Ant Invasion

We have sooo many ants crawling around our house. It's rather annoying...And gross. Luckily, they're small so I can just squish them with my finger. I don't like squishing the big ants because they don't die right off.

And Casey Pomerleau is here. She's so cute. Except not really. Casey's typing this. ;)

^ Yes, Casey is here and she is cute. :P

After school, I am going to bake four dozen cookies for The Root Cellar tonight! It's going to be fuuun!

Tomorrow, I'm going to Anna's house for until Saturday! I'm really excited. I haven't seen Anna for awhile. On Saturday, we're going to Ben's graduation. We'll hopefully get to play Ultimate Frisbee.

Memorial Day Weekend

I said I was going to post picture of my haircut but I decided not to bother. I don't think it was that much of a change. Bethany just trimmed my layers, added another layer and thinned my hair.

Captain America turned out to be a great movie! I think he's my favorite super hero now. :) He has a true hero's heart.

On Saturday, Shannon, Sean, Dad and I went to Billy's KVAC's track meet. Both Class A and B schools were there so it was rather busy.  Man, oh, man are there some crazy fast people! Watching people do hurdles is really cool too. We got to talked to Ben for a bit because he was there to support his team. After watching a few of Billy's races we walked over to the Tennis courts and played Tennis. Dad challenged a guy (who was on the Tennis team for Morse) to a game of Tennis. That was exciting to watch! Billy's track meet ended around 5:30pm. We all got a little sunburned that day.

On Sunday, Mom and Shannon had work. Sean, Billy, Dad and I went to church. It was very nice. :) The sermon was called The Unshakable Life. You can listen to it on here.

We were going to play Ultimate frisbee with the Wrights and a bunch of other people from their church but they scheduled it for 1:30pm instead of 3pm so it was a little too soon after church for us.

Sunday evening, Sean, Billy, Dad and I played two games of Tennis. Billy and I beat Dad and Sean both games! :D

Monday morning, Shannon, Sean, Billy, Mom, Dad and I drove over to Tim and Angie's house and we helped them clean their house in preparation to sell it. It was pretty fun! Tim treated us to Tin Tin Buffet for lunch. After I had finished vacuuming all the carpets, and then sweeping some cement outside, Angie let me "distract" Addie while Angie got to help clean. I got to "dance" with Addie for about 20 minutes. It was absolutely awesome! That was the first time I got to hold Addie for more than 5 minutes without getting fussy. She's growing up! :P Addie is super adorable!

Around 3pm we went home. Soon after we got home, Mom, Shannon and I left to go to the Morris's Memorial Day party. Dad, Billy and Sean arrived soon after us. The party was super fun! Shannon, Sean, Erin, Millie, Grace, Meti, Kevin, Jason, Enoch, Kyle, Billy and I played monkey in the middle with the frisbee until the little kids started squirting us with water. The game kind of slowly fell apart and then we all decided to eat burgers and dogs.

After supper we played Ultimate frisbee. The team I was on lost. :/ The other team had Shannon, Billy, and Mr. Taylor who are all really good! I had Sean and Pastor Per. We had lots of other people playing but they weren't SUPER skilled like Shannon, Billy, Pastor Per, and Mr. Taylor.

It started to rain almost immediately after the game ended. Almost everybody left except Millie, Gracie, Kevin, Kyle, Sean, Shannon, Evie, Billy, and I. We all had a hilarious conversation until almost 10:30pm. We brought Kyle home and then went home. 

Infections, Sean, Captain America and KVACs

Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon the right side of my face started to hurt. The bottom of my right cheek is kind of swollen. (Warning, if you are eating or have a sensitive stomach don't read the next few sentences) Yesterday afternoon I was using the syringe to clean my extraction sites because I had just eaten popcorn. I used a floss pick to get some food out of the gums on my 31st tooth (the last molar on the bottom right) and this whitish, greenish, yellowish pus poured out. It was rather nasty! I showed it to Mom and it grossed her out. This morning, Dad called the Oral Surgeon and made an appointment for 11am. So, Dad and I went to the Oral Surgeon's and he said the gum around the 31st tooth was red and I did have some swelling but he couldn't "milk" the pus out. He prescribed some antibiotics for me, scheduled a check up appointment and then we left. When Dad and I picked up the prescription at CMMC, we stopped in and said, "hello", to Mom. Yet, when I got home I was able to get the pus to come out again... Oh well, the antibiotics should make the infection better in couple days but we have a check up appointment in a week, just in case.

