Sit! Stay! Read this post!

Hey, Staicee here! Not to be short with you all, but this post is going straight to the point since I have to pack so I can leave for Ohio tomorrow morning. Guess what? I've grown bored with the idea of rewriting Twilight. I found the book extremely boring, and I don't really want to put effort into rewriting it. Thus, I give you my project idea, v.3.

Simply put, I'm going to take pictures of dogs and their owners, do a short interview with each owner, research the breed, and learn to draw the dog. Being an animal lover, this will be a very rewarding way to practice my drawing skills as well as increase my knowledge about our canine companions. I may open it up more and allow other kinds of pets later. I already know of roughly thirteen dogs that I'll be able to easily come into contact with in the next four weeks, though, so it shouldn't be necessary. Once it's all done, I'll put it into a collective work - powerpoint, scrapbook, something - and I'll be able to share it with anyone who's interested.

A great motivator in choosing this project was an incident at the park today: I identified a dog as a rough collie before even speaking to the owners, and was promptly informed by them that it was indeed a rough collie. (Think Lassie, and you've got the idea.) I was doubtful at first, since the coloring made me think of an Australian Shepherd, but I was pretty excited to know that I'd gotten his breed correct. He was a stunning example, so I wouldn't be surprised if he'd been in a dog show or two, but the owners weren't too personable. Oh well.

((Here's a very similar looking rough collie: http://www.completedogsguide.com/images/dog-breeds/largepic/Rough-Coillie13.jpg ))

((And here's an Austalian Shepherd: http://www.thebarkingcommunity.com/bark_additions/graphics/herding_images/australian_shepherd.jpg ))

If you read through and think you and your pet would be willing to provide a picture and answer a few questions, please let me know in the comments below!! I'll be checking them often. :)

-Staicee L. Kwiatkowski

post four: our last chance this season

Hey guys! So these past two weeks have been hectic but I’ve definitely been working. Last weekend was my last softball tournament, all of us wanted to go out with a bang, make our coaches see how much fun we really are having and how much we want them to stay and coach us next year. Our first game was Friday night, it was such a long drive up to Caro but it was worth it.. that day anyways. During our game Friday we seemed like a completely different team, it was truly amazing. Every single person on our team played and put in more than 110 percent effort! Everyone played their position like they’d been doing it their whole life. We all pushed through our mistakes and came together to pick each other up and fill in the holes to make our team come out on top. What we did during that game was what we needed to do all summer, but we couldn’t… I’m glad we got to make up for it that day. Even though we had one win we would still have to come back the next day with three more games to do the same thing. Early games always get to us.. haha. The first game that Saturday did not go well at all. We’ve done better in practice then we did during that game. It was dumb mistakes like not catching the ball, not hitting, bad throws and it all matters. Only two mistakes, and that’s exactly what got us down in the hole we dug. We had a long break in between our next game so we practiced a little bit earlier then we normally would. All of us agreed that we should show Matt and Steve (our coaches) how badly we want them to stay, and how badly we want to do well. Come the second game things got worse. It started with our pitching. (I’m not blaming anyone, it’s just something we have to work on.) From there our hitting went downhill with strike outs and outs. We just couldn’t seem to get our bats on the ball fast enough. After that game Matt was not happy at all. It got to a point where he told us he just didn’t know what to say.. I disagree with how he dealt with that, but that’s what was done. We all had a team meeting and shared our thoughts about what was good and bad during the past two games and what we should do to fix them so that next game we can start fresh. During the third game things did get better. We were going up against a good team, and all of us knew it. I think that got to us a little bit and that’s part of why we lost but we did have more mental mistakes in the field and batting. We all know what we need to fix, it’s just a matter of doing it and doing it right. Even though we had a rough day we weren’t done, we still had one more game to play on Sunday and we were determined to fix things.Again we had an early game. We were on top to start out..but one mistake got us down and they ended up winning by five points. That definitely was an interesting game though, we hit well and fielded pretty good, but it just wasn’t enough. After the game, since it was our last game of the season, Matt talked to us and told us he was proud to be coaching us (we never thought he would say something like that..) and how we did have a good season even though we should have won more. He also explained how we need to work on certain things..but he was happy. It was really a good talk for us. I’m glad that we all ended being happy though, and things next year certainly should be different for the good hopefully!Oh! I finally got to play first base the last two games! It’s something I’ve been wanted to do all season I’m really glad Matt gave me a chance!

Sax Adventure part 4

Ok so this is Loni and this will be my fourth post and I haven’t progressed at all since my last post.

I’m not so sure I’m going to actually accomplish anything that I wanted to for this whole summer project. Time is running out and I haven’t had any time and won’t have any time for the rest of the summer.

My goal was to collect donations by playing my saxophone and then using that money for charity and my own personal wants. However, I have been unable to play at any location or collect any money whatsoever.

On the brightside I haven’t completely given up hope for my goal. I’m going to Mexico in less than a week and hopefully can get some playing done. Usually, people perform or do tricks in the streets on the Mexican side of the border and Americans coming across give like a lot of money all the time. So I’m excited for that.

I also believe that were going to a place called Padre Island in Texas and that is a big tourist spot so I’m going to try and play there.

Also I’m going to beg my mom to stop at the San Antonio River Walk, it’s so beautiful there and so many people are there, it would be a great place for a sax adventure.

So I’m thinking about doing like a video diary, writing diary or scrapbook to follow the events of my project, but I’m not sure which is best. Personally I think that a scrapbook would be the coolest, just because I kind of like doing that stuff. So hopefully it will turn out cool.

Also seeing as how I’m a bit more behind than I thought I would be, I’m guessing that I won’t really have enough to put half towards a new car and half towards a charity, so I was thinking maybe instead of putting half towards a new car I could put half towards new clothes for school. Ahh Yeahhh :)))

Something to Think About

Hey people! In my last blog I talked about protein and how being on a proper diet is important especially for vegetarians. That’s a little narrow on the full spectrum of why vegetarians are awesome! Vegetarians eat what they eat for different reasons; health isn’t the only reason. What you should understand is our world has some problems, problems that are worsened by the large consumption of meat by Americans today. Go ahead do some research, it’s true. Gas for transportation (of meat, animals and their food), pollution and starvation are all factors that could improve. Simple facts basically say that we eat too much meat and all the food that goes to our “food” could be cut down for the better. No, don’t starve the cows; take it down a level by not requiring so many cows. If you’re interested in see some more facts view this website: http://www.flex.com/~jai/articles/101.html.

Well aside from the big picture, I’m doing just fine (even though I’ve wanted a really nice grilled bratwurst with mustard). I’ve been visiting some family out of state, “Oh, wait Lauren can’t have that. Hmmm. Lauren what do you want for dinner?” To be honest, I love basic fish I was content eating tilapia and shrimp for a few days at a time, “but Lauren don’t you want variety?” Maybe I had to repeat myself a few times because the fact that I didn’t want to try anything new when I’m away from home wasn’t getting through. Anyway, I feel like I have some more energy but then again I never ate three meals a day. When I get back, I might try a veggie burger and try to make up some shrimp taco things. Until then I guess I’m stuck with beautiful steamed tilapia, oh that’s just too bad.

