April 23rd 2012

          I feel so terrible that it's been so long since I've posted!!! I tried to write something last weekend, but I just got so busy GETTING MY WOHELO and stuff. It was such an awesome ceremony! An awesome week, really.
          Monday night we picked up Nate at the airport and got a room at the hotel right outside the parking lot. But since Nate had been sitting down for five hours, he wasn't really interested in going to bed right away. So we went hunting for Cosmo's, this really cool coffeehouse. The best part was that they had an amazing GF menu!! (Gluten-Free) I'm not GF, but my mom and Leo are. We hung out with our snacks playing scrabble for a few hours and it was really nice. Then we went back to the room and watched those really stupid prank'd shows that MTV shows really late at night til almost 2:00am.
          Tuesday we headed back home. Mom tried letting Nate drive, but living in Cali has turned him into a CRAZY driver!!! (Sorry Nate, if you're reading this, but it's true) So I drove the rest of the way. Once we got home, we took Nate to Dan's for dinner. You'd think this tiny town wouldn't have anything going for it, but it has got same delicious restaurants. Dan's is this amazing steakhouse, and we always get the same thing because their steak is sooo good. Except Leo, he doesn't like steak, so he gets a burger. After dinner we gave Nate the not so grand tour of our tiny town and stopped at our, admittedly, awesome park. We all played around for awhile and Nate got Leo to drop feet first into a giant mud puddle. It was pretty hilarious.
          Wednesday I had to work, that was pretty much the only reason we bothered coming back home instead of staying in town. So I went and did my thing, no big. We just kind of used Wednesday to get used to each other again. It was really nice that Nate and I weren't down each others throats like the last time we were together in the same state. Hopefully that means we can be friends or something instead of those siblings that are always fighting. Maybe. That gives me hope for Leo, maybe someday down the road we won't feel like spiting each other for fun.
          Thursday was mom and dads fifteenth anniversary, but they didn't get to see each other until late! Dad had to work and we left for town in the morning. We got to town in the early afternoon and went around running all the errands that needed running. We got Nate some dress shoes(really they were just nice sneakers, but they fit their purpose) we got Leo new shoes, mom got some new shoes. Everybody but me :( I'll live, lol. The majority of the afternoon was spent looking for the perfect gifts for my fellow Camp Fire seniors and Hope's WoHeLo gift! And we got a few other things, but I can't remember what they were. We went to mom and dad's friend's house for the night, which was nice. They have a son Nate's age who lives next door and they went and hung out for the evening. Their other son, that lives with them, is Leo's best friend, so he was occupied all night. I just popped in a Redbox and then went to bed.
          Friday mom and I split off from the boys and went to run the last last minute errands. For instance, mom needed nail supplies. Stuff like that. We couldn't check in to the hotel until 2:00pm, so we had a ton of time to kill. Sooooo, we went to Incredible Pizza! Incredible Pizza is like this pizza buffet(that makes GF pizza to order, no extra charge) that has a huge arcade! And they have daily deals you can get, like get $20 on a card and get a $10 bonus! So that's what we did. And let me tell you, we had a blast! Now, I play for tickets, so I ended up getting somewhere around 492. Since I'm not so into the prize counter, I just gave mine to my mom. She's got an account and she always saves her tickets. I don't know what she's going to spend them on, but she saves em! After we'd all had our fill of fun, we went and checked in to our hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express right in the middle of town, so nothing was more than 20 minutes away! My father and Lisa got to town around 7:00pm, it was so fantastic to see them! It felt like Bennett and Winston hadn't changed at all! I helped them unpack and everything and we just chilled for a little while. then they were getting hungry, so I suggested we all go out to Village Inn!



More later, I promise! I just cannot finish right now :(

March 12th 2012

Not much to say, honestly haven't been doing much! But! I have sent out almost all my invitations to my WoHeLo and I finally have copies of the WoHeLo pictures we took last week with the camp fire office photographer!

March 8th 2012

          Okay, so I'm feeling kind of fired up. First off, real quick, I finished my WoHeLo!!! Got it all done signed sealed and approved!
          So I just finished watching a bunch of video's about KONY2012. I watched some from both sides. The people advocating for it and against. If you don't know who Joseph Kony is, go to KONY2012.com and watch their very informative video. In short, he's an evil old man in Uganda on the top of the international most wanted list. His charges against humanity are numerous and horrific. The kony2012 campaign is trying to make Kony a household name. As famous and talked about as Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber, Not to celebrate him, but to let our government know that the people are still interested in Uganda's children's welfare.
          There are people who think it's all a load of crap. They believe that Invisible Children (the company that organized the campaign) is scamming the nation. That like all those other social media campaigns, it doesn't work. You know the one's, "if Joe's picture get's 1,000,000,000 likes the doctors will waive his sons medical fees" and other such nonsense. But I think all these people are completely missing the point.
          KONY2012 isn't about getting we, US civilian citizens, over to Uganda to fight the good fight. It's to spread awareness! If the videos and stickers and bracelets and posters get people talking about it, then it's working. And isn't that what social media was made for? KONY2012 is a worthwhile cause. Because we have a voice! If I've learned anything from being in Camp Fire, it's that just because I'm one person or I'm only 17 doesn't mean I can't make a difference! Have you ever read that Dr. Seuss book, "Horton Hears a Who"? It's like in that, where everyone is yelling except one little boy. And no one can hear them until that one boy raises his voice!
          The goal is to have Kony arrested before the end of 2012. They believe that we must strike while the iron is hot. KONY2012 can't be some fad that we pick up to play with and put down again. Opinions?

Let me know, I genuinely want to hear some different views!

