Change

It has been way too long since I have blogged, and just decided I want to get back into the habit of blogging! 

Change. Change has been the theme of my life for the past few months now. There has been good change, and bad change. No..bad isn't the right word...more like change that has been difficult for me to accept and deal with. I guess all this change started when my grandpa died in June. I know it was his time, and I knew exactly where he was going, but it was still a change and I had a tough time with it. About the same time I was dealing with that I also had to let go of a close friend. He means the world to me and I miss him everyday, but I know it was what I had to do and I don't regret it. It was just another big change in my life. I graduated from highschool, another change, but an exciting one. The summer was tough. I look back on it and although it wasn't what I had imagined it to be, God blessed me abundantly. He put some truly amazing people into my life to help me get through and I don't know where I would be without them. College started at the end of August, another change, but a good change! I absolutely love college. Thanks to my friend Joe, I have met a lot of truly amazing people. I love my classes and the new freedoms I have. My group of friends have changed, but I think it was something I needed. Anyway...I was camping this weekend and was looking at all the beautiful trees changing colors. It got me thinking about change and how much has happened to me in the past few years. I have changed a lot. I have had my share of mistakes...but everyone changes and matures. Like the trees, I have entered a new season of my life and although it can be scary at times, everything is going to be okay.

RIP Grandpa

"I have the best doctor of all, God." I remember the day my grandpa said those words to me. My family and I were sitting in my grandpa's hospital room a few weeks after his legs had been amputated. It was such a typical thing for my grandpa to say. As bad as his situation seemed, he was always so incredibly positive.

I learned a lot from my grandpa during the long four months he was in the hospial. I realized that I am going to encounter challenges in life. It is how I handle them that matters. My grandpa could have easily lost faith when his legs were amputated. He could have complained about the unbearable amount of pain he was in, and about the length of time he was in the hospital, but he did not. Instead, he made the best out of a bad situation.

When I am faced with a challenge I have to embrace it has a chance to grow. I have to realize that there is a reason for that trial even though I may not be able to see it at that time. Because of my faith I believe that we grow and learn from our difficult times.
James 1:1-4 in the Bible says:
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,
not lacking anything."
My grandpa is an example of a person who lives by this Bible verse. He has faith in God that when it is his time to die, God will take him. He is not afraid of death nor is he angry with God and the trials he has had to face. He has shown me how to embrace the challenges we face and to always count our blessings.

Looking back on this experience I realize that my grandpa's illness helped me learn more about my grandpa and his beliefs. It helped me grow closer not only to him, but to my family. The experience has special meaning to me because I learned from my grandpa to put all your faith in God and never give up. Everything happens for a reason even though you might not understand why you're being put through something at the time. I didn't understand why my grandpa was experiencing so much pain. I realize now that God used my grandpa's challenges to influence the people around him, including me. My grandpa showed me how to embrace life, and will one day show me how to embrace death.



I wrote this essay for school at the beginning of the year. I was just going through my old stuff and came upon it. The past few months my grandpa had really been struggling with his health. He spent all his time in bed. He really went down hill in the past few weeks, and last Sunday he passed away. I remember him telling me that although he doesn't have legs now, soon he will be dancing in heaven. RIP Grandpa. You're dancing with angels.

People Change...

I have been thinking alot lately and it is amazing how things change so quickly. I was thinking about my friends and the past year and so much has changed! Some things for the better and some things for the worse. I feel like this past year so much has happened its crazy!

One thing I was really thinking about was my friends. I have been really frustrated lately because a few of my friends in particular are not the people I remember them to be. I have grown apart from them and it makes me sad because I miss them. But then I realize the reason we grew apart was because they have changed. Whether I like it or not they are not the same person I used to know. I see it when I finally do hang out with my friend(s) that it is just not the same as it used to be. It makes me so incredibly sad because I realize it is the old person I used to know that I miss, not the person they are now. On the other hand, I have started hanging out with other people and have built some amazing friendships.

I look back on everything I have gone through the past year and it just doen’t seem possible. It is really hard to explain but I feel like everything that has happened has been like a lifetime long. It doesn’t seem like it has only been a year.

I know I keep jumping around and this might be really confusing to read but I just felt like I had to get it out. I am just speaking my mind and my mind is all over the place. But anyway..I just wonder have my friends really changed, or have I just changed? Or maybe no one has changed. Maybe I am just seeing a side of them I have never seen before? I just really wish I could get my old friend back. But life goes on I guess...

