Back in my hometown...

Hello everyone! I just arrived back home today after being on vacation in Oregon at my grandparents house. I had a very nice time and enjoyed my trip. Here's some updates on what happened while I was gone:

My mother, my sister, and I began to make the drive up to Oregon on a Monday morning. On the way we stopped at the house of my cousin and his fiance to see them and their adorable little baby boy. Sadly, my cousin was not there because he was at work, but we enjoyed the time that we had with his fiance and sweet boy.

From there, we continued on and stopped one more time to visit my aunt and uncle (my fathers brother) and their two daughters (my cousins, also the sisters of the cousin I mentioned before) and their (total of) six kids. We hung out with them all evening and I thoroughly enjoyed all of the bonding time that we had. It was a very cool experience. We stayed the night at my aunt and uncle's house and left in the morning to complete our trip up to Oregon.

We arrived the next day at my grandparents wonderfully amazing house, and so our vacation officially began.

Over the course of the time at my grandparents house, we would have days where we would just sit around and rest, watching TV, reading books, just doing whatever we'd feel like doing until it was time for dinner. My sister made a couple very delicious Ukrainian dishes for us over the course of the first three days. I enjoyed that very much.
We also had a couple work days. One of the missions that we had to accomplish while on vacation was to move my sister into my grandparents house. She is going to be working on a internship for the Elisha Foundation in Oregon, and the family that she is working for lives there, so she's moving in with my grandparents. So, while my mom and grandma were unpacking her stuff I would usually be doing homework in the upstairs room.
One night, we had dinner with the Reimmers for their son Abe's birthday.
On Sunday, we all went to my grandparents church and then went out to lunch at The Original Pancake House, which was delicious. While I was there, I ate two pumpkin pancakes, one sour dough pancake, two sausage links, two eggs, two very large pieces of bacon, and white a bit of potatoes. I ate absolutely all of it and was completely stuffed. That night, my aunt and uncle (my mothers brother) and my cousin came over for dinner.
The next day we just rested and I did a little bit of homework.
On Tuesday, we had to wake up at 6:00am to take my sister to the airport because she was going on her first trip for her internship. After a very teary goodbye, my mom and grandma and I went back to The Original Pancake House and had breakfast there again. From there, we went home and got ourselves ready for a shopping day to cheer ourselves up. We went shopping for a very very very long time, then, at 8 o'clock, we went to a restaurant called Baldy's to have dinner with my aunt and uncle again. At dinner, I ate a (petite) rack of baby back ribs with coleslaw, beans, and a delicious appetizer of fried okra. Again, I ate all of it.
On Wednesday, I did homework all day long until 8:00, then I sat for two hours and watched Restaurant Impossible and America's Got Talent. At 10:00, I packed up everything for the long drive home the next day.
The long 10 hour drive back home to Patterson the next day consisted of some music, a lot of doodling, ice cream, and almost the whole second half of the Hunger Games.
That was basically the whole of my trip, missing a few minor details.

Thank you for listening.
~M

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.