (or King)?

I know she'll agree with this one. lol

And there ends my 100th post. I made it nice and pointless!

quiz

2008-05-27T22:55:00.001-05:00

Here's a little quiz...thanks to Emily.

1. What time did you wake up this morning?
Ummmmm...8:55am..5 minutes before Science class. But I also woke up earlier..around 6ish and laid in bed hoping that Daddy wouldn't make me go running...until I fell asleep again.

2. Diamonds or pearls?
So Diamonds!

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Prince Caspian

4. What is your favorite tv show?
American Idol I guess... I really don't watch TV.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
Usually nothing, but sometimes a bagel or some cereal..or if Mommy makes me have cream of wheat or oatmeal..And some days Valya makes Eggs.

6. What book are you reading at the moment?
The Joyful Beggar

7. What is your middle name?
Therese

8. What food do you dislike?
Most fruit, most vegetables, french fries, Potatoes..and a lot more. ;-) But I'll eat anything that someone gives me (if I need to to be polite)...well..except maybe grapefruit..

9. What kind of car do you drive?
I don't regularly (I don't have a permit yet) ..but I've driven the Sienna (van) and the Scion (little blue Toyata)..I prefer the Scion, but it's stick, so the Sienna is mostly easier but harder on turns.

10. What is your favorite cd at the moment?
I don't have one, because I listen to random songs on my ipod, but a few of my favorites are How to Save a Life~ The Fray, Something to Say~Matthew West, and maybe WOW 2008..Yellow..or maybe Orange..I'm not sure.

11. Favorite sandwich?
Some kind of cooked sandwhich, but if I'm not heating it up..probably something like salami w/ mayo.

12. What characteristic do you despise?
Fakeness, lies, and not listening.

13. Obama or Hillary?
neither. ewww.

14. Favorite kind of clothing?
Jeans

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Australia

16. Favorite brand of clothing?
I think American Eagle..but I like Angels, and Self Esteem too.

17. Where would you retire to?
It depends on when I retire..and what I'm retiring from.. Some kind of house in the country I think..but somewhere where it's hilly or has mountains rather than fields. But, I don't mind the city either. I don't think I would retire near the beach though, I like it, but I wouldn't want it all the time..and I have to have lots of snow in the winter and rain in the spring and fall. Oh, and the summers can't be too hot either..and the neighbors have to be nice.

18. What was your most recent memorable birthday?
Most memorable.....Maybe my 13th, when we had the entire basketball team sleep over, and we went to Brussels for mass in the morning..but I think they're all nice and memorable..

19. Favorite sport to watch?
Baseball then hockey (if it's on tv)
Basketball and Soccer if it's people I know

20. Furthest place you are sending this?
I'm not sending it..I'm publishing it. ;-)

21. Person you expect to send it back first?
I don't think anyone will send it back, but someone might put it on their blog.

22. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Definitely night. That's why I'm writing this at 10:30 vs. 5:30 tomorrow morning.

23. What is your shoe size?
8 or 81/2, but I can squeeze my foot into something as small as a 6, and I can probably manage a 9.

24. Pets?
1 dog~Chaser, 2 fish~Kerplunk and Kerplop, and about 50 sea monkeys..or maybe 30..I really have no idea.

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us?
I've done 2 parts of the 7 part Latin exam so far!!!

26. What did you want to be when you were little?
This is funny, because I keep having the same answers as Emily, but yes..I wanted to be a ballerina, and I pursued that for about 5 years. By the end of it I was thoroughly sick of Ballet, and I now remember nothing except the different foot positons, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

27. How are you today?
Right now? Fine. Earlier? Fairly happy. Even earlier? Stressed and in need of sleep. This morning? Happy because today was my last Science class and I didn't have to go running today!

28. What is your favorite candy?
Butterfinger!!

29. What is your favorite flower?
A daffodil!

30. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?
Probably..Thursday because it's the awards banquet for track and we're going bowling..and Friday because it's another dress rehearsal. And Sunday because it's ANOTHER dress rehearsal. And June 5th because it's our concert choir spring concert at the schuster center. And June 6th, 7th, 12th, and 13th because they're the nights of the play.

31. What is your full name?
Elena Therese Luke

32. What are you listening to right now?
My siblings hicupping in bed when they're supposed to be asleep.

33. What was the last thing you ate?
An oreo.

34. Do you wish on stars?
Only the kind that shoot.

35. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Macaroni and Cheese, because I think that's the most awesomest crayon name ever..plus I love eating it!

36. How is the weather right now?
Cool, rainyish, dark, and a little windy. My favorite kind of weather!

37. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
Nastia, but that doesn't count because she was on the other phone, and I was telling her that she's not supposed to answer the phone. With people outside of my own phone line?? hmmm....I honestly can't remember! Maybe Caitie..

38. Favorite soft drink?
Dr. Pepper!

39. Favorite restaurant?
It depends..I like IHOP a lot..but I like Macaroni Grill too....We don't eat out a lot.

40. Hair color?
Brown, but I have the weirdest natural highlights that show up every once in a while..mostly in the summer. I used to be completely blond, but it got dark as I got older..I still have a little blond in places underneath but not much.

41. What was your favorite toy as a child?
Probably my large colony of stuffed animals.

42. Summer or Winter?
Weeeelllll..I think winter. It's a lot easier to pick out clothes for Winter, and I love the snow..plus, even though I'm always cold (I think I have bad circulation or something)..you can always put on clothes if you're cold, but in the summer....all you can do is beg your parents to turn on the AC and have a water fight in the back yard.

