Friends = Fun

So this entry will be short, but whatever...

So today, I woke up at around 10:30, and after showering and whatnot, my mom took my brother and I out to run errands. We stopped at Walgreen's, the grocery store, and ate at Zoe's. Then, we came home to find that my order from Justice had arrived (the mailman had somehow stuffed the huge bag into our mailbox). I absolutely love the colored skinny corduroys, but I'm returning the jacket because after trying it on, it was too big. My mom said that I could order the next size down if I wanted to, but I don't think I will since I probably won't wear it, as I can't decide whether I like the way the leather (okay, "pleather") sits when I put it on.
But anyway, then I poked around on the computer for a while, before getting ready to go over to Reagan for a volleyball game that Sylvia had invited me to. At the game, we bought raffle tickets, chatted, and watched the games. One of my raffle tickets won, and my prize was a laptop bag/carrier with a mug and mousepad, which wasn't the best prize for a fourteen-year-old girl, but at least I won something. Sylvia and I both wished that our numbers would have been called for the money game, where one-dollar bills are spread all over half of the court, and the person that gets called gets ten seconds to pick up as many as they can - they get to keep what they pick up! So anyway, I saw a few people from Hanes, including Sylvia (duh), Thomas B., Jenny, and Sarah. I also saw one of my friends from elementary school, Caitlin. I had so much fun - and I might be going to Reagan's homecoming game next Friday with Sylvia, too!

Fall Rant Session

Note to readers: I felt like ranting today, so please excuse my bad mood...

Yep, it's autumn now...I'm not happy about it. My reasons?

The fair - I've never been a fan of going to the fair. I don't like going on the rides (I've never liked rides), so what's the point in going? My parents answer would be: a nice night out together as a family, but all that ever happens is that we walk around, my brother goes on the funhouse mazes, we get something to eat, which is always a disaster because my brother never speaks up if he wants something, so we end up walking all the way back to where we were to get what he wants. Then, we play maybe two games on the midway, grab cotton candy on the way out, and head for the parking lot. So, yes, I hate the fair...

Halloween - Another thing I hate...I haven't been out trick-or-treating in years. We go out, walk the neighborhood, where maybe half the houses are handing out candy, and then walk all the way back home. Not fun, especially with my little bro and mom (who won't even let me ride my bike farther than the next street over by myself). So my Halloween consists of staying at home with my dad.

The only good things about fall are the NFL and Wake Forest basketball games, which I guess balance out the bad things...

Okay, rant's over...sorry but I needed that!

A Good Week

I'm feeling very good right now - this is why:

1) I've survived 5 full days of post-operative stuff, with little to no pain at all. I've been off the pain medication for a few days, which means I only have to take the antibiotics three times a day until the prescription runs out. And I am almost fully back to eating solid food, and (this is the unfortunate part) can put my retainers back in.

2) I'm back into my nightly reading schedule (well, except for tonight and last night). My mom took Quinn and I to Barnes and Noble last week to buy one book apiece for independent reading. I chose the adult version of a book I had bought at the Hanes book fair and read on the way back from my aunt's baby shower in April - Manhunt by James L. Swanson. When I read the kids version, it was a little too "kiddie" for me, so I had been wanting to read the adult book for a while. [It's about the manhunt for John WIlkes Booth.]

3) I went with my mom to Whistlestop again today, and had a lot of fun. We picked up Chick-Fil-A on the way over to eat in the backroom at the store. The coolest thing that happened was that a lady came in and bought two of the huge stuffed animals - a lion and a horse. We hardly ever get to ring up any of the large animals, so this was a rare occasion. My mom told me later tonight that she had planned on reading Gone With The Wind next, but she decided to bring another book to the store because "it was too heavy" to bring in her purse, which is weird because when I was reading it, I brought it to the store one Saturday...

4) My mom bought Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol, today while she and Quinn were at Target. She gave it to me to read first, since she still had a large stack of books she had to read before she could get to it. Then I realized that even though I've seen both The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons movies, I've never read the books, so this will be my first Dan Brown novel. But I have to finish my other book first.

5) I took my very first homeschool test on Friday - and I got a 100! It was on the first Wordly Wise lesson, which is similar to the workbook we did for Mrs. Edge in 6th grade during homeroom. This week will mark the real start for me because this week I didn't do anything because of the surgery.

6) I ordered some new fall clothes from Justice today. They were having a 40% off special if you placed your order online, so since I was looking into some of the more expensive items, we jumped at the savings. So I ordered three pairs of skinny corduroys - one each in orange, blue, and purple - and a black "pleather" motorcycle jacket that has this really cool diagonal zipper across the front. And I just realized that I need to ask my dad if he can take me over to the Deacon Shop at the mall so I can get a Wake Forest shirt - he got tickets for the men's basketball this season, which we passed on last year, due to the fact that it wasn't a necessity with my dad out of work.

So I'm having a good week...

Oh, and I was thinking that I really should have a name for my blog, not just "Lexi's Blog." Does anyone have any suggestions?

An Interesting Day

Okay, so I'm gonna make this a short post because I'm not going into all the details. I'm just too tired to explain it all...

