Heard Back from High School

You may or may not know that I had my interview for admission to the private school I applied to last week.  It was pretty nerve-wracking, because I got asked a lot of questions, but overall, it seemed as though it went pretty well.

And I guess it did, because on Saturday I received a letter that said I have been

The number of exclamation points that escaped my mouth are too many to list here.  But if I could, they would probably fill several long blog posts.

This was literally pretty much my reaction.

High school, here I come!!!!

Thought I'd share this exciting news with you :)  Much love and as always--but sadly, not for much longer...

Happy Homeschooling!

Tahoe

Hello!  So the story behind this post, in a nutshell, is that I went to Tahoe with my youth group on President's Day weekend, and took all these awesome pictures with my brand-new camera, and then blogger wouldn't let me upload said pictures.  And finally, TWO WEEKS LATER, here is my post about Tahoe.  *Sigh*

We stayed in Zephyr Cove, and the church conference center was super pretty!  All these pictures are from where we stayed.

Here's the dock.  There was a protected little swimming cove (right) encircled (ensquared?  haha) by the two docks and then the open lake was out to the left.

This lovely boat came around the lake with some tourists aboard.  They waved to us, seems like they were having a good time :)

Looking out from a rock near the docks onto the lake

Here is the swimming/beach area...it's probably used more in the summertime haha but the water was super clear, some kids jumped in!

Our winter retreat was four days, Friday through Monday (the first and fourth days were spent driving).  We got to play in the snow, hang out in our cabins, and go sledding!  It was super fun!  Some other things we got to do:

-Polar Bear Plunge (I didn't do this, but it's pretty much where you jump off the dock into the ice-cold lake.  Fun?)

-Marshmallow Olympics (A series of competitions involving marshmallows.  Included trying to eat a full bowl of ONLY the marshmallows from Lucky Charms; Chubby Bunny; Marshmallow Creme Santa Beard; and Marshmallow Field Hockey.  Our team lost haha!)

-Epic High School vs Middle School snowball fight...which I missed most of...

We had an amazing time and I'm definitely planning on going again next year!

More posts coming soon, now that Blogger has its picture-uploading problems fixed :)

Happy Homeschooling!

Anything, Everything

Wow, it's been a while!  I actually kind of forgot about my blog for a bit...oh dear :(  Other things have been occupying my time, however.  For instance:

Math: Figuring out the slope-intercept formula
English: Reading The Hobbit, and taking writing classes
Civics: Learning about immigration to the US
Science: Starting marine biology
Latin: Test tomorrow :\

I'm usually pretty tried by the end of the day

As well as thinking of creative ways to do PE, making Christmas presents, and making plans to catch up with friends over break.  There's been a lot to do, and there's even more that I'm trying to fit in the next couple of weeks.  Not to mention chores and other things to do around the house, trips to Target and the grocery store, and other stuff.

With all that, it's easy to forget about other things I do--like blogging!  But I have exciting stuff going on in the new year (2013 guys!!  TWO-THOUSAND-THIRTEEN!!) that will be told here, for sure :)

Alrighty guys, I'm going to go finish up my Latin study guide and maybe some other stuff.  

(Last but not least, I wanted you to know that my heart goes out to everyone involved in the Newtown CT massacre.  Horrible, horrible things happened Friday and I'm praying for everyone.)

Happy Homeschooling!

and then there were two

So, we're gonna be in L.A. for the week, yesterday we drove up and today we went to a botanical garden and the Americana shopping mall (but we didn't get anything).  It was awesome :D  The garden had a train ride and the weather was great, then we went to the Americana mall, which is kind of like Downtown Walnut Creek/San Francisco.  It was big and had a ton of stores & restaurants, but it was really really clean which was amazing!

One day we're gonna go to Santa Barbara, we also plan on going to Lego land and Disneyland.  We might also go to see Air Force One.  So it's gonna be a busy busy week!!

I'm gonna finish editing my Day in the Life video when we get back :)

Happy Homeschooling!

hey hey guess what I uploaded finally?!

So I finally uploaded my Halloween pictures and then promptly realized that only these two don't show my face.  Oops!  But my costume was legit, I promise :)

And in other exciting news, I am getting the footage from my day in the life video into iMovie so I can edit and post it for y'all!  Love that feeling of getting stuff done haha!  So I'm gonna go do that and also watch Once Upon a Time because I'm obsessed with that show.  Love you guys ♡

Happy Homeschooling!

Halloween!

