OBX

This past week flew by! Sunday was Emily's graduation and Mommanay and Poppa came down to celebrate. It was so good seeing them again. Sadly, they had to leave on Monday. It was a short visit but I am glad they could come. Tuesday morning I woke up around 4 to get ready to leave for the OUTER BANKS! Dad wanted to leave at 8 but I said we should leave at 4 so we could get there earlier. He ended up saying we could leave at 5 if I drove the first couple hours. So we tried to leave at 5 but didn't end up leaving until about 5:45 which is pretty typical. If we shoot to leave at 5 for long cars trips we usually don't leave until 45 min. to an hour later. I drove from 5:45 until about 8:30. By 8:30 I was super sleepy and switched with my Mom. The trip there went by pretty fast. We got there at about 12ish. I won't bore you with details about every single thing we did but here a few of the things we did: played frisbee on the beach, played football on the beach, relaxed on the beach, went in the ocean, played in the sand, went in the hot tub, went in the lazy river, went in the pool, went crab hunting, body-surfed, boogie boarded, took walks on the beach, looked for shells, ate fresh homemade donuts, ate custard, went to the Wright Brother's Memorial, went to Jockey's Ridge, flew kites, ate fudge, went to a light house, and ate pizza in our hotel room. It was a great vacation. Below are some pictures from Emily's graduation and our trip.

                                                      Emily with Mommanay and Poppa

                                                               Me with the graduate

                                                      Andrew learning to fly the stunt kite.

                                                                      The lazy river

 

Crabs were everywhere!

DOLPHINS!

 shells

A starfish we found on our walk

Our Macaw 

Mom and Dad at the Wright Brother Memorial

The Lighthouse

Between my Dad and my Brother we got so many pictures. More are on facebook.

Only in America......

1. Only in America......can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.

2. Only in America......are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.

3. Only in America......do drugstore make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

4. Only in America......do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

5. Only in America......do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

6. Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

What a strange country we live in. I sure am excited to get out of this country in just 27 days!!!

It is finally Saturday. The week is over and I am exhausted and sick. I guess all the waking up early and busyness made me more susceptible to the virus that is going around. Sore throat, stuffy/runny nose, and clogged ears = no fun. I started feeling bad Wednesday evening. Thursday morning I had to get up and go to work at 7. I also had to go to swim practice which definitely made my throat worse. Straight from practice I had to babysit our next door neighbor Abby until 11:15. Luckily, she is very easy and went to bed at 10. From 10-11:15 I read Pride and Prejudice and tried not to fall asleep. Yesterday morning and I had to get up and go to work again. The four hours felt like forever because of my runny nose. By the time I got home my grandparents were there. What a happy surprise that was. They are staying until Monday and I am so glad. I haven't seen them since Thanksgiving. But basically right when I got home I had to turn around and go to haircuts with my sisters. Everyone just got trims except Catherine who wanted to get 3 more inches off. She like short hair and keep cutting more off each time. It looks cute though. I skipped practice yesterday because I felt terrible and slept for the three hours I would be swimming. It was nice. Today I had to get up early again and go to swim practice and swim lessons. My last lesson didn't show up and I got to go home early. That was so nice. Tonight is Rations of Hope (a dinner to raise money to build a school in South Sudan) and you should most definitely go! If you want more info just go to the Rations of Hope facebook page. It's going to be great and you shouldn't miss it!

Advanced Placement Exams: COMPLETE

I am officially done (except for the ACT on June 9). FREEDOM! Today was my second and final AP exam of my junior year. Yesterday I took AP GoPo and today was AP Lang. After Emily and I finished our AP Gov. test we went home and rocked out to this like rockstars. It feels so good to not have a test to study for! It will feel even better next week when I can actually sleep in and relax. I had to get up at 6:15 for exams and that is early for me. I'm used to getting up "early" (7ish) about 3 times a week and this week I have had and will have to get up early every day. This week my days have been kind of repetitive...repetitive...repetitive. This is what I do: wake up early, either work (at nomad) or take an AP exam, come home, take a short nap, and swim.

past few days

This past weekend was a good one. It was full of friends, family, and relaxation. On Friday I spent most of the day chilling out. I slept in and woke up to a gorgeous day. Andrew had his hammock hung up and it was so nice laying in it. That night we watched Mission Impossible 2. Starting on Thursday, we watched on each night and finished the trilogy Saturday night. The third one is definitely the best.

Saturday was an extremely busy day. I had to get up at 7 and leave for NOMAD. I didn't get back home until 12:15. Swim lessons filled up my morning. At 2:30 Emily, Kaela, and I had to leave for Emily C.'s play (The Elves and The Shoemaker). Her PFO group put on the play and it was quite funny. Below are a few pictures of Emily in costume.

She was the "Mama Elf" and all the children loved her. After her play a group of us went over to anthropologie to look for graduation dresses for the two emilys. They both found gorgeous dresses and we even got some kitchen mits/gloves for my mom. That evening we watched the third Mission Impossible.

Yesterday was Mother's Day. Words cannot express how much I love my mother. She has done so much for me and I love her to the moon and beyond! She's always there to listen and give advice and I wouldn't trade her for the word. Yesterday was very relaxing. All five of us kids woke up and made her breakfast in bed (belgian waffles). We went to church and when we came home, throughout the day everyone ended up taking a nap. For dinner we went to Azteca. It was a good day. The picture above was taken before we completely took down our swingset. It was just getting too old and dangerous to keep around. Rotten wood, splinters, and rust were taking over. I kind of miss that old swingset though.