43. Hugs or kisses?
Depending on the person ;-) ..but I think mostly hugs.

44. Chocolate or vanilla?
Chocolate obviously

45. Coffee or tea?
Coffee!!! Tea is pretty much dirty water..oh wait..so is coffee.. :-/

46. Do you want your friends to email you back?
I love when my friends email me back!!

47. What is under your bed?
My junk box, my box of stuff to give away, my picture board, and some pictures and stuff that I need to hang with nails. My dad hasn't hung them yet.

48. What did you do last night?
Homework!!

49. What are you afraid of?
Getting grades lower than a B, being embarrassed, spiders, getting a migraine, doing worse in track than everyone expects me to, not going to Heaven, and ummmm...that's about all I can think of. :-D

50. Salty or sweet?
BOTH!!

51. How many keys on your keyring?
I don't have one....yet.

52. How many years at your job?
Which one? Bathroom cleaning? Approximately 5 years. Vacuuming? Approximately 5 years. Dishes? Approximately 7ish years. Living? 15 years!

53. Favorite day of the week?
Friday

54. How many towns have you lived in?
Do you really want to know??
I think 9 or 10.

55. Do you make friends easily?
Yup!

Who comes up with these things anyway?

2008-05-27T20:59:00.000-05:00

A really long time ago (but definitely not more than 15 years) Aunt Kiki gave me this framed name description thingy. (yeah, the pic is backwards..it was taken with the webcam)It's so pretty and I love it! But..I don't think it's completely accurate......

Here's what it says:

Elena (That part is very much accurate ;-) )

Local origin of name: English (hmmm..really? I never saw my name in England..Germany and Spain yes...but England? I guess it's possible)

From the Greek root name "Helen" (obviously)

~Meaning~
'Bright one' or 'shining star' (I'm not going to argue with that, but this is where it gets..uhh...a little suspect)

Emotional Spectrum
Her happiest times are with her loved ones (which loved ones? jk )

Personal Integrity
Nothing can buy her good name (it depends on what my 'good name' is being bought for)

Personality
A closed mouth catches no flies (maybe that should be my motto..I definitely don't live by it though. Anyone that knows me knows that I hardly ever stop talking.)

Relationships
Some of Elena's friends are just like her (mmmhmmm..have you MET any of my friends??)

Travel and Leisure
Lives for the weekends! (WHO DOESN'T?!)

Career and Money
Career choices are easy with Elena (oh right..have you read my mom's post on wall colors? Have you seen me go shopping?)

Life's Oppotunities
A naturally intelligent person, academia is her playground (This is the most accurate thing so far! jk )

So..who do these people think they are? They pick a name and make up a personality to go with the name?? Weird. But the picture is still pretty, and I am naturally intelligent. jk lol

Please Pray for the Chapman family

2008-05-26T08:05:00.002-05:00

Please pray for the family of Steven Curtis Chapman. They lost their 5 year old little girl, Maria in an accident on last Wednesday. You can read more about it here.

Life is but a stopping place,
A pause in what's to be,
A resting place along the road,
to sweet eternity.
We all have different journeys,
Different paths along the way,
We all were meant to learn some things,
but never meant to stay...
Our destination is a place,
Far greater than we know.
For some the journey's quicker,
For some the journey's slow.
And when the journey finally ends,
We'll claim a great reward,
And find an everlasting peace,
Together with the lord

Author unknown

More costume and hair pics

2008-05-23T12:18:00.006-05:00

You never got to see this dress, did you? Well, we ended up deciding on this dress for Act 1. The director found it for me at a costume rental place somewhere.

Partway through Act 1, I have to be a Wa Tan Yee (sp???!!!) girl, which basically means that I have to be a girl in 1912 dressing up as indian..Here is my very homemade indian costume. I made both halves out of two brown t-shirts that Daddy has to go under his desert BDU's. And someone gave us the belt in a handmedown bag of clothes. For Act 2, I'm using this costume (this is the picture from the other post). I have a pair of irish dancing shoes to go with it for the Shipoopi. (You try irish dancing in those boots!)

So...tonight is the first dress rehearsal (yes we have two, and we really do need the both)..and the director said no hair or makeup. Heh....but I really wanted to mess around with the curling iron..and the hairspray...and....the pretty ribbon we got yesterday......and....welllllllllll...the result..

I actually have made it slightly more ringletty since these pictures, but I sure hope it holds until 5pm..I guess I should have waited, but that curling iron is just so tempting!

And I had to take a self picture..because..that's just me.. (don't ask why I took it in the bathroom.. just happened to be in there fixing up the hair in the mirror.)

Well, here I go! (in 3 hours) Pray that I don't literally break a leg while doing the library dancing with those ridiculous boots!

AI

2008-05-21T14:57:00.011-05:00

Beware!

this post will be entirely about American Idol
and will most likely be rather long.

You probably didn't know that I followed AI, did you? Or..maybe, if you happen to be related to me, and called me as soon as the show ended last night to give me the number to call, you did.

Well, yes, I do follow it. We don't have tv...at all (unless you count that one station that picks up the weirdest shows), so I wait until the next morning and watch the performances on youtube. I can either watch the eliminations the day after they happen, or find out on americanidol.com. I'm not obsessed..seriously......ok...maybe a little.....But I promise that I didn't bother trying to vote until last night, because I really wanted David to win.

.......................David Cook that is..
I voted, but I got through alarmingly fast. Everyone is saying that Archuleta is going to win. They were both good, and I liked them both, but David Cook was one of the two that I thought would be in the final two earlier on when I first started watching. The other one was Carly. *cough* Apparently I wasn't right about that one.