All this week my boat has seen no attention. All of its beloved creator's time has been spent on about half of its lifeboats. Aww, poor little cruise boat... If it makes my boat feel any better, I've been bored out of my mind with the task at hand this week. These lifeboats are teeny tiny little things and therefore take a tedious amount of care to paint. Not only that, but unless they are one hundred percent dry, the lifeboats will not even try to stick to anything. Obviously, I've discovered the divas in this model kit.

I can't even imagine what the rigging is going to be like once I get to that step. I had a dream a couple of days ago that I was working on my boat in my kitchen during a thunderstorm and lightning came through the window and struck my boat. And just like the scary dream cliche that it was, my boat came alive and ate me right there at the dinner table. Talk about a bad omen. I have since then refused to work on my boat during some of the storms we've had lately.

Needless to say, there is still much work to be done on my luxury cruiser, but I am closer to the finish line than I was one week ago. I am also closer to the insane asylum because having to practice this much patience is driving me nuts! Above all I would like to add that even though this process is somewhat annoying, building my boat is allowing me to relieve some of my pent-up creative energy, which I am thankful for. It really makes me proud to say that I've actually accomplished something during the summer, a time that I usually dedicate to doing absolutely nothing constructive. Lets hope my next report will be along the same lines as far as progress goes!

I'm sure what number post..... AM

This is getting interesting. First off, I'm a blog behind because of my trip to Orlando, so next week I'm going to post two blogs, just so you know. Then I'll be on schedule again. My summer is so packed full of things, I'm getting close to going into overload but next week it will get better. Things will start to calm down.

My summer so far since my last blog has been just as fun. I went to the John Mayer/Train concert on Wednesday, in the third row I got plenty of amazing pictures. And now John Mayer is the only music I'm playing around my room now. But I always do that when I go to concerts. I had more dance this week, but that's not a big surprise. I'm not sure what else to say. I have some more dance rehearsals this coming week, then my trip to Boston the next week, so there are plenty more photo taking opportunities soon to come. I have a few parties, movies, and other small events too. I can't believe how fast this summer is going.

I'm going to have to find a really good scrap booking store soon. All of the ones around here have either moved to a location that I am not aware of, or closed. I mean, it's not like I paid that much attention to them before this summer.

I haven't been printing off photos on the schedule I had originally planned but that's fine. I'll get them all printed out eventually.

One other thing. I'm getting so frustrated with this. I can not find time to read these books. I'm still not even half way through the first book. I think part of the reason that I'm not reading a lot is because I am not a big fan of this book. I started with In Fact, and I'm sort of regretting it now. I don't like how it's made of a bunch of unrelated stories. It bothers me. But I'm trying, let me tell you I am trying so hard.

I'm off to read now, hope everything is well with everyone else.

Welcome to my life.

Lately, I've been dry with ideas to write about. I know that there are always things that you can blog about (and in my case, aspects of the teenage summer to write about), but I can't seem to think up a good topic to expand on. This week, I've decided to break off the biggest chunk of my life and share it with you guys.

In case I haven't already established this, I swim. I swim everyday of every week, of every month, of every year. It's probably the hardest thing I've ever done and also the reason why I've missed out on SO many social outings. But swimming is too the thing that keeps me alive. I've made this sport into a lifestyle, and I couldn't imagine myself without it, for a lot of reasons.

One, about half of my friends come from both the teams I swim on. I honestly couldn’t picture my life without them. Two, swimming keeps me out of trouble. Instead of going out, I go swim. Instead of smoking a blunt, I’m swimming a lap. Three, I would be SO FAT. I eat constantly. Four, there's something about being in the water that makes me forget everything that I've ever worried about. Five, swimming is not only good for the present, but good for the future. Colleges like athletes. Six, when I better my times, it seriously makes me feel like I can fly. Seven, my life would be straight up boring. Eight, swimming is one of those sports that will help you do anything physically and mentally. Nine, I love to compete, I love challenges. Ten, swimming has made me an all-around better person, period. Eleven, I travel all around Michigan for meets. Twelve, swimming makes me appreciate breathing. Thirteen, it's good to set goals in your life. Swimming helps. Fourteen, swimming uses energy that I would otherwise use to be a destructive teenager (but somehow I still manage). Fifteen, I now dream underwater and wake up holding my breath. Sixteen, my brother just told me I was a rodent. Seventeen, if my skin doesn't smell like chlorine, there's something wrong. Eighteen, there have been so many times where I thought I should quit. I got through it. Nineteen, people say I don't have a life because I'm always at the pool. I say that I have way more of a life then they do because swimming teaches you how to live your life. And it keeps you busy during a boring summer. Twenty, it's sort of an honor to swim on a team with national-level swimmers. Twenty-One, swimming teaches patience. You're not going to get anything anytime soon if you're not patient. Twenty-Two, I feel like I could go on forever. Twenty-Three, I can go on forever. So I'm going to stop.

If you managed to read that, thanks but why do you care? Tell me. Comment.

#5: My Fingers!!!

So for all the times I didn't practice I regret! Not only did it not help me play any better (duh), but now my fingers are suffering. When you play you are suppose to use the tips of your fingers, and when you don't play for a while (or don't play for that long) then try to throw yourself into practice your fingers feel the pain. The only good thing about it is it's only my left hand, the really bad thing is I have to type while they are throbbing.

I have to say most of the beginning of the duet is coming along fairly well. There are obviously still some problem spots, but they are working out much better than before. The shifting parts are becoming pretty good in intonation. I actually realized the one note I have to shift up into VI position for is the E harmonic which makes it much easier to check if it's in tune. I usually use a metronome to help keep tempo, especially when I haven't gotten the piece up to full speed. Today I made a bit of a baby step with tempo. Unfortunately I have not been able to speed up much because there always seems to be one little area that messes it all up and makes a whole bunch of little areas. But I have began weaning myself off the metronome at the speed I'm at now. Instead of listening the beeping and watching the ticker/pointer/arm thingy, I was able to mute it and only watch the whateveritis. I have to say I almost did a happy dance. The second part of the song is not as well off as the first, but I'll get it eventually. The difficulty with it is it has some funky rhythm that messes with my timing. I love the ending because it sounds like part of the Star War theme to me. To think some of Mozart's melodies and light sabers have came together.

I will admit that Bouree is not as far along as I would like it to be (neither is the duet but whatever). The second half is doing okay, I'm still having some trouble with the accidentals. I decided I'd really try to work on the first half of it today. Shortly after starting my fingers were tripping over themselves, trying to work with the weird flow. Some of the fingerings are really strange, making me go from a string from one side to the other of the violin and then back in the matter of four notes. I also looked at the recommended tempo for it today and was confused at first by it saying 1/2 note = 84 bpm. When trying to work it out on my metronome I realized a 1/2 note would be like it was in 2/4 time. I then looked at the sheet and saw that it's in cut time. I don't like cut time. I can deal with funky times, but cut time - I just don't like. So I'm going to work on it in 4/4 for now and will eventually work it into cut time. I really hope Hungarian isn't in cut time.

