Oh. My. Goodness.

Things have been just a tad bit crazy the past few days...here's my recap.

Friday - Mom and I went to Enchanted Cottage with Aunt Lynne, and I picked up some stuff to make Christmas cards. (My goal for the next week is to hand-make holiday/Christmas cards to send to all my friends and family.) So, we finished up shopping and then had lunch at Coppola's, which was yummy as usual.

Once we got home, Mom, Dad, and I went to Lowe's (the home-improvement store, not the grocery store), and picked up a few things and looked at pricing on garage doors and new flooring for the kitchen. And then we came home and chilled for the evening.

Saturday - We chilled for the morning, and then went over to my Aunt Carol & Uncle Bob's for dinner. Our family always gets together and makes chaotzes (pronounced 'jowsas'), which are these meat-filled dough packets boiled in water (kinda like ravioli, but totally different). So, we spent most of the afternoon and evening over there, and I had so much fun.

Then, we came home and watched Extraordinary Measures, which was great. I loved movies that are based on true stories. And stories with happy endings, too. And then, I cleaned Ella's cage, as usual.

Sunday - We didn't do much all day. Went grocery shopping with Mom, and then hung around. We watched Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and then The Wizard of Oz on tv in the evening. I hadn't watched The Wizard of Oz in years (apparently we didn't watch it much when I was little because, according to my mom, I was afraid of the flying monkeys).

Oh my gosh, I forgot how crazy that movie was. And I feel so dumb, but I never knew that the people in the Kansas scenes are all in the main part of the story as well. The woman who tries to take Toto turns out to be the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy's three friends/helpers on the farm are the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion, and the fortune-teller is the Great Wizard of Oz. So cool.

Monday - I did all the usual stuff in the morning - homework, washed the dishes, etc. and then when Mom got home, I buried myself down in the basement and worked on my cards. I got five done in well, quite a long time. I took my time, and had to retry a few stampings and cuttings and things. But, I ended up with five pretty little snowflake cards. And hopefully, I'll be able to do some different ones this week, with some of the other colored paper I bought in reds and greens.

Tuesday - Again, I did all the usual stuff, and played around on the computer until Mom got home. Then, we went to PetSmart (I needed hay for Ella) and Walgreen's (I needed a couple of things), and when we got home, we chilled for a little while and then Mom and Quinn left to go to New China Buffet for dinner. Dad came home a couple of minutes later, and we went to the Wake basketball game against Iowa.

And, wow, it was a crazy game. Wake started off horribly, and at one point was down by eighteen. They were losing at the half, and then all of a sudden, everything turned around. Iowa started missing shots, Wake started getting the rebounds, and a couple of minutes later, they've taken the lead. Iowa came back, of course, but Wake kept it alive, and Wake had the ball with just over 30 seconds left. And of course, the stadium is going crazy, because it's all tied up at 73, and Wake had just blocked an Iowa shot, and they hit a 3-point shot with 2.7 seconds left. And the roof nearly came off the building. Anyway, totally amazing win...76 to 73.

And now I am really tired, and I feel like I've been writing for forever. So, I'm going to end it here. It's not like there's much else to talk about anyway. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

*takes a deep breath* Okay, so I am officially super-tired, but very happy... Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

So, yesterday we did a bunch of cleaning and straightening and all that jazz, and then we ended up making the desserts in the evening. And I'm not going into much detail because I'm both super lazy and it was all such a whirlwind that I can't really remember it all. What I do remember was that a firetruck, lights on and sirens blaring, came down our street and stopped in front of one of the houses a few doors down. I never really did figure out what was going on...the firemen left after a little while and the kids who live there were out playing afterward. But, it was kinda interesting.

And I dusted and cleaned for hours yesterday, which I guess wasn't as bad as it sounds, because I had my iPod on and was jamming along while I worked. When Mom got home, we cleaned some more, and later in the evening, we went to the grocery store for a few last-minute things and picked up McDonald's for dinner. And Dad hung the Christmas lights on the house, so now our house is all pretty and holiday-ish.

And today...well today was cool. I got up at 7:30 this morning and helped Mom make the stuffing. Then, I took a shower and put my makeup on and got dressed, and then we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which was fun. Not as good as last year's, but still fun. Mom made pancakes, and then once the parade was over, we started working on the sides and setting the table and stuff.