I liked Jason a lot, but his last few weeks were hard to watch. They were pretty dread-ful. (Pun totally intended)

Actually, I got a few of the American Idol songs on itunes, David Archuleta, David Cook, and Jason Castro..my favorite to listen to is Jason. Kind of weird, because one of the performances, Simon said that if he tuned into a radio station playing Jason singing the song, he would turn it off right away. He kept implying that the only reason that Jason was still in was because he was charming. Apparently he can be charming with his voice too. ;-)

So, backing up a little bit....My thoughts on the rest of the season...because I didn't just start watching when they got down to the last two (*cough cough*, Aunt Kiki).

Carly should have stayed a little longer.

Michael Johns should have stayed a LOT longer

And Kristy Lee Cook...I didn't really like her style, but she had a good voice.

I really liked Brooke White, and I think she left at the perfect time.

Syesha Mercado wasn't too great at the beginning, I kept wishing that she would project more..she got SO MUCH better though, and made it to the top 3. I didn't like her dancing too much, but her facial expressions and singing were great.

I guess, while I'm at it, I might as well post the pics of the other two in the top 10.

Ramielle- I honestly don't remember all that well. I think I didn't love her music, but it wasn't bad.

And Chikezie- I thought he was really cool..
Very different, that's for sure.

Last of all, the group of judges (minus the middle dude who doesn't judge..he just announces) ....blech. Very predictable.

Randy (guy on the right) can be depended on to say something to the effect of: Yo man, what's up? Y'know, it was all right for me, man, it was all right. I mean, it was a little pitchy towards the end. And y'know I just wasn't feelin it man, but it was alright. It was alright.

Or he says something like this: Man, that was d'bomb! You can sing that, you can sing anything! (and his new favorite that he stole from Paula..hard to imagine now that it was funny the first time it was used.) Man, you can sing the phonebook!

Paula usually says something like this: (contestant's name)........you know what....I like....about you....is that....you connect.........with the songs........that you sing........and I really.......feel you......as a person.........when you sing......thank you for baring your soul to me.......

Simon either says, "You butchered that song!", "A bit forgettable for me", or "I'm going to be honest with you, that was your best performance so far."

And if you made it through this incredibly long post, I'm truly amazed. But you'll note that I didn't post about AI all season until now..and I'll probably only have one or two more posts about it until next season, because..it's over as of...tonight!

What's on my windowsill

2008-05-15T09:42:00.008-05:00

When I got up things weren't so great.

I have violin today, I have to make a bunch of cookies and brownies for a homeschool conference that I don't want to go to, I have to have my picture taken at track (This doesn't sound so bad, you say? Have you SEEN my tan? It's nonexistent. Why do you think I haven't posted pictures of me in my track uniform? lol jk I just threw this one in here to make the list longer.), it doesn't look like I'm going to get to go see the movie I wanted to see tonight, and I have a lot of homework to do before Latin today. Yeah...kind of a blech morning.. But then................

I looked at the windowsill in the sun room....

and I saw................

This.Which means I didn't kill my flower that Aunt Kiki gave me. I brought it back to life. It must have bloomed last night or this morning.

And this..
Which means our family has successfully grown two tomato plants. A miracle! jk

But THEN...I noticed THIS!

Which means that we have a great Aunt Kiki that gave us 3 more tomato plants..and we actually managed to grow 2 others by ourselves!

And last...since I'm posting pictures of what's on that windowsill..
And though you can't see it..we actually have managed to keep our sea monkeys alive!!! Even though someone dropped a pin in the container and it rusted and they swam through it..they're still alive!...and multiplying. I hope we don't have to get another container. :-O

My last lesson

2008-05-14T14:31:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I didn't wreck the van either!! YAY!

It's definitely harder to turn and park, but WAY easier overall. No clutch!

Grandpa had me drive around the parking lot of this church called the Vineyard. (What kind of a name for a church is that?) It has a big parking lot, but the thing is all hilly, so that's made it hard with the little car. Yesterday wasn't bad though. Probably by the time I we see Grandpa, I'll have a permit!! Of course, now I have to practice with Daddy...and wait until September!

Driving update

2008-05-13T14:44:00.003-05:00

I actually had a few smooth starts yesterday, but I'm still having trouble with letting the clutch up and giving the car enough gas and not starting all bumpy without taking like 5 minutes to do it. ;-) If I'm on any kind of an incline, I slide backwards for a little while. Today is my last class (lol..class?) with my Grandpa, because he's flying home tomorrow. He said we'll probably take the van. Hallelujah!! It isn't stick!! Although..it is bigger. I'd rather deal with a bigger vehicle than with the clutch. I do not like that pedal. The brake pedal is my best friend. :-D

I'll post how it goes later.

For a change..

2008-05-12T16:35:00.005-05:00

I've been posting about track a lot lately..and as much as I'm sure you're all dying to hear about my last track meet...and about my "I love me" board (as Mommy calls it), I'm going to make you wait, because I'm taking a break from running (and exercising in general) until I feel so sluggish that I make myself go running. Track season is over! And I'm learning how to drive, so I don't have to walk or run wherever I want to go now.

Ok, jk..I actually am learning how to drive (ironically in the parking lot at the track we practiced at). My Grandpa is teaching me with our little blue car..which conveniently happens to be a stick shift. ugh. Today is one of the last lessons before he goes back to CA and Daddy takes over. Grandpa is hoping to teach me to not kill the car by giving it too much gas while I'm letting up the clutch in these last two lessons, because it's Daddy's car, and we would prefer not to give him a heart attack when he takes over lessons. ;-)

Anyways..for the change........... I tried this test
And my fastest time so far is 77WPM. With a 99% accuracy, but I've been practicing a lot. So now you know how long it takes me to type these posts. : )

hmmmm

2008-05-04T20:01:00.001-05:00

WHAT MAJOR IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as English/Journalism/Comm

You should strongly consider majoring (or minoring) in Communication, English, Film, Journalism, Literature, or Writing.

