A Hunger Games Saturday

Today has just been a boring, lazy Saturday.  I listened to an episode of HG Fireside Chat and wrote some Hunger games fanfiction.  That's basically it.  My grandma was over for a bit earlier this morning.  It was nice to see her.  Our Internet has also started going in and out the past hour or two (I think my dad's updating software or something.), so I hope I can get this up without any problems.

I don't think I mentioned this anywhere but Twitter, but I got my second college acceptance the other day!  Now I just need to hear from two more.  I can't wait to finally decide where I'm going and get everything settled.

The End of 2011

This will be my last post of the year!  I'm also at my grandma's and being distracted by my cousins, so it'll be pretty short.  I'm getting ready to upload a video that talks more about what happened in 2011 and what I hope to accomplish in 2012, so I'm not doing that here.  I just want to wish everyone a happy new year.

As I said, I'm at my grandma's with a bunch of my cousins and my brother.  We've celebrated the New Year's together for years now although it kind of went from just me, my sister, and my grandma when I was younger to including all of my cousins.  Right now they're blowing up ballons and batting them around.  We'll probably turn on the New Year's Eve stuff on TV soon (if my cousin Ben stops playing Guitar Hero).  And we're going to drink sparkling grape juice.  I love sparkling grape juice!

This would probably be longer, but I keep getting distracted and can't think of more to write.  I can't believe my next post will be in 2012!  Happy New Year, guys!

The End of 2011 and My First Hunger Games Fanfiction

Can you believe Sunday is the start of 2012?  I can't.  I filmed a video earlier today that will be up on my channel tomorrow.  I talked in there about some of the awesome things that happened this year, and things I want to try and do in 2012.  Like I said, that'll be up tomorrow if you want to watch it.  I may do a similar blog post here tomorrow, but I'm not sure yet.  I'll be at my grandma's for New Year's Eve tomorrow, so I'll probably blog about what we're doing there instead (which is why I filmed the video today). 

I haven't done much today.  I did manage to get a small part of the essay for AP U.S. history done, but then my mom called me down for dinner.  I'll probably finish it Monday, since I couldn't think of what to write anyway.  I think I'll be able to focus better on Monday.

As I mentioned earlier in a blog post, I finished writing the first draft of the story I was working on, and I put it away for a while before editing it.  For the past week or so I've been writing Hunger Games fanfiction.  I talked more about this in the video that'll be posted tomorrow because finishing the fanfic is one thing I mention as wanting to do in 2012.  I'm having a lot of fun with it so far, since it's my first Hunger Games fanfiction.

It's going to be a series of one-shots that are in chronological order and have a similar theme.  I'll talk more about it when I start posting it online.  They definitely have a lighter tone than the actual Hunger Games books because I'm focusing on Katniss and Peeta's kids who have much happier lives.  The story I just finished was also a bit dark.  It wasn't incredibly depressing or anything, but I wanted to write something a lot lighter and more positive now.  There is some darkness to it though, especially when the kids kind of think about their parents' pasts.  Actually, I just discovered this but both the story I just finished and this Hunger Games fanfiction are heavily centered around growing up.  Other than that though, they're completely different.

Anyway, I'm going to quite ranting about the fanfiction and go work on it some more!

Babysitting

I'm currently sitting in my little brother Matthew's room and he and my cousin Michael play on the computer.  I've been watching TV and reading in here for about an hour now.  Michael doesn't want me out of his sight.  His grandma, my Aunt Debbie, says he's been doing that lately.  He constantly wants and adult or someone older in his sight.  As soon as I leave the room, he comes after me and watches me until I come back, so I guess I'm going to be here until he's picked up in a little less than an hour.

I watched a very interesting show about architecture in Tokyo on National Geographic earlier.  Usually, I don't care much about architecture, but I'm really into learning about different cultures, especially Japan.  I have to say, Japanese architecture is a lot more interesting then American architecture.  At least it is in Tokyo.  It's amazing the things they cram into small spaces.  They've learned to use a very limited space the same way Americans would use a much larger space.

I had to jump out of bed when my aunt showed up with Michael earlier, and I still don't think I'm fully awake.  I've been really tired most mornings over break.  Going back to school and waking up early in the morning will be interesting.

My laptop is going dead, so I'm going to end this post here. Let's see if I can get away long enough to get back to my room to plug it in.

