Sorry for the Wait!

I didn't realize that it has been so long since I've written. The musical the first week in April turned out to be a very big hit. I received so many compliments because of it. I even got to be the senior that pulled out the rubber chicken, a tradition that our school has done for years. At the last performance a senior gets to pull out a rubber chicken as a joke. Mr. Schreiber always says that he doesn't like it, but I think deep down he doesn't mind too much. And both of my sisters who live on the coasts came to watch me. It was really nice because they haven't really ever seen me perform in person before. I've always had to send them the movies. But the greatest surprise I got that weekend was Jonathan came to see it! He told me that he was going to fly in the Sunday after the musical got over. I was pretty downhearted about that, because I was hoping he could come and see it. But then I was getting ready for church Sabbath morning, and I was just planning on looking kind of meteocure and not going way out of my way to look my best, but Karlene was like "Can I curl your hair?" And I looked at the clock and it was almost time for Jeff and me to leave and I said "If I don't hurry up Jeff's going to leave me." Then Karlene said, "Oh, I think he'll wait." So she curled my hair. When church started I saw my family walk in and I didn't think anything of it, then I looked again and there were more people than just my family. Jonathan and his mom walked in!! I was singing up front and when I saw him walk in I stopped singing and my jaw dropped to the floor. I almost forgot where I was for a moment. It was really one of the greatest surprises I've ever experienced. He stayed for a week or so and we had a lot of fun. It was hard to say goodbye again.

Since the musical ended I haven't done too much. Mostly I've just been focusing on graduation. I only have 5 days of school left! It feels so weird to think that I'm going to be the one leaving the school this year. At the graduation ceremony the choir sings a couple songs. The whole choir is singing "Good Ridence" by Greenday and then just the seniors are sing "Leave you with a smile." My sister, Angi, and my cousin, Cathy, sang it their senior year. I know I'm going to cry when we sing it. I'm probably going to cry for most of the ceremony. I got my honor cords and my cap today. I'm going to be happy to be done, but sad to leave all my friends and important teachers too. It's so weird to think I'm almost done.

Now that the musical is done

My Easter Break: part 2

Hello Everyone!



I hope your Easter went as well as mine did. I left for California on Tuesday and the plane ride was the longest three hours I have ever spent. Nathan, Angi and Jonathan were the one's picking me up and I was getting so anxious to see them all that I would try to sleep to make the time seem to go faster, but it turned out every time I would sleep it would only be for about five minutes because I was still too excited.



I had my first taste of a fish taco, and for anyone who knows me, you know how much I love tacos and fish tacos are no exception! It was kind of interesting that the day that my economics class was watching a video about Wahoo's Fish Tacos and that business I was eating one. If you've never tried one, I urge you to put that on the list of things you want to do before you die.



I had lunch with my grandma at a little small town diner type place. I say that because there aren't too many small towns in California, at least, not around L.A. there's not. It was very fun to spend some time with her.



We had fun at the aquarium. Jonathan and I got a kick out of watching Nathan get very excited about embellishing the little "passport book" thing that they gave us. There were some touch pools there that had tropical fish and small sharks in them. I put my hand in to touch some of the animals. As I was waiting for the shark to circle around to me, I was looking at another fish that had caught my eye. I wasn't watching where the shark was swimming and the next thing I knew it swam right by my hand and it freaked me out because I wasn't expecting it to touch me. I jumped so far and no one knew what happened so they gave me some pretty funny looks. Especially since touching fish doesn't ever bother me.



I ate at Buffalo Wild Wings for the first time with a few of our friends. It was so good. I also got to experience a frozen yogurt shop called Pink Berry. It's kind of like Cold Stone Creamery.

Sabbath day I had a lot of fun. We went to church in Colton and I got to see Jonathan play the congas and he was very good at them. After church I went with Jonathan to his grandparent's house where I had Easter dinner with them. I even got to participate in the Easter egg hunt, something I haven't done since I was four. I had a lot of fun. They had Jonathan and me share our eggs, but they gave us a few more. Jonathan brought some home videos from when he was about three or four and he was adorable! There was one video where he was telling a story of when his brother Matthew threw a dirt clod at him but he claimed it was a rock. The other one was him singing The Speckled Frog song in the bathtub.

After the day at his grandparent's he took me to Fiesta Village to go mini golfing. I had so much fun. After Fiesta Village we went to Rubio's where I had another fish taco. Then we went to "Horton Hears a Who." We took a walk up and down State Street that lasted about an hour or so. I had such a great time.

Sunday we had an Easter brunch where I got to meet Nathan's dad for the first time.

Monday was the hardest day because I had to come home and say goodbye to everyone. I didn't think that it was going to be that hard to leave but it was one of the hardest things I had to do. I can't wait until I can go back again. I just don't know when that will be.

This was definitely the most memorable Easter I have ever had!

My Easter Break: Part 1

I'm really excited for my Easter break to start tomorrow. Technically it doesn't start until Thursday, but I'm starting it a couple days early. I'm going to California to stay with my sister for six days. We're going to do a lot of fun things. We're going to have lunch with my grandma out there and we're going to an aquarium. I've already been to the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wildlife Reserve and Disneyland. I'm even going to get two Easter dinners, one with Jonathan and his family and the other one with Nathan and Angi and whoever they invite. I know I'm going to have so much fun. I also get to see Angi in the early stages of her pregnancy. I can't wait for tomorrow to come!