Scales are going better than the songs right now. I think I've found out how I want to shift while playing B flat major. I'm going to work on it this way for now than I'm going to fix one thing and hopefully it'll be perfect (ha ha I make myself laugh). One day I decided I had plenty of time to practice for a while, and it's a good thing because I literally spent an hour on only two scales. I'm going to help my friends little sister tomorrow. I'd like to see her play a song I have, it'd make her extremely happy.

Post 4!!!

Ok so week 4, halfway through the project, more than halfway through summer :( This week was very busy and I think I pushed my body way over its' limit. Since the last time I met with my trainer I was suppose to complete 2 of his workouts on my own before we met back again yesterday. Well since then, I had basketball and conditioning every single day except Monday, the only day I had time to do his workout. When yesterday rolled around I wasn’t even ready for another workout, quite frankly I was burned out. Every morning I hoped I could wake up and roll out of bed pain free, but I was wrong, my legs ached so bad. Now I know this isn't all bad because at least I have proof that I'm getting stronger, but I think I lacked a balance between recovery days and workout days.
Yesterday when I went for my jump training at VIP I felt pretty good, sore, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I started warming up by jogging on the treadmill and jump roping. I really don’t know how I jumped rope everyday when I was little because it seems so difficult now. Then came the agility part of the workout, I had to run through hurdles, sprint, back peddle, and then go through the cycle again. Once I finished that, I headed back inside to work on my jumping form. The only way you can reach your maximum jump height is if you have proper form, so basically I have to relearn how to jump the correct way. I was feeling perfectly fine until I finished my jumping chin-ups and I started to get really light headed. I thought it would pass so I headed to the next exercise, bear crawling. As soon as I got ready to go I almost blacked out so I jumped up very quickly and my trainer told me to take a break for a few. He asked me when the last time I ate and I told him lunch and he concluded that was the reason why I wasn’t feeling great and the fact that I didn't have anything to drink all day didn't help the situation. We finished the day's workout by working on my stability and a couple weight lifting exercises. I received my homework and headed home. When I arrived home my mom made me dinner and I felt like I was going to throw up. If that wasn’t enough I only had a half hour to get ready for work, which I wasn’t looking forward to at all. So now I'm finally resting on my first day off and I'm trying to prepare my body for the next week ahead of me. I hope jump training will go a whole lot better next week and I can't wait to see my progress!

S.Madden's 5th Post!

Well, here I am, writing my fifth post. I do not really have much to say. Once again, I am at a loss for words. I can say that I am ready to get back to school; and get busy. I do not really like having nothing to do all the time, but it is good to have a break.

Since I got this job, my mom acts like she does not have to pay for anything anymore. That is in my opinion, at least. Frankly, it is highly annoying. The deal was to get a job and pay for my car insurance and gas, not pay for everything myself. Well now it has been more than that. She still buys me things, but it is not what it used to be. It is always something like "how much are you going to put in on it" or "you got money, you buy it". I know I sound a bit spoiled, but i am not used to these types for things. I know as an adult things are like that, were you have to pay for everything yourself, but i am not there yet.

Now, on to my job. Lately, things have just been okay. I am starting to feel like i am butting heads with an employee there; on the other hand i am getting to know other employees better. there is always going to be someone you feel you just do not get along with and I get that. Although, i am not there to make friends, I feel like things should be a little more professional. I am the youngest there, and thats exactly how i am starting to get treated with this person. I may be sixteen, but i do not like being talked to like i am someone's four year old child.

Well, that is all for now.
S.Madden

Twilight is stupid.

I know this is going to sound really lame, but I just can't concentrate on Twilight. I've already made bazillion comments using sticky notes, and I gave up using those because I didn't have enough room. So I bought a note pad. It's working quite well, because I can write all I want, but the problem is I can't stop finding reasons to hate the book, so I never stop ripping into it. It's become a lot more work that I thought it would be. And since I'm on vacation right now, it's not like I'm bored enough to sit down and read it... So, to spice things up a bit, I'm going to start video blogging about it instead of writing everything down as I read it. Talking is way easier.

So my main problem with Twilight is Bella. She is so depressing. I mean, her life is just so hard. No one understands her. And I'm only on page 41, so I'm sure it's going to keep getting worse. She "exiles" herself to Forks (It's called Forks because of all the forks in the nearby rivers, by the way. I looked it up...) because she doesn't feel like making her mom and stepdad miserable. Instead, she's making herself miserable. Poor thing. She's just the epitome of selfless. She calls herself noble in the preface, which you would think would make her a bit conceited, but of course she's not. Bella gives a million reasons for why she hates herself. But by some miracle, everyone absolutely adores her when she shows up at school. Except Edward Cullen, who glares at her. Grr. He may or may not hate her, and she just dwells on it. Reading this is beyond annoying. And it makes absolutely no sense at all. Everyone thinks shes amazing and beautiful and wonderful, etc., except for him. (Stephenie Meyer calls Edward "him" and the Cullens "them". I think she even used italics for dramatic effect once or twice.) I think Bella must be a colorful blend of things like pancake batter, bacon, and money, because it makes zero sense that everyone loves her so much. Except Edward. Which I'm only mentioning twice, but Stephenie feels the need to write about it five hundred times. I mean, she uses the most blatant foreshadowing I have ever seen in my life. "It couldn't have anything to do with me." (Wait 3 pages) "I just couldn't believe that this was about me." (Wait 3 sentences) "It was impossible that this stranger could take such a sudden, intense dislike to me." (False. But wait 2 more pages) "I hoped that he would simply ignore me when he came, and prove my suspicions false." "He didn't come..." (Another page or so) "I couldn't get rid of the nagging suspicion that I was the reason he wasn't there." (Blah blah blah) "It was ridiculous and egotistical" --true-- "to think that I could affect someone that strongly. It was impossible. And yet I couldn't stop worrying that it was true." I mean honestly. This book is so terrible! This guy is literally nothing to her. At all. They've never spoken to each other. He just looked at her like she forgot deodorant that day. No big deal to any normal person, but to Bella it's like the end of the world. She doesn't care that she has all these new friends. She only cares about Edward Cullen. It makes no sense at all. Page 38: "I tried not to think about him..." --liar-- "...but I couldn't totally suppress the worry that I was responsible for his absence." If I hadn't already read these books I would be totally unsurprised if she stabbed herself with a spork at the end.

So that's why I hate Twilight. And that's why I've only made it to page 41. And that's why I'm going to start making videos instead of writing everything down. I'll be posting them all on my wizards vs. vampires blog, which I really really really would like you all to follow, please please please! Just click this and check it out. I've got some extra gadgets on there like a poll and some links and whatnot. It needs followers. I just feel stupid right now posting things that no one will ever see! So please check it out and watch my videos, my goal is to get one posted by the time I get home on Saturday. So keep an eye out for it. And if you love Twilight, I'm really really sorry about this. But someone has to do it. Or not. But I really want to. :)

Whooah we're halfway there-Week#4

I hope someone got the song reference.With four weeks down and four to go,I am slowly but surely completing my plot.Despite that,this was one of the harder parts because I wasnt sure were to continue in the storyline.This became a waste of time and it took a couple of days to be able to get a solid idea on what was going to happen next.Lucky for me though,I had all the time that I required and was able to complete the next five scenes on time.