Christmas and Writing

There's just a little over half an hour left of this Christmas!  I filmed a video earlier that will be up tomorrow that talked a bit about how this Christmas went.  Basically, we woke up extremely early with just a few hours sleep to open some awesome presents, and then over half of the house, including me, went straight back to bed.  It was a great Christmas, but even after waking up for the second time I was extremely tired.  I spent half the day half asleep.

I got some great presents!  I've only been able to use a few so far.  My new Ravenclaw iPhone case got put on my phone immediately, and I've already written in my new Harry Potter planner that's extremely similar to the one I've been using this year.  We also watched Up in the Air, which I got on DVD.  I also got The Princess and the Frog and the Beauty and the Beast DVDs.  If you know of my obsession with Beauty and the Beast, then you'll know I'm extremely happy with that gift.  I also got several other DVDs and some books among various other things.

By far the most exciting part of my Christmas was finishing the first draft of my currently untitled story that I've been working on for months.  I've posted teasers of it over on my writing blog.  It'll be a while before that's posted anywhere though.  I'm going to forget about it for a while and work on some Hunger Games fanfiction.  Then, when that's done, I'll get the story out again and edit the first draft.  I'm so excited to have it finished!  Plus, I've had so many ideas for these Hunger Games one-shots that I'm going to be writing.  I can't wait to get started!

We Have Less Than an Hour!

I wanted to write a post about my Christmas Eve, but this is going to have to be quick.  I've had a very busy day, and it's not quite finished yet.

This afternoon we headed over to my Uncle Chris and Aunt Vicky's house.  It wasn't a large get together.  My mom's the youngest of ten kids, so her side of the family is quite large.  There's only one time of year that the whole (or most at least) family gets together: 4th of July up at my uncle's lake.  I think this is because we can't all fit in a house, so we can only get together when it's warm and we can stay outdoors.  Only a small portion of my mom's family was there today.  More might have come later, but we had to leave early.  Still, it was nice getting to see the family members that were there.  My cousin Cassie's baby Valory is now four months old and absolutely adorable.  I wish you guys could see her.  I spent most of my time either holding her or smiling at her while someone else held her.  She is so cute.  My cousin Heather's daughter Rebekah was also there.  She's probably about four right now, and she's also adorable.  She's really shy, and yet she's also quite loud at times.  That's not that surprising when it comes to our family...

After that we came back home for an hour or so before leaving again.  We decided to open the presents that my sister Regina had gotten us.  I already knew what she had gotten me, but it's nice to finally have it.  She got me a new purse.  It's purple, my favorite color, and large enough for me to carry several books in.  My sister knows me well.  My family also opened my present for them.  I got the whole family a print of a brussel griffon that looks like one of our dogs, and it says, "Surprisingly, I don't enjoy being compared to science fiction characters."  It's so fitting because we're always saying Poppy looks like either an ewok or a gremlin.

Before long we were off to my Aunt Linda and Uncle Ken's for Christmas with my dad's side of the family.  Unlike the gathering of part of my mom's side, all of my dad's side was there except for one aunt, one uncle, and three cousins, who all live in Georgia.  (Of course, my dad's side is also much smaller.  He only has three siblings.)  We ate, talked, and played around for a while.  Then, we did a Christmas prayer for my papaw who passed away on Christmas Eve three years ago.  After that it was time to open presents.  My grandma, aunts, and uncles all played Dirty Santa first.  My mom got a Charlie Brown Christmas tree that I put together as soon as we got home.  It looks pretty cool.  After that my cousins and I got to open our presents from Secret Santa.  My cousin Ben (or, in actuality, my Aunt Linda) got me a book about college and some money.  Then, we all opened presents from our grandma.  She got me Condoleezza Rice's memoir.  My family knows me so well.  None of these were things I asked for, but I will definitely enjoy them.  Both of the books look so interesting.  I'm excited to read them.

After presents we sat around and talked a little longer before heading home.  I took a really quick shower before getting on the computer really quickly to write this.  It's just after eleven, and we have to be at church in half an hour.  My sister is playing the drums in our church's youth band tonight before mass, so we have to get there early.  I've actually never been to midnight mass before.  We usually go to Christmas Vigil mass at four.  I hope I'll be able to stay awake.  The shower helped me wake up a bit, but I'm absolutely worn out.  I'm probably only going to be getting a few hours of sleep in the morning before I'm woken up to go open presents.  This may be the only time of the year that that won't bother me.