February 25th 2012

          Hey guys,
How's everyone been? I've been frantically trying to find a chaperone/roommate for my conference in DC, but it's either inconvenient time or too much money for everyone. I'm going to ask the women at my board meeting this Monday, but if no one there is able, I'm prepared to just give up on it. It was never supposed to be this big of a deal. I'll have to re-write my walk in speech and send a new one to Susan. But that's the easy part. I'm just bummed because I was so excited for my first solo vacation. No parents. Not like I was going to o crazy or anything, but I'd really like for my first few weeks at college to not  be the first time I'm on my own for more than two nights!
          I guess if I don't go to DC though, I can get this dress I've been eying. It would be perfect to wear for my WoHeLo. It would fit under my ceremonial attire, and look fabulous for pictures and the party. It's got a purple ruffled top and a simple black skirt. There was another one I saw too, but mom didn't feel too good about it. And I kind of want to find some super short black shorts to wear under this one dress I have. I just got these awesome tights to wear with it, but it still needs shorts, just to be sure ;-)
          Mom left for town early to spend time with her sister and then her friends. I would've gone, but I had to work yesterday, today, and tomorrow. But it works out since daddy has to be in town Monday morning anyway, we're leaving right after work tomorrow. So get up, go to church, go home and pack, go to work, go to town. We probably won't get in until around midnight, but daddy seems to be okay with it. I don't know where we'll all sleep. The place we usually stay is really uncomfortable for four people. three, sure. But unless I'm sharing the couch bed with Leo, I'm not seeing this working out. Maybe he'll sleepover at his friends house or something. Seems kind of late though. And all his friend has school.
          I just finished catching up on The Vampire Diaries.  I watch all my shows on Hulu. I can't decide if I prefer the books or the show. The show is definitely more "people pleasing". What I mean is, the producers give the audience exactly what we want. But aside from the names, we might as well be in a different story. Nothing happens the same. Caroline is a real person in the show, with feelings and stuff. Then she gets turned into a vampire. I'm fairly sure that NEVER happened. And so far there is no sign of Elena getting her wings powers. She never got turned into a vampire and then brought back. So frustrating. Why couldn't they do both as tv shows and name the other one something else?
          Right now, I'm charging my flipcam to take to town. I might try a little vlog or something. Could be cool. What do you guys think?
          Time to catch up on my beauty sleep, that's all for now folks.

February 23rd 2012

          Hey guys! I know you're not used to so much attention! But the day has come!
Today is my last day off of work before my final panel meeting for my WoHeLo!!! So I'm working on my gown, getting my last two hours in somewhere, and dancing around the house! There were definitely times in the past where I was positive I'd never get done in time or times I just plain wanted to give up! Now that I'm standing on the very edge of completion, I'm so overjoyed I did it! And I'll deny I ever said it, but there's no way I could have ever done it without my mom. I'm kind of lucky to have so many adults in my life who care about me.
          I can't find a chaperone/roommate for my conference in D.C. so it might not happen :( I'm really bummed about it. It's ridiculous because my parents are just fine with letting me go by myself, I'm just fine going by myself, but the conference people aren't. I really just need someone over eighteen who can pay their own airfare and half the room. I'm going to start asking friends and family soon. I was talking to a woman at the Baltimore Camp Fire office, but she's stopped communicating very suddenly. She just stopped replying to emails.
          I added it up, and between my bank account now, two paychecks before I leave, and my income tax soon, I should be able to afford it. That parts no biggie. And mom said she can chip in a little bit too. It's just so frustrating to be this close to something amazing, and not do it because I'm under eighteen. I'm so sick of the word "minor". All summer at camp, all through the year at Camp Fire... "aren't you eighteen yet Razzi?" I could just scream and pull my hair out!
          The other day at work, I said "okey dokey" to a customer, and he said he'd never heard someone say that except in movies. He also hadn't heard someone literally say ya'll or aight. You know how you always come up with the perfect comeback twenty minutes later? That's how I feel. I was kind of offended because he said it like I was dirty for using those words. Nope, just raised in Oklahoma...
          A few days ago, a friend of Leo's asked him to tell me I should post to my blog. I'm not sure how she knows about it, but I'm not complaining about it! I wish all the people who check my blog regularly would subscribe so I can see how many people are reading regularly. Maybe if people would comment or something *AHEM AHEM*. Sorry I had a tickle in my throat.
          So, guess what happened yesterday?!?!?!? I got my first college acceptance letter!!! It was from my second choice; I'm still waiting to hear from my first choice. I really really want to go to my first choice. If I get in, I get a full ride scholarship. Room and board is still expensive, but it'd be worth it for such a prestigious education. I think if I went there, I'd major in some sort of politics. And minor in psychology. If I go to my second choice, I'll probably get my BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing). I'd have to transfer my Junior year to a bigger school though.
          Right now mom is cracking and rolling eggs because she boiled, like, twenty this morning. She also brought home root beer, peanuts, candy bars, and caramel wraps. I think she may be trying to sweeten us up for something. I just haven't figured out what yet. But don't worry mom, I'm onto you :P. I've been trying to curl my hair with my straightener, but it's not working. I think I'm going to rag roll my hair tonight. It's so much fun when my hair is curly! And it looks so legit, people who don't know me very well assume that I must straighten my hair every morning.
          I wonder if I'll receive so many compliments if my hair is super curly. Men have asked if I'm married, called me gorgeous, told me I look pretty, told me I looked beautiful, and commented on my "free hugs" pin saying "I might not let you go!". All in all, it's very flattering but most of them don't speak English very well or are three times my age. SO I just smile and check their groceries.
          I received my Growums sale package in the mail today! For ten dollars, you can buy a miniature garden with four kinds of seeds, eight pods to plant them in, and eight tags. And their really cute! Like a pizza garden has basil, oregano, cilantro, and tomato I think. And there's different kinds of gardens. A taco garden, a ratatouille garden, an oriental themed garden. And every penny raised goes straight to YAC! We're planning on doing a F2F, which is Face to face. We want to have a meeting just so we can all get together aside from the conference calls to hang out and plan stuff. I'm pretty pumped. If you're interested and you actually know me, get at me and I'll hook you up!
          That's all for now folks!

