Some Thursdays Big Ten - #5

1) Me and Emily have these funny little stories that we come up with when learning our Spanish 2 vocab to help us remember the words. And most of the time our story has nothing to do with the actual meaning of the word, and then we get funny looks in class when telling our selves these completely random out there stories during our spanish tests. :)

2) My volleyball team is basically awesome, and I love them all so much! wouldn't ask for a more wonderful group of ladies to play with in my senior year....we're 8-2 whoop whoop.

3) First graduation meeting on friday....31 graduates. oh baby. Let The Good Times Ro11. :)

4) Ewan McGregor has the most amazing voice ever and if I was him I would sing all day long.

5) I very much want the Moulin Rouge soundtrack

6)Basketball starts a in 9 days. this excitess mee greatly! team made up of 10 seniors...all girls I love so so sooo much! This is going to be the best season ever.

7) I'm really gonna miss a certain best friend, named Ellie, when she moved to TN, in January. :(

8) Prom planning has begun! I'm so excited about the 2nd annual Carolina Capital Homeschool Prom "Masquerade"

9) I feel like no matter how much homework I do, my still to do pile doesn't get any smaller.

10) today is my 1 year anniversery for having my lisence.....acident free, making my dad extremely happy because the insurance just went down $700. whoo whoo!

Come on Amanda, just get it done.

I have a paper due in 12 hours and need to get a full nights sleep in there somewhere. and I really really don't want to write this yucky paper. this. is. a. problem.

any time now.

I LOVE Fall. It is my all time favorite time of the year. I love everything about it. The leaves all change, jeans, jackets, boots, Thanksgiving, pumpkin carving, scarecrows, Apples in all their glory...pie, crisp, muffins, and cider! jumping in leaf piles, powder puff football, volleyball tournaments, basketball starts (eeek!) the crisp cool air, the smell of cinnamon, the sound of leaves shuffling under and crunching under your feat, camping, oh I just love love love allll of it! And I'm starting to get a little tired of waiting for it to come. Oh Fall, why do you make me wait....

sometimes...

Sometimes.... my sister and I kidnap our friends at midnight, go to wal mart and have a hair dying/cutting, sleep over party.



Sometimes...my and my friends have Chinese picnics in old barns at really cool parks.



Sometimes....me and my friends pull shenanigans on our friends...and then they get bitter and try to turn it on us..


Sometimes... I give my little brother a bedroom makeover for his birthday.
Sometimes...me and my siblings plan a big surprise 50th birthday/28th anniversary party for my parents..

Sometimes we go on spontaneous beach trips and it makes me happy.
Sometimes...I feel sad for other people...because they're life doesn't seem as exciting as mine.

Senior shoot.

Before Sarah left for Connecticut (where she's working for the next 4 months at my aunt and uncle cafe) we went on a mini senior photo shoot. I love my seester, and the house is quite quiet with out her.

Hold up. wait a second. Who took Summer?

Good Gravy, I'm confused. It was just here, and now it's gone. I don't know where it went, but it's no longer here. Summer has disappeared. And I am now officially a Senior! What what? Volleyball, TOG, prom planning, classes...it's all started up for the last time............

Instead of talking about sad things lets talk about the rest of my wonderful summer. yes, lets.