Hey guys!  Just a quick update post about TOMORROW which just happens to be my second-favorite holiday ever (first is Christmas)!!!

I'm a bit obsessed with this movie right now.

Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange?

I want to know what you guys are being, so comment below and tell me!  And it would be helpful if you put your name down too, or a nickname that I would know you by if you leave an Anonymous comment because I got one on my Photos or Videos post with no name so I don't know if I should take their opinion into account as they may or may not be someone who knows me.  If you're reading this, Mysterious Anon, please reveal your identity!! :D

Tomorrow, I shall dress myself in costume and join my crazy friends as we don our alter egos for the night.  There will be many pictures and much laughter, and hopefully a lot of candy.  And on Thursday, my Halloween identity will be very much revealed to you.

After all, in this town of Halloween, everyone is waiting for the next surprise...

Happy Homeschooling!

If you already know who I'm being, please don't spoil.  Even though almost everyone who reads this blog already knows haha :)

The Mark of Athena

“Wisdom’s daughter walks alone,

The Mark of Athena burns through Rome.

Twins snuff out the angel's breath,

Who holds the key to endless death.

Giants' bane stands gold and pale,

Won through pain from a woven jail.'”

Oh yeah, that's right, I got the Mark of Athena yesterday!!  MoA is the newest book in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan, which is basically the sequel series to his Percy Jackson books.

And oh my word it was sooo good!!!  (Oh right, I finished it too...hehe)  I won't give out any spoilers yet, because I had to avoid looking up any Percy Jackson stuff from the release date until I got it (2 days of an honest minefield, I swear) and it's horrible to try to look places without being able to have spoilers.  If you want spoilers or have already read the book, just comment or email me or something and I'll do a whole post with everything :D

It's so hard to not say anything right now, but my friends held out for me--thank you!!--and I won't right now.  But just had to put out there that I read it and it is AMAZING, even if it ends on a "Rickhanger" which is a term I learned last night for Mr. Riordan's infamous cliffhangers haha!

Happy Homeschooling!

Latin

Hey, I know I'm a day late on this post but at least I remembered to do it right?! ;)  Anyhow, Latin was yesterday and of course we had a ton of fun, went over the syllabus and such.

Here is what we get to do this year:

~Learn more vocab and grammar stuff
~Make Latin Mad Libs
~Storytime!! This is when we all listen to a cool story about Roman history and then translate it from Latin to English (we get the simplified version).  They usually involve heroes, missing appendages, and fire.
~Do little grammar videos to show next year's sixth graders
~Make a Latin Book as a class

AND FINALLY...
Dun-dun-dunnnnn

~Make a MOVIE about everything we have learned about ROMAN HISTORY!!!!

Am I too much of a Greek/Roman history nerd?  Because I find these things fascinating :D  Of course a contributing factor is that many of you know that in my spare time I randomly act out scenes from books/movies/etc with my friends and make videos starring my cousins.

And, of course, ME.  Haha :)

So of course everyone is in overdrive, and we all want to start rightawaypleasepleaseplease Miss Weight?!

Alas, we must wait.  But I shall be patient.

Oh, can't we start now?!?!

That's all for now, hope you have a good day at school, work, or home!

Happy Homeschooling!

Percy Jackson!!

Ok, am I even old enough to be nostalgic?  I thought that was only for adults.  But the other day I saw some friends and we were talking about elementary school and the subject of Percy Jackson came up.

Oh my word, I swear we didn't think about anything else for the whole entire night.  It was all, Percy this and Annabeth that and remember when??  It was like we were all back in elementary school, but not.  Weird.  And now I know something very important.

Even though I am in eighth grade, I am so not too old to want to play imaginary games again.  I will never, ever be too old to want to play imaginary games.

Laugh if you want, but it's true!! :)

And now I am re-reading the Percy Jackson series once more (Lightning Thief; Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are on their way to Vegas) and loving every minute.  This might explain my random new profile picture, as well.

Officially Olympian-Obsessed right now, haha!!!

Latin starts Thursday, and I'll do a post then.  For now, though, it's same old routine :)

Happy Homeschooling!

Va-va-VBS!

So I realized I never told you guys what went on at VBS.  Well I made friends, learned A LOT about kids, got asked to babysit, and had a super fun (if tiring) time with all the preschoolers!!  Danielle (the preschool director) is going to ask the children's ministries director if I can help out in the class once a month or so.  The kids seem to like me well enough :)  The girls like it when I play cats or house and read with them, the boys prefer to play Iron Man.