Today has been a crazy day. Way different from how the weekend went. But I guess it is Monday and Monday's are usually crazy. I had to work from 8-12 this morning and when I went out to get in the car, it wouldn't start. I had to get someone to jump it. The downside was...it was raining during all of this. It took a little while to get the car to start but by the time it started, I was drenched. At least I got home. Once I got home I had about an hour before I had to take Kaela and Catherine to meet with friends. By the time I took them to where they needed to go, it was 2:15. So i took a much needed nap until 2:45 and then went to swimming. The rest of my evening will be full of AP GoPo studying for my exam tomorrow.

Last Class of My Junior Year!

This morning in English class Grant reminded me that today was our last class of our junior year. I now only have one more year until I graduate high-school!! That's exciting and kind of sad. I'm not ready to say goodbye to everyone. I guess that's why I still have another year though. But will I ever be ready to say goodbye to everyone here and move on? The last day of class was a good one. We got out early and the sun was shining so Grace and I decided to take a picture.

Lauren would have been in that picture but she decided to skip out on the last day of class. The rest of my afternoon was chill until I went to swim practice. For dryland we had to run up and down a hill a bajillion times. And after practice I had to come home and take my APGoPo Final Exam. It has been quite a day. I'm ready for the weekend.

bears on wheels

 

 

These past few days have flown by! Friday, Andrew came home. Sunday, after a day at my grandparents celebrating our cousin's third birthday, we (mom, Andrew, KK, Catherine, and I) went for a bike ride on the greenway. We biked for about 1.5 hrs but, upon Catherine's request, we had to be back home in time to watch "Once Upon a Time". It was a good evening for a ride despite all the gnats flying into our eyes and mouths and ears and nostrils and yeah. We stopped for honeysuckles along the way to refresh ourselves. 

I have been unicycling a lot more lately. Before Friday I hadn't unicycled in months. Surprisingly, I caught on quickly and was able to get on and go farther than I ever have. Today I went even farther! I rode to the end of our cul-de-sac, to the right to the next stop sign, and up the hill to the right of that. I did have a pretty nasty fall though. 

Other than biking and unicycling, I taught swim lessons, went to chick-fil-a with the fam to visit Emily working, volunteered at a blume clinic downtown with emily, had a pool party/sleepover with friends, and had a physics party. Living life > writing about life (i.e. I have a good excuse for not blogging since Friday).

note: flaring nostrils

 

a full friday

what a busy day today has been! busy, but good. I had my AP Lang final at dr. gordon's house this morning. Afterwards we all (ap lit & lang classes) went out to Vietnamese!! It was so delicious, i think better than the thai food from last year. this afternoon has been characterized by homework (i finished all 78 free response/129 multiple choice physics review), chores, dinner with Mrs. Barb, and praying about my trip this summer to NIGERIA. This evening Emily and I practiced our unicycling skills like a boss. and I also pet-sat for Shadow, our neighbor's dog.

$40 for watching this easy pup for the weekend. i promise he is sweeter than he looks in this picture. i think he was upset with me for being 25 min. late to let him out tonight... what can i say? i got distracted by a very important super mario game.

And here is one last photo of kk... being kk. note: her strange ET-looking fingers

Gov. Study Session

Today was a different Thursday from normal. I only had 1 class today instead of 3. This morning was my last Thursday morning Gov. class. After class Emily Calder came over for about an hour and we studied The Presidency. As you can see in the picture above, we got out all our gov. textbooks and made flashcards online. It was a good study session. Once she left I went to swimming. Thankfully, I had to leave at 6:00 and didn't have to run Skybrook in the 88 degree weather. Emily picked me up and we went to babysit the Hardenbrook's small group kiddos. It was hot and buggy but we had a good time playing with the kids. Once we got home Emily, Kaela, Catherine, Dad, and I biked and unicycled for a little while. I'd say it has been a good day.

My alphabet

ambition: to love others to the best of my ability and strive to become more and more like Jesus Christ in every area of my life.

bad habit: wasting time on the wrong things.

city: Charlotte for all of my life so far. 

drink: a nice COLD glass of milk.

education: one more year of high-school.

food: most all types of fruit. peaches, nectarines, grapes, mangos, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, pineapple, apples, blueberries, etc. 

guilty pleasure: watching little kid movies like Tinkerbell and Barbie with my sisters.

hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina

ice cream: always better up north for some reason.

job: swim instructor

kryptonite: puppy chow

look-a-like: when I was about 12 someone said Lindsay Lohan. Most people think me and Emily are twins though. I've also heard people say I look like my mother.

movies: "count of monte cristo" and almost any animated movie.

nicknames: Ame, Kamy, Aimless, Pumpkin, Joybells, Joyster

obsession: looking at clothes from anthropologie.

passion: i love kids and being able to teach them new things. Whether it's teaching them how to swim or how to read, there is nothing like teaching little kids new things.

quirk: when i get started laughing about something, i can't stop.

regrets: i would say never having learned an instrument but i still have time to do that in the future. any mistake i have made have all been a part of God's plan.

starbucks: a caramel frapp

talents: swimming. unicycling. beating everyone at Just Dance.

university: as of now, don't know. hopefully this time next year i will have that decided.

 

 vacation: anywhere with my fam.

want: a horse. always have, always will.

x: i either think of it as "marking the spot" or as a variable i had to solve for way too many times in math.

years: 16

zen: coloring.

Here is my very first alphabet! If anyone would like to do one I would love to add it to my blog. Just comment with your email and I will get in touch.

no limits

Today I got my after nine Full License! Woohoo! Now I can drive more than one person and as late or early as I would like. The DMV didn't take as long as I was used to. Today it took about two hours of time instead of the usual 3. I did have to get up at 6:20 though. Unlike yesterday, I have not gotten much done today. Besides getting my license I also went to Kaela and Catherine's Unit Celebration at the Church. They are officially done with school. Later today I have an AP meeting at Mallard Creek and Physics class and Accountability Group.

On a side note, I must have a dog like this.