It is possible that the best major for you is your 2nd, 3rd, or even 5th listed category, so be sure to consider ALL majors in your OTHER high scoring categories (below). You may score high in a category you didnt think you would--it is possible that a great major for you is something you once dismissed as not for you. The right major for you will be something 1) you love and enjoy and 2) are really great at it.

Consider adding a minor or double majoring to make yourself standout and to combine your interests. Please post your results in your myspace/blog/journal.

English/Journalism/Comm

88%

Visual&PerformingArts

69%

Psychology/Sociology

69%

Education/Counseling

50%

HR/BusinessManagement

50%

History/Anthropology/LiberalArts

44%

Religion/Theology

44%

Accounting/Finance/Marketing

38%

Biology/Chemistry/Geology

31%

French/Spanish/OtherLanguage

31%

Nursing/AthleticTraining/Health

25%

PoliticalScience/Philosophy

25%

Mathematics/Statistics

19%

Physics/Engineering/Computer

13%

Announcement!

2008-04-29T18:14:00.008-05:00

You may remember a certain fish named Sir Kerplunk....Well, he's.............................................

still alive!

Actually, I don't think I ever blogged about Kerplunk. Well..here is a picture of him on the day I got him.
He was in a normal (though rather big) fishbowl (leftover from the days of Sparkles Crystal), but it cracked and was leaking a little, so I moved him to....

This. This picture was taken about 2 minutes ago.
(Please excuse the umm...water color.)

He likes the camera, so I took a closeup.

But this post isn't supposed to be about him.

Announcing!
The arrival of Elena Luke's
NEW FISH!
Lord Kerplop
was purchased at Wal-mart for somewhere around $3.50 at about 9:15pm
on the 28th of April, 2008.

I never knew that Wal-mart sold beta fish. I went there to get a vase for a new fish and ended up actually getting the fish at the same time. I thought I better keep up with the name thing. Sadly, Sir Kerplunk and Lord Kerplop are never to meet, because Beta males don't usually get along all that well (to put it lightly). The two knights did, however, have a staring competition when I put their vases next to each other just to "see what would happen".

Here is the new fish!
And..his closeup! Isn't he such a pretty pinkish purple color? He's also somewhat reddish now. He was completely whiteishpinkishlightpurpleish when I first saw him..unfortunately Kerplunk looked similar when I got him, and now he's green and red. blech. ;-)

My room

2008-04-28T15:04:00.008-05:00

I got Charlie's room! (actually..a while ago) I'm working on making it mine now.

My door

Close-up of my door. It took forever to save those pop-top things.

My lightswitch thingy :)

My lamp

My curtain..but it's actually taped, not sewn (yet).

Track news!

2008-04-24T15:17:00.011-05:00

Ok...I haven't posted my results for the last 2 track meets, so here they are.

Last Tuesday I did the 100, long jump, and the 800. (I chickened out of the 4x400 because I wasn't feeling too great after the 800 and have been regretting it ever since because only one other team ran it) I stunk in the 100. Horrible time (ok, not horrible, but not better..like 14.6) , placed like 2nd to last in my heat (but I WAS in the 3rd heat out of 4, so apparently I'm not all that bad :-D) I placed 12th overall. Blech! I did badly in the long jump too. I only jumped 11'10.25". Blech again. I think everyone jumped badly though, and I placed 5th overall, so that was kind of cool. I got 3rd in the 800!!!! But the best part is that I knocked 5 whole entire seconds off my time!!!!!!!!!!! I got 2:39!!!!!!! I felt horrible after it though. You'd have thought I sprinted a 2 mile or something. I'm so out of shape! The results of the meet can be found here.
That meet is supposedly one of the hardest we'll do all year, so it's encouraging to know that I can place in the 800 running against schools like that. (although..they are 3rd division)

But on to the exciting meet!

It was an invitational! YAY! Those are the kinds where you get stuff! I did the 100, long jump, 800, and 4x400. (being determined not to chicken out of the 4x400 this time..and actually I had more time to recover from the 800 because they ran the boys and girls 2 mile separately)

WELL........................................
I got 7th in the long jump!! (they gave ribbons down to 8th place at this meet because there were 10 schools and lotsa runners) I got 3rd in the 100!!!! Yippeeee!!! I ran a 14.36 in the prelims putting me 2nd in my heat (though at the time I thought that it was the slow heat). Then they announced the names that had made it into the finals over the loudspeaker..They said a bunch of names ending with, "AND..so and so." and I thought, "Oh..didn't make it. Oh well." Then, "AND eeleena luke and so and so" Eeleena..hmm..I'll take it. Thank goodness my last name is nice and recognizable. So I made it into the finals, which was exciting enough. I figured that I would probably be last in the finals because they had announced my name last..so I thought my time must have been slowest. I ran somewhere around 14.18seconds, which is a new record for me! And I got 3rd place.

Then, of course, my favorite (not) the 800. I ran a pretty bad time (for me..well..no. More like average time), 2:42. I got 2nd place! The winner had a time of 2:35. I should be able to run that. It's only 4 seconds faster than my best time! But when I passed the girl who was in 2nd, I was so worried about her passing me that I didn't pay enough attention to the girl who was winning. I let her get way too far ahead of me. Anyway, it was exciting to get 2nd!