Hiking in Ithaca

It has been way too long since I have blogged! So I decided I should prob post something! This week has been flying by. I haven't done anything too exciting but I have had alot of fun. Actually my break started off pretty horrible lol. I was sick starting the Thursday before break! I had a sore throat, cough, runny nose, achy, and my ear hurt a little too. Soo on Monday when I realized I wasn't feeling much better I decided I better go to the doctor. The doctor gave me antibiotics and now I am feeling alot better! On Tuesday I went to the Syracuse mall for the day to buy some new spring clothes! I bought a few shirts and a sweatshirt :-) Yesterday I went to Ithaca for the day with my family and my friend Matt's family. We hiked Taughannock Falls (which was beautiful!) and then went to this Italian/American restraunt called Joe's. After dinner we decided to check out Buttermilk falls since Matt's family had never been there before. We didn't hike the whole thing because it was getting late and we were all tired, but me and Matt raced up part of the falls (he won) haha. On the way home we stopped for icecream which is always good! I got vanilla soft serve on a cone :-) After icecream we said goodbye to the Hojsik's and raced home just in time to watch The Office! It was a really fun day! I love hiking! :-)

Where a kid can be a kid

So my family is really close to this other family, the Larnerds. My dad and Mr. Larnerd have been best friends since they were 13. Jory and Karen Larnerd have 3 boys: Colin, 17, Cameron, 13, haha and Caleb 12. Recently their cousin Jorden moved in with them too who is also 17. So we always have alot of fun hanging out with them. When we were younger we started going to Chuck E Cheese alot when we would hang out. The kids could play while the adults hang out and talk. That way we could entertain outselves and my mom wouldn't have to worry about having 3 boys running around the house :-p So I guess the tradition just kinda stuck. We don't go to Chuck E. Cheese as much as we used to but once in a while we still go there to hang out. Last night was one of those times. It was the entire Larnerd family (plus Jorden) , my family, Tash, Matt, and Joe Yost. It was a really good time. We played skee ball, basketball, climbed in the tubes, and took really awesome pictures (my personal favorite :-p) So yup. You are never too old to have a good time at Chuck's place.

Feelin' So Fly

Sorry I haven't gotten to blog in a while! I have been busy and then I haven't really felt so good the last few days. But anyways! Last Saturday night I went to a Tobymac concert in Elmira. Most of you have prob never even heard of him, but he is a white christian rapper haha. Funny image right? He isn't like my favorite artist or anything, but his songs are really catchy, and he is AMAZING in concert! I have seen him twice now in concert, and they were both like the best concerts I have ever been to. Tobymac has so much energy! You can't help but get up and dance! I went to the concert with my family and 6 other girls from my church. I told my mom before we went to the concert that she was going to love it. I told her he is so amazing in concert, but she said to me after the concert "wow Katie, I didn't think it was going to be THAT good!" It is one of those things you have to experience for yourself to get it :-p But anyway it was a really good time! I have a video you can watch below but it isn't that great a quality and doesn't sound nearly as good as in concert. Like I said, you have to be there to truely experience it :-p

blind as a bat

I went to the eyedoctor today for my annual checkup, and I realized that if it wern't for the invention of contacts/glasses I would be blind! The eyedoctor first checked my eyesight with my glasses on. So when the eyedoctor took my glasses off to just look at my eye, I realized that the chart that I was reading with my glasses on just seconds before, looked like it had nothing on it when my glasses were off!

A few weeks ago, I did the 30 Hour Famine. One of the games we played at the church was this tribe game. We got a card with a picture of a child from Africa on it. It had a small paragraph about the child on it and at the bottom it said what the child's disability was. My child was blind, so for the remainder of the game I had to be blindfolded. I had no idea how hard that was going to be! I had to take a jug of water to the other side of the room, dump the water into a big bucket, take my socks and shoes off, wash my feet in the big bucket, put my socks and shoes back on, refil the jug again, and bring it back to the other side of the room to the next person in line. I had to do ALL this blindfolded!!! It was so hard. I had no idea where I was going, or where the big bucket was I had to dump the water into. It is amazing how much i take my eyesight for granted.


Thank goodness for the invention of contacts/eyeglasses!