From where my last summary ended,Drake and Charlette were leaving the city.They too had no idea where to go,and went forward with no particular destination in order to avoid getting caught.These five scenes follow the main theme of aimlessness,with the characters following no certain plan and almost loosing their path to completing their journey.In order to show a difference in the mood with the environment,I fast forward the setting to mid-fall.The fall climate shows a warmness in the surroundings,also fitting into the plot by their path of hope being rediscovered.The setting will change to winter in the last several chapters,mainly to display sadness in a beautiful manner.

As always,I show a summary that will give you a peek at my work.Scenes sixteen through twenty include:

16.Drake and Charlette search for somewhere to stay,but become involved in violent relations with the military once again.

17.The duo is captured and escapes from the military base near the end of October.They escape via hanging onto a helicopter that is taking them to an unknown destination.

18.Along the way,they battle multiple soldiers while still hanging on.Once the helicopter lands,Drake and Charlette discover that they are in an alien city.

19.Drake discovers the purpose of the alien invasion and protects the town from a group of soldiers.

20.Drake defeats the second elite and aquires its power for future use.

I'm still not entirely sure on how I'll tie in the final elite into the next sequel,but I'm sure I'll have it figured out by the time that I'm done with this one.If anyone wants more insight on this or any of my other stories,please contact me or post a comment.

4 down, 4 to go!

Wow feels like I just did my last one. But since I’m leaving to go up north again in a couple hours, I better do it now. Since my last post I have only had two workouts so there isn’t much to tell about besides the usual lifting. Yesterday and Monday I went in to lift at Kettering instead of here at home. Each day we are given different workouts to do for the 45 minutes that we are in there (two of the main lifts with different auxiliary lifts). On Monday, our main workouts were parallel squat and bench press. Our lifts are nothing intense, just an easy workout. After doing the main lifts, we begin the auxiliary lifts. On Monday we did straight leg dead lifts, abdominals, and leg curls. The straight leg dead lift is a lift where you step up onto a small stool and bring the dead lift bar up and down without bending your legs. It’s more of a stretch than anything. I think I like doing the abdominals the most, because I love working on my abs lol. Yesterday I kind of dragged myself to weight lifting, because I did not feel like waking up early at all. Our main lifts we did yesterday were power clean and dead lift. Power clean is when you have the bar on the ground and you pull it up to your chest and dead lift is when you try to lift the hex-bar off the ground until your standing straight up. After doing some easy workouts with that, I moved onto inclined press and box squat. My opinion is that the inclined press is a lot harder than regular bench press. Because of the incline, it works different muscles in your arms and for me those muscles are not that strong. I quickly got that over with and moved onto the box squat which is pretty much parallel squat besides you sit down on a seat and then stand back up (probably one of my better lifts). Hopefully this weekend I can find a place to lift up north! Good luck everybody!

Fifth Post, 500 words, High Five!

It's from Borat, get it? But, I was kidding, my fifth post doesn't deserve a high five. I apologize for the overuse of punctuation, I am comma crazy.

Before I begin my rant on things that my classmates do not give a *cuss word* about I want to say this: I am very hard on myself, more than is healthy for me, and that whole "I'm my own worst critic" thing is really true in my case. Whether it is about my writing, or especially cheerleading, I don't give myself enough credit majority of the time.

Alright, so I had my tumbling class earlier. I love tumbling. I started gymnastics when I was young and fell in love with it. It completes me. So, that being said, or typed actually, it is very important to me.

I have this problem where I set the bar really high for myself, so I have to work myself hard to get to where I want to be. This probably doesn't seem like a problem to most people. This sounds like motivation. It isn't. I set myself up for disappointment. I set the bar just high enough that I cannot reach it. My arms are flailing, I'm standing on my tip-toes, I can see it from where I'm struggling, but it will be just far enough away that I won't be able to reach it. Every single time.

I did this to myself today.

I, for some odd, unexplainable reason, expected myself to do my full perfectly with a spot on the trampoline. This is after about a month without being spotted on a full, and with a spotter I have never worked with on the particular skill. On top of this slight pressure which was digging into my brain and psyching me out completely, I was doing exceptionally bad on my drills today. No matter how many times I tried, I could not complete a full rotation.

I honestly wanted to cry. That sounds lame, but anyone who truly cares about something they do (sports, geometry, I don't know) will be upset when it suddenly becomes a struggle, a fight even, to keep going with it. When you stop enjoying something that is such a big part of your life, even for just a millisecond, it hits you hard.

I was beyond angry with myself, and almost caused two car accidents on the way home. I'm pretty good at driving while I'm crying, but while I'm angry I drive worse than someone under the influence. I guess I finally just kind of smacked myself on the forehead, had a "should have had a V-8" moment and realized if I am only as good of a cheerleader as I am on my worst day, I'm still pretty darn good.

So, I'm insecure? I guess that is this week's conclusion. Sigh. I hate blogging. I feel like I'm writing into a diary but then it occurs to me that just about anyone can read this.

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ (Blog #5)

**Warning: There is LOT of ranting about my viola in this post. xD**

Everything has been going pretty well with my project. I got my viola back from Kris at McCourt's, and she made it look like an entirely new instrument! While there used to be scratches in the varnish, there is now nothing but a shiny, mahogany surface across the entire viola. It makes me so happy! I've been making sure to take extra care of it so that it'll continue to stay beautiful for a looong time.

A fellow violist friend of mine at IA suggested that taking the out fine tuners from my viola would help it to have a richer, darker tone. While that was a great suggestion that works for most violas, it didn't work out great for me. See, the pegs at the top of my instrument are not of the highest quality, and even at the best of times, they make macro-tuning nearly impossible. When a violin, viola, cello, or bass has no fine tuners, the pegs are the only things you can use to tune the instrument, so that is where my problem arose. Humid weather also causes the wood of stringed instruments to swell, so that has escalated the problem recently. Luckily, the fine tuners were not hard to put back, so no harm, no foul. I do miss the amazing tone my viola had without the fine tuners, but being in tune is far more important.

I'm a bit behind on my work with the Wolfhart viola technique book and my concerto because of my recent dental surgery, but I'm getting back on track. The Wolfhart book has been helping me a lot with finger precision while playing sixteenth notes, so the parts in the concerto with oodles of sixteenth notes are getting a lot easier for me to play. As far as guitar goes, I've taught myself bits and pieces of Black Sabbath's "Ironman" and Eric Clapton's "Sunshine of Your Love". Granted, I can only play those small parts of the songs rather poorly, but its better than nothing.

We still have about half the summer left, lets make it the best we can! :D

~Elyse Komarzec~

Post 4

Lately my skating coach's have been telling me that I am not bending enough when I am doing stroking and other basic moves. I have had this problem a lot before but I thought that I would start becoming more flexible the more I skated. It helped a little bit but not enough. I also take ice dance lessons which are supposed to help this problem. My coach has given me a stretching and workout routine to help me become more flexible.
Strength - core strength:
*crunches
*Russian twists (with medicine ball)
*Reverse crunches
*Push-ups
*Leg lifts

Leg strength:
*Biking
*Stroking on-ice
*Spiral lifts
*Jogging
*Lunges
*Squats

I am going to do each of these exercises 3 times a week. I will jog twice a week in the morning around my neighborhood for 1/2 hour. The days that I don't jog I will ride my bike through my neighborhood.

