blogger quiz

Maybe these quizes aren't so wrong after all... This seems to reflect the kind of blogger I am:

You Are a Social Blogger!

Your blog is more of a semi-private affair for your friends. It's how you keep in touch... sharing stories, jokes, and pics.

What kind of blogger are you?

dancing

Hey everyone!

Last night I went to Southside with Bekah, Megan and Julie and saw part of SS's talent show. It was OK. Most of the people were playing instuments so it felt more like a recital than a talent show. We left part way through though, because it was going on for so long and we were going swing dancing. That was fun! We went to Fountain Square. I haven't been there forever, and I haven't been swing dancing since this summer at Conner Prairie. I'm not particularily good at it, but it's still fun. I love Fountain Square. It feels like it's right out of the fifties.

I still don't know my lines for the play... They're pretty easy though. Every time Marmee (the mom) says "Hannah, fetch me whatever" I say, "Yes, Mrs. March." Once I come in with a letter and once I tell the girls where there mom is and what a wonderful person she is and that we should get breakfast ready. Mostly I'm just in the background doing work. Haha. I'm supposed to have an accent, which makes it harder, but I'll figure it out.

This week for Physics we had to do Rube Goldberg machines. Mine was designed to wake someone up and prepare breakfast and David kindly volunteered to be my guinea pig so he got ice dumped all over him....Sorry, David! It was funny though. :-) Very funny. And then he was supposed to sit up, which pulled a weight off a teeter totter so that a ball rolled down a tube and hit a precariously balanced container of milk, which then poured into a bowl of Froot Loops.

And that, my friends, has been my life so far this week. Plus a lot of school work. When will it ever end?! I can't wait for summer!

Oh, I'm riding on Monday so I'm happy. If I'm in a ridiculously happy crazy mood at play practice, that will be why. I assume no responsibility for my actions, including ones like not knowing my lines. Haha, too bad I can't really do that!

volunteering

Every Tuesday, I drag myself out of bed at the unearthly hour of 6:45. (Actually, that's not that early, but it feels really early since I have no morning classes before 10 this semester!). Why do I subject myself to this? It's not because my mom makes me. It's not because I want to be the first to read the funnies, although I often am anyway. I shall stop keeping you in suspense and reveal why this is: I volunteer at Agape Therapeutic Riding Center in Cicero, IN. (So does Amber--her blog is http://www.amberwheeler.blogspot.com). Volunteering is a good thing. In this particular case, it is also a fun thing. We're supposed to get there at 8:30 to help tack up the horses (it's kind of a drive--about 45 miinutes, which explains why I have to get up so early). So, first we mess around with horses which is obviously a lot of fun for me. Then, the kids get there. The class we have is from Anderson schools and they are mostly mentally disabled. So, the kids get on the horses and we go around the ring and do fun stuff with them. You should see the kids' faces light up when we trot. Some of them are non-verbal, so all the communication you get is facial expressions. I really hope we are making a difference in their lives. I don't know, really, since I never see the kids outside of Agape, but don't think it's entirely impossible that this is the best day of the week for many of them.

And I am a part of it! My professor for speech class was explaining to us how people are egocentricic (sp?), meaning that they approach everything with the attitude "what's in it for me?". Like it or not, it's true. However, it feels very good to get out of your "natural" inclination and do something for somebody else. I understand if grooming a horse and walking alongside a kid who can barely hold himself on the horse is not something you think you'd be good at, but surely there is something you can do for somebody else. I think many of my friends already do this, but a reminder surely can't hurt.

If I have encouraged you at all to help out your fellow man, here's a suggestion for how you can take action on your newly discovered ambition:

I have a problem! In a few weeks I have to give a persuasion speech and a policy speech. First, I have to convince my audience that something is a problem, and then I have to explain what the best course of action is and how they can support it. I can do something that's in the news all the time (pollution, obesity, should Indiana ban smoking in bars, etc.), but I don't want to do that. I want to do something that affects every single person in my class every day, and offer a solution that they can start implementing right away. That's a tall order. And I have no ideas. Actually, I know exactly what I would give this speech on, but I'm not allowed to. I want to speak about the problem of sin, and how to "fix" it, or more accurately, how Jesus fixed it for us. But since I can't, I am asking all of y'all to give me ideas.

