My Favorite Things

My Favorite Things 

Revision by Marie Frankfurt

Warm socks on cold feet and warm fireplaces
  Tea pots and tea cups and lots of big sweaters
Office supplies and new printer paper
These are a few of my favorite things

Rain and umbrellas and cloudy grey skies

 Owls and bookshelves and big walk-in closets
Camping and eating and sleeping, too
These are a few of my favorite things

Library books and those long summer days
Climbing big trees and playing board games
Sunflower seeds and unsweetened iced tea
These are a few of my favorite things

When I fall down
When there's spiders
When I'm feeling ill

 I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

I'm back... Again.

Well, here I am, back to blogging again! It's for real this time, I promise. I know that in my last post that I said that I was back and that I had something exciting to post for everyone; however, things did not really work out as I had planned them and I'm sorry for that. It's just a part of life. Things come up and plans change.

The truth is, I had planned something exciting for you at the start of the summer, because I thought that I would have a lot of extra time to blog because school was over. It turns out that my summer was much more exciting and action packed than I had expected it to be; therefore, I never got around to blogging.

But now, summer is over, school has started, and I'm ready to pour out my thoughts and emotions onto my blog for you and all of the world to see!

I am very excited about this year and all of the new things that it will bring. I am a senior now, just starting my last year of high school. I am a little scared and nervous about everything that is happening and that is to come. I have a ton of choices to make within the next two years that can change my life drastically. I am a little terrified, but I know I'll survive. Generally everybody does, the difficult part is just figuring out how.

Seriously though, I'll be fine. I have my family, who have all gotten through high school and (mostly) through college and have turned out all right. In fact, I think they are all pretty magnificent. There's my mom, my dad, my two brothers and their amazing wives, and my older sister. They have all been through the same things and they understand. We all look out for each other and I know that they are always here for me. No matter what I do, where I go, what choices I make, or what my plans are for the future, they are always around to help me out.

I also have my friends for support. They are my never ending supply of comedy relief, and I love them for that. That fact alone makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world to have them all as friends. Whenever I lose sight of reality and I get all stressed out and anxious, my friends are always there to remind me that I'm not in it alone. They remind me that I'm not the only one who is struggling at times. We're all generally experiencing the same things, and we can all relate.

The best support that I have and will every have is my Savior, Jesus Christ. He is my rock, my shelter, my healer, my father, and everything that I will ever need. He is the best reassurance that I'm not in this alone. He is by my side throughout absolutely everything. One of my favorite Bible verses is "Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.", 1 Peter 5:7. If I ever forget that, the Lord just hits me upside the head pretty hard with a Bible, I remember, and I'm good to go remembering that He is my everlasting support.

There you have it. I will survive because I have my family, my friends, and God to help me through. Every now and then I do need someone to kindly tell me "Suck it up... pull yourself together and focus. You will be fine."
So, with the loving, yet firm support of those most dear to me, I embark on a new adventure where many things are going to change. Be prepared for some new and exciting posts along the way and every now and then we can have a little(very one-sided) chat kind of like this one. 

Thank you for listening.
~M

P.S. any suggestions for a new blog background would be greatly appreciated. I'm tired of searching. Thanks. :)

I'm back!

After a very long time of neglecting my poor and lonely blog, I am back to take care of it again! After a couple weeks of not really having any actual blog assignments in my English class, I kind of forgot about my blog. Well, maybe I wouldn't say "forgot", it was more like "I'm so busy that I really don't have time to blog right now and people probably don't even read my blogs anyway so why should I even bother at the moment while my brain is about to burst and melt out of my ears from being crammed with homework and I am about to be put into an insane asylum because I keep laughing and crying all at once and I'm really tempted to burn all of my homework and textbooks right now and this probably doesn't even make any sense and - *passes out from lack of breath*". That was how I was feeling at the time. I suppose that can be normal for busy high schoolers and I hope that I was not the only one who was feeling that way. (Actually, I know for a fact that I am not the only one who was experiencing this.) Some of those feelings are still lingering, but by this Friday, they will be completely gone because school will be over for the year, thank goodness! I know that people always say that we should enjoy the easy and stress free time that we have in high school because it's only going to get worse as you get older, get a job and go to college an someday start a family... And I know that that is true, but for us high schoolers who are feeling stressed, tired, miserable, and terrified of thinking about what to do past high school, all of those feelings are very real to us and we would prefer that you would try to understand us at least a little bit and tell us that you've been in our position at least once before instead of brushing of our feelings entirely. Thank you.
 Basically, what I wanted to tell all of my readers is that I had been completely swamped in homework and that I was having a moment of panic. However, I have worked things out, gotten things done, and calmed myself down considerably and am now doing just fine. I still have a couple pretty big things to finish before school is over this Friday, but I know that I can do it! I am very excited to be back to blogging and I already have some really cool ideas ready for the summer that I hope everyone will enjoy!

I really want to think of a unique, signature ending that I can use for my "talky" posts like this one... If you have any cool ideas, let me know in the comments below! :)

10 Things...

1. I have along list of books that I would like to buy, but I can't buy them all at once because: I don't have money to be spending on books just because I want them and I'm already running out of space on my new book shelf.
2. There are some really cool, nice leather journals that I would like to have from Barnes & Noble; but, just like the books, I have to wait to buy one. I'm making myself use up my other two notebooks(they're not even cod journals. Yuck.) and it's also a little pricey, so it would have to be a treat.
3. My Grandma is currently visiting for a few days while my Grandpa does some coin business in Livermore.
4. I have taken a recent liking to the game of softball. I like to play second base. It can be pretty nerve-wracking, but I still think it's fun.
5. I have lots of math homework to do.
6. I'm loving being able to drive!
7. I would like to buy a cool clock to put up in my room.
8. I need to get two new pairs of dance shoes. Whenever I get new dance shoes, I still keep the old ones. I just can't part with them yet, they mean a lot to me.
9. Instrumental music often makes me want to cry. (In a good way!)
10. I locked both my keys AND my cellphone in my car while I was at the library, so I had to borrow a phone from the very kind lady at the desk in the library in order to call my Mom to come rescue me. Ugh... It had been a somewhat stressful day and I felt like an idiot. My Mom was being really nice about it and she just kept telling me "It's ok, it happens to everyone." and "You really don't have to feel bad, everyone does it at some point in time!"
Thank you, Mom, for rescuing me. :)

Just a little get-together...

