This is my 100th post!!

High lights of last week. Then the good stuff. (Saturday-Monday).

Monday March 19 I wasn't feeling so great, and was completely unmotivated and sick of school. I stayed home and did a little homework catching up and blogging and mostly I cleaned a lot.

Tuesday March 20 was my mom's class's singing performance. Josue came over and we were going to go. But decided it was too much. So he stayed with me until I went to my dad's house for the night. I don't like that my dad is gone, traveling for work a lot.

Wednesday March 21 we got out of Health Careers early to deliver thank you notes from our class to all of the different units we shadowed during clinicals. I loved it. The idea of it. And that they were handwritten. And seeing some of the hospital employees again. And that Hannah and I had enough time to stop for drinks and McDonald's before heading back to school.

Also Wednesday I had rotary. I must have been feeling professional, and good about myself being all dressed up, well whatever the reason, I was very productive with letters of recommendations for the many scholarships I'm working on. I got all of them covered-which included asking three different teachers and two community members.

After school Wednesday I had to taxi around Maria to the doctor and Michael to the Ford car place. I was trying to help my mom out so we could make it to exercise class. When we couldn't I was so frustrated that I decided to walk Maggie on the trail. The full route-about 3 miles.

Then the night ended with Josue coming over and eating dinner with the family and watching Modern Family with us.

Thursday March 22 I also got a lot done. During my study hall I may have made a trip to DollarTree where I bought the tissue paper I needed to finish my present for my sunshine lady-I finally got to reveal myself to her! and I bought items to donate to the family crisis shelter for NHS. After school I went home and napped. Then went on a long walk with Maggie and Laci and Laci's dog Shaylee. We had a lot of good talks on the walk.

Friday March 23 after my daily nap, I babysat for Maddie. I hadn't babysat her (or her brother who was out with their parents) for a long time and was happy to spend the evening with her. Then I went to my dad's house for the night.

here's where it gets good

Saturday March 24 my dad and I woke up early for The Lord's Pantry. But this time, on our way out of town, we picked up Josue! I brought an extra pillow and an extra blanket and both of us slept on the car ride there. (Josue and I. Not my dad and I).

When we got there I was sent to help out in the kitchen, and separated from Josue. I was a little worried about him, and feeling bad leaving him. But I quickly made friends with the three other girls there were helping bag the flour for churros. They were so nice and so funny. Eventually I was back with Josue who had been helping my dad. I love working beside him. Not only to be by his side, but to watch him work hard at the tasks we were given, and take initiative.

After my dad's talk (which I was really happy when afterwards Josue told me that he liked it-and it really did make him think about his life and how blessed he is) we lined up to help hold bags. Then something happened. So exciting! The girls that made the kids packs didn't want to hand them out-so I jumped at the opportunity. Josue and I got to stand back in the corner with Tayler and hand them out. I have been longing to get this job every time I come to volunteer. The kids are so cute, but they're even cuter when they are so happy and excited to get their kids pack which is filled with snacks just for them. My favorite part of it was when Josue would talk in Spanish to the kids and tell them that to get their bag they had to smile.
 

After cleaning up, and eating yummy food from the kitchen, we headed home. Josue and I both fell asleep again the whole ride.

I napped again when I got to my dad's house, then mowed the lawn at the Newman Center. I loved seeing all of the beautiful flowers that were blooming.

Later, when I went back to my mom's house Josue came over and watched the movie To Save A Life with me. Though it is an emotional movie, I really like it. I also liked that we talked about all of the issues that the movie brings up-bullying, suicide, drugs, drinking, pregnant teens, college, God, faith.

After Josue went home, Sarah came over! We decided we needed a girls night stat- and there she was. We laid out on the big couch and talked a while before falling asleep.

Sunday March 25 I packed my bags. So did the rest of my family. After dropping Maria off at her friend's house, my mom, Dan, and I were on the road to Saint Louis. I was so excited when we could finally see the arch in the distance!