So long UEHS

UE Highschool, wow where to start? I remember my first day of highschool as a freshman. I was so scared. The seniors looked soo big and I had no idea where to even go. I was sure I was going to get lost! I remember it helped so much being on the swim team because I met so many upperclassmen before school even started. I soon learned highschool wasn't as scary as it seemed. The school is just one big square, and all the teachers are really nice. My first year of highschool I had one of favorite teachers, Mrs. Krieger.

Sophmore Year. Sophmore year was interesting. I became really close to a group of friends and we had alot of fun, although there was also some drama within the group too which wasn't very fun. I also has another one of my favorite teachers sophmore year, Mr. Friend. Sophmore year was the only year I went to snowball. It was alot of fun, but I just didn't end up going the other years because I had other stuff going on.

Junior year had a lot of good things, as well as bad. I started hanging out with a new group of friends outside of school, and became incredibly close to them in a really short amount of time. I was able to be myself around them, and not alot of people know the true me. I got a boyfriend which was a new experience for me, and I learned alot from it. I had some rough times too junior year. I graudually began to grow apart from some of my friends from school. I also got really bad "junioritis". Near the end of the year I really didn't want to do any work. I just went through the motions to get to the weekends. I struggled with italian, almost dropping the course, but I stuck with it and passed the regents!

That brings me to Senior year. Senior year has been my favorite year so far. I am not taking a science or language, so I actually get to take courses I want to take! I feel like I have so much more time and not as much homework. It is so much more relaxed. I have also had some really tough times this year. I pushed alot of my friends away junior year. I took them for granted and I had to deal with those consequences this year. I learned there has to be a balance. I can't just forget about some of my friends and expect them to be there for me when I decide I need them. I almost lost one of my best friends this year because I took her for granted. Thank goodness for grace! But anway, senior year has been really different than other years for me. I feel like people are alot friendlier and less cliquey. I have grown closer to different people this year than in past years. Overal, its just been a great experience!

So anyway, I have learned a lot throughtout my highschool experience, and I will miss some things about highschool but for the most part I think I'm ready for college! So long UEHS!

Snoozing away the afternoon

I love naps! I never really used to nap, but I do all the time now. I just get so tired I always feel like I need a nap in the afternoon. I usually come home from school and just crash on the couch! I always nap on Sundays too after church, before youth group. I decided to blog about this today because I actually just woke up from a nap! I was so tired this morning and so a nap was just the thing I needed to get me though the day! Nothing beats wrapping up in a cozy blanket on the couch and a fire in the fireplace!

One thing I really hate is when you say you have to get together with someone sometime, but then it never happens. You always have good intentions to get together, but then you get busy or something happens and you just never do and you graudually grow apart from the person. It doesn't even have to be friends but family or teachers too. I always say I need to get together with my cousins again, but it never happens, and I always say at the end of a year I will come back and visit certain teachers but i never get around to it.

Yesterday was a really interesting day. I went to BCC to see what courses i'll be taking next year and just learn more about their program. So while I was there I got a text from someone I hadn't seen since the summer! He was at Broome and wanted to meet up. So after I was done talking to the student advisor I went and met up with him. It was cool to just catch up with him and see how things were going. While I was at Broome I also saw alot of people who graduated last year. It was just so weird to see people I hadn't seen in so long!

So I went home after BCC and later on I got a text from a friend I have been wanting to talk to forever! He is extremely busy, but I was starting to think he forgot about me. I had tried contacting him but never got a text or myspace comment back. In the rare cases we did talk we always were saying "wow its been way too long!" or "we really need to stay in touch more". But then life went on and it was months before I would hear from him again. So anyway I heard from him last night and we talked for hours, just getting caught up on each others lives! It was just really awsome and I realized how much I really missed talking to him.

But anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say here is I really can't stand it when you say you want to get together with someone sometime and it just never happens for whatever reason. I know I do it all the time too, but I really wish I didn't. I mean think of all the people you have lost contact with because you said you would stay in touch and never did. Blahh ok i'll stop now because this is getting really long and I'm beginning to repeat myself... :-p

I <3 Rockband

I love rockband! Me and my sister used our Christmas money and bought it for PS2 right before the superbowl! It is so fun to play, esp. with a group of people! You got your guitar, and bass, singer, and drums! My favorite is the drums, but really all the instruments are fun. Guitar hero is fun, but rockband is so much better because more people can play and you have more instruments. Soooo if you have never played rockband before I suggest you do because you're missing out! :-)

Predictions about Lost

WARNING!!!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WANT ME TO GIVE STUFF AWAY ABOUT LOST!