February 21st 2012

          Hey guys, I'm sorry. I know I keep promising a nice long post but I've been super busy trying to get all the details for my WoHeLo in order. I also got a letter from Antioch today stating that I have four days to complete my application by sending in my supplemental items. See, I sent those item sin two weeks ago. But lucky for me I've got a smart Mom who insisted on saving everything and putting it in my file. So I just spent the last hour scanning documents into the computer and emailing them off to Antioch. Hopefully that takes care of that. And if I don't get accepted, it's because I wasn't good enough not because of some dang technicality. I'm trying so hard not to get my hopes up. I really want to major in Psychology if I go to Antioch, but mom thinks I should go into Politics. I am pretty good at managing people and reputations. I don't know. Maybe I can minor in Psychology. Opinions??
          Today Leo had to go to town with Mom for his first ever standardized testing. And it's his worst subject. I feel kind of bad for him. But it must be done. Everyone does standardized testing at some point or another, it really isn't avoidable at this point in time.
          I had bought a Groupon for laser hair removal. I was going to get my bikini line done so I could say goodbye to awkward shower shaving at camp. But they don't have any available appointments that would work for me, so I returned it and got my $100 back. Now that money is going towards my DC conference. Mom and I counted it up, I've got my income tax coming soon, two paychecks, and two hundred in the bank. That's not enough to get the room by myself, but I just got an email stating that I am required to have a chaperone because I'm 17. Which sucks because I don't know anyone else who's going to this thing. And if I could split the cost of a room with someone, I could almost definitely afford it. I'm so thankful the board came up with the money for my flight because I can't imagine having to factor that in too.
          So I have to work this Sunday. But I have tons of meetings on Monday and Daddy has an interview in town at 10:00am. If he gets this job, we get to move back to town!!! But that's off subject right now. So Daddy's going to pick me up after work (8:00pm) and we're going straight to town. Then on Monday, I've got to do WoHeLo pictures at the park with Hope and the camp fire photographer, then I have my final board meeting, where they'll approve my WoHeLo and finalize everything, then I have my board meeting at which I'll be giving a presentation. So before I even go for my pictures, I need to print and fold 30 copies of my brochure, make sure my ceremonial attire is in order, and at some point in there I'd like to eat dinner.
          Don't let my stress fool you, I'm so freakin pumped for this! I'm ready to be done worrying about it and start celebrating! Hope and I will be presented at WoHeLoees at Camp Fire Birthday on March 3rd and I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be at the Adult Recognition Dinner. So they can fawn over us, lol! Susan says our only jobs after we get approved is to show up and look pretty! It kind of feels like we won a pageant or something! And so far I've invited all my friends, my father and Lili, my mom is flying down my big brother from California, we invited my Uncle Dean todasy when mom was on the phone with him. I hope his wife and daughters can come too, but I'd understand if they can't all come. Looks like I just might get some of my dream pictures! In your face mom! Never say never!!!
          I've only got to get 5 more hours on this last issue, and  I think it's going to be a piece of cake!
          That's all for now folks!

February 3rd 2012

          OMG I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!! I got the official news today: I'm going to DC!!! It's for the America's Promise Grad Nation Summit, March 18th through the 21st. You can't hear my happy squee's, but they're loud.
          Now I get to do even more shopping! I'm assuming DC is cold in March, and I don't have enough nice cold weather clothes! Poor mom, she'll never even know what hit her. This one is gonna be kind of short too, because I have to go to work soon. But I promise, as soon as I find time, I'll whip out a nice, long, juicy, post!

January 26th 2012

          So, a couple weeks ago, my mom got me and Leo each one of those dollar store eggs of silly putty. I've been using mine in lieu of a stress ball. It seems to have picked up quite a bit of dust and dirt. It started out this neon cream(is that even a color?) and now it's this unidentifiable gray-ish sludge. But it's still pliable, so I'll just keep on squeezing.
          I got my quilt square finished yesterday! It's so cute! I hot glued some fuzzy yarn around the edges, and mom found her letter stamps for me to use. So it has my name and council and years I'll be on YAC in the stamps. Then I found another baggie full of asst. stamps. So it's pretty adorable. One of the ink pads I used didn't work so well, so I had to trace it with a fine tip paint brush in a similar color. But it still came out all right, I think.
          Yesterday mom and I went and got my khaki pants! I have orientation today at 4:00! I'm super excited! I'm only a little bit confused about dinner. Orientation is 4:00pm to 9:00pm. That's five hours so I know I'll get at least fifteen minutes to eat something. But what do I bring? I don't want to be dorky and bring my lunchbox. I suppose I could bring a paper bag, but that feels weird. But it's what I'll probably do. Mom says that if I'm not careful, people will steal it. Maybe I'll bring something gross so they'll regret if they do. But I doubt it.
          While I was in town over the weekend, we went to a goodbye party for a good friend from the Camp Fire office. She's always been super involved with me and Hope, so we wrote her a toast/letter. Hope didn't want to read it out loud, she just wanted to give it to her. But I thought everybody would really like hearing it. So I convinced her to stand up with me while I read it. Of course once we got up there, I read the first sentence and promptly handed it to Hope because I couldn't see through my tears. I'm glad I have such an awesome best friend!! She ended up reading it out loud anyways. Everyone understood, and I got lots of hugs. Another woman I knew from the office was there and I hadn't seen her in a long time! I knew she was pregnant with twins but I hadn't seen her since the 3-4 month mark. She's due any day now and she is so lucky to be carrying twins to full term. They don't know if they're identical or fraternal, but it's two baby girls and she calls them itty and bitty. I can't wait to see pictures when they finally get here!
          The night we drove home, Tuesday, was horrible!!! It was dark, bad roads, and a nasty storm! I am so glad I did not have to drive in that, I don't think I could have. Poor mom must have been so sore from straining her eyes and hunching over the wheel.
          I also met with almost all of my consultants on my visit to town and we all agree I'm right on track! There's nothing in the world, short of a natural disaster(knock on wood) that is going to keep me from finishing my WoHeLo.
          YAC is starting to get busy with all the stuff YAC does! We're doing a fundraiser in March and Valentines for Vets have to go out soon, and I'm going to start working with Lucy at the CF office for Absolutely Incredible Kid Day. Which reminds me, I've got some more valentines to make!
           That's all for now folks!