After checking into the hotel, we went to mass. At SLU's gorgeous church. The most beautiful church I have ever been in. In all honesty, I almost cried. But that was also mostly due to the communion song they played which I believe was played at my grandparents' funerals. I just miss them. Both of them. I hope they were looking down on me that day-just so they too could see the beautiful church.

 

We went back to the hotel for a while. Then to dinner. Then for a carriage ride. Because, "Everybody has to be a princess once in their life."

Monday morning came fast. Well actually slow. None of the three of us slept much at all in the hotel-between the loud air conditioner that wasn't even cold enough and waking up due to dreams of frogs on you head. We woke up an hour early to get ready and to eat our breakfast in bed that we ordered in preparation for a long day ahead of us.

We checked in at SLU then heard a welcome presentation. It was really good I thought. Much better than Xavier's. For many reasons.

Then we went to the medical part of campus to hear about SLU's physical therapy program and see their classes for it. This was also much better than Xavier where I was assigned to a history class. Once we got back, I was seperated from my mom and Dan. It was scary waiting in line for lunch all by myself. Until the girl in front of me (Jennifer) turned around and started talking to me and a few other girls around us-Maggie and Natalie. They were all so sweet and so nice and very genuine. I don't know how many of us, besides Maggie who only applied to SLU, will end up there next year-but I would love to become better friends with all of them.

Then we went to another building where we sat and asked questions to the student panel. Not just we as in the girls I ate lunch with, but all of the students attending the preview day. I loved hearing the experiences and viewpoints from the different students that answered the questions. I just love SLU and what it is all about. After that there was also a presentation given about the lifestyle and also housing at SLU.

Afterwards, we met back up with our parents for other break-out information sessions. They were helpful. But kind of repetitive of stuff we'd heard earlier in the day. Plus it was getting to be a very long day.

We took a quick stop at the bookstore, then headed home. Once we finally made it home, Josue came over. We bought him a SLU shirt before we left to thank him for taking care of Maggie for us. He put her in her kennel Sunday night and even took her outside before school Monday. We were so grateful that he did that. And I think Maggie was too. She loves him and loves that he is always willing to play soccer with her.

Tuesday March 27 was hard. Hard going back to school. After it ended, Josue needed a ride home so he ended up just coming with me. We went with my mom to the vet and brought Maggie along for the ride. Then we both fell asleep on the couch and he went home after eating dinner with us.

Wednesday March 28 I got to sleep in a little because we didn't have health careers today. Though I didn't get to as long as I would've liked, it worked out. Because I ended up with a breakfast date to steak n shake with Marlee.

Then fourth period I got to leave with JD and go to our last week at rotary. I will miss being a part of their meetings.

The rest of the night I have spent trying to get stuff done. I napped. Then ran some errands and worked on a project and a scholarship and some english homework and watched Jeopardy with the fam and am finally caught up again on my blog! Yay! Yay for this being my 100 post. Though I wish I wrote more about my blog itself and how much I love it and all that it does for myself, I am so happy I got to write about The Lord's Pantry (with Josue-bonus!) and about my trip to SLU.

March 11-18

I hate having to blog in big chunks about lots of days. I like to blog about one or two days at a time and use lots of pictures and be able to write exactly what happened and the way it made me feel. I'm hoping that after this other week I have to catch up on, I will start blogging more consistently like I did back in the summer. Maybe it will happen.

Also I don't like it because the time gets all messed up. Normally when you read blogs, its most recent at the top and becomes days that were farther away the more you read. But when I write about lots of days, I write about what happened a while ago and eventually get to the most recent day at the end of the post. Then things just get all seperated. But that's okay. It's still blogging. And it's still something I love.

Sunday March 11 my dad, sister, and I got up for 9:30am mass. After mass, when they were doing the many anouncements, I was awarded the Knight of Columbus Scholarship that I had applied for a month ago! I'm so thankful for recieving it. Not only for the money that will help go towards college, but the honor of being the chosen female recepient. St. Bernard's was the church I was baptised in and have been to ever since. So many of the people that go there have helped me and shaped me throughout my lifetime.