As a surprise, Mom and Dad invited Sean over for the weekend. They told me about it so I wouldn't plan anything else. Sean showed up around noontime and completely surprised Billy. :) Shannon still doesn't know he's here because she's working all day today!

Tonight Shannon, Sean, and I are going to Donahue's for pizza and to watch Captain America. Rebecca, William and maybe Tucker are coming too! It's going to be a late night.

All day tomorrow Billy has KVACs, which is an all day track meet championship thing. Shannon, Sean, Dad and I going to watch him. :) I hope it's not too boring!

Bridge Jumping!

I'm getting my haircut today! :) I'm really excited. I'll post a picture of it tomorrow.

Yesterday afternoon, Shannon, Casey, Billy and I went bridge jumping! It was the first time this year. Man, was it refreshingly cold! It took me awhile to jump the first time but I ended up jumping about 5 or 6 times. That doesn't seem like very much but I'd like you to try jumping off a bridge with a 18 foot drop. It takes some guts! The good thing is that the water is really deep. There are arrows on the bridge railing that shows where you can jump off. You can't jump too close to the edges or else you might touch the bottom of the river. Rope swinging is much more fun than rope swinging though! The place where we go to rope swing has cliffs you can jump off of too. It's soooo much fun! You can climb up the cliffs, grab the rope and swing into the water. :)

This Summer...

This summer I plan to train for my last soccer season this fall. Billy is going to be my "personal trainer". It's going to be tough, but worth it! :) I'm going to try and run atleast 2 miles every other day, or everyday, whatever Billy suggests. I also plan on doing leg, core, and ab workouts. I want to eventually  do the split too.

For fun, I'd like to go swimming, bridge jumping, rope swinging, hiking, canoing, kayaking, camping, visit friends and go to an amusement park.

I also might get a job. I would like to get a job at Sedgley Place. We'll see how that goes!

What do you like to do in the summer?

Living Transformation!

Dad, Billy and I decided to do a surprise for Mom and Shannon while they were gone in Haiti and that surprise was redoing our living room. Monday morning we took our picture frames and such off the walls. We didn't get very far because we had to go to Billy's track meet and do some errands. Jenna met Dad and I at our house to come with us to Billy's meet. Billy's track meet was in Waterville so we picked up Nick and Kenan at their house to come watch Billy. Mrs. Estes was super duper awesome and sent us with a big pot of cheesy pasta, water, bowls, cups, plastic silverware, and a huge container full of strawberries and melons!

Colin and Joel met us at the track meet. We watched Billy run atleast once or twice and then we ate supper. It was sooo good! During supper everyone (except me because I hadn't seen it yet) was quoting The Avengers. They kindly stopped quoting it for my sake. :) Jenna decided to take me to go see The Avengers that night. :D Nick, Joel, Kenan, and Colin had to leave soon after supper to help a friend move wood or something. Right around they were leaving Elayna showed up! :) Elayna and I talked a bunch until Billy's meet ended. Nick got dropped off at the field and then we said goodbye to Elayna and headed to Home Depot. While Nick, Billy and Dad went into Home Depot, Jenna and I went to Old Navy and The Dress Barn to just browse. When Dad, Billy and Nick were done we all drove home.

Around 9:30pm, Jenna, Billy, Nick and I drove to the movie theaters and watched The Avengers in 3D. It was absolutely hilarious and they had some really cool action scenes! I didn't have an absolute favorite Avenger but Iron Man is my least favorite.

Jenna went to her home from the movie theater and Nick, Billy and I drove to our home.

The next day we started cleaning out all the furniture from the living room.

This is a "before" picture. It was also taken as we were getting ready to clean out the living room.

This is Billy the kitchen table. Billy, Nick and I ate every meal on the couch because it's so much more comfy than a kitchen chair.

Primering the walls!

Mr. Donahue showed Nick and Dad how to wallpaper.

Nick wallpapering.

Billy had to mud some cracks in walls.

Casey helped paint!

Lime taffy green paint...Kind of an awful name.

I think this is when both coats were done? Maybe just the first coat.

Mr. Estes installed a new window for us!

My head hurt from all the paint "fumes".

Saturday morning Dad, Mr. Estes, Nick, and Billy installed the flooring.

I babysat from 2-11pm and this is what I came home to. The Estes even gave us a new couch!! It's SUPER comfy.

Pretty cozy looking living room.