my family (minus alex and eric) took our annual Massachusetts trip and spent a week up there visiting relatives...hanging at my grandparents house, going to the Victorian Station Cafe ( My aunt and Uncles coffee shop), swimming at the neighbors pool, big family dinners....but I spent most of my time, Sewing, sewing, and sewing some more. For my thirteenth birthday my grandma came down for a visit and for my birthday present we went shopping for a pattern and fabric to make a quilt (she's a big quilter). Well we only got as far as cutting most of the fabric before she had to go home to MA, and the quilt was slowly forgotten about. Well earlier on this summer I decided that the quilt was something I wanted to finish before I graduated (knowing if it would probably never get completed after) so while we were up there (4 years later) I took it all out and spent the week cutting, stitching, ripping the stitches, stitching again, ironing, folding, and assembling. I almost finished it but ran out of time. But my awesome grammy is finishing up the boarder, taking it to a long arm quilter, and finishing it up with the binding! She's gonna mail it to me in a couple weeks, and I can nottttt wait to see it. I love it. :)
On the way home from MA, my family dropped me off at Liberty University for World View Academy Leadership Camp. Basically, one of the best weeks of my life. Best camp anyone could ever go to. legit. Going into the week I wasn't really sure what to expect, not really knowing anything about worldview academy. Well let meee tell youuu, God showed me so much in that one week then he ever has at any other camp I've been too. I learned so much about everything! literally. How to better defend my faith, what it means to be a true leader, how to approach other religions with your own, how many different worldviews there are out there, what it means to be a true christian, how to detect fallacies, and so so much more. My small group (which conveniently enough were my sweet mates, were all hilarious, kind, and we all just learned so much from each other) Our small group leader, Michelle, was basically the best small group leader ever in the world of small group leaders. it's the truth. She was so awesome and outwardly passionate about God, full of wisdom and hilarious comments. I loved her so much! My favorite part of camp though for me, was when we all loaded up into charter buses and went down town Lynchburg, and got to witness to the people on the street. My "group" of three got talkng to this one young man for almost an hour, and got to share Jesus with him, it was amazing. He lived at the Lynchburg Rescue Mission, and was just very confused about what it meant to be a christian and follow after Jesus, he even took out a bible out of his bag and tried to show us different scripture he was twisting into his own words. He took what I think is the most awesomest track I have ever seen, and I pray that we were able to be a light to him, and help him understand what it means to be a believer of Jesus Christ.



The following week, my family loaded up in the van, trailer hooked up and went to Kentucky for a week. Yes, I know...one might think. What's in kentucky? Well. Humidity, butterflies, 300 miles of cave, a creation museum, and an Old Navy/Gap/Banana Republic clearance warehouse...that's what. We spent 2 days at Mammoth Cave National Park, exploring caves (well it's actually one big cave...the largest cave in the world known to man....they have about 300 miles mapped out....but think that their could be up to 800) It was amazing...and I loved it...and not just because it was 50 degrees cooler in the cave then in the air above ground. We went on three different tours...each being about 2-3 hours long...and a couple miles long. The first tour we went almost 300 feet underground...and let me tell you, it's a good thing I'm not afraid of heights, otherwise I would of peed my pants descending down into the cave. The second tour we got to eat lunch at a small "cafeteria" 250 feet under ground, and then third tour was a lantern tour, 40 people, the only lighting were10 old gas lanterns we carried with us. It was supposed to help you feel like the men who first explored the caves, and see it from their perspective. It. was. awesome.


Then we went and spent three days up near Cincinnati and went to the Creation Museum. The creation museum was really good! anddd they had really pretty gardens. The rest of the week we just hung around the camp site, reading, napping, made a trip to the clearance wear house - $9 jeans - heck to the yes! Thanks Mrs. Campbell for the great tip!

Now over this three week crazy time period, I was ill. yes. ill. I got the worst ear infection I've ever had while in MA, and over three weeks I went to three different Urgent Cares in three different states, went through three different antibiotics, 3 different ear drops, and a decongestant. It would tease me and feel like it was getting better and then all of a sudden, POW, knife in the ear once again. I'm so happy it's all gone, and I never want it to come back, or I will have to punch something.

Then we came home...jumping right into volleyball, classes starting a few weeks later.
I liked my summer. It was a good summer. But honestly I feel like as you get older summer gets shorter...I remember being little and summer lasted forever! and I'd be asking when we could start school again. It snuck away on me this year...stinky.

COMMENCE SENIOR YEAR......

