Mom's Birthday!

location: Nelson's ledges & friends house & Presque Ille



emotion: happy



First of all Happy Birthday Mommy!!!!! Best Mommy/Best Friend Ever! I enjoy watching chick flicks when it rains. Going to Walmart at 11:30 pm for stuff we need. Shopping in Mentor then eating at the Jade Tree. Cleaning super fast before someone comes over. Being there to talk too. None of these things would be the same without you! I love you!



I have had such a fun weekend! We went to Nelson Ledges on Saturday. I've been there a few times, but it a place that doesn't really get old. Very cool things to see there, like trees growing up though the rocks. We spent time at my friend Alli's house for a harvest party with neighborhood friends on Sunday afternoon and evening. All my buddies from the days of early homeschool and before where there! Some of us girls picked mini pine cones off this tree. I kept a few, not sure what I'll do with them but they look cute because they are so tiny. We went on a walk in the woods with a whole bunch of people. When we got back, I chatted with my friends who didn't go in the woods. My mom and I tried some yummy pecan tarts. I kept eating cookies when I was there. We were going to go see a movie for my mom's birthday but we missed the time so we just stayed at the party longer. Alli and I played a card game and colored a coloring book page when it started getting dark and buggy out.

Today for a fun Labor day/ Birthday Event we went to Presque Ille, up around Erie. It was the perfect day for the beach. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch. Its been a while since all of us as a family have been at the beach together. :)

senior year

location: Kent Geauga Branch for the Bershire early bird cross country race

emotion: (as of now) productive

I haven't got around to putting up the pictures from my race last Saturday until now. The first one is the start of the race. It gives you a good idea of what the start looks like and just how many people are in these races. There was around 200 girls there and that's not even the biggest race we go to.

location: school

Schedule:

Government- seams like a cool class and a cool teacher. Good class to start the day off with

Trigonometry- First day of school we were given a speech on how trig isn't that hard or scary if you do your work. I had the same teacher for algebra 2 and he was glad that I got to take trig after I thought I might not be able to due to schedule conflicts.

Art-Nice class, looking forward to what this year will bring.

Computers-typing has begun. Keeping a blog over the summer has helped. ;)

Biology- haven't started anything yet just got an overview of the year and we'll get to dissect sheep brains and hearts. yummy.

English-got a book and finished my Friday paper early because I won't have time on Thursday night due to a cross meet

Lunch-yeah I know not a class but its worth taking about. Sitting with buddies+everyone is happy=all good

Creative writing-total of six people in this class! Started a story today.

Sculpture-looked at slides of my art teacher's work. very cool. I Love being in the art room twice a day.

I hope you all had/have a good start to your school year!

Blackberry Pie

location: kitchen

emotion: hungry

My brother, my mom and I went to visit my grandpa. His garden has been productive and my mom planned on getting a few vegetables. Nearby the garden was a blackberry patch, so Tim and I got containers to put berries into. I was wearing long sleeves so the prickers didn't scratch my skin but did stick to my sleeves. We got all the ones in the front and most of the good ones were in the back. I had an idea to find a stick and push over the front plants to get to the back ones. This worked for a little while until my grandpa came over. He just pull those pricker plants over and got right in the middle of the surrounding plants. Right to the juicy ones. In the end we had so many we could make a pie.

At my house we have a few blackberry plants but most of them are not ripe. I picked a few berries to add to the collection. So I was off to start the pie. Now I'm not the type of person that is real into baking. Usually its always Meli who bakes things but I wanted to. One thing I can do is follow a recipe at least. Of course a word might come up that I don't know. It really wasn't that bad making to and it turned out delicious. We ate it with whip cream on top (I would of taken a picture of a slice but we ate it before I remembered). I guess taking Home Ec. wasn't a waste of time after all.

cheerful

location: in the present

emotion: peaceful

Lately I've felt like I've been in a good cheerful mood the past few days. That is always a good thing, but I'm not really sure why. I guess I shouldn't ask, I should just enjoy that I'm not moody and gloomy. It could be that I got the proofs from my senior pictures. Now I have no clue which ones to pick. What one to put in the yearbook and all that great stuff. I brought them with me to youth group and some people saw them at church. Mrs. C did an excellent job!