Or Spiderman.

Or Batman.

One of those guys.

As long as there are blowing-up noises and bad guys getting punched and lots of yelling, they are happy.

I found something out about myself that week: Spider (Iron, Bat) Man is way more of my thing than house or cats.  And I thought I was a Barbie type of girl!  Guess not!

???

The kids liked that I drew mustaches on myself, let them test their lighting and fire powers on me, and gave us all war paint made of shaving cream.  It was the best fun I've had in a long, long time.

And I got asked to babysit!!  Note to self: take first aid/CPR/babysitting class at Kaiser ASAP!  It's true though, and since then I've been asked again about 3 more times or so.  Better get my booty off the couch and sign up huh?

That's all for now.  Thought you might be interested in how the whole VBS adventure turned out haha!

Happy Homeschooling!

First Day

Hey all!  So today was my first day of school...and it was a pretty good day overall :)  We went to my grandparents' house and learned about physics, force, gravity, slope, etc.  It was pretty fun!

Of course, we don't just do workbook pages around here.  We are unconventional, unusual, and amazingly awesomely creative.  So in order to learn about physics, force, gravity, slope, etc., we went mini-golfing.

Oh yeah.

Tomorrow we get down to business though, doing the school work I'm used to--probably a science or history lesson with an assignment, an English assignment, and some other stuff.  My math curriculum hasn't arrived yet, so we will probably do something on Khan Academy or maybe just some review?

I was thinking doing a post a day or at least 2-3 times a week with updates about school and life.  I did NOT post half as much as I should have last year!!  So tell me what you think please, in the comments :)

Also I would appreciate ideas of what you want to see from this blog.  More random rambles?  More about school?  Thanks!!

Happy Homeschooling!

Pinterest!

Maybe you've heard about Pinterest, and maybe you haven't.  Pinterest is a really fun site where you can "pin" (aka post) pictures that are inspirational, funny, sweet...anything really!

Visit my Pinterest?!

I'm going to see if I can get a pin it button for my blog :)

On a different note, school starts on August 22nd...too soon!!  We hope to have found a math program that I actually understand haha!  I'm excited for eighth grade, it will be so fun!

Happy Homeschooling!

Train Hard, Go for the Gold

Hello there!  I've been training hard for VBS next week.  We did a lot of decorating around the church last week and I'm heading back to start helping Danielle out with the preschoolers at 8:30 tomorrow morning!  We talked about the four things we need to keep in mind this week at training:

Play
Make their day
Be there
Choose your attitude

I'm choosing my attitude by putting an exclamation point after stating that I will be up way earlier than is a happy time to drive 20 minutes so I can play with little kids for five hours!

Maybe that was a little bit sarcastic.  But I am excited :)  I am going for the GOLD!!

Please young ones, do not do this at home.  Or at VBS!!

Heyyy...speaking of gold...let's GO TEAM USA!!!!!!!!!!!!  You better believe I am watching the "Games of the thirtieth Olympiad" [Fancy-shmancy announcer speak for, "London 2012 Summer Olympics]!!!  And my family is team USA all the way!!

Except my brother, who is six, and decided he was voting for Mexico in table tennis because they wear green and that's his favorite color ;)  What a cutie!

My mom and I could use your prayers that this week will go smoothly and happily and that everyone will have fun.  Thanks!!

Happy Homeschooling!

Busy Busy Busy

So, hello again!  I am really sorry for the lack of posting going on here!!  This has been a pretty busy month so far, and blogging has been the last thing on my mind.  Just so you guys know, I will most likely not be posting for the next two weeks, because I am going to be working in the pre-school class at my church's VBS!  I am super super excited for that.  If I can get some pictures of our classroom maybe I can post them, but not of the kids because, you know, the parents might not want them all over my blog :)  Sorry again for not posting, and sorry that I won't be too soon!  But once school starts--August 22--I will have much more to post about EIGHTH GRADE!!!!!  Haha that's pretty cool that I'm almost to High School.  Anyways, gotta run!

Happy Homeschooling!

Happy Fourth of July!!

Hey guys!!  Just wanted to say Happy Independence Day, hope your day is safe and fun!  Sadly, we are not allowed to set off fireworks where I live, except if you are a professional.  I remember one year we went to visit my Grandparents in a different state, and the neighbors were all setting off fireworks--it was really cool!!  :)

Our family should be coming over very soon, so I'll say goodbye, but again have a wonderful holiday!!  To celebrate here are a few pictures I took in DC!!