January 20th, 2012

           FIRST! Thank you Miss Aqua for reminding me to post! I would've procrastinated far longer without you! Can't wait for June!!
          Alright, alright. I know I've been slacking!! I'd like to say it's because I've been busy, but not really. Just slacking lol. BUT now I know why I really joined the National Youth Advisory Cabinet...they give me excuses to use glitter!!! We're each getting a quilt square in the mail and we get to decorate them however we want!! I'm probably using too many exclamation points, but I can't find it in myself to care. Exclamation points are like glitter...addictive. My poor friends don't share my opinions, so I don't get my glitter out as often as I really want too.           

          YAC's also got me thinking of idea's for Absolutely Incredible Kids Day. See, we have got really great incentive.  Our president, Lauren, came up with this 'master list' and for every YAC deed we do, we get a point. At the end of three months or so, she'll tally the points and send the winner a Camp Fire surprise! At last check I was tied for first. Take that Owen :P 

           In other news, I still haven't heard back on whether or not I got the travel/room/board scholarship for the Grad Nation Conference. It's driving me crazy! Because Camp Fire birthday is in March and I really need to know if I'll be in town for it because WoHeLo'ees are honored there, and it's my year! Of course, the summit is a huge deal and way more important; not that I wouldn't miss sticking a pie in Scouts face. That's another thing, At birthday, the WoHeLo'ees get to stick pies in the faces of people that get voted on all day. Scout usually gets one. 

          I was feeling kind of lost on my last WoHeLo issue, so I called up Swan* at the Camp Fire office for some advice. Now, she's in the middle of switching jobs, so I know she's super busy. Still at the CF office, just different responsibilities. Which is why I was so grateful to her for spending 35-40 minutes on the phone with me brainstorming. Of course, now I have a lot of work to do, but I'm happy for it. Because otherwise, all my hours for this issue would be blogging. Not that I have a problem with that, but the panel may raise a few eyebrows when I'm trying to get everything approved. I'm going to put together a whole 'curriculum' for a presentation on the benefits of homeschooling. I'm going to make a tri-fold brochure to give out for our kinesthetic learners. A power point for the visual learners; and of course my own notes for the auditory learners. My goal is to have something anyone can pick up, read through once, and deliver easily.

          I finally watched Footloose last night! It was amazing! I can't believe it took me that long to realize that Kevin Bacon and I are destined to be together? Lol, jk...mostly. Now I want to see the new one; just for a compare/contrast kind of thing. I think my favorite part is Ren trying to teach Willard to dance. Ren's face=perfect. 

          I guess one good thing about our new town is that everything is in walking distance. Compared to our old town where you may be able to walk somewhere, you just don't feel safe doing it. Leo and I go to the library all the time, sometimes we stop at Dairy Queen(that's another bonus, we didn't have a DQ back home). DQ and Sonic have the BEST banana splits ever! No one else has clued in on putting pineapples on ice cream yet!

          I have a board meeting and Leo has a CF meeting on Monday evening and on Tuesday, we're going to a good friends good-bye party. She's been a huge mentor to me, so I'm sad to see her moving away. But I know it's a great opportunity for her. I just hope she can come back in April for my WoHeLo, but I'll understand if she can't.

          I'm getting more and more excited for April! My dad and stepmom, Lili, are bringing my little brothers from Louisiana to come see me! Since I'm homeschooled, mom and I decided to make this my graduation. We're renting a room after the ceremony for my whole CF group to have dinner with our families. And either the day before or after, my whole family is going out for dinner. If you're one of my close friends, you know how much that means to me. One of my mom's friends is pretty handy with a camera, so I'm hoping he'll be there so I can get some quality pics with my whole family together. Oh! That reminds me! My big brother in CA is probably coming too! It feels surreal to think of all four of my brothers and all four of my parents in one place for ME! 

          While I'm in town on Mon/Tues I have a meeting with my homeschooling consultant so I can let her know how things are progressing; and of course invite her to Grand Council Fire. I also really want to stop at Old Navy because I need khaki pants for work on Thursday! I'm so excited to start!

          Toodles for now! I've run out of steam and it's almost time for dinner (Mom's meatloaf and baked potatoes...be jealous)