After church I took a nice nap. While my dad so nicely cleaned out, and worked on my car for me. A double win.

Then Hilary and her family picked me up to go see our high school's Footloose. Everyone did such a good job! And it was actually really funny.

Then, I went to Josue's house and watched the movie we were supposed to watch Saturday before I took the babysitting job instead, and went back to my mom's house for the night.

Monday March 12 my morning wasn't going my way. I was running late and didn't have my essay finished that was already a week late anyways and when I was about to get in my car, I spilled my juice all over my pants. So I had to run back inside and change and was even later. But then when I got to the cancer center for clinicals, everything turned around. Both of the therapists were so nice, but Frank especially. He was so awake and full of positive energy and enthusiam that morning.
After school my mom and I went to the park and rec center for an excercise class. It felt so good to workout and it was kind of funny. I mean it actually wasn't. But I was laughing.

Then Josue came over and we walked Maggie who was happy and excited to be walked.
Tuesday March 13 I worked after school. It was just me and Candie and we got done an hour earlier than I was scheduled for which was nice to get home early.

Wednesday March 14 I went back to the cancer center for my last clinical rotation! I have loved it sooo much. I love seeing and hearing all of the medical, real-life situations. I love the friendly workers and the patients who are full of gratitude. I love that it worked on my people skills and forced me to introduce myself and to ask questions and to be involved and come out of my shy shell. I love when I'd see employees I had shadowed another day and they smiled or waved or said hello even though I wasn't with them on that day.

Then JD and I were all dressed up during the day and went to rotary again. This time was better. The speaker, a soilder who had served in Iraq, captured my interest more. Also Julie Hess sat beside me! And I saw and talked to my preschool teacher!

It was Dan's birthday all day long and we celebrated when he got home from work. The Country Club was closed so we had steak dinner at our house. It was fun getting to eat with the whole family-including Michael and Lexie and Josue. It was also really funny that we used the birthday cake from Michael's birthday and that we didn't have the right number candles, so instead 35 ended up being stuck on top of the already cut cake. Then we watched Jeopardy and Modern Family together.

Thursday March 15 we started CPR training in Heatlh Careers. It was a lot harder than I ever expected it to be- the chest compressions. Not only do you have to press really hard, but you have to do a lot. About 100 per minute. Wow.

With it being so nice outside, we have started taking advantage of the lunch tables outside. I love it. I love sitting at a square table and being able to talk to everyone rather than a long rectangluar set up and I mostly love being outside and feeling the warm sunshine and fresh air.

Then Thursday night I went to work. We served in Deutcheon to some of the honors scholars that are seniors and have been admitted to Wabash. I love all of the people I work with- Marianne and Quinn and Alicia were all so fun. I also saw Hamilton who said hi to me! From OLAB. Not to mention I got my new nickname of Mighty Mouse.

Friday was our dress-up-look-nice-for-our-class-picture-day in Health Careers as well as continuing CPR learning about infants and children. I love this class and all of the students in it.

Then at school we spent seventh period setting up for the Spring Fling that night. It was kind of fun testing the music and the black lights.

I couldn't go to the spring fling however, because I had to work. Then after work Josue came over. We talked to my parents a while then watched The Help. But I fell asleep almost right away.


Saturday I woke up and went to work. Like Friday, it was a meal in Chadwick-the basketball court- for the honors scholars weekend.


Then I took a nap and woke up in time for a family shopping trip. Lindsay and Sarah also joined us. It was so much fun shopping with Sarah. Half of the stuff I ended up purchasing was due to her convincing and saying "ya buy it! Just buy it!" I bought three pairs of sandals and a vneck and leggings and underwear and a swimsuit top.

Afterwards we went to Texas Roadhouse. We were all so worn out from shopping and so hungry from waiting until 9pm to eat dinner that we were very slap happy.