When my friends and I hang out and have little "get-together"s, we usually just sit around and watch a movie with some snacks. Now, don't get me wrong, movies aren't at all bad! In fact, watching movies with friends is one of my favorite things to do. I just want to get a little more creative with what to do when we all hang out.
Here is a list of some ideas for a get-together with my friends. Some of these ideas are what other people suggested and some ideas are my own. A lot of people will probably think that some of these are really nerdy ideas. I do admit, some of them are pretty nerdy; but what can I say, I think nerdy is fun. :)

1. A murder mystery party. It would be like a "glorified game of Mafia".
2. A children's book party. Everybody would bring their favorite children's books that they read when they were kids. We would look at/read eachothers books and talk about the memories attatched to them.
3. A literature based party. It would be exactly like the idea with the children's books, but instead of children's books, it would be with poetry(poetry we've written ourselves or not), books, short stories, etc...
4. A picnic. A legitimate, full out picnic. I'm talking picnic baskets, picnic blankets, a sunny day at the park, and alone food you can eat! Everyone would bring a blanket and as much food as they would be willing to bring! :)
5. A Disney movie marathon night! Everybody brings their favorite Disney movies and snacks and we watch Disney movies all night long!

Magnetic Poetry. . .

"Apes, French Fries, and Potpourri"
             by Madeline Freres

I gaze into my velcro wrist watch,
And as I look beyond the face
With the colorful Roman Numerals
Looking back at me,
I see my future and the present time.

I see in my future some apes,
French fries and potpourri.
Yet, I'm stuck in a stuffy red room
Full of secret trunks, the game of
Kerplunk, and pictures of helicopters
And ornithopters.

In the stuffy red room
My cranium is at it's limit.
I'm all dressed in blue, thinking of you
And my future that lies in my
Velcro wrist watch with the colorful
Roman numerals staring back at me.

Short Stories...

Setting: Back of an ambulance in Russia
Tone: Angry
Genre: Comedy
Written by: Madeline, Bonnie, Joel, and Ben.
2012
   (Madeline) The French man was yelling and thrashing around wildly resisting the help of the paramedics. He was obviously upset about something, but the paramedics didn't think about it much because that often happened. The paramedics were. . .
(Bonnie) unsure what to do, though. He seemed to be trying to tell them something. Finally, the man stopped talking. He just stared at the top of the ambulance. They were quite close to the hospital, so the paramedics weren't thinking to much about the man. However, immediately after being brought. . .
 (Joel) into the hospital parking lot, they were instructed to go to a different hospital across town. Curses in French and Russian filled the ambulance like popcorn fills a kettle. The driver screamed something threatening that even the other Russians couldn't understand. The irate Frenchman layed on his back as the beeping of the heart-rate monitor sped up to the pace of a. . .
(Ben) humming bird's wings. Now even more so were the paramedics upset. On top of having to go to another hospital,  their patient was now going into shock.



Setting: Croatian Fashion Show
Tone: Angry
Genre: Documentary
Written by: Madeline, Bonnie, Logan, Joel, and Jordyn.
2013
   (Madeline) Every year, the country of Croatia hosts a fashion show, one of the most competitive and terrifying events in the world. The fashion show is set up like a competition. It is an exclusive event and only Croatian designers can enter into the competition. Each of the designers has five years to prepare a new line of clothing. In the past, the amount of time that the designers had to prepare their clothing had to be extended to five years because the competition had grown so fierce. The designers are now in a mad race to win the competitive Croatian Fashion Show.
(Bonnie) Not only do the designers have to take five years to ready their designs, but the models must re cooperate and train in that time. The arena that this fashion show is held in holds only thirteen thousand people. They stay behind the protective bullet proof glass for protection; not just for the audience, but for the designers and models as well. No model is allowed any weapon but what the designer had put into the clothing themselves. In earlier years, if the audience didn't like an outfit or model, they were known to attack them. This was outlawed, the contestants were only allowed to be attacked by other contestants.
(Logan) Most models leave the arena on stretchers, others never leave. A few models, however, are known for their war tactics and physical strength. These contestants are ruthless, often choosing decapitation as their killing method. The designers for these models are also fierce. They send their contestants in battle-ready and sometimes join the competition, attacking the other designers. One year, a designer actually used her model as a bat, grabbing the girl by her legs and swinging her about. This effectively took down 7 models and 13 designers. The designer responsible was later disqualified for giving her contestants machine guns before they went on stage.
(Joel) However, catty designers have resorted to designing outfits out of live attack-dogs and grenades. This year, it is rumored that one designer has even found a way to convince the judges that. . .
(Jordyn) a dress made of dogs would be a powerful statement towards activists that believe these fashion shows are inhumane. The judges went with it; however, the designer would have to feed the dogs. She agreed to set off to find suitable food for seventeen  Rottweilers. She had to feed them nine models to make them stop whining. This eliminated all competition and she won by default.