So today, I woke up at 7:45 and left the house at 8:45. Mom signed the consent form when we got to Dr. Peoples' office, then I went back to one of the rooms. They hooked up various things, like heart monitors, IV stuff, and a blood pressure cuff. They gave me oxygen through a nose mask, then changed it to laughing gas, while Dr. Peoples found a blood vessel for the IV, which he sprayed with a solution that makes your arm feel cold (he calls it "penguin pee"), then sticks the needle in. And then, I was out.
I woke up with all the instruments taken off me, and gauze in my mouth. The nurse led me out to the car, and Mom drove me home. I slept for a couple of hours, then came out and had applesauce and water, then my antibiotic and pain medications. Then, I helped Mom finish the puzzle we had been working on, before coming back into my room. I think I'm going to watch the premiere of Leno tonight, that is, if I can stay up for it, which I think I'll be able to do.

So, in conclusion, I'm okay right now. The pain-killer medication is working, and somehow, I'm not drowsy...but we'll see how it goes later.

Gatlinburg Trip

So we spent a total of a day and a half in Gatlinburg, TN. We arrived just after noon on Sunday, parked at the hotel, then walked down the road to have lunch. We ended up eating at the Bubba Gump's right on the corner, and it was really yummy. And the restaurant itself was pretty cool, too. They had all sorts of Forrest Gump stuff on the walls, and the waitresses asked you trivia questions about the movie (I really need to see that movie again...I didn't know the answers to over half the questions our waitress asked!). So after lunch, we played a round of mini-golf at the Black Light course, a 9-hole, indoor one which was full of black lights, making the underwater theme look even cooler. And like half the songs they played were from The Little Mermaid, so I made a fool of myself (but had fun) singing along with every song. Then, we played one of the outdoor courses, walked around, went in some shops, then turned around, and walked back up the road by the stream. We got close to our hotel, and then decided to try the skylift, a chairlift that goes up the side of the mountain. It was really neat and relaxing. We went back to our hotel, watched a little TV, then went to dinner at one of the restaurants along the main road. We played another round of golf, then got funnel cake and headed back to the hotel for the night.
On Monday morning, we had breakfast at the Log Cabin Pancake House, then went out and played at Circus golf, which was really cool because you played with 3-D glasses on, so everything looked weird. Then, we went through the mirror maze, which was hilarious, because my parents didn't quite understand the concept of "look for the mirror that doesn't have your reflection", so my brother and I finished in no time flat. Then, we played at Treasure Quest golf. We messed around with the palm reading machines along the outskirts of the course - I got "lucky in love" on the one I tried. So then, we went up the space needle, which was really neat, before heading back to the hotel to get our car and leave town.
I had lots of fun, and as for our family mini-golf tournament, I won for the second year in a row!

Today, I worked on my school stuff, then Mom took me over to the drugstore to get my prescriptions filled for the surgery on Monday. And now, I'm downstairs, letting Ella run around, while I prepare to watch the opening kickoff of the NFL regular season. My dad's doing fantasy football again this year, which I'm so excited for...

First Day of School

Okay, so today was my first official day of high school! Yesterday, we got all our workbooks, textbooks, and notebooks together. And, after running errands, which included a dentist visit for my mom, a stop at Barnes & Noble for some books, and a trip to Costco (where we talked with Mrs. Wheeler), we started our lessons.

So what kinds of things am I doing? Wordly Wise (which is like the thing in 6th grade we did in the morning - learning words & their definitions, with fill-in-the-blank type activities), geometry, economics, American literature (reading books by Hemingway, Crane, and Steinbeck), short stories, poetry (Dickinson, Poe, etc.), Spanish, learning about checking accounts, and I don't really know yet what for science.

Today was pretty easy, except for geometry, which took a little while to figure out (and the fact that I couldn't remember how to do roots on the calculator for the warm-up questions). But anyway, a good day overall...

Oh, and my outfit:
- black t-shirt with neon (pink, yellow, orange, & purple) peace signs
- denim shorts
- black sandals

Gatlinburg trip post coming soon!

Impromptu Trip

Okay, so let me start with the fact that I'm leaving on an impromptu trip in less than 12 hours. My parents somehow decided that we needed to just go somewhere, so all of a sudden, my brother brings up mini-golf in our conversation tonight, being that my dad had taken us over to the driving range (for those of you not well-educated in golf terminology, it's a place where you hit/"drive" golf balls for distance, not play the whole course...okay, bad description. Look it up if you want.) So anyway, my brother brings it up, and my dad pulls out this huge stack of print-outs from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, which somehow has about as many mini-golf places as Myrtle Beach. And so that is where I'll be Sunday and Monday, and I'll be back on Monday night.

So I guess I'll recap my day for you... My dad took my brother and I to the driving range, and after hitting golf balls for about an hour, my hands were so raw. My left hand especially... But anyway, after that, I went with my mom to Whistlestop from 2:30 to 7:00. When we got home, we watched The Sound of Music, which was on at the time, not only because it's a cute movie, but because we wanted to see if we could recognize anything from our day in Salzburg, Austria, during the Europe trip last summer. Then, I cleaned Ella's cage, bought some songs on iTunes, and am now at the computer simultaneously using Blogger and Facebook.

And I've realized that everything for me revolves around the 14th of September, the day of my surgery. I can't even say, "Oh I can't wait for the premiere of "Flash Forward" on the 24th..." because I'm still thinking of the 14th... But the good thing about the whole thing is that I get to basically boss my brother around for a few days after, when I'll be tired enough to stay in bed most of the day, and Quinn will have to get stuff for me!