Then we got 3rd place in the 4x400. That's my fault. I should have pushed myself to run it harder. I mean, it's only a 400! I could have got us in 2nd, and I'm sure that our team could have kept the place..or at least gotten a better time. It was like 4:58, which is pretty bad for us. But we did place 3rd out of like 6 teams, so.....yeah.

Our girls team (all 4 of us!) managed to get 9th place out of the 10 teams. We were SO EXCITED! We always place last, but we beat the girls team from Troy Christian! Unfortunately Jacob (aka the boy's team) wasn't able to beat any of the other teams, but he did place in a few things, so we had points for both teams.

It was an exciting meet! Probably the funnest one we've had all season!

Oh, I forgot to mention that when we got there it was raining and we had to set up our tent..(I had been camping with my family and Uncle Steve and Aunt Carissa, so we had this screen tent [meant to keep out bugs and sun..not wind]) Well, that was all we had, so we set it up, but it looked hilarious. The few of us (on the black team) setting up a blue and green striped screen tent in the rain, the wind blowing it over while we struggled to stick tent poles through it. I'm talking about a REAL camping kind of tent..not a pavilion thing like everyone else has. A girl asked Anna (my fellow long jumper) at the long jump, "Who has that weird tent". ;-)

Left to Right: 1st place in the 800 (at Franklin Monroe), 2nd place in the 800 (on Saturday at Southeastern), 3d place in the 100 (on Saturday at Southeastern.

Left to Right: 2nd place at the 100 (at Franklin Monroe), 3rd place in the 4x400 (at Franklin Monroe), 7th place at the long jump (on Saturday at Southeastern).

My collection

The t-shirt Daddy got me (yeah..the black spot is just a messed up part of the picture)

The back of the shirt. See our school at the bottom?!

Costumes for the Music Man

2008-04-19T20:59:00.007-05:00

Here are the 4 costume ideas we've found for the Music Man! We got it all (except the white shipoopi skirt and Aunt Kiki's boots) at the thrift store! I still need my Wa Tan Ye costume and shoes for the Shipoopi, because (amazingly enough) I find it impossible to irish step dance in these boots. ;-)

These two shirts with the Shipoopi skirt are my ideas for my Shipoopi costume and for the rest of Act 2. As much as I don't like pink, I'm afraid that it looks better than the blue..more..Zaneetaish. I don't have shoes to go with this costume.

My Marian the Librarian costume..but this one is a little Iffy, because the skirt is like 4 sizes too big and the shirt is about 7 sizes too big. (You can't tell in this picture, because I'm holding big bunches of the skirt and shirt behind my back) It would take some sewing. It's also a little too flimsy for 1912, but we might be able to fix that too.

I really don't like this one too much, but I think that maybe for like one scene (I have lots of time to change between certain scenes.)..or if I'm desperate....

These boots are sweet! They lace all the way up the front!

And I'll wear my hair the way I have it in the pics, but I'm going to try doing ringlets and tie the top half with a ribbon.

Once again..

2008-04-16T11:58:00.004-05:00

Yup, I had another track meet yesterday afternoon. I did the 100, 200, 4x400, and the long jump. I placed 1st in the 100 with a time of 14.59 sec (YAY!! I beat 15 seconds!!), 2nd in the 200 (I think, but I'm not positive about my placing) with a time of 30.22sec (unfortunately I didn't break 30, which was my goal, but that was my first time doing the 200 so I might have a good chance of dropping that extra 0.22 seconds), 1st place in the 4x400 (but only out of 2 teams, so not as impressive as it sounds, still..we ran well) with a time of like 4min 55seconds or something like that, so actually, it's not as good as we have done in the past, but it got us the place, and 1st in the long jump with a jump of 12ft 2in. lol All of my team did great, but there were like 10 runners in the 100, 9 in the 200, 2 teams in the relay, and only 5 girls in the long jump (counting Anna and I, and we got 1st and 2nd place) It was a kind of fun meet, but not as challenging as some of the others. That will have been my 4th meet, only like 4 more to go!! I'll be posting pics of my ribbons an medal from the 3rd (most recent before this one) meet sometime soon. ;-)

Run by my side --
live in my heartbeat;
give strength to my steps.
As the cold confronts me,
as the wind pushes me,
I know you surround me.
As the sun warms me,
as the rain cleanses me,
I know you are touching me,
challenging me,
loving me.
And so I give you this run;
thank you for matching my stride.
Amen.

On your marks! Get Set! GO!!!

2008-04-12T14:47:00.003-05:00

Tala, thank you for wishing me luck! ;-) It was either that, or my prayers to St. Sebastian (boy is he an awesome saint!), or rubbing Mei mei's lucky belly (don't ask..family tradition thing), or a combination of all 3! I did horribly in the long jump..my jumps were 11'5", 11'2", and 11'5". Pathetic..really. And then I got 2nd in the 100!!! Hip hip hurray!!!!! AND!!!! I got first place in the 800! My coach is rather confused..hmmm 100 or 800?? Bit of a difference between the two. :-D

Oh, and our 4X400 relay team got 3rd place out of 4, so not absolutely awesome, but not bad.

My dad (who ran the 800 in highschool and was all excited that I was doing it) came to the meet late and pulled into the parking lot literally 30seconds after the end of the 800. He wasn't too thrilled about it. ;-)

Now...let's see how Tuesday goes....

P.S. I forgot to mention that my times were worse for this meet than they usually are, because of the wind and freezing cold weather, but I placed ok in the running events, so apparently everyone's times were worse, and my "duck wings" as the coach likes to call them helped with the wind or something.