 A ENORMOUS thank you to Nick, Mr. Estes, Mr. Donahue and Casey for all your wonderful help!

Pictures, Hair, and Yummy Food!

Last Friday, Mrs. Corgan picked me up and we drove to Bates College to take pictures of her kids. That was really fun! There is this really pretty pond that has a nice path around it with a stone amphitheater and pretty trees and flowers. Once I got a good picture of each kid and a few group shots, we went out for ice cream in Lewiston. I forget which ice cream place it's called though. Mrs. Corgan then drove to Corrie's house.

Corrie and I talked for quite some time, and then we went on a walk to a lake near by, walked back and ate Jolie's delicious homemade pizza! :) Around 8pm we drove to the Richards' to pick up Brenna from Awana. William and Tucker were there so we stayed and talked with them for awhile. Tucker attempted to teach us all some swing dancing steps. Rebecca came over to the church to visit with us. I think we left around 10pm.

Corrie, Brenna and I watched some Glee music videos, had ice cream and then went to bed.

The next day Mr. Donahue woke us up because Billy had biked to their house and was kind of just waiting down stairs. We had breakfast and then played pass with the frisbee, and then "played" Tennis. Corrie, Brenna and I walked back before Jolie and Billy so Corrie and I could take showers.

Around 2pm Millie got dropped off and then we drove to Charlotte's house. :) We were the first ones there so we just talked for awhile. I started doing Charlotte's hair when more girls started to arrive. I ended up doing Charlotte's, Sarah's and Libby's hair. :) It was really fun! Jolie, Billy and I drove back around 6:50pm. We were supposed to leave at 6:30pm but we got a little distracted.

Dad picked me up at the Donahue's and then we drove home, quickly changed into nice clothes and then drove to Sedgley Place. The food was really good! I got French Onion Soup Au Gratin, then pan "seared Filet Mignon wrapped in Bacon, topped with a freshly made Bleu Cheese Sauce and Caramelized Shallots, accompanied by steamed Asparagus", and for dessert I got this Raspberry and whipped cream thing. It was delicious! I took home some left over pasta that came with my steak. :)


When Dad and I got home, we watch two episodes of Glee.

Jalapeno Success!

The Jalapeño bagels were a success! I didn't try them myself, but Billy said they were really good. :) Yay!

I took a break from working out because I was really busy and I was recovering from my wisdom teeth extraction. This week I started working out a little. I really need to get more motivation to workout. After Geometry, I think I'll go for a run or a bike ride. I'm still pretty busy, but mainly on the weekends. This summer, Billy and I plan to train for our senior year of soccer. I better get in somewhat good shape in order to train with my beastly brother! I think I want to set a goal to be able to do 50 pushups in one set, run over 2 or 3 miles at a good speed, and become more flexible...Like, doing a split would be nice.

New Bagel Flavor!

Today I am going to make more bagels but this time there will be a new flavor. Billy got jalapeño peppers and dehydrated a couple of them and now wants me to make jalapeño bagels. I'll be using this bagel recipe again. :) I usually double the recipe and make twenty bagels instead of 16 because they get pretty big.

The other day I made English muffins for the first time! That was interesting. It was much easier than I expected. All you do is made the dough, roll it, cut it into 3 inch circles, then fry them in cornmeal for 7 minutes on each side. You're pretty much baking them on the stove. It took me awhile to find the right temperature on the stove. I recommend making them a little wider than 3 inches because they're a little small. Dad and Shannon really liked them! Dad said they tasted like biscuits. Here's the recipe.

Another Dandy Weekend!

Last Friday Mom and I didn't get our haircut at Capilos. We got to Capilos twenty minutes before it was supposed to close. :/

Joel's senior recital was AMAZING! He's got some serious skill!

I. Was. Mind. Blown. That video is just a tiny sneak peak of what he can do.

After the recital, Linnea invited me to ride in their van to their house. :) On our way to the Estes house we talked about how well Joel did, rope swinging, bridge jumping, chapstick and other random things. :)

After eating lots of yummy food, Kenan, Colin, Linnea, Ellie, Diana, Catherine, a few other guys (two of which were named Tom and Christian, I think) and I went outside and played with the soccer ball for a bit. When Billy and Elijah came outside, we played Capture the Flag. It wasn't the greatest game but it was still pretty fun! We all went inside and had cake and ice cream. :) I listened to Elayna and Libby play the piano for a bit and then the same group the was outside earlier and I went outside and tried playing Kick The Can. Billy and Christian guarded the can the first round. At one point we all charged at the same time and so Billy and and Christian were distracted and I kicked the can.  Colin and I guarded the can the next round but we didn't very well and I think Billy or Kenan kicked the can pretty quick! We had to leave during the third round so we all charged towards the can again.