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial--he was over 30ft tall!

The Washington Memorial at sunset

Jefferson Memorial

The pistol that shot Lincoln!  Crazy.

Arlington National Cemetery

Dorothy's Ruby Slippers, the originals :)

Lincoln!!  He was huge.  It was really awesome!

This is the White House.  We didn't get to go in...

The Capitol Building!  We did get to go inside this one.

Pictures from Williamsburg will hopefully be up soon...just the highlights of course, too many and it will take too long and I'll just give up haha! ;)

Happy Homeschooling!

DC Part One

Since my brain is so tired it feels like a bowl of grits, today I am just going to tell you a little overview of my time in DC :)  It's really great to be back at last!!

We went to Jamestown, Williamsburg, Monticello, Mt Vernon; the Jefferson, FDR, Martin Luther King Jr, Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean War, Iwo Jima, WWII, Pentagon, and more memorials; and the Air and Space, Holocaust Memorial, American History, International Spy, and Newseum museums.  We also visited the National Archives, Supreme Court, Arlington Cemetery, and outside of the White House.  We tested the acoustics at the Canadian Embassy, rode the metro to the Pentagon, and ate lunch at a tavern.  It was a ton of fun!

I really got to know people from my old school that I'd known for a long time but never got close to before.  I was surprised how little I really knew about some people that I'd known since kindergarten!!

I also met some great new friends, from other schools.  First, the people who I got to know the most: Sophia, Liam, and Otis.  Thanks for taking time to actually talk to me!  A few other people who I met a little and said hi to without getting to know them too well: Kori, Carly, Peyton, Ethan, Sarah, Tommy, Clay, and Jayden.  It was nice to meet y'all :)

Otis was very surprised that our school was not familiar with grits.  He tried to explain that you could really put whatever you want on them like maple syrup, butter, cheese, etc.  He usually wore a ball cap with his home team on it  and was really nice.

Liam was fun to talk to.  He also was confused by the fact that we didn't know what grits were.  One of my friends kept asking him about grits--she was rather intrigued by them ;)  He hung out with Ethan a lot, and the guys from our school.

Sophia and I had fun talking as we walked around Arlington and Jamestown, and sat together on the bus.  We are hoping to email each other and keep in touch!  We have a few things in common--we both really liked Percy Jackson and reading, and other things.

That long post was way bigger than I expected!!  So much for my brain full of grits.  I will post pictures soon!!

Happy Homeschooling!

Easter Time!

Easter is just in a few days!!  I hope everyone has a great Easter/Spring and good spring break (if they haven't had it already).  Our family celebrates Easter by going to church in the morning, then having lunch/dinner with my dad's side of the family.  Since my mom has family out here too now, they're going to join us!!  :)  Anyhow, there probably won't be many posts this weekend because of that.  Also if you want beach pictures for any reason, just comment or something because we're going tomorrow!!  Have a great day and Easter weekend!

Now I've got to go...school is waiting.

Happy Homeschooling!

Aquarium!!

Here are some pictures of the aquarium we went to yesterday...I did a little report about Beluga Whales which is why I'm posting this at all (otherwise it would be totally irrelevant).  I hope you enjoy these pics, they're not amazing but hopefully you can get a little bit of the amazingness that goes on there!

Beluga Whale--they have three in this tank and the water is 29º Fahrenheit!

Whale Sharks (there were 4 in this tank!)

Grouper (this pictures does not do justice to the size of this!!)

Whale Shark again

Huge manta ray

Tail looks like a shell...at least to me

"Did you see that big fish?" "Yeah, did you see that one!" "Man, these are some big fish!"

Fish.  They live harmoniously together with the whale sharks, manta rays, and little boys peering at them.

This thing was doing tons of backflips!  It was like it knew that we were watching it!

I love the ocean.  Loooove it!!  So obviously I love aquariums, especially nice ones like this.  I also have some pictures of the flowers which I will post soon (maybe today)!

Happy Homeschooling!

ONE YEAR!!!!!!

I can't believe this as I'm writing it, but it's true...I've had my blog for exactly one year!!  Isn't that insane???  It blows my mind that this blog has been going for a year, and to everyone who reads it and comments and supports me, thank you!  There is no way that I can thank you enough for just even reading my blog, because without you there wouldn't be much of a purpose :)  This is a really exciting day for me, as you can tell, and again I just want to say how happy I am to be doing this and to have you guys be so supportive of me.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart!


(And Happy Homeschooling!)