Right before we left for Uncle Ken and Aunt Linda's it finally completely hit me that Christmas is tomorrow.  I'm so excited!  Even though I'm incredibly tired, I've been hyper since then.  I can't wait!  I'm also excited for mass in an hour!  It's my fourth favorite mass of the year!  (After Easter, Good Friday, and Holy Thursday.  Is it okay to have a ranking of favorite masses?)

I hope you all are having a great Christmas Eve or a great Christmas.  I can't believe it's already Christmas for most of the world as I write this!  Let's see, it's just after five in the morning in Britain, so they're probably all up or getting up soon.  Exciting!  I could ramble about Christmas forever, but I really need to go finish getting ready for mass.  Again, merry Christmas everyone!  If you don't celebrate Christmas, then happy Hannukah, any other holiday you celebrate, or just have an awesome day!  (I really need to calm done before mass.  I'm going crazy right now...)

A Long Day with Awesome People

It's late, and I'm extremely tired.  However, there are a few things I want to blog about before I forget.  This post will probably be a little disjointed and jumpy.  I'm just trying to get things down before I fall asleep.

I love when Harry Potter comes up somehow in everyday life.  Yesterday my yearbook teacher's daughter was there, and she played The Mysterious Ticking Noise for those of us in the classroom (a lot of the class was over in the computer lab).  No one had seen it before.  I got so excited when I realized what she was playing.

Today Jordan and Haley started writing A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel quotes on the dry erase board in AP English.  Everyone kept asking what AVPM and AVPS stood for, and no one really knew what the quotes were.

We had a fire drill during econ today.  Those are always fun during the winter.  We also finished watching a movie called Madison.  I may do a post on it later...

This evening my grandma, Aunt Kate, Aunt Linda, mom, sister Regina, cousin Danielle, and I all went to Red Lobster.  It's my grandma, Aunt Kate, and mom's birthdays soon, so it was their birthday dinner.  It was a whole lot of fun.  We also went by my Uncle Ken and Aunt Linda's before and after.  Four of the male cousins and my brother where there while we were at Red Lobster.  I'm always guaranteed to have a good time when I'm with my cousins.  They're always doing something interesting.

After all of that, my mom, sister, and I went to the mall to do some Christmas shopping.  It was late and I don't like shopping, so I really just wanted to go home.  Then I remembered that Summer works in the mall and had told me earlier she was working tonight.  I have seen her since July!  (I need a car and more time...)  I wasn't sure if she was still there or not, but when we entered the store she works at, sure enough she was there.  She looked up at me and Regina, looked back at what she was doing, and then looked back up and realized it was us.  She immediately started talking loud enough that the whole store could hear.  She hugged me and started telling everyone, "This is my best friend since first grade."  She got so excited.  Haha.  We couldn't stay long, and she had to work.  Still, it was awesome to get to see her.  I don't get to see her nearly enough anymore, and talking using a phone or computer just isn't the same.

Thanksgiving is Over and Advent Begins

I didn't even realize that it had been a few days since I posted.  I was either doing absolutely nothing, or I wasn't home all day.  Yesterday, we left to go to my grandma's in the morning and didn't get home until about eight or so in the evening.  We were there to celebrate Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family, and it was a whole lot of fun.

Aside from just talking and things, we also played board games.  My sister Regina, Aunt Kate, and I played this Hunger Games training game.  I got to play as the District 12 tribute (which isn't specified as being Katniss, but her skill is archery so...).  It was extremely confusing at first, but after we figured the game out it turned out to be a lot of fun.  Regina, our cousin Danielle, and I also played several games of Clue.  And all of us grandchildren (except my brother Matthew) played Quelf.  It was Regina's first time playing.  We had so much fun!  It's impossible to not have fun while playing Quelf.

I completely forgot that today was the first Sunday of Advent until this morning.  As far as I'm concerned that means it's officially Christmas season!  Speaking of church related things, today was also the first time we used the new translation of the mass.  That turned out interesting...  Even though we knew the responses had changed, it's hard to say something different when you've gone your whole life saying it the old way.  It'll be interesting to see how long it takes before everyone gets used to the new translation.