I have tried to stick to these exercising routines before but I have never been motivated enough to do it. This time I think that I will keep up with it because today my coach told me that she wanted me to compete my freestyle program. She wants me to do this because it will get me ready for testing. Testing and competitions are very similar in the way that you skate them. When you are testing you are out on the ice alone while 1 to 3 judges are watching you deciding if you pass the level. At a competition you are out on the ice alone and usually 3 judges are watching you to see what place you get but placement doesn't really matter. Some people that compete are doing it as practice for their actual test. My coach wants me to do this so that I know what it is going to be like for the test, this way I will not be as nervous for the test.

Second Post-Autumn Gairaud

I haven't blogged since I went to summer camp for two weeks and I haven't really exercised either. I know, I know, my project is getting in shape and I'm not. Well hopefully by getting on here and blogging I will get outside and exercise. The exercise plan is still the same but I've decided that because of my lack of exercising it has become necessary to alter my diet some. The first step I've decided to take is eating smaller portions. No, I'm not going to starve myself but I am going to make sure that I only eat what I need. I guess that means no more eating when I'm bored, that's too bad. I'm also going to change what I choose to snack on, so rather than eating some Lays potato chips, I'll try a yogurt instead. Also, I would like to reduce the amount of pop I drink to little or none. I hope that my diet changes will help me on my quest to get in shape.

To help me with actually carrying out this project I'm going to give my mom the power of encouraging me to do the exercise routine more than a minimum of three times a week. Hopefully, this will help me to actually do my exercising. I hope next time I blog that I can report progress.

In addition, I realized that by making a list of positive things that will come out of getting into shape and losing weight that I might be more inclined to reach my goal. So far, I have come up with; feeling better, a better self image, higher stamina, and new clothes(my personal favorite). While making my list I got to thinking that if I lost weight my clothes would be too big so therefore, my mom would have to buy me new clothes, which for any girl is awesome! With this in mind, I am really motivated (at least at the moment) to exercise and get into shape.

trutl; 3. Gettin' there {:

Hi again!
Man I've been busy with the book. But it's turning out excellent, I'm so so excited. I've been collaging and painting and gluing and it's all very fun.
Above is one of the finished pages. I know I still need to post how the outside of the book looks, but I don't feel like it's finished yet, so I think that will come later.
Anyway, for this page, it was just collaging. Cutting around details is hard though! ]: But I think it looks nice. If you can't read it, it says "You create such beautiful things. Do you know how talented you are? I hope so. I really do." I typed it on an actual typewriter I found in my house, which makes me feel purdy darn cool. Anyway, Josh is an artist. I can't even describe how much he amazes me. And don't think I'm just biased. :P It's very true.
La la la I can't think of anything else to write... I guess that's all there is to say this time. I'm so psyched to keep working! (: Hope everyone's summer is going as good as mine. :3

-Cassie Valeen.

Hm, I may be behind right now.... Post 3

I unfortunately had no way to blog for a while. Once again, dang internet.
Onto my progress.
I actually have a lot to catch up on when it comes to editing my videos. I've only finished and posted days 1-4. Day four alone took forever to complete. My next blog will hopefully contain links to many of the videos.
I seem to have lost a lot of interest in this project, besides the fact that no one else cares about my daily life in a nut shell besides myself (and potentially, the guests on it), it's just not all the fun anymore. I think if i were to actually keep up with my work and editing and all i would actually find time to sort of enjoy this.
At the same time, I'm still more than happy to continue with this. Like I've mentioned before, I love seeing what I did over the summer. Although the more precious moments remain uncaptured, they're stored in my memory (I tried to avoid making that sound cheesey as best I could. fail).
Two weeks ago, I started summer school for gym. To clear things up with everyone though, I did not fail gym. July 12th marked the start day of this three week class. This meant that I was up early and my opportunities to begin recording didn't start until 1:45 pm from monday through friday. I'm mentioning this because this is a reason why the lengths of my videos have been cut so short. When first starting out I was just plain exhausted everyday since I was just so used to laying around every single day. I'm starting to get better. I apologize about it in a couple videos though.
For those who would just be so kind to make my project seem less lame by watching my video, here is the link to the Fourth of July video.
http://s951.photobucket.com/albums/ad357/LilP_ciak2012/?action=view&current=DAY4.mp4&newest=1#!oZZ1QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs951.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fad357%2FLilP_ciak2012%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DDAY4.mp4%26newest%3D1
Comments are encouraged and much obliged. :)
Good luck to everyone.

Post Encounters of the Fourth Kind

That's a lame title but it makes me laugh a little.

So I kind of stepped back and let last week pass me by without posting. I would have typed up a four page essay on my advances and progress, but I was sick so not much happened. Being sick really sucks for me, because I go to cheerleading anyway. I just can't help it! It's like, when I'm sick I am more motivated than before, even though my body is weaker and less able. I sit in bed all day and watch cheerleading and gymnastics videos on YouTube, then I try to tumble either on my trampoline or in my living room causing my body to shut down and me to collapse onto the couch.

I still punched in for six hours of cheerleading while I was under the weather, even though I coughed up blood one of the days I was sick (so nasty, right?) and I still advanced a little on my tumbling. I now have all the skills I needed for my routine... woohoo nobody cares, I get it, but I had a little bounce in my step after that.

After I took some Ibuprofen I started to feel better and my head stopped spinning so I went to my tumbling class, which I did pretty good at. I was working on drills for my full, and I actually rotated too much, which is a really good thing because when I start doing them on the floor I'm going to rotate slightly less than I do on the trampoline so the end result should be close to perfection.

I already said I would start videotaping myself this past week, but I think I'll actually wait until I start getting spotted on the floor to track that progress.

That was my wrap-up of last week, I'll post again around Thursday to get myself back on my regular schedule. Oh, and as far as my 'health kick' goes, it's really hard to fight my love for all things unhealthy, but I eat whatever I want one day of every week so today I will make red velvet cupcakes and die of cupcake overdose.

My Second Blog!

Okay, so I know that in my first blog I said I was going to restore a chest, and I was all into that, but a few things came up. It started when I was doing my research on how to restore a wooden trunk, it was a lot harder then I thought. I figured I would have been putting in at least ten hours a week on just this project, that was a lot especially with working. I was still going to do it though, I didn't want to be the one to switch because I took on more then I could handle. I am a nanny all day for three days a week, I watch three boys while their mom works, that's almost more then I can handle! so the days I worked I figured I would just read the assigned books and the other days I would work on the chest. It didn't happen.
My aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer in January and her condition just worsened over time. On the days I was not working I was up at the hospital with my aunt, or helping the family cope while they made funeral arrangements. My aunt passed on July 15th, I spent three days in browns town, with my family, for the funeral. After that thinking of how much I had to do was stressing me out more then it was helping me, so I figured it was time to change my project to something that is going to benefit me in the things I'm supposed to do every day. I decided to concentrate on my music!
I take voice lessons and piano lessons each once a week, so I'm supposed to be getting in at least one hour of practice on each, every day. That's fourteen hours a week on my music! I came up with a plan! For my piano music I have warm ups, scales and different things to challenge my playing and make me better, and I have three different pieces that I'm supposed to be practicing. This Sunday I was supposed to play one of those pieces for church, that didn't happen either, I wasn't ready to play because I didn't get enough practice time in. So every day for the rest of the summer I am going to try to get my 7 hours of piano practice in. I am going to spend ten minuets on my warm ups and fifty minuets on the rest of my pieces. My voice lessons wont be as tricky, I am learning two English folk songs right now and two Italian songs, along with warm ups! But half of my time is supposed to be spent on warm ups so i don't hurt my vocal chords. So, I am going to spend half an hour warming up and half an hour memorizing! This is going to be a lot harder then it seems. My goal in the long run is to have all of my pieces perfected and ready to preform by the end of the summer. Individually i want to improve my sight reading on both piano and singing. Wish me luck!