Sunday March 18 I woke up and went to church with my family. Farther Dennis, who was psyched about IU's basketball team, talked about the misconception people have of "God punishing me." Also a really cute couple was celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. He asked them to share marriage advice. She said "you just have to love and love each other and have religion too" and he said "listen and obey."


After church I did a lot of spring cleaning and laundry (including my sheets to my bed even!) and had my windows open and fresh air flowing.


Then Josue came over and helped me make apple crisp for the gymnastics banquet which he came to with my family.

I am so thankful for gymnastics and for the coaches and for the team. This was one of our best seasons yet. Not only did everyone letter and get a medal for breaking the school's record for the team score at 92.5ish, but all of the individual event scores and all around score for the school records were broken as well. Besides just being successful, we are truly a family. Full of love and laughter and encouragment and sometimes frustration and tears. I love them all so dearly.

Afterwards, we hung out and watched Untold Stories of the ER which was crazy and sat outside under the magnolia tree with Maggie and took pictures since we were both dressed up. Props to my mom and "Tulip" for the lovely photography. Which I will upload later when I have the energy to fight my computer who wants to rotate them the wrong way when I upload them.

Catching up: March 3-10

I am way behind. Life continues to happen, but I haven't been blogging. So then I have stuff I want to write about, but more stuff occurs and I'm backed up even farther. So here we go. Going all the way back to Saturday March 3, 16 days ago.

Saturday March 3 I was at my dad's house. I really wanted to go with him to the Lord's Pantry, but I was so exhausted from sectionals the night before that I didn't think I could get up. So I slept in.

Then Sarah and I made plans for another Goodwill adventure. I ended up buying 4 pairs (+ another pair for Maria) of shorts from Target that still had all of the original tags on them. And since it was take-an-extra-fifty-percent-off-everything-day, they were only $2 each! I was so excited and am ready for Florida.

I also bought a VHS of the Princess Diaries. So when we got back to my dad's, we convinced him to make us his famous popcorn and watched The Princess Diaries. On VHS. What a great day.

At 5:30 we went back to my mom's house. Her friend Merry who moved away to Virginia, was back in town for the wedding shower of her soon-to-be-daughter-in-law. So Saturday a lot of my mom and Merry's friends were at our house to see her. The Vanderkolks were also here. Including Gracie! Maggie had sooo much fun playing with her. Jacqueline and I sat on the cold screened in porch watching them play for hours.

Sunday March 4 was Michael's birthday! Yay! He is now 21! We got up and went to church and Jacqueline came with because she spent the night. Then we hung out with the Vanderkolks for most of the afternoon.

After they left, Josue came over. We had kind of been fighting and thought it'd be best to talk about everything in person. It was really hard. I made the decision that maybe it would be best if we weren't together anymore.

After he left, I had to put it behind me. Michael was celebrating his 21st birthday with us and I couldn't put a damper on it. We went to Boulder Creek in Brownsburg for dinner. Then when we got home he went out with his friends.

Monday March 5 the unthinkable happened. I thought I would never have to put up the gymnastics floor again. And that's just what I spent my evening doing. We had to put it back up so Ally could practice for regionals, a very excited reason. But it didn't make the process any better.

Well all of Sunday night and Monday I was miserable. I just didn't know how to cope without Josue. I guess I didn't realize how important the friendship we had was to me, and really how much he was a part of my life. My mom was my rock and helped me so much. She laid down with me both nights and talked to me a lot about it. And when I told them, my brother, and Aunt Chel, and friends helped too. So Tuesday after talking about it with my mom, I asked if he was willing to come back over and talk about things.

I'd been waiting all day during school and waited the rest of the evening. While I was waiting, my dearest friend Sarah came over. And hung out with me and the fam and even brought me my favorite candy.

Then he came over. And we talked about everything. A lot more than we actually had on Sunday. We found things to work on and to change because being together was worth more than those things. It was such a happy relief for both of us that we got back together.