I'M WARNING YOU! DON'T KEEP READING IF YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT UP ON LOST!









ok! So any Lost fans out there? I absolutely love this show! It is so different from any other show on tv right now..but I have already discussed this so I won't bore you again. What I really want to know is if you are a Lost fan, any theories about what is going to happen? I have a few. For example you know how supposedly Ben has one of his men on the freighter that Naomi and her crew came from? I think the person on their ship is Michael. I don't think Michael truely got home because Desmond said when he tried he couldn't leave the island. So why would Michael be able to get home, and why would they let him go so easily? I also don't think the person Ben has on the freighter is a new character. That would just be stupid, why would they throw in a new character like that? I think it will surprise people with who it is. So my theory is that Michael tried to leave the island, realized he couldn't and "the others" approached him with a new deal that if they spy or whatever on the freighter THEN they could truely go home.


So about last weeks epsidode. How do you think Kate ended up with Aaron? Do you think Clare died? Or maybe Claire was forced to give Kate Aaron because there wasn't enough room on the helicoptor for both her and Aaron? I was really confused here.

And who do you think the other 2 Oceanic 6 are? And why is there this big lie that only 8 people survived the crash?

I have so many questions, and I know no one knows the answers yet but I think it would be fun to hear everyone's theories. So leave me a comment and let me know what you think :-)

Bipolar Dog

 

Ok so I have come to the conclusion that my dog, Bella, is bipolar! Either that or she is demon possessed. She is a Smooth Fox Terrior, so she has tons of energy and always wants to play. She LOVES balls. If you were to put a ball in front of her and a piece of meat she would deff choose the ball over the meat. Sometimes she is the cutest dog ever! She will cuddle up next to you and just sit quietly. She loves to go under the covers too. She will just go under the covers and lay there in a tiny ball. She can be a very noisy dog. She groans and grunts (kinda like a little pig) haha and lets out big sighs. It is actually pretty funny! Other times, however, she goes INSANE!! She runs after you barking, trying to bite your feet. She thinks she owns the place! She doesn't like sharing people. So if she is cuddling next to my mom and I go to say goodnight to her she will like attack me! haha Now don't get me wrong, she doesn't hurt me or anything. But it is really annoying when you are trying to walk and she is there knipping at your feet. Even if someone says "I love you" she freaks out! She goes nuts every mornig when my dad is trying to leave for work because she doesn't want him to leave. This morning, I was trying to leave for school and she didn't want me to leave so she came running after me but came too fast and couldn't stop, so she ran right into my shin! It hurt my shin pretty bad haha but I felt bad for her too because she yelped when she hit her head! So anyway, I love Bella to death but she is seriously bipolar and needs help! I'm thinking of calling the dog whisperer...

Snowflakes

I was sitting in line at the Dunkin Doughnuts drive thru today waiting to get my 99 cent cappaccino, and I was thinking about what I should blog about today. I was looking out the window at the falling snow and all the individual snowflakes falling on the window, and I realized how amazing it is that no 2 snowflakes are alike. I mean there are so many billions of snowflakes and each is sooo small, but they are all different from one another.

I really don't like winter. I mean snowdays are cool, and I love to ski, but other that that I could really do without winter. It is so cold and depressing out. The snow gets dirty after about a day, and everything is dead. But there is something about falling snow and watching it fall that is so beautiful. I love laying in the snow just looking up at the sky watching snow fall. It just reminds me of how great God really is and about how much care he put into creating everything, even each individual snowflake.

Blogging about a Blog

So I was looking for a blog to blog about, and I came across this really cool one,Welcome to the Curious World. It was really fun to look at because it had a bunch of really cool pictures from around the world. It didn't have alot of writing, but it was still really cool to look at. There were so many different topics from pictures of edible vehicles, to cool elephant photos, to even humorous pictures explaining why women don't take men on vacation. I just kept looking at more and more posts on the blog because it was so funny to look at all the cool pictures. It's amazing how much a photo can say!

Happy Birthday Matty!

Today is my friend Matt's 18th birthday! He can FINALLY drive past 9! So that was pretty exciting :-p Yesterday him and Tash came over to my house after the famine and we hung out till midnight, when he could legally drive past 9! haha Then today him, Colin, Tash, and me went to Taco Bell for dinner. After, we went to the mall and picked up Jorden and Joe and went to Video King to rent a movie. We ended up renting Dude, Where's my Car. We came back to my house and ate ice cream cake and popcorn and watched the movie. It was pretty funny although really stupid haha! So anyway...happy birthday to Matt today! It was a great way to end our February break!