Post Four

Today, I was about to put my first letter in my scrapbook when I realized it was upside down.
This kind of annoyed me because there's no way to fix it and I wasn't about to go through all the trouble of buying another scrapbook and repainting it. So I decided to just leave it as is and when I put things in it, I'll just tape the bottom so it doesn't fall through the bottom. So that's no big deal, and luckily has been the only bad thing to happen. Besides that small problem, my summer has continued to be amazing. I attended another concert on Friday. I actually planned on going to this when I found out about it during another concert a while back and shortly after decided not to go because I'd just be getting back from a big concert a few days after. The day before it, I learned that a band I have supported from day one was going to be there, and they aren't very popular at all, so I figured I may as well go and support them even further. It turned out to be a really good idea, because after their set was over, I left front and center to go hang out with them. I found Johnny first and told him that I was there for them, he of course didn't believe me, but I convinced him by saying I wouldn't have left the crowd if I wasn't there for them. After talking for a while and getting a picture with him, I left to find Nick, the lead singer. After having the same discussion with him, and getting a hug and picture I left to find Lloyd. Lloyd is the guitarist, and the one that I used to talk to the most, he was also the hardest to find. Once I finally found him and explained how I've known them and that they were the reason I was there he gave me a hug and asked my name. When I told him my name he immediately remembered me and we brought up an old conversation we had several years ago. After talking for some time he told me next time they came to Michigan they would put me on guest list, in return I said I'd make a Starbucks run for them. After talking to all of them for a while longer, I received Johnny's number because the one I knew personally didn't have his own phone. From talking to them and finally meeting them I gained so much respect, even though I had much of it for them to begin with. Now my next concert is in 5 days, the very famous WARPED tour. Words can't describe my excitement.
Love, Lilly.

Fifth Post

Who am I kidding? Just because my family feels bad for me and tells me I can cook doesn't mean that I actually can. Friends are bad like that: they can tell you exactly what they think about your food without feeling guilty about hurting your feelings. Hey, someone has to smash your ego now and then, can you imagine how stuck up humanity would get if we never failed?

Last friday I held a sleepover at my dad's house. It went how all parties go for me, meaning I had to sneak away and cry when nobody was looking. But that is another story with a problem that has already been solved. For now, at least.

For this party, I made White Chocolate Mousse which was supposed to be served in Chocolate Dessert Cups, Chocolate Pavlova with Milk Chocolate Cream, and Chocolate Waffles for breakfast. I had high hopes that everyone would enjoy these, but even those that seemed edible to me were hated by everyone else. First off, I knew that dipping balloons in chocolate could be a bad idea. I wonder if anyone tested this recipe before printing it. I suspect the cups in the picture were made by different methods. I had melted semi-sweet, milk, and white chocolate chips in three separate double boilers and fondue pots. I inflated several balloons to be about four inches in diameter, washing and drying them because who knows how clean the factory and the child laborers who made them were? About seven balloons popped while being dipped in the milk chocolate, two semi-sweet chocolate covered balloons popped — one while siting on the wax paper, and three white chocolate covered balloons popped on the wax paper. My numbers may be off, but I am not exaggerating. For those balloons that didn't feel obliged to splatter chocolate over the counter tops, the recipe says to place them in the freezer. Our freezer hardly has room for a single chocolate chip, let alone seven chocolate covered four inch latex orbs. So they were left to harden on the counter. The chocolate never hardened, but it did pick up a latex flavor. Yum. Despite the failure of the chocolate cups, I stupidly decided to continue with the white chocolate mousse. Everything seemed to be going fine, I was happy with the taste, and I found some plastic wine glasses to serve them in. I removed the bowl of mousse from the refrigerator where it had been chilling, and began to spoon it into the glasses. It was a little thinner than I was hoping for, and to my distress, it only filled three and a half of the wine glasses. This turned out to be lucky for my friends. They all looked a little nauseous when I offered the glasses, but I managed to convince four into trying it. They hated it. They said it was too sweet for them. They barely touched it. Well, what did I expect?

The next recipe I made was the chocolate pavlova with milk chocolate chip coffee cream. A large meringue with a heavy coffee flavored whipped cream on top. The meringue crumbled a little bit around the edges, but I thought the topping tasted good. I thought wrong. Almost everyone avoided it, probably in part to the mousse that I had fed them earlier.

When I started making the chocolate waffles the next morning they all groaned "No more sugar!". I knew by now that they hated my cooking, but still, I wanted to try to win back their good opinions. My dad had made regular waffles along side of my stupid mess, so my friends boycott of my waffles didn't cause them to starve. They ate all of the good, golden waffles that my dad had made and left a large stack of the dull, brown waffles that I had.

I am glad my friends are honest with me and let me know when my cooking sucks, no matter how much it hurts. They guarded their stomachs from indigestion bravely. I will still go on trying to bake, my grade does rest on it after all. I just won't force others to eat my messes, because just because I find it edible doesn't mean that anyone else can survive a few bites. My revised ratio = 0:18 with failures in the lead.

Chore? Habit? Enjoyment?

Those who know me, know that I am a very busy person. It seems I always have something going on and hardly have free-time. This can be good or bad. I have recently been working extensively (aka, everyday) between working for family friends, random jobs and my actual job at The Big Apple. Workingout is now seeming to be more of a chore for me since I am so busy and I don't like that. I have been finding myself at the end of my day, late at night, just ready to get some sleep and remembering that I need to exercise. So, most of my exercises have been in the early morning or late night. I don't want this project to become like a chore. I would love for it to simply be more of a habit that is something I can just enjoy, but when you work and have such a busy schedule that task isn't as easy as it may seem.

This weekend I also spent out at Groveland Oaks Campground (like I mentioned before) with my family and best friend. Being there I did not do the exercises I normally would nor did I get enough. I did get some exercise, but I feel I could have gotten more. Unfortunately though, that was like a family vacation so exercising was not my main goal. I did do some swimming, biking and walking while I was there though. I also got a bit of my summer reading in.

I am very thankful and happy to be getting so much work and to be making money. I now am just going to find a way to be able to work, work-out, read, spend time with family and everything else I do, (Haha) but I am determined. I will accomplish it all.

This next week I am going to be busy constantly, everyday. My short term goal for this week will now be to find ways of doing my exercises without them feeling like a chore.

