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.

I'm gonna celebrate being alive

Tuesday February 28 the creative juices continued to flow! Friday our English teacher threw one of the biggest projects of the year on to us and said we will be presenting on Wednesday. Oh how that class just drives me crazy! And how much I can not wait for it to finally end.

We had just finished reading Macbeth (in a week's time. again-too much for me). And the project was Macbeth fest. I had talked to Mrs. Harms (my yearbook teacher and the teacher I am a student assistant for. my English tutor. my life counselor. my at-school-mom.) about Macbeth and she told me how closely Coldplay's Viva La Vida fit with the plot. If you are familiar with Macbeth already you should totes check out the similarities! If not, in my opinion its not worth reading Macbeth to compare it to the song. But I decided this could fit perfectly into Macbeth fest.

Hilary, Hannah, and I joined as a group. Our assignment (of course was very vague and with no rubric or even handout) was I guess to make a presentation using a skill/talent that correlates with Macbeth. We decided to use the lyrics from the song and to also make collages. After looking at the song, we found 4 ideas we could make on canvases to explain the connection to Macbeth.

(the "silver platter" was eventually glued on and able to stand like that on its own without the hand there)

It was so much fun putting our ideas together and finding different pictures through Hilary's many magazines. We had them all planned out during school. Then found magazine images and laid them out. But Hannah and I had to both leave for dance practice and gymnastics practice. Leaving Hilary and her mom to finalize the projects. Though I would rather have just skipped practice and stayed. But they did such a great job painting the backgrounds and gluing everything together.


Wednesday the 29 was lovely! A lovely day indeed. Mostly because it was in the high 60s and sunny! Not only did this seem to make everyone cheerful, but it allowed me to wear my new dress finally. After clinicals I changed into the dress I bought from Pacsun with Sami. It is tan with coral strips, a thin braided belt, and lace on the back. I love it. And the sandals that I found in my closet to match.

The Macbeth fest went well. We had groups that brought food of that time period, made a cake with a scene on it, did a puppet show, created a music piece, drew a portrait, made a poster, and ours. I believe for once, our group exceeded in English. I was so proud of us. I was also proud that someone I admire so much was there to witness it-Doc Hudson. She was my freshmen year English teacher (and would have been my junior and senior teacher had she not retired) and just so wonderful. She is so delighted by our work and always expresses it. I love it. I also got to bring Mrs. Harms to Ms. Race's room and show her our collages during the passing period as she was trying to leave for a meeting. It meant so much that she took the time to come see them.

Then for lunch it was so nice out that I ate outside! I loved feeling, and seeing the sunshine. I sat with the same girls who sit at my lunch table, but I sit at the other end of it. It was nice getting to sit and chat with them. Most of them I hadn't really talked to and they were so pleasant and funny and confident. I loved that Channing didn't want to waste anything and let me use her ranch for my carrots. And how Sydney opened up her lunch box and shared everything with those who wanted it.

I heard this song called Blessed by Brett Dennen and instantly fell in love with it. Not only with the happy sound of it, but the words and how exact that fit to my Wednesday:

I welcome the sun
The clouds and rain
The wind that sweeps the sky clean and lets the sun shine again
This is the most magnificent life has ever been
Here is heaven and earth and the brilliant sky in between

Blessed is this life and I'm gonna celebrate being alive
Blessed is this life and I'm gonna celebrate being alive

 

I get the mail almost everyday when I get home from school. In hopes that there will be something for me. But sometimes, the mail man is very slow and when I check the mailbox is still empty from when I got it the day before. This happened Thursday March 1 and no one got the mail until I had gone to practice. When I got home from gymnastics my mom ran to me with a big white envelope. I knew it was hard for her to stare at it and not open it. When I did, we were both so happy to see what was within. I won a scholarship! Not just a scholarship, the Hoosier Hero one where I wrote the essay about my Grandma Ludwig. I was so honored and so excited. It was especially fun calling my grandparents and hearing their reactions and congratulations. At one point my Grandma asked me what my middle name was- that she was just so excited she couldn't remember!

NAHS workshop

Sunday February 26 I went downtown with Sarah to the Athen’s Art Gallery. My teacher is one of the local artists there and our NAHS group met there for a workshop by Kelly Barton. When Sarah and I walked in, we didn’t know exactly what we were attending-but we were excited for it!

There were lots of supplies and we all went our own directions. We were encouraged to use the sheets of metal-copper or silver. Then we could emboss any design in any shape or size of the metal. We could make indetions as well as things that stuck out. Then there were crayons for us to shave and melt into the grooves we created.

It was hard to know where to go, but much easier once I had an idea to run with. I loved that we were in a real studio with real artists. I loved watching everybody’s minds work and seeing their hands carry it out.

Kelly told us not to think too hard about it-to just let it happen. She asked us what it feels like when we create things. We answered with responses like relieved and calm and happy just overall good about ourselves. She reminded us that this is one of the important parts of creating things and art. I loved this conversation and just wanted to soak it all in.

Kelly also explained that sometimes it isn’t for the final product. Exercises like what we were doing that day are just to get the creative juices flowing and then afterwards you can begin your project. For some girls this was true. Some girls didn’t like what they created. I was not one of them. I was proud of my piece. Sarah was proud of hers too!

It reminded me of the beautiful, encouraging words of Shauna Niequist in her lovely book, Cold Tangerines:

"Art slips past our brains straight into our bellies. It weaves itself into our thoughts and feelings and the open spaces in our souls, and it allows us to live more and say more and feel more."

"Great art says the things we wished someone would say out loud, the things we wish we could say out loud."

"It matters, art does, so deeply. It’s one of the noblest things because it can make us better, and one of the scariest things, because it comes from such a deep place inside of us."

“Please keep believing that life can be better, brighter, broader, because of the art that you make." 

"Please keep making art for people like me, people who need the magic and imagination and honesty of great art to make the day-to-day world a little more bearable."

"Do something creative every day, even if you work in a cubicle, even if you have a newborn, even if someone told you a long time ago that you’re not an artist, or you can’t sing, or you have nothing to say. Those people are bad people, and liars, and we hope they develop adult-onset acne really bad."

"Everyone has something to say. Everyone. Because everyone, every person was made by God, in the image of God. If he is a creator, and in fact he is, then we are creators, and no one, not a bad seventh-grade English teacher or a harsh critic or jealous competitor, can take that away from you."

Then after we finished at the gallery, Sarah and I went home and made yummy, gooey s'mores with Maria and caught Sarah up on last week's episode of Gossip Girl. What a lovely way to end such a great afternoon.