So, now that you're finally done reading my rambling, I want to leave you with two thoughts:

1. I should help somebody other than myself as often as I can.

2. I should help Sara right now by giving her a great speech topic.

So long! Have a nice week!

contest

Sadly, I don't have much to update on. Nothing spectacular has happened, except that I got through my speech, and actually did a pretty good job. At least, according to the person who matters! So, thank you God for that.

Also, I mentioned in my last post that I should have a contest for writing in to Dear Annie. Ellie has talked me into actually doing it. So, if you write in and make it, I will give you $5.00 or chocolate chip cookies, which ever you prefer. And you will be famous because I will post about it on my wonderful blog.

I am trying to plan a ski trip for Saturday the 26th to Perfect North. If you want to be included, let me know ASAP! You are more than welcome to let your friends know about it too.

In the days to come, I hope these things will happen to you:

You will feel the presence of God.

Your smile will light up someone's day.

You will be nice to someone just because.

You will eat some really good ice cream.

You will get everything done on time.

You will comment on my blog.

Bye!

funny

I cracked up when I read this in the paper! This is the column that replaced "Ann Landers". I don't read it that often, but the headline for this one caught my eye:

Dear Annie: I am a 35-year-old woman with four children, an advanced degree and no serious health problems, but I have compulsively and secretly been eating crayons for months. I don't mean chewing on a crayon here and there. I mean eating an entire 64-count box, and doing it several times a week. I can't stop, and I don't know why I'm doing this.

I am too embarrassed to tell my doctor, because I know he'll think I am crazy. The box says the crayons are non-toxic, but I'm really eating a lot of them. And this is a really dumb question, but are they fattening? Why am I doing this? Am I crazy? Please help.

-- Crayon Freak


I don't even know if it's real, because I've heard that Harvard students used to have contests to see who could get in "Ann Landers" first. Anyone wanna have a contest to see who can get in "Dear Annie" first? Obviously, you don't have to be very believable...

Well, see you all later and I hope this made you laugh!

~Sara

horses & King's Island

Not a whole lot is going on right now... I haven't done anything stupid to update about (yet!).

I got to ride this weekend, which always makes me happy. The owner of the stable where I used to ride and work bought a new horse and she asked me to try him out. Unfortunately she had to be somewhere so I couldn't ride for very long. Also he was just a tad bit lame so I couldn't canter, boo hoo. But once I got off him Linda (who I used to take lessons with) and I groomed every single horse in the lesson barn. My mom knew that when horses and me are involved, I won't be home early, so she wasn't worried but Linda's only 11 or 12 and I was supposed to bring her home. So Linda's mom called my mom to ask where we were, which made my mom remember that Marcia (the owner) said that she had to leave at 5, and it was 6:30. Therefore my mom was all "Where were you? What took so long?" when I got home. She just doesn't understand that urge you feel when you see eight muddy horses and no one is cleaning them off. In fact, most people don't!

This is just further evidence for my case: I need a cellphone!!!!!! See, if I had a cellphone, Linda's mom could have called me and we wouldn't have this big mess. Right?

This year I'm not having a birthday party because I'm graduating and other stuff (probably get an open house for that :-)). So, I told my mom that I wanted to go to King's Island with some friends. She didn't like that idea because she hates roller coasters and for some reason she thinks I do too. (?) But anway, then I found out that Homeschool Day is May 20 and it's only $21 to get in! I think you have to preorder so if anyone wants to come let me know!!! The only issue is that graduation is the next day, so we may have to cut it a bit short (like, be home by midnight).