Sax Adventure part 3 : Well there's always next year ;D

Ok so this is Loni, and this is also my third post. I feel as though I’m getting really behind on my summer project but then I see that some people are only on their first post, but I still feel like I’m getting behind. I know that some people are accomplishing a lot when it comes to their projects and others aren’t really getting anywhere near their goal for the end of the summer. I’ll have to admit I’m one of the ones who isn’t close to my goal.

Ok so I’ve been traveling, a lot, like almost non-stop this entire summer. Its probably been my most hectic summer which is not good for me in terms of Summer school work. However, I am trying to get as much accomplished as I can. I feel bad that i'm not closer to reaching my goal but I haven't given up yet! heheh

I have been Practicing my Sax a lot and I’m glad to say my raw lip is result of my efforts. When I first rented my alto it had been almost 3 and a half months since I last played and I really sucked at first. But that was to be expected, now I’m getting back my musical groove hah but I mean its sounding much better than before.

This past week and next week have been “band camp” weeks and so I halted everything including my project for it, and this next week I won’t have access to a computer or like internet and I definitely won’t be able to go and play anywhere.

So I really do hope that I can accomplish at least a small part of my goal by the time we go back to school. I mean I’m going to Mexico for a couple of weeks in august so I’m going to take my Sax there to play so I know I can get something done for my project.

3 down, 5 to go!

Woohoo! Blog number three! One blog closer to being done! So some of you might have noticed, if you were looking for my posts, that I haven’t had a blog post on here in a while. Approximately almost 2 weeks. But it’s okay! Last week I was out of town up north at my cabin without any computer or internet access. Living hell, right? And this week I have procrastinated my blog all the way to the last day of the week, but this doesn’t mean I haven’t been lifting! As you can imagine, I couldn’t bring my whole weight bench up north with me due to space concerns and why would I even do that lol (I am going to e-mail Mr. Wilson about lol’s). On the other hand, while I was up there I was able to find many other exercises that I could use as substitutes for my usual workout. This including push-ups and sit-ups, pull-ups on the balcony, lifting huge old dead trees for forts, and wrestling with my friend Duncan. It might not sound like much, but it acted as a good workout instead of doing nothing at all. I would have blogged about this when I got home from my cabin but it was late Saturday night and I didn’t feel like writing a 300+ blog. This week was back to my old routine. I went in to lift at Kettering on Monday and Wednesday and accidently slept in on Friday, but I still lifted at home. I always feel like I’m getting lazier and lazier because I have to force myself to lift and I have to drag myself out of bed but I know I have to do it so I’m keeping to it! Today I was planning on “maxing out” which is trying to see how much I can lift rather than a workout, but I didn’t have anybody to spot me so next week will be the week!!

Problems!!!

Procrastination is one of my worst weaknesses when it comes to school work. But everyone does it every once in a while, right?

Project status: I have come to a few problems, but I have also found solutions.

1. What happens if I don't have anything to take pictures of?
Well, I then started taking pictures of the random things around me as I was sitting on the couch, or laying in bed. I had some pretty cool results.
2. What if I want pictures that other people had taken?
I found my old flash drive, I'm loading all of the pictures that aren't mine onto that to print off.

So, that's what I have so far. I'm slowly accumulating a pile of envelopes full of pictures to sort through. I've labeled each picture with the date so I don't mix them up. Things are going very smoothly.

Does anyone remember those pictures I posted a while ago? Well, the last photo is of Madison. While we were down in Orlando she won the Dancer of the Year title. We are all so proud! I'm having the best time taking pictures of all of these awesome events.

Now I'm back to procrastination. No, not that, it's more like, I have no time. I am only half way through the first book. I'm going to have to read non-stop from now till September! Please tell me I'm not the only person who is behind on the reading schedule. If I am it's fine, I'm a pretty fast reader.

I have many more photo opportunities coming up soon. I'll keep you posted, not that I have a choice... just kidding.

Summer is over half way done! That is kind of unreal to me. We will be Juniors next year, AHH! Lets finish this summer on a good note. : )

Oh gosh procrastination, procrastination!

So this is my second blog, it is a little late but last week I didn't have access to a computer because our 6 year old Dell died on us and my laptop was off being fixed up. My photo journal is coming along well I took over 200 photos all last week of my friends and family. I am going to devote a whole section in my journal to the 100 or so pictures I took of the Fireworks on my lake. For these I used a slow night time shutter speed and got some really nice vibrant pictures from it. The other hundred pictures that are of my family and friends approximately 75 of them have my best friends Sam Jenkins or Katelin Webster in them. I took several pictures of Sam Jenkins with a fast shutter speed while she was wearing a pink flowery hat and swimming under the water. This resulted in 20 pictures of her in exactly the same pose. I absolutely love my underwater camera, and I really want to try it out in a pool. I would think that those pictures would come out clearer than the pictures from the dirty lake, but maybe the chlorine will do some funky things to the pictures. Hopefully not though. I uploaded my pictures to the computer and changed the colors around on some of them to make them pop a little more I did this to most of the underwater pictures so that everyone's face sticks out a little more. So this was my blog for 7-4-10 to 7-11-10. I had a lot of fun so far with this project and I hope that it stay's that way.

Update/book review?

Not too much to say about my project sadly. Procrastination is still getting the best of me. I started out nicely in the beginning of my summer. Doing something active at least 5 out of the 7 days in a week. But it's died down. Going back into old habits. I'll give my self a nice kick start very soon. Like after the mission trip. :)

So yeah. Update! I will be gone all next week. No cell phone, no internet. Just me, some friends and a bucket of paint. Mission trip to Minnesota! Sounds dull, but I'm expecting to have a killer time. I'm all packed and ready to go. We're leaving tomorrow at 5am. Twelve hours of driving...fun. But that gives me loads of time to read (and sleep) so I'm ready for some total project action. It's doubtful that I'll get any intense physical activity, but I'll have minimal down time, so at least I'll be kept moving. I'm bringing my journal and I plan on documenting the trip. (That journals becoming more of a "Summer Fun" diary as appose to weight loss documentation. Whoops.)

So I haven't been totally procrastinating this week. I did, in fact, start Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I'm feeling quite proud, I got past the first 4 pages. I'd tried starting it many times before, but my attention span wouldn't allow it. Now I'm almost done with the first chapter. (Pathetic, I know.) I'm surprised to say that it's not boring me to tears. It's still minorly boring, mostly because of the small print and the entirety of the content, but it's also sort of interesting. As dull as vegetables and farming sound, I'm learning stuff from this book. It's kind of cool to hear about how wasteful, lazy and gross our country is. I mean, I was aware, but its nice to know other people are as well. I don't know if I'll totally enjoy the book, but I will be able to get through it, and I'll walk away with some interesting facts and something to think about.