Wednesday March 7 we JD and I's first day at rotarty. It's a service organization and each month 2 high schoolers from all 3 high schools in the county are invited to go eat lunch with them and attend their meeting. We dressed up and listened to someone speak about Crawfordsville'e economic future. Then we went to Dari-Licious for ice cream before going back to econ class.

After school, it was just such a nice day and we were both so happy by the way things worked out, so Josue came over and hung out and played with Maggie and I.
 

Thursday March 8 I came home from school and napped a little, then went to Sami's house with the rest of the team to make a poster for Ally. Then we went to the high school to put the floor away. Luckily, Sami and I got out of part of it because we had to paint our senior boards! Though it was exciting, it was sad knowing that gymnastics is really done.

Friday March 9 was regionals day! Again, they let me get a little nap in. Then we went to Sami's. We put on our "Ally is flippin awesome. I'm just sayin" shirts that we had made and rode together to Lafayette Jeff. She was so surprised at our shirts and we were so happy to be there supporting her! She ended up not making it through to state, but that's okay because even just getting to regionals is a big deal! And there were lots of really, really good girls there.

Afterwards, we stopped to eat at OCharleys for dinner. Then we spent the night at Sami's. We had big plans for the night like getting in the hot tub and staying up late and having girl talk when the freshmen went to bed. But we were all so worn out, we just went to sleep.

Saturday March 10, I woke up from Sami's and left early. My mom and I went shopping together! We dropped a few clothes off at Plato's Closet and did quick shopping. I bought new jeans, which is mostly what I gave away and needed new ones, and two pairs of shorts. My mom also bought a new outfit.

We got home in the afternoon and Sarah came over. We watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days which she had never seen before/napped/I did laundry.

The rest of the evening was spent at Little Mexico with my dad, then babysitting for Noah our neighbor.

Gymnastics sectionals

Friday March 2 our team got passes to leave at 1:15. When we went to the office we were each given a yellow rose, which we later discovered were from Ally’s mom. Then we got changed from our skirts and dresses into our warm up leos and sweats. I loved that we all dressed up and made sectionals into the big deal it is.

We drove our mini bus to Arby’s for lunch. I was sad I couldn’t get the usual small roast beef sandwich, curly fries, and my cherry turnover. This was because it was a Friday during lent, so instead I settled for mozzarella sticks. Of all our many bus rides, I believe this was the first time I didn’t sleep on the way there. I was so hyped up, not to mention I usually don’t nap until after 3:30 anyways. Marka even had surprises for us! She bought us each crayons and coloring books, something Sami used to always do at meets when she went to Fusion to calm her nerves. She also had bags of mints and yellow daisies for us. 

We were the first team there besides Lafayette Jeff and staked out our corner. We hung out here and colored and ate orange slices when we weren’t warming up or competing. After very exact, controlled warm ups- we changed into our competitions leos, lined up, and got ready to walk out. I loved that we had beautiful flowers to hold as we walked out on the floor. Marka said she specifically bought daisies for me, because they are a happy flower and she wanted me to be in my happy place. A few weeks ago I started this talk about how I do better with positive encouragement and happy energy. I think whether people realize it or not, it is true for most people.

The meet itself went fairly well. I competed on floor and bars and was happy with my performances. Not necessarily my scores, but with my skill level I can’t compete with the girls at the top. And I accept that and am okay with it. Finally the meet was over and the scores were compared. The top six individuals for each event qualify for regionals as do the top three teams. And guess what!!  Ally made it! She placed sixth on floor with an 8.4! We were all so excited for her.

After it was over, we went as a team to Texas Roadhouse. The twins sat with Marka and Kim and I sat with Ally, Sami, and Graysen. It was fun celebrating Ally’s floor and being done with gymnastics. 

Then when I finally got home from such a long day, Brother Trent was at my house! Maria and I were only at my mom’s long enough to grab some clothes before going to my dads. But I was so happy that he was there and we got to say hi to him! I miss him hanging around all the time like he does in the summer.