Once we had everything sorta ready, Dad went and picked up Granny and Alfredo, and we hung around and snacked and watched football until 4:00, and then Mom and I finished the cooking and Aunt Lynne and Uncle Herb came over. And we all sat down and had a really nice meal, and I stuffed myself. And then I stuffed myself even more with pumpkin cheesecake that my aunt made, which was so good.

And then, we hung around and talked and watched tv and Quinn, Alfredo and I played Mario Kart. And then we watched some football, and a show about pumpkin chucking contests (Punkin Chunkin), and then Dad took Alfredo and Granny home, and Mom and I watched the Taylor Swift: Speak Now special on tv.

I think I've washed and dried about half a dozen or so loads of dishes and bowls and serving platters. But, I think I've earned my keep for the evening. Not to mention that I didn't get into bed until after one in the morning yesterday, so I was running on six hours of sleep all day...but it was fun. And now, I'll be eating turkey and stuffing and veggies and desserts for the next few days...and sleeping, too. Haha, not really.

And omg!!! They're redesigning the VW beetle! Mom and I watched Oprah's Favorite Things: Part 2, and they freaking gave away cars! And not just any car, but a VW bug (my dream car), and not just any VW bug, but the 2012 redesigned version! So neat!

Okay, anyway, I'm done typing for the evening. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

And Here Comes The Holiday Season...

You know the holidays are right around the corner when 99.5 WMAG starts their Christmas music...and I was driving down Reynolda tonight with Mom beside me and Dad and Quinn i the backseat, and flipped onto the station because all the other preset channels were on commercials...and there was a Christmas song!!! And now, I'm in my room, listening to "Here Comes Santa Claus"...so awesome.

So, anyway, I just wanted to note that we didn't go to the Tuesday basketball game. Dad had a meeting that ran late, and by the time we would've gotten there, we would've only seen the second half. So yeah, and the Deacs lost anyway, so it was almost better that we didn't go.

Well, the week has been kinda normal, just working on schoolwork and stuff. But today was cool. Mom and I went out to the bank, and then we came home, chilled for a while, and then the four of us went out to The Loop for dinner.

And then we went across to Edward McKay...none of us had ever been there before, and it was really cool. So, we were looking for a chemistry textbook, and found one that looked pretty good. And we just poked around a little bit, and then I drove home, because I really like the drive from Thruway to Reynolda.

When we got home, we watched Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy and then we watched today's episode of Oprah, which was her Favorite Things specials...and it is obscene how much stuff those people get. And yet it is so fun to watch everyone go crazy. And then watched the CSI: NY that we had recorded, and then watched this week's episode, and headed to bed.

This weekend is going to be crazy. We're hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year...just Aunt Lynne & Uncle Herb, Granny, Dad's fraternity brother's son, Alfredo (the one who goes to Wake...his family lives in Panama, and he's never had a traditional Thanksgiving meal, so we invited him over), and the four of us. So, we've got a ton of prep-work...cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking, etc, and with Mom working during the week, we really need to get some stuff done this weekend.

So, I probably won't be posting until early next week...partly because of the amount of stuff we have to do, partly because I don't really think anything we do will be worth reporting on here in detail. But, hopefully, I'll be able to do a Thanksgiving or even a pre-Thanksgiving post. :)

I Haven't Posted In Over A Week, So Here's My Recap...

Oh crap, I haven't posted in, like, a week. Oops! So, let's see...important events since I last posted...

 - We went to view and order our photo sculptures on Tuesday, and that was cool. We ordered some sculptures and a couple of magnets and a couple of photo packages to put in our 'school picture' frames on our wall. And I got to drive around in the real dark, which I don't do all that often, and now with it getting darker earlier, I should be able to do that more.

 - Dad was home on Veteran's Day, and so he started the painting of the basement/playroom downstairs. It was supposed to be all red, but the red that we had originally bought (and this was all years ago) was so hard to get even or whatever, so we ended up with a couple of red walls and a couple of white walls. So, Dad primed and painted this weekend, and now it's the same light brown as our living room and hallway/stairwell, and it looks really good.

 - Dad and I went to the Wake vs. Stetson basketball game on Friday, which was cool. I got to wear the new coat Mom bought for me since it was going to be cold that night. Because we park in the lot by the football stadium and walk across to LJVM, so it gets cold. Anyway, Wake lost, which sucked, considering that Stetson wasn't even that good. But whatever.