*name has been changed

January 6th 2012

          Well, I've almost got the job! Wal-Mart called me back (the only one who called me back) and I did the interviews yesterday. I have to go back today for the drug test and all that fun stuff. I'm not worried and I know it's necessary, but I just wish we could skip it. I want to get straight to training! Make that moolah, you know? I'm going to be a cashier, so it shouldn't be too hard. And it's barely above minimum wage, but that is alright with me! It's a steady job. Working for the Diocese back where I used to live was fun and everything, but I seriously only ever worked maybe 10 shifts. So, not really in the way of making much money.
           Plus maybe I'll meet some cool people! I really want to make some friends here, but it's hard to get out there. Plus, it doesn't seem like there are any local hang-outs. I've been walking all over town, library and Wal-Mart, and I haven't seen anybody else my age walking around.
          Leo has a Camp Fire meeting on Monday so he and mom are going back to town for the night. I don't know if I'm going to go yet. It depends on if Wal-Mart needs me I guess. Hopefully we can do everything today and they won't need me until Wednesday. But if I do need to stay here, maybe daddy and I will find something to do. But if I do go, I'll get to see Neecee and the kids!!! And I really miss Wendy. When we visited them a few days before Christmas, she was so excited! I'd love to surprise her! Plus when we moved, I found all this stuff I don't want so I have some toys for her!
          A couple weeks ago, I was nominated for a scholarship to go to this conference in Washington DC in March. I'm so antsy waiting to find out if I got it. I don't really have super high hopes just because I don't want them dashed if I don't get it. But it would be super cool!!! Just to give you a hint as to how big this conference is, last year, Vice President Joe Biden was there. Yeah.
          I still haven't gotten my Christmas present from my father. I keep bugging him about it, but I never get a response. Part of me wants to stop bugging because I don't want to look greedy. But the other part of me KNOWS he will just completely forget.
          Last night I wrote a poem! I was just laying in bed in the dark and I got inspired! I don't remember what I was thinking about, but the words just came to me. Here it is:

I've cried for a boy on the internet
If you say that make me weak, you'd be wrong
Even if my tears are for someone I've never met
It's not a bad thing, compassion makes you strong

I've cried while shaking with rage
So you might call me high strung
But you're old beyond your years, you age
My tears keep me young

I've cried while clapping in glee
While you sit, avoiding emotion
I'm at peace, my heart and mind in harmony
Though my tears could fill an ocean

Every day is a battle for you
Everyday a war
But if you'd just see your emotions through
You'd see that there could be more

If eyes are windows to the soul
I can see your glass shattering
All that dust must take its toll
But no one else is noticing


          What do you think? I kind of like it. My mom said it was good, though written from a teenagers point of view. I was like "Well duh, I'm a teenager. What else do you expect?"

Anyways, that's all for today.

December 29th 2011

          So, I figured out how to post from my phone! Hence the post with the picture! Yay for snow! We actually got a little bit during the Christmas season. Where I used to live, we don't get snow until the end of January into February. Me and Leo and my Uncle even built a little snowman! But since we're in desert country, it melted before the week was out. Today I walked to this little strip mall near our house and applied for different jobs. Two clothing stores, a supermarket, and a little grill. I'm kind of rooting for the waitress job because I'll get tips! I've never actually had a regular job. My job at the church where I used to live was on an as needed basis, and I wasn't needed very often. I wonder what it'll feel like to have a regular cash flow! And by flow, I mean into the wallet and back out into the economy. Lol, I have no self restraint when it comes to shopping. My biggest weakness would have to be sunglasses. Yesterday we took my Uncle to the airport and we got to town early on purpose so he could see the city. We ended up going to this huge upperclass outlet mall. I say upperclass because it was all high end stores like Coach, and Nike, and Saks. Right up my alley. Now, Leo doesn't really have any knowledge of brand names and the like. So I took him in Saks and told him to tell me how expensive a pair of sunglasses were. Now, he knew it was an expensive store so he guessed really high...$50. I think he almost choked when I told him the pair he was holding was about $400 on sale.
          On the way home my phone started malfunctioning big time, so since we were already in the city, we stopped at an AT&T store to get it fixed. That was probably my best experience ever with AT&T customer service. The guy was very knowledgeable without making us feel dumb. That's a talent, I tell you! Oh yeah, I can't remember if I told you or not, but I got the position on YAC! It was funny actually, I found out when I went to see Nutcracker with my dad. I was picking up my tix from Swan and she yelled congratulations as soon as she saw me. Now, being in the middle of a move, I hadn't checked my email in two days. I thought she was leaking secrets or something. And that made them think they might be in trouble until I remembered I hadn't checked my email! So it was pretty funny.
          I can't wait for New Years!! My friend Scout turns 21 tomorrow, so we'll see him on the 31st to wish him a happy birthday. Plus mom wants to buy him a drink in honor of it being 21st and all. After that, I'm spending the night at Hope's. We're hoping to check out this teen club on its grand opening. It's wayyy bigger than OYP. I checked the website and everything, but they don't say if there's a cover charge. I'd imagine there is, but you'd think that if their target audience is 13-18 then all the information is on the internet. But no. I even called and left a message, but their machine was so annoying! We'll have fun either way. Lol, she's trying to set me up on a blind date. But seeing how disastrous the last one was, I'm a little bit nervous.  I'm not averse to the idea, it's New Years Eve after all. Just, apprehensive.
          That's all for now folks!

November 28th 2011

            Whew! I am still stuffed from Thanksgiving! I had a great holiday and I hope everyone else did too. My Dad came home for four days and it was weird. This is weird because it was weird. Does that make any sense? It’s just that he hasn’t been home but once a month for awhile now, and the house dynamic kind of changed while he was gone. But it was enjoyable none the less. I got to show off and drive all the way to my great grandparent’s house, which is an hour away, while daddy sat in the front.  This years Thanksgiving was actually kind of small. We usually have over 20 people crammed into the house, but this year not as many people could come I guess. I was just happy my cousin Lizzy could come!!! We had such a good time. We hung out in the spare bedroom just catching up for awhile, and then we went for a walk and saw a dead possum. Then we came back and ate pie for dessert. Finally we convinced great grandpa to let us take his golf cart out for a ride. In a series of unfortunate events including letting Leo drive, I bit the pavement and my knee is still messed up. I was kind of proud though because I haven’t actually skinned my knees in so long!