We went inside and said our goodbyes, then left. Happy birthday, Joel! Thanks for the great party!

Saturday, Rebecca and I baked peanut butter cookies. Mom drove us to Portland so we could meet Malia at the mall and then drive to Kelsey's birthday party in New Hampshire.

Kelsey's birthday was really fun and pretty quiet, which was nice.  :) We talked for quite some time and then we ate delicious pizza, ice cream and cake! We all hung outside on the porch for a bit and then drove to York Beach. Malia and I ran to the water, got our feet wet and then walked back and played pass with the frisbee with Kelsey. After awhile we got everyone to play Ultimate Frisbee. The game kind of ended when Nina arrived because we all got so excited to see her. :D Eventually, Malia, Rebecca and I had to leave. :( There were lots of hugs as we left.

Everyone that came to Kelsey's birthday party! :)From left to right: Lauryn, Maria, Malia, Rebecca, Stevie, Nina, Jordana, me, Kelsey, Elisabeth, Grace, Jessica,and Kristyn.

When we got back to the mall, Mom and Aunt Dee were already there. We walked into the mall and said goodbye to Malia and then drove home. Thank you so much, Malia, for driving us!

May The 4th Be With You!

Today, Mom and I are getting our hair cut at Capilos! My neighbor, Bethany, is going to cut our hair because she goes there. I think that's pretty cool because I want to go to Capilos after I graduate. I'll post before and after pictures on Monday.

We're giving Millie, Kevin and Grace a ride to Joel's Senior Piano Recital at Colby College and then he's having a party at his house after for his birthday. :D I'm very excited!

Tomorrow, Rebecca and I are going to bake cookies and then meet Malia in Portland to go to Kelsey's birthday party at Jordana's. We'll probably play Ultimate frisbee and eat cookies and pizza!

After the party, I think I am going to see Pirates of Penzance with Mrs. Almquist, Millie, Kyle, and Jason. It's going to be fuuun!

The Nephew is a Comin' for a Visit!

My nephew, Gabe, is coming over around lunchtime! We get to hang out until Tim, Angie, and Adeline come over for supper. I can't wait! I haven't seen Gabie in awhile.

Here is a lady who does really good hair tutorials. Her user name is Lilith Moon.
A cool and easy hairstyle of hers is The French Fishtail Hair Tutorial.

Enjoy!

Emotional Purity

I'm reading a great book that my friend Elisabeth is letting me borrow.  As you may have guessed by the title of this post, it's called Emotional Purity by Heather Arnel Paulsen.

I haven't finished the book yet, but so far so good! I definitely recommend it to anyone, married, in a relationship, or single, men and women. Emotional purity is just as, if not, more important than physical purity.

Just to give you an idea on what she talks about, here are the chapter titles:
1. Tracy and Mike
2. Avoiding Early Intimacy
3. Finding Good Guidance
4. Guarding Your Heart
5. Defining a Friendship
6. Protecting Your Relationships
7. Learning True Contentment
8. Trusting in God
9. Creating Safe Ideals
10. Watching Your Feelings
11. Understanding Your Expectations
12. Following God's Plan
13. Seeing Christ's Design
14. Preparing for Marriage
15. Dating Done Differently
16. Continuing My Journey
17. Enjoying Your Single Years

I just read chapter 11. At the end of the chapter she shared a poem by Russell Kelfer.

Wait

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . .
And the Master so gently said, "Wait."

"Wait? you say wait?" my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your Word. 

"My future and all to which I relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait?
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,
Or even a 'no' to which I can resign.

"You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply." 

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,
As my Master replied again, "Wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
And grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting for what?"

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine . . .
and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

"I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You'd have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of my love for each saint.
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

"You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence are all you can see.

"You'd never experience the fullness of love
When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

"The glow of my comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

"You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I'm doing in you.

"So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait."

Side Bun French Fishtail Updo

Today I tried a new hairdo. It's a kind of a side French fishtail updo. Here is the video I got the idea from:

She has alot of good hair tutorials.

I'm going to watch Much Ado About Nothing by SMASH while I bake bagels. I can't wait! I haven't actually seen the whole play yet.