And the book also gave me an idea. I'm thinking that if I could eat at least one organic meal a day I could contribute to Kingsolver's vision. And it would be healthier for me, I'm assuming. It may cost more, but I'm willing to try it. So when I get back from Minnesota I'm going to try and do the organic thing AND I'm going to hit the gym again. I need to get back into that routine, the one I was in at the beginning of the summer. I think this was my 5th blog post? I'm not sure. But whatever. Laterrrr. :)


"If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week." -Steven L. Hopp

A week of... nothing

This week was, well a normal summer week. Many a times I found myself saying, I should really work on my project, then just falling back asleep. Besides just falling back asleep I also was probably as un- green as possible, so I guess you could say that I did work on my project, I was just seeing what it was like to not live green and how inefficient the lifestyle was.
The first event this week was the 4-h fair mostly I just did the average fair stuff nothing significant, so I thought I'd talk about last years fair. Last year I did a project on conserving energy, during which I found out that the 4-h fair used old animal bedding to make energy. So I might have not gone green at fair but at least I went to a fair that used green ideas!
Next, we went to the boat races, I could practically feel the holes in the ozone as a boat with a jet engine drove past, with a wave of heat rolling off it. So, sadly about the only green thing I did that weekend was pick up some brats Popsicle wrapper! Oh well at least we had some quality family time while watching the "enviorment polluting", boats.
So ya not the most successful week but hey at least I did one green thing! Oops almost forgot that clay bowl I was gonna make... well I found it completely hardened under my dad's seat, so much for that idea! Hopefully next week will bring a more interesting element to this project.

Umm, 3rd post, I thinkk.

Instead of telling you what I'm doing this week, I'm more telling you what happened because I forgot how to get on this blog all week, I had to go back through all my emails. :P

So, I actually feel like I had a huge break through with my project this week. Early in the week my dad and I called my Uncle Jerry and also my Aunt Fay. One of them gave me a suit case they had from my grandma Marianne on my dad's side. First of all, let me tell you she had great taste; she was obsessed with blue just as much as I am! Blue suit case, blue wallet, another blue flower wallet, and a beautiful blue ring that I am currently wearing and plan on keeping close. The suit case also holds post cards, some cheap necklaces and a TON of letters. The only problem is, all the letters are in German. Its really cool in a way, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to translate some of them due to water damage but mainly messy cursive. Its easier to translate when you know what words make the most sense. It might have to wait until school gets back in, maybe I'll give Mr Frank a project when he is making us watch videos or something.

Another really important paper I found in the suit case was addresses for my grandma and grandpa and their full names before they came to America and had thier last name changed. Want to hear what my last name should be instead of Harris? Its Herszlikowicz. For a long time my dad knew how to say it kind of but never could actually spell it. I wonder why... but anyway, we found this out from postage stamps from Detriot that my grandpa was sending to my grandma back in Germany. Before this I thought they came to America at the same time, so its really cool seeing the post card of the ship my grandma took over here. I guess there were letters right up until she arrived here.

Next week I'm going to be in Menapolis for a mission trip so I won't be able to do much, I don't know if I'll have anything to blog about when I get back. I was going to photo copy the letters and read them on the drive but since they are in german, it doesn't seem too likely. I'll probably just start the books, I started the animal one at the begining of summer and haven't given it a second thought since. I haven't even found the in fact book, so I'm just borrowing Kim's on the drive. Maybe the saterday I get back I'll go to a hollocaust musuem, who knows?

Camping week!

Camping, always a fun adventure! The struggle of finding something to do that's both fun and green is over, I wish our family could camp all summer! This particular outdoor adventure occurred at our family's shack up in rose city. Since we believe in the more "genuine", camping experience, we went all out; no camper just a hundred year old tent, a nice fire and some fishing lines.
Originally I planned to get everything from nature, even food, to make camping even more green, of course it wouldn't be camping without a few forgotten items. For example, I planned to go fishing from a nearby lake to get "all natural" food, of course I brought the fishing lines but no hooks! Oh well at least my parents remembered a year supply of hot dogs!
Now, camping wouldn't be the same in our family without some form of fuel emissions, in our case from the four- wheelers. The next portion of our camping trip consisted of four wheeler riding and swimming. It was quite fun except for my failed attempt of trying to look cool, in which I decided to try and jump the four- wheeler and just ended up with a gigantic bruise!
The last day of camping was kind of a dud We were swimming as we would any day, when suddenly the sky was black. We abandoned swimming early but not before I got a lump of clay from the lake bottom to make an "all natural", clay bowl. So other than that we spent the rest of the day discovering the local party store, oh Joy what a blast!
After the storm we found our tent, flooded, where we left it. So ended our camping week that was, greener, than any other experience I've had this summer!

Kelly's project!!!

Hey guys!
So my project is going well and I have a lot of people that are actually interested in attending. Like I said I am organizing a car wash for breast cancer hopefully at the end on august. I have decided I want to have it at Overtyme off of Dixie Highway, in their parking lot. I have talked to them on the phone recently and I am going in today finally to talk to someone. I need to get this process taken care of so I can start getting the date solid, and the people who are going to help. I already have all the supplies taken care of(: I am really hoping I find some good volunteers to help me out, if any of you guys are interested in coming down that day to wash cars, just let me know. Once I get the date solid I am going to start designing the flyer, so that when the time comes to start advertising i will, along Dixie of course. One more thing I will need is some catchy posters that will convince drivers that they should pull over and help the cause! The only thing I am concerned about is not being able to have it at Overtyme and having to have it somewhere else short notice. I have a lot of things ready to go, just waiting on the date! When I go into Overtyme and I am going to sound professional, and explain to them that would mean a lot to me. I was talking to someone at Kroger about my whole idea, and she seemed highly interested and she really wanted to go and tell her friends. I explained to her I didn't have the place set and she said there would be some places willing to help me out because that will bring more attention to their business. I hope she is right because I don't want to get looked at like I am just some crazy kid. I actually want to help, and sure I am stressed and I know this is going to be really hard, but it is so worth it in the end. On another note, if my project seems to fail (which I hp it won't) I will still be somewhat satisfied in the end because I tried at least. I mean, not a lot of teenagers are going around organizing events for Breast Cancer foundations. At least I would have attempted to help, and that counts for something, right? Well I am going to post another blog, right after I talk to Overtyme, so talk to you soon!

Ashley Shuell's 3rd Blog Post

Ahhh,It is comin' along great! The book itself is complete and now I just need to add my poems and decorate it. I have 38 poems and 30 pages, So I am going to use the backs of paper which means I will need 22 more poems! I am going to just print poems and start putting them in and if I have an idea for a poem then I will just add it. I went to the Fabric store the other day and bought, paint, Peacock feathers, bells, strings, thread, Palliate, paintbrushes, and glue! I started painting the first page, originally I was going to just paint it a light green, but it turned into a white tree with blue orbs, I can dig it. The first two pages will be just the title of the book and who I am dedicating it to. Now, I think I will be titling my book "Evidence of a Poet", It was something I was thinking about one day and I said to myself "Huzzah!" The next time I work on my project I think I will be adding in my poems. I do have a pictures on the computer I would like to print out and use in my book(They relate to the poems.I am not the best artist, so this tree looks a little funny, but it's the effort that counts! I am just decorating the book on whatever comes out of the top of my head, I have no plan or anything. I will decorate by the way I feel that day, so it has more personality. I will continue to write poems as much as I can! I have my own site were I post them so readers and rate or comment on them and tell me their dislikes and likes, it helps me a lot. Well I am off to sleep, Night!