Welcome to Whoville

Last year Anna and I dressed up like Whos (see here) for our last day of history class. This year we recruited some help and this was the outcome: This should really become a tradition.

yes, we play football...

...in skirts.

Radio and the Golden Arches

Anna and I are involved with a history class again this year. We studied China during the opium wars in the first semester, and now we're gearing up to put on a full-length play on the subject at the end of this month. Mr. Tombs (our director) arranged for 6 of us students to be interviewed by a radio station just over the boarder in PA. I was one of them. It went well for the most part, I'm just glad it wasn't live! That kind of took the pressure off, but I still stumbled over my words while pretending to know what I was talking about. :/ Hopefully the final cut will be good. Ahhh!

Afterwords Mr. Tombs took us out to McDonalds for some fries and shakes. I kind of felt bad for the rest of the people eating there, we were rather loud.

Anna, Hannah, me, and Shea "enjoying" our shakes.

Now the craziness of play practice begins as we try to polish it up before we open!!!

Steve's Wedding

This was the friend's wedding we went to up in Canada: We've known the groom's family for at least 10 years, so it was weird seeing Stephen getting married. (You know, the same one you had snowball fights with when you were little) Mom, Emily, and I were the only ones who could make it, but we were really glad we went.

Us with the new couple: Emily, Stephen, Heather, me, and Mom.Congrats Steve!

Lunch and Bus Rides

My birthday was pretty relaxed and fun. Mom, Anna, and I went out to lunch with Emily because she couldn't be there for dinner. It was SO delicious.

Then we had our family dinner that night.

Then this past Saturday my best friend Natalie took me to the mall as my present.

Since neither of use have our license we took the bus. :) I call this the converse square of love. <3 It was a good time.

Rebelution Conference

Teresa drove Anna and I down Friday morning to Woodbridge, VA for the Rebelution Conference. We stayed at a Best Western which was really close to the place the conference was at, the Hylton Memorial Chapel. We drove over there in the morning and walked back for lunch.

That night we went to Ci Ci's, a pizza/pasta buffet they have down there that Teresa had been to before. Our favorite: mac&cheese pizza. Sounds incredibly gross, looks incredibly gross, tastes delicious.

We found a little health food store near the hotel where we got these natural sodas, which were yummy. We drank them while watching the last half of Miss Congeniality 2 which was actually quite funny... the soda helped.

Saturday was sunny and beautiful, it was sad we spent most of it indoors, but the conference was worth every drop of sunlight and every molecule of oxygen.

It was great being in a room full of people who were on fire for God, it felt like a big family reunion. Actually, it was.

The message was great too, the same theme as the book ("Do Hard Things"), but it was reinforcing and new, especially since it's been almost a year since I read it.

Teresa's camera died, so the rest were taken on her phone. This is Alex Harris, one of the writer's of the book. They were interviewing people for a promo video.

He left Brett to sign away his life amidst the mob of people. Yes, us included. :)

I didn't bring a book for him to sign, so I went through a whole bunch of trouble to find a silver sharpie for him to sign my shirt. After going to 3 different tables and asking, I opened my mouth to ask someone else and out of the air fell....the pen. It was quite convenient. So after waiting for a short eternity I got up to Brett and he already had a bunch of pens. But it worked out, because they were all running out of ink.

The next day we went to this sweet gospel church called Harvest Life Changer's Church. I would totally move there just for the church. It was so awesome.

We were also really close to the Potamic Mills Mall which we went to all 3 days we were there. :)

Ice Skating

Today Emily, Anna, and I went ice skating for the first time this year. There was a hassle getting everyone skates they could wear. Emily wore Sarah's, Anna wore Teresa's, and I wore Emily's. Yeah, weird. Emily was in pain after about five minutes and made me pull her around. Anna's didn't work out too well either, but mine were perfect! :D But if we go again I'll have to get rentals because Emily said she'll take hers back. I wonder why? Odd.
Emily, me, Natalie, and Anna. I look like I'm ready for an Alaskan blizzard. But hey, I stayed warm!

New York City (part 2)

After eating we walked up to the Rockefeller Center. By this time it was dark and all the lights looked so cool.

Policemen on horses!!! In the middle of the city! It was pretty cool.

Anna, Emily, Sarah, me, Mom, Helen, and Olivia in front of the tree.

The empty ice rink. When we walked by again it was really full.

One of the angels that were in a line.

This is a church but it looks so weird. It didn't even look real when I looked at it, it was so bizzare. It kind of looks like something from Narnia...in the middle of NYC.

Watching Saks snowflake show. They blink off and on to the song Carol of the Bells. It plays every 20 minutes or something.

A closeup of the snowflakes.

Me and Sarah in front of the tree. More like me and Sarah with the tree WAY in the background.

Teresa and Sarah.

Good view of the tree.

Then on our way to the car we passed through Times Square.

The M&M building.

The building in the middle is where they drop the ball on New Years. You can see the pole at the top.

And then we got in the car and drove the 4 1/2 hours home!

New York City (part 1)

We left our house at 5:10 in the morning on Tuesday and got there around 9:30. It was all of us girls, Mom, and Olivia. Teresa dropped us off in front of Macy's and went to find a parking spot. It was pretty cold and Macy's didn't open until 10, so we went into H & M for a while to get out of the cold and look around. Then we headed over to Macy's.

Riding down the wooden elevator in Macy's.

Me, Olivia, and Emily.

There is a cafeteria place inside of Macy's that you can get food at. Really expensive food. Notice the sticker on my roasted turkey sandwhich? $6.95. Yeah, and it was kind of small, but good.

The buildings seem to go up forever!

Emily, Olivia, and Mom walking down the street. Looks kind of sketchy.

Walking past all the decorated store windows.

And what would NYC be without it's taxis?

Riding up the elevator on our way to Daffy's.

Macy's took up an entire block!

Me, Anna, Sarah, Olivia, Emily, Helen, and Mom. Helen was in my mom's wedding and works right around where we were, so she met us around 4pm.

Teresa at the pizza shop we stopped at for dinner.

Helen and Mom. :)

Square night

Last year Anna and I went with a group of people on a church retreat so that we could watch all the kids while the rest of the people had their meetings. We stayed with Tonika and Judith, and for the two night we were there we stayed up until 2am playing 'square' (also known as 'kemp'). And since then we have had two other square nights, it's sort of become a tradition. Saturday night was one of them.Our sweet snoopy cards. Anna and Judith having a stare-down. Anna looks like Frozone.

Tonika smiling, me frowning. Can you tell which team was winning?

Yes, Tonika and Anna won. They have won the battle, but the war is yet to be continued...