Tomorrow is school again.  It's always a little weird to go back to school after breaks, even if they're only five days.  The month until Christmas break seems like such a long time.

Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to write a quick Thanksgiving post.  If you're in America, I hope you're having a great Thanksgiving, and if you're elsewhere in the world, I hope you're have a great day even though it isn't a holiday.

My dad's side of the family is getting together this weekend, but for today it's just my grandma, dad, sister, brother, and me.  My mom is unfortunately at work today, but someone has to be at the hospital even if it is Thanksgiving.  My grandma and sister are downstairs while everything cooks right now.  (As you can tell, I'm being a great help.)  Everything was already put together last night, and today just really involved sticking stuff in the oven to cook.  We should be eating really soon!  I can't wait for the dressing!  That's the best part of the Thanksgiving meal.  (My family has a dressing recipe that's just amazing.)  And of course pumpkin pie is another amazing Thanksgiving food.

I got up early to watch the Macy's parade for the first time in a few years.  I used to watch it every single Thanksgiving, but then I got older and discovered the joys of sleeping in.  Since then, I've usually only caught the end of the parade.  Today though, I was supposed to help my sister cook, and I was determined to actually see the whole parade.  Our dog Poppy woke me up just before my alarm this morning by coming into my room and laying on my chest.  After that I was wide awake, which under most circumstances would be good because I'd actually get up, but I really didn't want to move her.  She looked so peaceful sleeping there even though I was in a slightly uncomfortable position, so I laid there a little longer than planned.  I still managed to catch all of the parade.

Ji's mom made a Korean dish called kimbap today, and she wanted us to have a roll of it.  I'm not really sure why, but Ji brought it over to us about an hour ago.  It was an interesting experience.  It wasn't that I didn't like the kimbap.  It's just not something I'm used to eating.  I think it's something I could get used to eating if I had it over and over, but it's probably not something I'd seek out.

Since it's Thanksgiving, I'll do a little list of things I'm thankful for:  family, friends, our dogs, books, writing, Harry Potter (especially the fandom), J.K. Rowling, the Internet (that may sound stupid but really think about all it's done), the fact I have a chance of going to college even though applications are stressing me out recently, and all of the other things that make me happy.

I hope all of you Americans enjoy your Thanksgiving meals!  I'm ready to go eat all of our awesome Thanksgiving food!

Pokemon Lectures

Today seems like it was packed with stuff that I could mention in a blog, but I'm having trouble actually remembering things.  This seems to be happening a lot lately, and I don't like it.

Our English teacher wasn't there today, so we had a sub.  This sub just happened to be one of our past English teachers who retired this year.  It was nice to see her again.  Another awesome thing about English:  We took a vocab test, and the name Hermione was on it.  I'm not at all exagerating when I say that made my day.

Yesterday, we got our yearbook shirts that I meant to post a picture of on twitter but never did.  (I would now except it's kind of in the laundry since I wore it today.)  The fit of them seemed kind of weird when we first pulled them out of the box, but mine turned out to fit okay.  The design is really cool too.  My friend Ji actually drew up the design.  I'll try and post a picture at some point in the future.  (We all know that I'll completely forget, and a picture will never really happen.  Just know that they look awesome.)

Also in yearbook, we had our training over how to use the site/software to design the yearbook today.  It was all pretty much the stuff I learned at the workshop I went to over the summer, but it made me excited for designing the pages all over again.

This is random, but it's awesome, so I'm going to mention it.  I got a brownie in computer applications.  Alyssa made them for yearbook, but we didn't have time to eat them (because of the training).  Ji and I are lucky enough to have also have computer applications with Alyssa right after yearbook, so she gave us each a brownie then.  It was an awesome brownie.

My grandma, brother, and three of my cousins picked me up from play practice today, and we all went out to eat for supper.  It was so much fun.  I always have some hilarious conversations with my family.  Just a small portion of our conversations were about: jokes (mainly Chuck Norris and blonde jokes), flying snakes, Pokemon, riddles, and so many more.  When it comes to Pokemon, I just want you to know that they taught me a lot tonight.  I was surprised how much my brother and all three of my cousins know about Pokemon.

There was a lot more that happened today of course, but those are the things that come to my mind first.