So, this is the opportunity of the year (I was about to say lifetime but then I realized that they will have Homeschool Day next year too...). If you have any interest at ALL let me know! I know there's details to be worked out but the first step is to get fifty or so people interested in going. I am definately one of those the-more-the-merrier types!

Well, Cheerio, have a nice week!

~Sara

why me?

Why does this kind of stuff always happen to me of all people? Not that I'm complaining exactly but sometimes...

Well, I went skiing. It was fun. I didn't twist anything and I only fell once. I also didn't go over any jumps, but hey, ya know, sometimes it isn't worth it. Levi Long got hurt but I think he's OK now. Anyway, when it was time to go I couldn't find my shoes. My parents had left before I did (I went home with the Nelsons) and I thought my mom said she put them upstairs. So, I looked all over the place and even in the room where you get your boots where I took them off in case if she had decided I was old enough to take care of my own stuff (I should be, shouldn't I?). Couldn't find them anywhere. Finally we left and on the way to the restaurant we stopped at Walmart and Bekah, Bethany, and I ran in (through the clothes sections instead of in the aisle so no one would see I was barefoot!). I got some flipflops which I will keep forever to remind me of this trip. They were only a dollar, which is good, because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford dinner!

So we get to the Nelsons and my mom comes and gets me and tells me that no, she didn't accidently take them home with her. And yes, I don't listen well. She did put them "up"--up as in on top of the lockers! Arg! I was so mad at myself. I tried to tell her I wasn't tall enough to see up there but she didn't buy it. At least my shoes were old so she doesn't mind toooo much that I now need new sneakers. I don't mind terribly much either because I want those Nike kind that have shocks on them. We'll see if I actually get them though...

Oh and on the way home we got slightly lost and completely missed the Wendy's where we were supposed to meet the Judds. We were really late anyway because of the whole shoe thing. I hope you guys didn't wait too long for us!

The weather is really nice today and I hope it doesn't get cold again until next December!

cool quiz

How Your Attitude Ranks

Your Attitude is Better than 45% of the PopulationIf you scored... 80-100: You've got a winner attitude. You're always optimistic and cheery. Your personality will get you far in life. 60-79: You have a good attitude. While a realist, you do see the positive side of most things. People love to be around you. 40 - 59: You have a positive attitude... somtimes. You prefer to see the world through clear glasses, not rose colored ones. 20 - 39: You have an average attitude. You take the good and bad in life as they come. Though sometimes you could use a little more good. 0-19: You have a negative attitude. You tend to see the dark side of every situation. Free ice cream? No thanks, it will just make you fat!

How's" Your Attitude?

Have fun! I got 45%. Guess I need to work on my 'tude... :-)

Napolean

Well, well, guess what. I have finally seen "Napolean Dynamite"! And no, I don't think it's the greatest movie in the world. It's pretty good though. I'm inspired to go out and make my own movie because 1) it's very low-budget (I mean look at the houses and interiors....ugh! Makes me want to get my interior-designy paws on that house!), 2) all of the people look normal (or at least not like movie stars...I don't think I would call Napolean normal!), and 3) the clothes look like they came from Goodwill (refer to low budget note). So, if anyone feels like making a movie with me this summer, let's go for it! Oh one more thing that inspired me--it was a success and it has no sex/drugs in it! See Hollywood, that's what we really want--movies about ugly dorks!

I am disappointed by one thing about the movie though. Why did they cut the wedding scene with Kip and LaFonda?? First of all, it would have added to the moral content of the movie. (Is there any?) There are getting to be fewer and fewer people who think you should get married instead of cohabitating or whatever. Secondly, it had horses in it! And it was really funny to see Napolean ride!

So, that's my take on the movie. Feel free to disagree.

This Friday I am going skiing and I am very excited about it. I love skiing although I am not particularily daring. In other words, I'm the one who reaches the bottom of the big "fun" hill last because I am going down it verrrry slowly, zigzagging from side to side... It's supposed to be really warm so that's good because then I won't freeze but it's bad because then the snow will be slush.

I hope all of you have a fun rest of the week!