Be Seen. Be Heard. Be Hungry.

Starting yesterday at 7 AM until today at 1PM my youth group along with thousands of other youth groups throughtout the country did the 30 Hour Famine. Basically, we raised money to help starving kids in Africa. We then fasted for 30 hours to experience what true hunger feels like. This was my second year doing it, and it really opens my eyes to realize how selfish and lazy I can be. This year, 150 teens in my church did the famine. We raised a little over $21,000! It's really cool because we don't fast alone. We are all hungry together. We all went to the church around 5:30 yesterday and we hung out and played games. We also learn alot about what other kids in other countrys have to do everyday to survive. I always knew I was blessed to live in America, but didn't really appreciate how much I take for granted. At 1PM when the famine ended we all had a HUGE breakfast! It was so good, but you sometimes forget that we fast knowing that when the 30 hours is over we all get to eat. Other starving children don't always know when the next time they will eat is. So anyway, it was alot of fun, and I really got alot out of it. The picture above is a bunch of us in the awesome shirts we made :-p

The Famine Begins!

7AM yesterday morning the 30 hour famine began! (if you don't know what I am talking about see my earlier post, "30 Hour Famine") So on Thursday night I had some friends from my youth group come over to spend the night. We made wickid awesome shirts that took alot longer to make than we thought they would! But we had alot of fun eating and talking and just laughing at the stupid things we were coming up with to put on our shirts. So we finally went to bed at 3 in the morning and only got 2 hours of sleep because we got up at 5 to go to IHOP for our last meal before the famine began. We were so tired, but it was definitely worth it! The food was sooo good, and the service was really fast! We took our last bite at 6:59 am and then went home to sleep some more. In the picture is all of us at IHOP. We were so tired! We just rolled out of bed and got in the car, so we are not looking our best :-p So that was how we started off our 30 hour famine :-)

Happy Birthday Jorden!

Today is my friend Jorden's 17th Birthday! Jorden is my friend Colin's cousin, and I have pretty much known Jorden my entire life, but it wasn't until recently that we actually started hanging out more. See Jorden moved from Virginia to New York this year to live with Colin. So he has been here pretty much this entire school year. So last night to celebrate Jorden's birthday we went to Nick's. It was alot of fun, we ate and just fooled around taking lots of pictures. Oh and Jorden (being Jorden aka CLUMSY!) spilled his water all over the place. Now let me tell you. EVERYTIME we take Jorden out in public he spills something! At school, he spilled something on Windsor's homecoming queen, at out youth group's winter retreat he spilled lemonade on a poor innocent girl, oh and he also spilled red juice all over my pillow and coat once. So anyway it was really funny when ONCE AGAIN he spilled something :-) So I guess what I'm trying to say here is...Happy Birthday to Jorden! You make people smile whenever you're around! :-)

Film Festival

So last spring my Youth Group had a film festival. Everyone had the opportunity to make a short video and then we watched them all and got to vote on which video we thought was the best. Me and some friends decided to make a movie for the contest. We didn't win, we came in like 3rd I think? But it was still fun :-) So here is the movie we made..Enjoy!

P.S. For some reason it wouldn't let me post it in the same post..so that is why it is a seperate post :-)

The Doctor Is In

Dream Job

Growing up I have wanted to be many different things. When I was 3 I wanted to be Santa's Helper. I also thought about being a writer for a really long time, and also a real estate agent. Then I became really interested in art and now I want to be a graphic designer. But my DREAM job? hmm that's a toughy. I wish I could get paid for hanging out with my friends. I absolutely LOVE my friends, and love hanging out with them. If I could get paid to have fun and be with them, that would definitely be amazing! It doesn't even have to be anything exciting...I have a few friends who come over and we just lay on the couch watching movies all day or something and it is still the best time ever. I just love being around my friends. Buttt since there is no real job like that, i'll stick to being a graphic designer. Maybe someday i'll write a book about my amazing friends too :-p

Netflix

For Christmas this year we got my mom Netflix. For those of you who do not know what that is, you become a member to the netflix website and you get movies sent to your house. You just have to pick which movies you want to see and they mail them to you pretty fast! There are no late fees and you just mail the movies back when your done. It is pretty cool! Some movies you can even watch online. They have tons of choices too. They have new movies, old movies, comedians,and seasons of tv shows. We also got Netflix for my Grandparents who are really picky about what they will watch, and they find stuff they enjoy too. So the other day we got the movie Click. I hadn't seen it yet and it turned out to be a pretty good movie. It was kinda sad near the end, but overall I really enjoyed it! So yeah i guess this sounds kinda like a commercial for Netflix, but I highly recommend it.