Be Careful What You Wish For

Well, for the past few days (since Tuesday or Wednesday) I hadn't felt very well. I felt like I had an upset stomach but nothing was happening in that area. I took my temperature and even though I have a normally low body temperature, usually 97 degrees, I was having temperatures close to 94 and 95 degrees. I stayed home from school on Friday to see if all I needed was rest. I don't think that had much to do with it because no matter how much rest I got it still didn't make me feel better. My sister told me to go on the BRAT diet (Banana, Rice, Applesause and Toast). She was thinking I had a version of the flu. I had been exposed to it so I didn't think that was out of line. All yesterday I was saying to myself "I wish I would vomit already so I would know if I was truely sick or not." Well, I woke up this morning and became officially sick. I was pretty bummed because I was supposed to get my hair cut today. It would have been the first time in about three years to get a true hair cut. I've gotten it trimmed many times, but this would have taken off 10 inches, and more with the layers. So I'll be getting my hair cut next week instead. So be care what you wish for, it may be what you want but not at the time you want it.

My SCSC mission!

I'm so excited!! I got a call this weekend from the SCSC (Summer Christian Service Corps.) committee and they told me that I'm going to Battle Creek, MI. My friend Emily from Maryland is one of my partners and a guy named Chad who is from Washington D.C. (I think) is my other partner. It'll be a lot of fun to have Pastor Kori as my project director and I think that Jonathan's brother Matthew is going to be his assistant.

My friends Katrina and Micah are going to be coming here for their project. I'll be getting my packet sometime this week and I'll find out what it is that I will exactly be doing. I'm glad I'm going there, it was one of the places that I really wanted to go. I can't wait!

I was going to come up with a clever title, but I've got nothing.

Well, our one act got first at sub-sections, while Anne Schreiber (Mr. Schreiber's daughter) got second place. At sections we got second and Anne got third. We were beat by St. Charles by one point. They go most every year so we were a little disappointed but now that we didn't get a chance to go to state we got to start our spring musical, "Bye bye Birdie" a week earlier.

We had auditions Tuesday and Wednesday, and we got the results today. I got the part of Kim MacAfee!!!! That was the part I really wanted and I'm so glad that I got it.

We also had a funeral for a guy who went to our church. I'm really going to miss him. He always had a smile for me. He was a very strong man, both physically and in the Lord. He could lift an 80 pound car wrench with one finger and no matter how hard you would punch him in the gut (when he asked you to) you would end up hurting yourself more than you would him. He would ask most of the kids he knew to do that, but I don't recall him ever asking me to. I think he knew that I was such a quiet, shy, little girl that I wouldn't have done it, even if he had asked me to. I didn't know how much I ment to him until I went to the funeral and all his kids would say to me that he would talk about me all the time. I didn't realize that he had ment so much to me either until a few years ago when he started having noticeable health problems and he didn't come to church as often. But everytime I saw him walk through that door, it brought the biggest smile to my face. There is a hymn that was his favorite, "How Great Thou Art." Everytime we would sing it in church you could hear his voice over everybody elses. At the funeral we sang that hymn and I swear that I could faintly hear him singing it with us. I know it was most likely just the memory but it helped because it felt like he was still there. It's funny how we value people so much more after we lose them. But Claston's memory will never be lost, it will always be locked within my heart.

Just a little up date

I realized that there have been a few major events that have happened within the past couple weeks.

January 13 and 14 I went down with my choir director Mr. Anderson and two other girls from my choir to Decora, Iowa to the Dorian Choir Festival. It is a festival that I have wanted to go to since I was in 9th grade. I entered the concert choir in 9th grade and that's where I found about about it. I had forgotten that my older sister had gone there too until this year. It was kind of interesting because I am one of the highest singing sopranos in my school choir, but Mr. Anderson put me on alto where I had to sing an F below the staff because I could hit it. The other altos that I sat by were pretty surprised when I told them that I am actually a soprano that can sing a high C. The whole experience of singing with 1379 other students was fun but I wouldn't want to do it again. A lot of the girls I met there seemed to be a little snotty.

We had the HVL One Act Festival that Triton hosts every year for the Hiawatha Valley League schools. This isn't a competition, per say, but you do have to be competitive. We have three judges that Mr. Scheiber hires and they are usually speech judges, state one act judges or former directors. The judges loved us this year. They said that our performance was state quality and that we performed at that rigor too. If a play is completely ready for competition and they don't need to work on much they get a "star performance" plaque. Triton had done it 15 years in a row!! That is the best record of all the schools in the HVL. The school closest to our record is Pine Island with 4, but they didn't get one this year. Last year they started to hand out All Conference Actor awards. At last years award ceremony they awarded two Thespians from each play, but this year they got really picky. They chose one from one play, two from another, but guess what happened next... they awarded the whole Triton cast the a certificate!! We were all so happy.

I had a friend from New Jersey come here for the weekend and she went to a college visit to Bethel and she fell in love with it like I did. She's going there with me next fall. It'll be really nice to already have a friend there. I'm very excited for this year to really get rolling.