The first track meet of the cc season is Saturday. We have all been working hard and I should be ready for it. We ran the oh-so-wonderful 5 mile loop with scary dogs. Yikes! I watched one of the distance races at the Olympics. Those people are just crazy to run 25 laps! I've also watched lots of the volleyball. Thank you to all who left comments about the Olympics. I enjoyed reading about them :)

Tomorrow is an orthodontist appointment for Tim and I. Then school clothes shopping for Tim. He has grown over the summer and all his pants are floods. School starts next week and I still need school supplies. I'll be making a trip to Walmart this week then. Good old Walmart comes in handy.

Olympic post it note

location: in front of the TV

emotion: inspired

I added a new thing to my blog that keeps updates on the medals from the Olympics. If you click on it, it should take you to a page where you can find a schedule. You can type in your zip code and what type of cable or satellite you have and it brings up the channels its on and whats showing. So far I've only seen some swimming (which is awesome since Phelps keeps breaking world records) and a little of the men's volleyball. Last night I tried watching it but it got too late and I ended up falling asleep. I would love if you left some comments about if you're watching the Olympics and what sports!

senior picture photo shoot

location: Julie Charlton Photography

emotion: chipper

Yesterday, I went to get my senior pictures done. It was a blast! I was greeting by Mrs. C and her assistant Pinkchicky. Then off to the photo shoot. I brought along my bunny as one of the props. The pictures with the bunny came first. Surprisingly Honeysuckle stayed still! Of course as soon as she was on the ground she tried hopping away. I brought some art supplies for props. I forgot a sketch pad or any sort of paper. Mrs. C found something, good thing! I really like the way she arranged all my sports stuff. I had a lot of it, Letterman Jacket, team tee shirts, uniform, two pair of training shoes, and two pair of racing shoes. Some pictures I've seen make the sports look tacky but not this job.

I was all over the place. Inside then outside then new out then repeat. Pictures by the dock, by the swing, by the barn. Oh by the barn, Pinkchicky had an idea for a pose and the camera. I can't wait to see how it turned out. The pond/lake is so pretty there. A great place, in my opinion, for pictures. It was so much fun and I want to see the proofs so bad!

Now for today's short update. I survived the first week of practice. It was a hard one. Tonight I'm off to the wedding at church. Its been a while since I've been to a wedding. We got invited to three this year but the other to where sort of far away (one being in Mass). So, it should be nice.

second day of practice

location: at the track, loop around town, weight room



emotion: sore

Note: somehow this never got published, so its really from two days ago. I'm not sure how that happened.

Today the team meet at the track for a 800 meter warm up (2 times around the track) to start the wonderful second day of practice. The first day consisted of a enjoyable 6 mile = 1 hour long run with some hills and no shade. So by the 2nd day you can really feel the soreness from the day before. Lunges and a couple other things were added to our workouts. From there we went straight to the 4 mile loop around town and back.

During my run today I was thinking how much running is my thrapy, I think we all need some way to go to another world to think and deal with things that come up. Once I start running I think 'Oh is my form right? Am I breathing to hard? what am I going to do later today?' and before long I'm caught up in my own world.

August has begun

location: by the creek

emotion: hopeful

The flower is one of the wildflowers in our creek. The are called Cardinal Flowers or Lobelia cardininalis. They are some what rare around here and some years they don't grow. This year we have a lot of them.

My mom and I went for a run and we were cheered on by a fellow blogger! 2.5 miles with a good amount of hills. It was such a nice day and a number of people were enjoying the out doors. Afterwards, we stopped at walmart. I got three black frames for my bedroom wall. Since I've changed my room around last there has been very little on the walls. I'm planning to pick some of my photos that I've taken to put in the frames. For now I cut out pictures from magazines so I can hang them up.

The month of August has arrived. I don't know if anyone else has noticed that it has no holidays. Maybe that's way most of the county fairs are then. I always look forward to going to the fair. I don't know if I have an exact reason but I just enjoy it.