Storms and a Baby

It's been cloudy and rainy all day long.  I don't mind rain if it lasts for an hour or two.  It can actually be kind of nice.  But those days where you never see sunshine suck.  I know I'm not the only one who just feels sleepy the whole day and doesn't want to do anything.  It sucks.  For most of today, it was just cloudy with the occasional rain and maybe some thunder and lightning here and there.  Then, it started pouring this evening.  We were up at my aunt and uncle's for supper, and it was crazy.  My uncle said that a ton of their trees have been hit with lightning because their house is up pretty high on some hills.  It was insane.

I had a lot of fun at my aunt and uncle's though.  My cousin Cassie is there visiting, and it was great to see her and her new baby!  The baby's name is Valory, and she is absolutely adorable.  I mean, of course she is. She's a baby.  Still, she was a particularly cute baby.

Other than the baby, it was fun to talk to the rest of my family too of course.  We were there a lot longer than I expected.  We probably would have stayed longer, but I was pushing my parents to go home because I had homework to finish.  (And that isn't because I was pushing it off.  I swear.  I've been working on it in bits and pieces all weekend.  Yay AP classes!)

Honestly, I was expecting to have more to talk about in this post, but unless I launch into details about our conversations, there's not much else to say.  I would normally be in bed right now, but I'm giving myself extra time since we were at my aunt and uncle's.  I want to try and read a bit more before bed.  (I will probably regret this in the morning.)

Birthday Celebrations

My whole morning is pretty much a blur because I was half asleep the whole time.  I really should start going to bed earlier with school starting in less than a week, but I know it's not going to happen.  One thing I can tell you about this morning is that the end of church was just a little depressing.  I'm not going to lie.  I can barely remember any of mass today because I completely zoned out every couple of minutes, but I do remember the end of mass. Our priest announced this weekend that he's getting transfered to a different parish.  There were some tears, and I'm surprised I didn't bawl my eyes out.  (I'm usually way more emotional when I'm tired.)  Anyway, we don't have a new priest yet, and we may not even get one.  It's possible we'll just have a guest priest every single weekend instead.  I'm not sure how I feel about that, but that's enough about church.

My family and I went out to dinner tonight to celebrate my birthday.  We ate at the local Mexican restaurant because I absolutely love Mexican.  Once we got home, we had cake which just so happened to be in my favorite colors: purple and orange.  I also opened my presents, and I'm really happy with what I got.  My parents gave me Sims 3 which I've wanted forever!  It's currently downloading on my computer as I type this.  I've actually never played it.  I've only played an older version that my best friend has.  I also got the Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince ultimate edition DVDs to add to my ever growing Harry Potter DVD collections.  Lastly, my parents gave me a wireless printer.  I've been wanting one forever since it's a pain to have to use our slow ancient computer every time I need to print.  They finally bought one because they say I'll need it at college next year.

I guess I'm officially done celebrating my birthday since the cake and presents are finished.  I have to say, my birthday was pretty awesome this year.  Here's to hoping my first year as an "adult" is just as great.

International Barbeque Festival

I didn't post as much this week as I was expecting.  It was mainly because I kept forgetting.  After being busy for so long it was hard to remind myself to blog.  Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon. 

This post is going to be short because I'm over at my grandma's.  Some family is visiting from Florida and my sister, cousin, and I are also over to spend time with them.

We went to the International Barbeque Festival that's hosted near where I live yesterday and had a blast.  I even got this magnetic pendant that you can change.  I got two and each are Harry Potter themed.  Shocking.  We were planning to go back today, but it started raining.  It kind of sucks because my best friend was there today, and I was going to get to see her.  She moved and switched schools this year, so we don't see each other often.

Earlier today we where at my cousin Michael's tenth birthday party.  I always enjoy spending time with family.  My younger cousins (I'm the oldest on this side of the family) are awesome and just about as nerdy as I am.  Just so you know the types of things we talk about, we had an awesome discussion about the Trojan War today, and my young (eight to fourteen, I think) cousins knew what they were talking about.  I also like talking to my grandma, aunts, and uncles.  I think I get along with adults a lot better than most people my age.

After the party we just came back to my grandma's and talked and stuff.  Obviously I'm on the computer typing this post right now.  Some of the others have cards out.  They're playing Phase 10, which I know nothing about.  There's definitely some competitiveness happening.

Haley