Friendly's isn't so friendly?

Alright well tonight I had Elevate (youth group) and because we don't have school tomorrow it is tradition that a group of us go to Friendly's after. So a group of about 11 of us went to Friendly's and we had to get 2 tables in the corner. It is always a really good time because you get good food and can just talk and hang out for a while. Tonight though, the service was horrible! I can understand because we were a big group who came in at like 9 anddd we were all teenagers so I am sure they were not happy to see us. haha but it took them like 15 minutes for the waitress to realize we were even there! Sooo we were sitting there looking at the menus and I gave everyone the great idea to just order from the kids menu! Hey, that is what I always do! It is such a good deal! You get a drink, your meal, and icecream for only like 5 bucks! It doesn't get much better than that. So we all ordered from the kids menu (which I am sure the waitress was thrilled about!) soooo it took like forever to get out food, and when it finally did come she got one of the orders wrong. My friend Matt ordered the kids franks with mac and cheese (because the franks don't come with bread and he HATES bread..but that is a different story) butt they brought him the 2 frank meal with french fries (and bread!) instead! Sooo he told the waitress and they brought him the right meal but by now we were all starting to think the waitress hated us. The waitress also forgot to bring me honey mustard for my kids krispy chicken wrap so when I asked her to please bring me some honey mustard it was pretty official that she hated us. We didn't see her again for like a half hour after she brought my dip. I think she was avoiding our table...so some of us need to leave and the waitress is still no where to be found! We finally got her attention and she brought the check, but never took our icecream order!! So we had to wait like another 20 minutes for her to come back so we could order icecream. In the mean time we heard her say to another waiter "those kids in the corner have been here forever and won't leave!" Buttt maybe if she actually waited on our table it wouldn't have been there for so long! Oh well, I still felt bad for her because we were kinda a picky group haha. So yup. That was my exciting night at Friendly's!

The Parkway on a Saturday

I have had my license since the summer, but I don't really drive very much. I don't love to drive, I would rather ride shotgun so whenever I can I have someone else drive me around. I am not really sure why I don't like to drive, it just isn't a big deal to me. So because I don't drive much, when I DO have to drive I do not know my way around very well. So my mom woke me up this morning and said "Hey were going for a drive". So I got ready and my mom had to go to Walmart so we went there first. Now let me tell you something. Driving on the parkway on a Saturday is NOT fun! There is so much traffic it is nuts! There are so many lights, and you just keep starting and stopping and starting and stopping...so we finally got to Walmart and I had to park like a mile away from the store because it is mobbed! Walmart on a Saturday is NOT fun either! Why, may I ask, do people feel they need to bring their entire family to walmart on a Saturday? There are these people with like 5 kids hanging off the cart blocking all the isles! Is that really necessary? So after maneuvering through Walmart we finally left Walmart and I drove around some more before finally going home. So some advice? If at all possible avoid Walmart/the Parkway on a Saturday!

I gotttt the bluessss

Macaroni and Cheese that is! :-) So I think Macaroni and Cheese is pretty much the best thing ever invented. Who would have thought noodles and cheese put together would be soooo good? I am actually eating some now! I love every type of macaroni and cheese..homemade...Kraft..EasyMac...Velveeta..its all so good! Then you get those cool shaped mac and cheese too..like the spongebob shaped noodles and rugrats! It is so easy to make too! It is perfect for me when i need a quick dinner, or if I have to make my own dinner because...well..I am not a great cook :-p Just boil some noodls..add some cheese..and voila! Dinner! Did I mention it is cheap too? It goes good with other stuff as well. I really like it with hotdogs and ketchup. The ketchup is good on the mac and cheese too (you can't say its gross until you try it!) It is perfect for an afternoon snack too! sooo...Cheese Please!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day. Some people love it, while others hate it. Personally, I think it is just a holiday made up by hallmark to make more money. It is so commericalized! I can see where if you are married or dating someone its a cute holiday. It is a chance to show someone you truely love them, but if you are not with someone I find it a rather depressing holiday. Anyway. That is just my opinion.

Corrected by a homeschooler!