Early Birthday Celebration

A couple days before we left for Massachusetts, I celebrated my birthday with some of my bestest friends in the world. Oh goodness, it was probably the best 17th birthday party ever. We had nothing planned, and the whole night was very spontaneous...but I think that's when it's the most fun. :)

After much contemplating we ended up at Red Robin for dinner, where my friends were so nice enough to inform the staff, we were celebrating my birthday, so I got a lovely song .....and a free Ice cream sundae...so no complaining on this end.
After dinner, we went over to the Red Bowl Asian Bistro down the street to see Morgans brother, Bobby, and some friends for a few minutes...and then hit the Dollar Tree which was oh so conveniently right next door....:) SIDE NOTE: For those of you who don't know..my friends and I are known for pulling what we like to call "Shenanigans" and refer to ourselves as the Shenaniganistas when these things occur...and we get some of our best ideas at the Dollar Tree :) Sooo...after picking up some new "material", we headed back to the Bistros parking lot. Victim = Bobby's car.We poured a bag of frozen peas all over his car, tied a red robin balloon on his antenna and wrote on his back window " haha we pead on your car." haha. They thought it pretty hilarious once the victims car was found out.

After shenanigan stop #1 and a successful hunt for a chocolate croissant at Panera, we headed back home to regroup before our next adventure for the night.

Now one of the very few rules the shenanaginistas follow would be a uniform....and that uniform consists of anything crazy, tacky, and hilarious...and you have to have some scarf/hat on your head. It's a rule.

So after getting in our "uniforms" we headed to the new Krispy Kreme that just opened down the street while we waited for our new bag of frozen peas to dethaw. (where we normafied ourselfs before going in, so not to scare anyonee. haha ) dozen donuts please. ;)

After our KK stop we head to the next victim = Thomas's truck. (a friend of ours) Let me tell you. Thomas's yard is the creepiest of all creepiness in the middle of the night. There are like no lights anywhere, and his house is further back in the woods. So. We sat in front of his house slightly freaking out about how we might die haha. After finally regrouping, and realizing he moved his truck to wear the motion censored light pick up, we successfully poured a bag of frozen peas into the bed of his truck. Once we left the crime scene we left him a nice little voice mail telling him "we pead in his bed" which he hilariously got while getting into bed later that night...causing a slight freak out.,haaa.

The rest of the night was full of dance parties, story telling, face book chatting, german, and sumo wrestling...haha;p

The next morning we realized that it was "Cow Appreciation Day" at Chick Fil A! Dress up like a cow and get a free meal....awesomenesss. So we pulled together some quick cow outfits, and headed over to Chic Fil A for some free lunch. We were totally the cutest cows in the place.

I love my silly friends. ;)

Buckle up.

And we're off! July has officially started.

We spent the 4th of July with the Craig family...good family friends, grilling, swimming, and good ol' talking, and then off to watch the Rolesville fire works (which were pretty mehhh this year, but we got to play with sparklers, and the weather was PERFECT-O. It really was just a really fun relaxing day :)Mo and I on the way to fireworks..

Tomorrow I'm celebrating my 17th birthday with some of my bestest friends! even though my birthday isn't until next week, this was the only time we could do it. I'm happy for any excuse to party with my friends :)

Saturday we're driving up to Massachusetts to visit with relatives for a week. I love going up there, and this year I'll hopefully get to finish my quilt I started 4 years ago. haha.

On the way home from MA, mi familia is dropping me off at Liberty University, in Lynchburg VA, for a week of Worldview Academy Leadership Camp, which I'm totally looking forward to. One of my bestest friends, Emily, is coming to camp with me and will hopefully get to be my room mate. It should be a great week full of learning and growing in Jesus...I'M STOKED. :)

After being picked up from camp, I'll have just enough time home to do laundry, re-pack, and maybe have some Chinese with friends before we leave for a week family camping trip! I love camping. Not sure where we're going, but give me a hammock and a book any where in the mountains and I'll be happy. :)

After that August will be starting which mean school will be very near. SENIOR year will be very near. yikes. I'm excited and scared out of my mind at the same time. eeeek.

Anywho. commence mission packing. This month excites mee! :)