I have had the longest week of my life. Not really, but it seemed like it lasted forever. I'm sorry I haven't replied to any of my comments in like a week! I've had a butt load of homework and then this weekend all I wanted to do was sit on my butt. Which I did, for the most part. But, I'll try to be returning those in a timely manner!

This weekend was really what I needed. On Friday night, a bunch of friends and I went out to celebrate my friend Julia's 17th birthday. We all planned to meet up at Bandanas (a local BBQ restaurant) at 6:30 and then afterwards go for some FroYo.

My friend Jacqueline needed a ride and I was already planning on driving so I offered to give her a ride. I forgot that she so conveniently lives on a really busy street, so backing out of her driveway is a pain and I almost killed us both, twice. It then took us about half an hour to get to Bandanas because neither of us had been to that specific one (don't mind the fact that I was using a GPS!) so we got lost. It was quite an adventure, to say the least, but we arrived alive.

It was really good just to hangout with friends that I haven't seen in a while and just to be dumb. If you've never been to FroYo (I'm not really sure if it's a local place or not), it's absolutely amazing. You walk in and you grab this big cup and they just have big machines lining the walls of frozen yogurt and you put whatever flavors you want in it. Then they have a whole counter full of toppings and you pile whatever you want on top. When you go to pay, you just sit your cup on a scale and they charge you per ounce. It's a really cute place; the walls were pink and the chairs were this cute green color. It was adorable. And delicious.

Oh yeah, when I got home, I locked the keys in the car. I walked inside and just kinda started getting ready for bed and my dad was like, "Where's the keys?" Uh.... haha. xD Thankfully, my mom also has a pair of keys for the car, so we didn't have to call anyone to come break in to our car. I'm just glad I did it when I got home and not when I was out!

On Saturday, Andrew came over and we made funnel cakes. :) He had never made them before and they were absolutely delicious. I also managed to "accidentally" get powdered sugar all over his face. Ahh. :D Afterwards we just watched the movie "Knocked Up." I wasn't sure if I would like it, but it was actually pretty funny.

In other news, we're supposed to be expecting a huge storm all this week, which is why I decided to update today. We're expecting 2-3 inches of ice in the morning and then sometime Monday night to Wednesday morning we're supposed to be getting like 15 inches of snow. Which is crazy!! We're kind of expecting to lose power, so if I disappear for a while, I'm still alive!

About a month ago, in front of our refrigerator, our tile was starting to push up from the ground. There was moisture around the area, and my dad assumed that there was water under there. Water from where? We weren't sure exactly, but we guessed the fridge.

We came to the conclusion that we needed a new fridge. So, me, my mom, and my dad went out and looked at fridges for about a week and decided on one that we all liked. It was black and shiny and had those fancy in-door ice and water dispensers.

After buying a new fridge, we realized we would have to get new floor, because the place where the water ruined the tile looked terrible. My parents went out again, this time to look for new flooring for the kitchen and the dining room. They picked out hardwood.

My dad began pulling up the other flooring to find layer and layers (four more layers to be exact) beneath our original. It was pretty funny looking at all of them. You could tell which ones were from the 70's and 80's. ;P

In our kitchen we've had the same wallpaper hanging in there for 15 years--ever since we moved in. I begged and begged my mom to take it down. If we're getting a new fridge and flooring, the wallpaper will look even more outdated and we've just got to rip it all down. I won. (:

We picked out some green paint, (our wallpaper was green and white) and began pulling it all down while my dad was pulling the floor up. One of the layers of flooring before us was put down with glue so when my dad pulled it up, we'd get the glue on our shoes and then we'd track the wallpaper all over the house! Our house really was a mess!

Our kitchen table was absolutely covered with kitchen appliances, tools, and everything else that we couldn't have in the kitchen. We had to pull out our card table and eat at that instead. My mom couldn't cook, we just had take out for a couple of days. It was pretty fun actually.

Things really started to come along as my dad got the floor down and me and my mom started to paint.

My mom wasn't too sure about the color but I absolutely love it. After that it was just putting on finishing touches and cleaning up! I think we're still vacuuming things up from it!

I wish I would've taken some good before pictures so you could compare, buuuut I didn't, so I apologize. But doesn't it look great now! I think our black fridge ties all our other appliances in well, since they're black too.

I think sometime in the near future we're going to get new counter tops, which would be cool. :)

I really can't wait til I can have my own house and decorate it the way I want. I love decorating and painting and all that kind of stuff. I love the kitchen, and I can't wait to do that kind of stuff to my house. Do you all like decorating/painting or stuff like that?

I mentioned in my last post that me and Andrew had gotten into a fight. Since then, we had talked it over and we've worked things out. At that moment in time though, I was having a horrible day and when my boyfriend told me he was at another girl's house, even with friends, it made my day even worse.

I suppose I'll start from the beginning. Andrew knows this girl, Lindsay, through one of his guy friends. So Lindsay plays on Xbox Live with Andrew and all his friends. They talk quite a bit and he's mentioned her here and there to me. You could call them friends, though they had never met.