Wish me luck!

2008-04-12T07:24:00.002-05:00

Here I go..to the 3rd track meet of the year!!! It's Saturday morning, it's cold, I'm nervous (as usual), and I'm running the 100, 800, 4x400, and the long jump. Well, actually I'm not really running the long jump. I'm jumping it, but whatever.

Did I mention the last meet's results? We ended up getting like 20 points! We lost the meet, but considering there were only like 10 of us competing.......that's pretty ok. I got 3rd in the 800, our team got 3rd in the 4x400, and I got 6th in the long jump. Hopefully we can do as well today. We'll see. I love the long jump! It's the most relaxed I am all meet. The farthest I've gotten was 13 1/2 feet, which isn't spectacular, but it doesn't really matter, because for some reason the long jump doesn't completely freak me out like...say the 800? The coach wants me to do the mile. *cough cough* Have you seen how fast the people run that? People apparently run the 4min mile, which is absurd, because that means that they sprint the whole thing. I run about a 1:11 quarter (on a good day) So..they not only run 11 seconds slower, but they do 44 seconds slower...and I'm sure I couldn't run 1:11 all the way around. That would be like..uhhh a 4:44 mile! ;-)

Anyways..g2g!

If I never post again, you'll know I died in the attempt of winning the 800..unless I didn't make it through the 100 and long jump.

Goodbye!

Funny quotes

2008-04-10T10:28:00.004-05:00

Charlie: Did Choo Choo say that she wants to be a nun when she grows up?

Mommy: I think she did.

Charlie: Well, when I grow up I want to be a Pagan!

My friend's 7yr old brother also mentioned to his mom (while I was over at their house)..

Sebastian: Mom.

Mom: What?

Sebastian: When I get married, I want to have my shower at Toy's R Us.

This morning my mom, in desperation to stop the general fighting breaking out throughout the house, had us stand in a circle and hold hands. (Thankfully we didn't have to sing Kumbaya or anything.) Then we all had to say something we liked about each person..

So....here's what was said about me.

Mommy: Elena is dependable..most of the time. I know she'll always do what I ask her.................eventually...

Valya: She's nice and Kind.

Nastia: She is?

*general laughter*

Nastia: Elena always smells good because she's always chewing gum.

Mommy: Which she isn't supposed to be chewing. *shoots meaningful look in my direction*

Mariana: She's nice

Jacinta: She let me sleep in her bed..once. And I got to sleep with her in Switzerland.

Charlie: When we were in that place with the ice cream store across from the beach

Mommy: Portugal?

Charlie: Yes..at that place..umm..I DIDN'T have to sleep with her.

THIRD DAY!!

2008-04-07T08:29:00.002-05:00

They were great! Sanctus Real was ok, and there were two other bands that played in the beginning. I think that one of them would have been ok, but the sound was terrible, so we couldn't understand the guy at all.

We didn't get to meet the bands, but some of the band members walked past where we were sitting a few times. I would post more, but I have a violin lesson, Lit class, and track meet to go to......

More later!

~Elena

Totally Random!

2008-04-05T20:35:00.007-05:00

Sorry, I haven't posted in forever! I could give you about a million excuses, I definitely have about that many, because I came up with one every single time I submitted a writing assignment..late..to bravewriter. Thank goodness that's over! I like to write, but the research takes a long time. Somehow I managed to scrape an A in the class.

Well, what is new? aha! I had my first track meet on Wednesday! It was really scary. In a ..well..not the nicest part of town, 17 schools (ours was one of the smallest), long jumping against girls that were averaging 13-14ft. Scary. But, it was fun............afterwards. ;-) I cut my 400 time from 1:15 to 1:12 and got 6th place in my division, 4th place in my heat. (We think I earned 3 points for the team in the 400.) I got like 6th place in my heat on the 100, but I did cut my time from 17seconds to 15.2seconds, so it wasn't all bad. And then I upped my 10ft jump to 13 1/2 ft! I was so thrilled about the extra 3 1/2 feet that I didn't really care that I didn't jump that far in the rest of my 4 jumps. So, overall, not so bad. We have another meet on Monday. I'm already nervous. Here
is a page with the meet results. Scroll down to Boy's track and under division 2..you'll see (under team scores) Dominion-4!!!!

Then, under Girl's track and under division 2, you'll see Dominion-3!!!! So, our team only got 7 points, but that's not horrible, considering that there were only about 8 of us there.

Well, guess what else is new!! Tomorrow, I'm going with my friends, Rosa and James, and my mom, aunt Kiki, and whatever other friends they bring, to see..........THIRD DAY!!!!! They're playing with Sanctus Re al at the same place that Building 429 played last time, but this time we're going prepared. We're bringing stuff to get signed, so we don't have to resort to programs. ;-)

And..then there's the very random minor fact that I straightened my hair today. I don't think I've ever straightened my hair completely, just my bangs, so......yeah, it was a nice change. ;-)

Go ahead and laugh at my self taken pictures, but someone has to take pictures of me. ;-) jk

Me with my normal hair (well, not totally normal, but I didn't do much to it..just washed it :-D) ..at a really weird angle..in black and white.

Me with straightened hair..sitting here, on the couch, before I wrote this post..note the necklace is the same in both pics. ;-)

That's all for now!! I'll be posting about the concert..sometime....in the next..year...but Latin exams are coming up, and, of course, I've forgotten half the stuff I memorized for the midterm exams. Oh, speaking of Latin exams..I took the NLE (National Latin Exam) a while ago, and got a Silver Medal, or I will be getting the medal in May, when my teacher sends it to me.