            When it was time to leave, Lizzy got all her stuff together and came home with us. We chilled at home for awhile and changed out of our family occasion clothes and got ready to go out shopping. We left for Wal-Mart around 9:30 so mom could brave the crowds to get Leo some new jeans on sale. Then we went to the mall to wait for it to open. We had such a good time sitting in the car laughing. Lizzy was explaining her new found obsession with chocolate. Apparently, she never really liked it until she had some really good chocolate and now she can’t get enough!! It’s really funny ;-)

            We had a great parking space right in front of the mall entrance, so we didn’t have to stand outside at all. We just waited until everyone else went inside then just strolled in like we owned it LOL!  We got some good deals at Hot Topic, mom and I found some super awesome Sailor Moon t-shirts and Lizzy found a Drake bracelet. Then we wandered around until we found the Rue 21. I absolutely love Rue and I think mom is on her way! They’re already pretty well priced so the sales were to die for! I didn’t actually find anything but a pair of cute sunglasses I wanted, but mom got a whole dang outfit and Lizzy got some super cute zebra print shorts.

            We got home around 2:30am and just crashed. I’m pretty sure we didn’t wake up until noon on Friday. We got daddy to take us to get some movies out of the Redbox machine at Walgreens. I let her talk me into getting Insidious and we both agreed on Your Highness. Insidious was supposed to be really creepy, but it was so lame! There were huge continuity gaps and to be quite frank, it wasn’t scary in the least bit. We were laughing the whole time. Then we watched Your Highness, which was supposed to be lame and it was actually funny because it was funny. Not crappy lol. We got to eat leftover pie all day, so I don’t think I ate a real meal until after she left Friday evening. Some of my parents friends came over to visit since daddy hasn’t been home much. After Lizzy left and I ate dinner, I was pretty bored all night until I fell asleep.

            It turned out to be a good thing Lizzy didn’t stay another night because I got sick on Saturday. I threw up and then I had a fever and chills. It wasn’t pretty. So I spent Sunday in bed eating saltines when I got hungry.  Today I have a board meeting and then I’m going to try to do an activity with Leo’s friends tonight at Braums. My plan should be fine if I can get a hold of my friend to see if I can get a ride! I’m sure it’ll work out, but I’m going to research bus routes just to be sure. Toodles!

P.S. To all my friends and family who actually know who I am, you may have noticed that I change all names! So if you can't figure out who you are, email or text me privately and I'll let you know ;-)

November 9th, 2011

          So, a good friend of mine recently started a blog, it's called "Add Some Sparkle To Your Day" and it's definitely worth reading!

          These past few days seem like they are just crawling by. And I'm not even really taking advantage of it. I have so many things to do, but I just keep procrastinating :/ bad habit, I know. I need to work on my issue summaries for my WoHeLo, I need to document all my hours doing these blogs, I need to set up a day with OYP to come do my Homeschooled presentation. It's a little overwhelming. Which makes me think, you can be overwhelmed and underwhelmed. Can you ever just be whelmed? Something to ponder lol! 

          I know a lot of those words that don't really make sense. Like, Mouse Mice, House Hice? Nope. Spouse Spice? Nope. It isn't very logical.

          Tonight I'm going to the opening of the DREAM exhibit with my executive director and some board members. I feel so special to be invited to represent CFUSA!

          I finally found a Water Safety Instructor class! Well, Hope's mom found it for me. But same diff. I talked to my camp director and she said that as soon as we completed a contract, that she would include a clause that if I finish the summer at camp and they use my WSI certification, then they'll pay me back for the cost in my paycheck! Super excited for that. It means I get to do swim lessons by myself. Like, be in charge of them! I love being in the pool. I don't particularly want to be on waterfront. Em can have it lol. I know she wants it. I can't wait for summer to come back. 

          Candy sales are coming up soon, and I'm not looking forward to it. I can never decide if I want to go big or go home. We've sold up to three thousand worth before, but we've also had years where five hundred is hard. And so many people are quitting candy sales that it's really easy to get Top Seller awards. It's disheartening. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. That's all for now folks! TTYL

October 26th 2011

     So today, I was looking through all my blog posts and I noticed that from the beginning, they're all sort of getting longer and longer like a Harry Potter book or something. So I think I'll keep this one short and sweet! I reaped the benefits of being homeschooled completely shamelessly today! We'd all been up(mom, Leo, and I) until around midnight last night, but for some unknown reason, mom decided we should all get up at 7:30am. So we're all kind of zombie shuffling through our day before we decide to hit the re-start button on the day. We all took naps from 10:00am until around 2:00pm. So when we woke up again, it was time to eat lunch and then resume our daily activities! Pretty sweet deal  if you ask me.
     I decided to apply for CFUSA's National Youth Advisory Cabinet. I really hope I'm accepted. I know they were short on applicants so they extended the deadline, but that doesn't make me any less nervous. I had to complete the personal information questionnaire, I have to write a double spaced essay no fewer than one and no more than three pages long, and I must submit two letters of recommendation. One of which may be CFUSA employee or volunteer and the other of which may not be related to CFUSA at all. I didn't have a hard time figuring out who to ask for my CFUSA reference at all, who better to ask than the head honcho of my council? So I asked my councils executive director. Finding a reference completely unrelated to CFUSA was definitely hard. In the end I asked my book club leader. The funny thing is that even though she hasn't been a member of CFUSA for more than four years, that's where we met! But I don't think that counts.
     That's all for now folks!

October 25th, 2011

   So, I had an amazing weekend!!! I left Thursday morning around 8:30am and went to Kansas City for Camp Fire USA's National Leadership Conference and Youth Summit! The hotel we stayed at was soo swanky! I think on my list of nice hotels I've stayed in, it's #2. I went with a bunch of women from my Camp Fire council and my bestie, Hope!* Since it was only Kansas City, we drove. I met a lot of people who flew in because it's a national conference, so there are a lot of different councils represented from all over the country!!! We got there Thursday, late afternoon, so we had time to check out our surroundings!! Oh, and my friend Sparky was there too, she's just a firecracker of fun! We dropped our stuff in our(supah nice) rooms and went shopping nearby. One of the women really wanted to go to this one shoe store, so we went. And very quickly got bored because she wanted to spend HOURS in there. And it wasn't even THAT great of a shoe store lol. So most of the adults went back to the hotel. Sparky, Hope and I went down the street to check out a halloween costume shop, and the one woman stayed at the shoe store. There were so many fun wigs! I tried on a lot of them, but my favorite was the giant afro wig. I wish you could've seen me, it was so funny!