I was just informed by one of my friends who is homeschooled (I will keep his name anonymous) that I have some mistakes on my homeschooling facts in my previous blog "Time Wasted in Schools". According to him, the suggesed time highschool homeschoolers should "do school" is 5 hours a day. Sometimes it does take less than that though. He also says that according to some study it has been proven that homeschoolers ARE generally smarter than kids who go to school. So anyway, just thought I would clarify :-)

Snowdays

I love snowdays! They are a free day to just relax! You can sleep in, lounge around all day, and not have any extra homework because you should have it all done from the night before. You can just have a full day to do nothing! I love waking up in the morning and waiting to hear on the radio to hear if they say "Union-Endicott, closed". It is almost as exciting as Christmas in my opinion! haha. So today my mom came in my room at like 5:00 to get Tums for my little sister because she wasn't feeling good. At that time she told me we didn't have a delay yet and that the roads were bare. So I was pretty disappointed :-( She came in a little while later to tell me we had a 2 hour delay. So I was pretty pumped about this! I went back to sleep and at 8 I listened to see if we had closed yet, but we hadn't and since the roads didn't even have snow on them anymore I figured we were not going to close. I rolled over and went back to sleep until my mom came in around 8:30 to tell me we had closed. :-) So that was pretty exciting haha. I think snowdays are so much better when they are unexpected. Soo anyway...basically snowdays are awesome :-)

Time wasted in schools

Have you ever thought about how much time is wasted in schools? I mean seriously between those 4 min. of passing time, study halls,lunch,extra help, and those days in gym you get every once in a while where you just sit there, minutes really add up! I mean dont get me wrong, if it weren't for those free periods I would probably kill myself. It is good to get time to just relax. But think about how much quicker you could get done with school if you took all that away! I have quite a few friends who are homeschooled, and I would NEVER want to be homeschooled, but one advantage is how quickly they can get their school done if they are motivated. In just 2 hours they are done with school for the day! Now I don't know about you but sometimes it takes me more than 2 hours to just do my homework! I know some people would argue that you get a better education in school when your not teaching yourself, but there are alot of smart homeschoolers! I mean I definitely couldn't teach myself math, so if you can do that you HAVE to be pretty smart! So anyway, maybe if so much time wasn't wasted in schools we would be able to learn more and not have as much homework if we had more time to get work done in school.

30 Hour Famine

Hey everyone! So my church youth group, Elevate, does this thing called the 30 Hour Famine every year. Every day 29,000 children under the age of 5 die because of hunger, disease, and poverty. 15,000 will die today from hunger alone. That is one child every 6 seconds! So what my youth group, along with thousands of other youth groups across the country do is for 30 hours go without food. Before the famine we ask everyone and anyone we can to sponsor us. Just $1 feeds a child for a day, $30 for a month, $360 for a year, and so on. Think about that. Just $30 feeds a child for an entire month! That's less than what your family might spend to go out to dinner. The money we raise goes to Africa to help starving children. It doesn't seem like much really. All I do is go hungry for 30 hours and I save thousands or children's lives! Teens these days tend to be really selfish. Think about all the food you waste. I tend to waste so much food without even thinking about it! So for 30 hours every year I go without food to experience what children go through everyday! It really opens your eyes because you dont really ever experience TRUE hunger! Yeah my stomach might be a little uncomfortable before lunch, but that is nothing compared to what some children experience everyday. This year the famine is from 6AM Friday, February 22- 12PM February 23. So you should help starve hunger as well by sponsoring me! You can give as much or as little as you would like, or you can go to the applebees on Front Street next Monday night and a percentage of your bill will go to World Vison's 30 Hour Famine :-) So if you want to help see me, or go to 30hourfamine.org Thanks :-)

Lost

For the last few weeks I have been watching "Lost" pretty much nonstop. It is very addicting! I got into it really late so I just finished season 3 and I watched the season 4 premiere today. I had to record it last week because I wasnt caught up yet :-( I am very excited to watch the new episode tonight! The show is so good! It's so unique from other shows on tv today. It is like watching a movie that continues week after week. It was also written really well. They give you little bits of information a little bit at time so you want to keep watching. It's like a puzzle. Not everything is in chronological order eithier so you have to watch and get all the pieces of the puzzle so everything makes sense. Just when you think you have the puzzle right, they throw you a twist and all your theories fall apart. so anyway, YES I'm addicted. If you don't watch lost yet, you should really start :-p