 - And Mom and I went out on Saturday to look for an acorn cookie cutter (we never did find one), so we stopped at AC Moore and Michael's to look around. And in the parking lot at Michael's was the cutest VW bug...in turquoise blue! Even the inside of the tire rims were blue! It was adorable! Haha, so, anyway, then we went to the grocery store, and we watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that evening, since we wanted to refamiliarize ourselves with the plot in time for the upcoming release of the first part of the seventh movie.

 - And Sunday was sort of lazy...I hung around and watched movies on FX (Zoom, Daddy Day Care, and Kung Fu Panda). And then we had dinner; Mom made this really awesome taco bake casserole thing, and it was so good. And then I cleaned Ella's cage, and came upstairs and Mom and I watched What Happens in Vegas, which we'd already seen before but really wanted to see again, on FX.

Today, I'm just chilling for now. My homework's done for the day, except I still have to figure out when I'm going to watch the 1931 movie version of Frankenstein, because I finished the book, and this week's assignment is to watch the movie and then write a 500-word compare/contrast essay on the book and the movie. Except I think Quinn wants to watch it with me (no idea why), so I'll have to work around his schedule, too.

Dad and I are going to the Wake/Hampton basketball game tonight, and another one tomorrow vs. either VCU or Winthrop, so I have two days in a row of basketball, which should be cool.

Anyway, I think that's pretty much it, for now at least. :)

It's Already November...

Okay, so, wow. It's November already. And a week into it at that...

So, anyway, nothing big going on right now. I'm currently looking at my wall calendar and laughing at how busy this month is...or at least it feels like it to me. Most of it is Wake Forest games, but whatever.

Well, since I last posted (on Halloween), my brother and I had our pictures taken for photo sculptures, which was fun. We did a purple and black theme (my profile picture on Facebook is actually from that night, after we got home), and I think they're going to look really great. We had dinner with my grandmother that night, and watched Criminal Minds like we normally do on Wednesdays, and all that good stuff.

On Friday, Dad and I went to our first Wake basketball game of the season, an exhibition game against Guilford College, which was cool. Kinda boring, since Guilford wasn't that good, so the score was like eighty-something to forty-something when the game ended, but still. We have some nice seats this year...we're still not downstairs, but we're like exactly center court upstairs, which is cool. The Goodmans, our seatmates, weren't there that night, but I look forward to seeing them at the game on Friday vs. Stetson.

Then, I went, like,  everywhere on Saturday. Dad took me to the mall in the morning, and I found a pretty nice Wake Forest long-sleeve shirt I can wear to the games when it starts to get really cold outside, and we stopped at the drug store to pick up a few things afterward. Then, we got home, and I had lunch.

And then Mom and I went out to Mt. Tabor to pick up barbecue from a fundraiser her boss' son's baseball team was doing, and then we took that home, went back out to pick up some pictures at Walgreens, then went to Enchanted Cottage to match up some papers for a scrapbook page Mom wants to work on. And then we dropped everything off at home and went back out to the grocery store to get what we needed for the week.

When we finally got home, I was so tired, so we had the barbecue for dinner, and Mom and I watched Changeling, which was amazing. Mom had watched it the night before while we were at the game (she rented it through Netflix), and she told it I had to watch it, so we did, and oh my gosh, it was so good! It's kinda hard to explain, so I won't try it here, but I would absolutely recommend it. And then, I cleaned Ella's cage and worked on setting up all the details for a get-together with Emma, Sylvia, and Anita for Sunday.

So, on Sunday, I went over to Mi Pueblo for lunch with Sylvia, Emma, and Anita, and I got to see Emma's yellow punchbug! And I'm so jealous...it's adorable! So, anyway, we had a good lunch (I had chicken soft tacos, by the way), and then Mom came and took us over to Carmike to see The Social Network, which was really neat. Except that the heat wasn't working in the room we were in, so none of us could feel our feet by the time the movie ended, but it was all good.

And then, after we dropped Sylvia off at her house, Dad and I went to pick up a rat at the pet store, and then went home, and we worked on the crossword puzzle and watched a little football. I had dinner, and then let Ella out for a little while, and then watched the last two hours or so of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie on ABC Family. And I remembered how much I love that movie...it is just amazing.

Anyway, that's pretty much it. Upcoming events for the week: photo sculpture picture viewing/ordering session on Tuesday, dinner with Granny on Wednesday, and a Wake game on Friday.