     After we finished window shopping, we walked back to the hotel to get ready for our first dinner. Everything was so fancy, so we all dressed really nicely. I'm so glad I took Swan's(our chaperone) advice and only brought one pair of jeans for casual. Our first dinner was spectacular! I don't remember what the food was, but it was delicious! And every single meal the whole weekend was 4 stars! Like, waiters and three forks and three courses and two wine glasses. Our first speaker was Joseph Michelli. He wrote this book that I'm DYING to read, it's called The Starbucks Experience. Anyways, the whole speech was very engaging, and I didn't get bored one time! After everything was finished, before Hope and I went to our next workshop, I went up to him to shake his hand and tell him how much I enjoyed the speech. He told me I had amazing poise for my age to be able to walk up to a stranger and compliment them. It was awesome! 

     The first youth workshop was pretty much icebreakers to start getting to know the other youth. We played this game with skittles! So, you pass the skittles around and tell everyone to take as many as they want. After everyone has them, you reveal that for every skittle they have, they have to say an interesting fact about themselves, putting a skittle in their mouth for every fact, without shewing until they finish! Now, I've played this game before but with toilet paper. So I knew to only take a few skittles LOL!!! But other people had at least 50!!! It was hilarious! Some people were getting ulcers in their cheeks because the skittles were just eating away at them!

     So the first night was pretty great, getting to meet everyone. I also got to talk to Elizabeth Darling, the new chair of the board of national trustees for CFUSA. She was pretty cool, because at first, you just see this sweet looking older woman. Then she starts telling you how she enjoys scuba and skydiving in her spare time!!! Friday we spent doing workshops and hearing keynote speakers. My favorite workshop on Friday was probably Finding Your Voice. We had a guest who came and talked to us about what your voice is and how to use it to your own effect. My friend Sparky was actually helping to lead this one, and she was AH-MAZING!! One thing from that class that really stood out to me, was this "Passion X Message=Voice".

 Its really just been stuck in my head. We did two other things that day too, we learned about and wrote Elevator Speeches and we came up with practice action plans. See, Elevator Speeches are ironic to me now, but I'll get back to that later ;-). So, an elevator speech is a very short and concise speech you can give to someone you just met in an elevator. It should have all they key points including how to get involved and some of your own personal experience. We each got about 10 minutes to write a speech, then we did speed speeching! Which is similar to speed dating, but with speeches. We had one minute to read our speech to the person in front of us, then the other person had 20 seconds to give feedback before we rotated and did it agian adding the other persons feedback into our speech as we go. It was pretty cool.

     Then the practice action plans were to get ready for the youth summit on Saturday. My group made a plan on how to prevent domestic child abuse. It wasn't fail-proof, but it was definitely a good start. And I don't mean to brag, but ours was the most thought out and we had the most information.

     Friday night we had off, so our whole council went out on the town! We had 7:30 dinner reservations at this tuscany place in the KC Plaza called Brio's, so we left the hotel around 5:45 to have the valet park the car and go shopping for awhile before dinner! We went to the Betsey Johnson store, Northface, Eddy Baur, Hallmark, and Hope and my favorite, FOREVER 21!!!!! There was a huge Forever 21 down the street from a store that the rest of the women wanted to go in, so we begged our chaperone to let us go by ourselves....and she did! It was amazing! I got three cardigans and a long sleeve shirt to wear under them...for $16.00! So many deals, so little time! Everybody laughed when we came back and I had this huge bag while they had their little bitty Hallmark bags! Dinner was sooo delicious! Our executive director, who is so sweet, bought Hope's and my dinner! I didn't know that she was personally paying for it until we'd already gotten home. I thought the council was paying for it! If I'd known, I would have payed for it myself. Now, Hope is a really picky eater. And she's really small. So she was searching the menu for something to eat. finally, she saw "roast chicken $15.00" so she ordered that. The rest of us got some form of pasta. So finally, the waiters start bringing out our food and we all have our regular sized pasta plates and they carry over this HUGE platter for Hope. It's a whole chicken. The whole roasted chicken. It was so hilarious, the rest of us could not stop laughing!!! I think she got through maybe a fourth of it by the time the rest of us were done and she was full!!