I've decided that you can't trust these quizzes

2008-03-25T21:15:00.001-05:00

Which Lord of the Rings Character are you?

Pippin Took
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Weird

2008-03-25T20:39:00.000-05:00

Which Lord of the Rings character are you most like?
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Apparently I have multiple personalities

2008-03-25T14:12:00.004-05:00

You are Legolas!

Legolas represented the Elves in the Fellowship of the Ring. Skilled as a warrior with both bow and knife, he eventually became unlikely friends with Gimli the Dwarf.

Whoa

2008-03-25T14:08:00.003-05:00

I always knew I was good looking, but my teeth are WAY straighter than his. ;-)

Track Uniform!

2008-03-25T12:10:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was the day to earn our track uniforms. There were different requirements for the different levels and distances. There's a lot of confusion about exactly what I am. I started the season as a distance runner. Then the coach told me I could run anything I wanted. Then we had time trials for 400, 200, 800, and 100. After that, he told me I would be mostly doing 400's and 200's. That officially makes me a sprinter. BUT, for some strange reason, I'm still running with the distance runners. It's weird. So, as a distance high school runner...I had to run 3 miles non-stop to earn my uniform/jersey/skimpy black halfseethrough outfit (although..it's not as see-through as it looks). The coach said that he would appreciate it if we ran 4 miles. Which, in my case, is pretty much like daring me to run 4 and threatening me with instant death if I don't do it. If he wanted us to run 4..then I would be running 4. I ran the whole entire way with Sarah, a friend on the track team. It turns out that she has way more endurance than I do. ;-) At about 4 1/2 miles we decided that we would try to run 5 miles..and then, as we finished the 5th mile, we decided to run another quarter with another friend Laura, who was one lap behind us. You can probably guess that we ran the full 6 miles. Actually, Sarah ran 6 1/2. She probably would have kept going, but the coach made her stop so we could end practice. : ) Anyways..I've only ever ran 3 miles at a time, so I'm pretty thrilled, and here is my jersey/uniform/whatever. It says Dominion Academy (and it's backwards because I took it with the webcam). And my number is 107. YAY!! An odd number! Wahoo!!!! Yes, I'm just odd like that. The first meet is the first week of April. I'm a little nervous!

Oh, and here's a quote from Charlie..last night after he went to the bathroom while we were saying night prayers.

Mommy: Charlie, it was not respectful to go to the bathroom in the middle of prayers.
Charlie (totally unfazed by my mom's guilt trip) : But it is respectful to wash your hands afterwards.

Good Friday

2008-03-21T14:54:00.007-05:00

Teardrops gather and roll down her face.
How cruel and heartless is the human race?
They've taken her son away.
Stripped and whipped and tripped so he could pay..
For our sins, he shed his blood,
So we might live, and one day be with him.
Did you know there's an entrance fee to heaven, but it's already paid.

Dust swirls and gathers in the air.
Costly oils those women bear.
To where their savior lays.
Hit and spit upon so he could pay..
For our sins. He shed his blood,
So we might live, and one day be with him.
Did you know there's an entrance fee to heaven, but it's already paid

The sun is shining in early morn.
The tomb is open, the veil is torn.
The dead has risen again.
To earth he's come again after he paid..
For our sins. He shed his blood,
So we might live, and one day be with him.
Did you know there's an entrance fee to heaven, but it's already paid.
~Elena Luke (2008)

(Editor's note: This is actually a song I wrote, but I figured it fit pretty well.)

Sweet Swirly Shipoopi Skirt

2008-03-15T22:39:00.004-05:00

Here it is! My skirt for the Shipoopi!! We don't have a shirt to go with it yet, but we'll find one...............hopefully before the first dress rehearsal. ;-)

!

2008-03-12T13:35:00.002-05:00

You Are An Exclamation Point

You are a bundle of... well, something.

You're often a bundle of joy, passion, or drama.

You're loud, brash, and outgoing. If you think it, you say it.

Definitely not the quiet type, you really don't keep a lot to yourself.

You're lively and inspiring. People love to be around your energy.

(But they do secretly worry that you'll spill their secrets without even realizing it.)

You excel in: Public speaking

You get along best with: the Dash

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

I think I'd have to agree!!!! It's my absolute favorite punctuation mark ever!!!!

(Though I think the "loud brash" part is going a bit too far)

Happy Birthday to ME!

2008-03-04T20:41:00.005-05:00

Everyone start celebrating!!!! Tomorrow is a National Holiday!

It's the Eve of Elena's Birthday, so the celebrations begin tonight and last through all of tomorrow!

I wish I could have this birthday cake. ;-)

I think I'll probably get something more like this though. Daddy is on a business trip, so Mommy's making the cake. Although....it will probably say 3am instead of 10:30. :-D

(just kidding Mommy! ;-)

Actually, it will be most like this (minus the Mother's Day part) because we're doing an ice cream cake this year.

Can you tell I'm just dying to have sugar? I'm SO glad I was born in Lent. It's another one of those freebies.

<3 Elena

And as a day early birthday present to myself..

2008-03-04T20:30:00.001-05:00

I ran 3 miles without stopping tonight! Since I'm a middle distance runner, I have to be able to run 3 miles straight (as slow as I want) to earn my track uniform. I guess I'm there! Now I can spend the rest of the time between now and March 24th (the day of the trial) building up more endurance so that I can run the 3 miles without killing my shins. They did hurt through most of it, but listening to music really helped. My ipod mini, Sam, was great. He doesn't usually hold battery power for more than 3 minutes, but the music played for 2 miles..then it gave out. The last mile I discovered that the 'Hail Mary' fits perfectly in with my breathing pattern. ;-) So...I did the full 3 miles without stopping!