     So we go back to the hotel and decided to check out the pool. The brochure said it was heated and it has a jacuzzi! So we get down there and make the (bad) decision to try out the jacuzzi first, which was delightful.  But after we finish the jacuzzi, the pool which felt so warm 25 minutes ago, is now freezing cold because the jacuzzi was so warm. So we went back to the room to grab our money to hunt down some snacks. I had the brilliant idea to knock on some girls from the conference's door a little ways down the hall. So they all decide to come with us. By now, Hope is on the phone with her mom telling her about all the fun we've had so far. So I told Hope to take the first elevator, and we'd all take the next one. So she could stay on the phone and not have to listen to us all chattering all the way down. (Here's the ironic part) So our elevator comes, and two more girls from the conference are on it, about to go check out the pool! So, we started on the 9th floor and had buttons pushed for the 5th floor, pool deck, and the lobby, snacks! Around the 5th floor, it sounds like there is a ton of pebbles falling on the elevator, it stops, and on the inside it says we're on the lobby floor. Obviously something went wrong, so we start leaning on the alarm button. Because the doors won't open. So in case you were wondering, it's me, the two girls who were already on the elevator, the three girls from the room down the hall, and their chaperone. So thankfully, I'm not the adult in the situation. The chaperone used the phone to call the elevator operator people, you know, the emergency phones in any elevator you've ever ridden in. Between all 7 girls in this elevator, there were two cell phones!!! It was amazing how bad our luck was. I used one of them to call my mom and give her the chaperones phone number and ask her to call Swan and tell her so that my council would know that I was stuck in an elevator!! The worst part was when they told us that if what they were trying next didn't work, they were going to turn off the power and drop us. Now there are two things to note here. 1: The inside of the elevator says we're on the lobby floor, so we're a little confused as to where they're dropping us, exactly. 2: I'm not a religious person, but right then I took hands with everyone else, bowed my head and prayed with everyone else. I haven't quite figured out what that means yet. Luckily, what they were trying DID work and there was a terrifying moment when the doors shuddered open for a couple seconds and closed again, but I still saw the signs outside the elevator saying we were on the 5th floor, NOT the lobby. Then a couple minutes later, the doors opened and looked like they would be stay open long enough for us to get out. I might mention that I was still in my bathing suit from swimming with Hope. The whole time. I was so cold. This all took about ninety minutes. Now, I'm the kind of person who can hang onto the shreds of composure until AFTER the event is over. So as soon as I got out, I started crying so hard. Then I walked up four flights of stairs to get dressed, then walked down four and had to take another elevator to the lobby so we could go over the accident/incident report. Of course the hotel management was in a tizzy over all of us, so a couple of the girls got blankets and I asked for some orange juice because I was shaky and dizzy and still very shook up. But the hotel guy never came back with it. So after we finished talking about it, we went out in the lobby to wait, and finally Lucy, one of the women from my council(I love her, she's pretty awesome) decided we were done waiting, so she went into the bar in the lobby and demanded some orange juice. It was decidedly cool. So I got my orange juice and finally felt steady enough to walk back up stairs. They left Hope and I there, and we went about getting ready for a long due bedtime (it's around 12:30). So I went to take my shower, but I was still feeling nauseous. Of course, I couldn't keep my OJ down, because I went into shock. I'm a trained lifeguard, so I know what shock looks like, and I knew that was what it was, my body just couldn't handle allllll that stress. But I called Swan anyway to let her know, and she and Lucy brought me some saltines and green tea and sprite to help me sleep. Eventually, it was the green tea that did the trick. 

     Of course, the elevator girls were the talk of breakfast. Luckily it was the day of the summit, so it didn't last long! The summit was actually pretty exciting! we had our 30 or so Camp Fire youth and then over 150 KC youth form different organizations came for the day. We all sat through the opening remarks by several different important people including CEO of CFUSA, Kathy Tisdale and KC Interim Superintendent. And there were several KC Councilmen there to watch and learn. After breakfast and the first few speeches announcing who all was represented at the summit, we split up into our breakout sessions. Mine was about peer mentoring. So all these different groups were attacking the problem of not enough youth going on to post-secondary education. Or even worse, not even completing their secondary school. And we were all looking at it from a different angle. My classes angle was how to get the youth excited for post-secondary education. Tyler and I (we're both CFUSA youth reps, and he's from D.C.) were paired with these two teens from the boys and girls club in the KC area. It was probably because we intimidated them with our excitement, but they didn't really contribute much to our brainstorming. But oh well, Tyler and I worked well together. After our breakout sessions, we went down to lunch and there was a DJ and everything! Pretty cool if you ask me!! He played the Cupid Shuffle, and easily 40 youth went up to the front and started doing it! After lunch, we split up into groups based on our organization. Since CFUSA had so many youth, w split even further into our own councils. So Hope, Sparky, Swan, and I came up with a pretty good action plan that would work in our council. I was "volun-told" to present it to EVERYONE there. So I got the opportunity to stand up in front of A BOATLOAD of strangers and talk about my idea's. It was awesome and terrifying at the same time! Afterwards, everyone told me I did a fantastic job, so it can't have too terrible.     

     We had an hours break after the summit finished up so me, Hope, Tyler, And Jason(Tyler's chaperone) decided to walk to the National World War One Memorial! We didn't have a ton of time, so we only walked to the bottom of the top....which had to have been five staircases at LEAST. But it was still pretty fun. The view was fantastic from where we were! We even got a picture of the three youth planking KC!! My first planking picture!! I admit, I kind of liked Tyler, so that just made everything more exciting lol! Anyways, CF is very "no purpling" so nothing happened.  

     After we walked back, it was time for our last dinner!  Everyone was dressed to the sevens(I would say nines, but it wasn't THAT fancy). I guess the coolest part of that dinner was that the president of the NWBA was our speaker. And I got to shake her hand. And at the very end, they played Edge Of Glory as our theme song, and even the CEO of CFUSA was dancing!!

     Then we had thirty minutes to change into something more comfortable before the youth "party". I still feel like we got conned into a service project... First they lured us in by putting party on the schedule and then getting us an ice cream bar. Then they trapped us with, and I quote, "An hours worth of reflection". So we did that, and then our "party" was the service project. We chopped up Wal-Mart bags to send to a church in KC who will crochet them together and make waterproof pads and blankets for the homeless. Which is cool I suppose, if you aren't expecting a party. We had to leave the next morning, so nothing really exciting happened between KC and home. Not that I really wanted anything too happen....I have had enough excitement for one week! 

     But this Thursday I have a Halloween book club party where we'll be discussing Poe(what else??), and then a Hitchcock marathon party at my friend Mark's House, then Saturday through Sunday evening, I'm helping out with an event at Wagamoo!

*For the people who actually know me, all names are changed, so hopefully you can figure out who you are! If not, FB me and I'll tell you lol. I have a piece of paper with all the pseudonyms on it so I don't get mixed up!