And..my mom's supposedly going to get me arch suporrt insert thingys at Wal-Mart for my birthday, so I maybe I'll have less trouble with my shins now!

<3 Elena

Lenten Blues

2008-03-04T20:29:00.003-05:00

At dinner tonight the girls were discussing abbreviations...

Nastia: LHOP stands for Little house on the Prairie.

Valya: Do you know what SWOTR stands for?

Mariana: Star Wars!

Valya: No, Somewhere over the Rainbow.

Jacinta, in a sing-song voice (staring dreamily at a covered glass pan left over from Sunday): Somewhere..over... the.. Brownies

Snowed in

2008-02-23T18:16:00.018-05:00

We've been enjoying our 'big winter storm' of the year. First we had snow..then more snow...and more. Then it rained. Then we had ice. Now we have: melting ice+ melting snow=slush. Here are some pictures.

Jacinta after playing in the snow

A snow day

The great meltdown begins

The ice on our bushes in the back

The lone ice bush

Chaser is tired from playing outside

Snow clothes have taken over the sunroom

Luke's Custom Igloo's

The flooring of our igloo

Jacinta poses for a Luke Custom Igloo Ad

LCI ad #2

Choo choo and a neighbor kid demonstrating the size of the igloo

GUESS WHAT!

2008-02-19T23:03:00.009-05:00

We just bought 54 acres! Ok, not quite. We're not closing until the beginning of March, but it's pretty much settled. Actually, this is kind of old news. I don't know why I haven't said anything about it..maybe because I don't know what I think about the idea. It's about half an hour away, and that's far for me. Right now it takes 20min max to get to places, but 30min! And that's a minimum! But, my mom said I could still play basketball, and she said that if I end up taking classes at Dominion (Have I told you about Dominion? It's the school I play b-ball and do track for. I could possibly go there for a few classes next year.) that I could probably get into carpools with people in Xenia. Also, we can't move there for a while because uhh..the only house on the property is completely collapsed. So, we're going to build my parent's dream house..and then my aunt and uncle's house. (Yeah, I haven't mentioned that they're going to live on the property with us. You figure that with 54 acres there's going to be enough room for both families...even if we didn't get along..which we do.) Then, of course, there's the barn..and..all that. Yes, we're going to have a barn..eventually, but I probably won't even live there by the time we have that. AND! The best part (although it adds a lot of extra expenses and time to the whole thing)is the creek! I haven't actually seen the property yet, but from the pictures the creek is a decent size..for a creek. Nothing spectacular, but more than stagnant water that trickles and completely dries in the summer. I've heard it does go down to a trickle in the summer though.

These pictures aren't the best (especially because it's winter and everything's brown) but I haven't had a chance to take my own yet..because I'm the only one in our family who hasn't seen the place yet. (well....beside Chaser and Kerplunk)

Part of our very long driveway..

Just big open space (note the rolling hillishness)

See! Uncle Brian will be in huner's paradise!
I think this is either the beginning of the driveway or just the beginning of the part on our property.

This is why we're building our own house....

AND...the best part! The creek! See, it's a pretty good size, but the bridge is WAY too old, so we'll be replacing it with something else. (not sure if it will be a bridge or a culvert)

I'm back!

2008-02-19T22:23:00.003-05:00

Did you miss me?

Of course not.

How could you miss a blogger that doesn't write consistantly?

Oh well, I did actually leave and not get on blogger for 3 whole days! I didn't really get on blogger the 4th day either, but I did check my bloglines. Does that count?

Well, to add color to this post (I've noticed that posts that don't have pictures aren't half as interesting, and I'm much less inclined to read them.) I thought I'd add this pic that's going around in emails.
So..when you see this pic you think, "Woah! That guy is amazing! He doesn't look too young, but he's handling this moose!" Then you read this article that I heartlessly link to, and all your amazement dies away with the thought, "Just another one of those stupid forwards!"

And of course..it is. :-)

Yum!

2008-02-13T21:23:00.006-05:00

Our Valentine's Day preparations took most of the day, so the amount of schoolwork that we got done was...well.....not very much, but I succeeded in making all the valentines, at least 3 dozen cookies and dinner...

Here are the cookies. It's a good thing it's lent, because I don't think they'd last until tomorrow if it wasn't. ;-) Nothing incredibly special, but I bet they'll taste good. I found the recipe (which was super easy , and the dough didn't crumble near the end of rolling out at all!) here. I think the best thing about the recipe is that you don't have to refrigerate the dough.
Pastry Chef's note: Neon purple food coloring is almost as good as regular red for getting pink...and anyway, even if it wasn't, it's still Lent. Purple Valentine's day cookies are fine...especially when covered in red sprinkles.

A New Flavor of Baby Food

2008-02-12T22:48:00.003-05:00

Pride and Prejudice

2008-02-12T16:04:00.000-05:00

I finished Pride and Prejudice. It was a good book. Watching the movie first helped me envision the different characters, especially Jane and Bingley. I would recommend both the movie and the book, but most of you have probably already seen and read both. I actually figured out why it has it's title. All by myself! *pats self on back* Although..it took me about half the book.....

Take the Quiz here!

I must really be like her. I've taken this quiz about 5 times, but I always end up being Marianne, and I've changed my answers around too. She's actually in Sense and Sensibility, but I prefer this quiz to the Pride and Prejudice ones I've found.