Around Christmas time, Andrew was kind enough to take me to the mall to buy Becky, my best friend, her Christmas present. Lindsay happens to work there as well, so after I had bought my present, he asked if I would mind if we went and met her, as Andrew had never met her offline before. I wasn't really thinking about it, I was just concerned to get home so I could watch Glee (yeah... I'm a pretty big fan!). He took me home instead of meeting her, and I really didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it.

Friday, I'd been running around with my mom, or I guess I should say, my mom was running around and Andrew mentioned he was going to hang out with his friends. Later on, around three or four, he said something kinda weird, and then he explained that he was at Lindsay's house.

What was going through my mind right then, I don't really know. I think there were so many things running through that it sounded something like: he's at another girl's house that he's been wanting to meet and they're good friends are you serious oh wait I need to calm down he's with friends and he wouldn't do anything what no I do not need to calm down he is at another girl's house and I'm completely pissed off and he could have had the decency to tell me in the first place what a douche-bag okay deep breath he's with friends... and on and on.

I didn't reply to his text. I thought it best that I just cooled down and thought it over a little bit before I told him how I felt. As time passed though, I didn't cool down; I became more angry and more bitter. I didn't want to talk to him. I didn't want anything to do with him. He texted me later on, since I hadn't responded, and asked if I was mad at him, and if so why?

Why? Why am I mad at you? Oh I don't know, you're at another girl's house, that you're friends with, and have been wanting to meet. Nope, I don't see anything wrong with that picture!

In an uncivilized manner, I managed to rephrase what I said above and say it in a manner that clearly said I was not happy. After a few more texts back and forth, he apologized and said he was sorry. He said he realized he shouldn't gone over to her house around the same time that his mom texted him asking him why he was at another girl's house, without me. He realized he shouldn't have gone over to her house without telling me first and that he messed up.

He left shortly after and we talked things through on the phone. He said that he hadn't realized before he went over how it might've looked to me, and that it would've bothered me because he went with friends. I asked him calmly how he would've felt if I went to one of my good guy friend's house, Nirav, with Becky and a few other single girls. (As a side note, Andrew believes Nirav likes me--untrue!) He said he would've been a bit angry and that he would've not been comfortable with it. I told him I was in the same situation.

You could say all in all, it was somewhat a misunderstanding, and somewhat not thinking things through. Looking back at it, now that I'm not angry and have moved on, I think I sort of overreacted. I trust Andrew I also think though, that he should've told me ahead of time and made sure I was comfortable with it. So I'm not really sure if the way I acted was just or not. What do you guys honestly think? Was I in the wrong, or was he?

Today, I did something that I have been putting off for approximately nine months. Today, I did something that I hate doing, but needed to be done. Today, I took another step towards being an adult. Today, I got my license to drive. (How much more awesome if I had said to kill. Yeah, I got my license to kill.)

Let me start from the beginning. When I turned 15, I was as excited as a five year old on Christmas morning to get my permit. My mother took me to the State Licensing Office and I took the online test. I passed and was so ready to get behind the wheel. We went to the License Bureau next to get my actual permit.

The first time I drove was also the last for the next couple of months. I hated driving. Absolutely hated it. All the other cars zooming onto the road next to you and cutting you off and honking at you cause you're going to slow and all the signs and rules and lights you have to follow and my mother and father yelling at me that I'm going the wrong direction. It was too much.

So far a while, I didn't drive. Then my dad persuaded me to get behind the wheel again, and it was a little better this time. And a little better the next, but never was I comfortable behind the wheel.

My 16th birthday came and passed and my friends left and right were becoming licensed drivers, and here I was with no desire at all to even become one. Getting my license meant I would have to drive. Drive to get it, and then drive afterwards. Why would I do that when other people can tote me around? I didn't get my license.

Then eight months later, Andrew's truck dies. He had no job, so no money to be able to get a new car, and I did not have my license, so I could not drive my dad's car. We were looking at a situation where it suddenly became hard for us to hang out. Andrew gently suggested I get my license, that way we could at least hang out over break some. I thought about it, thought some more, and after about a week, I mustered up enough courage to ask my parents if they could take me to get my license. I was going to do this.

Of course, Andrew's mom managed to buy him a used car, taking some money out of child support and then giving Andrew a good lecture about how he was eventually going to pay her back for part of it, and then the rest was a Christmas present.

Hey, I may not have to get my license. But by now, I wanted to get it. I started to feel bad that he always had to pay for gas and what other expenses while I just came along for the ride. I wanted to do this.

So today, my father had me drive out to the place, telling my things I would need to know; here's the headlights, the rear defroster, the front defroster, etc... We sat in line, and after a couple of minutes, one of the instructors called my name and told me to follow him.

Oh. My. Gosh. I was actually doing this. I probably looked like a freak as I led him out to the car, I was sure I was shaking and that oh my gosh I'm going to kill us all. He kindly asked me to show him where certain things were, and I complied. Deep breath. I could do this. He asked me to reverse out of the parking lot. I shifted into reverse, and I turned the wheel the wrong way. I was going the wrong way what the heck is wrong with me I've never had this problem in my life! I fixed it, and backed out.

He told me to proceed to the end of the lot. I stepped on the gas...and we lurched backwards. I repeatedly said I was sorry, and changed into the correct gear. He told me to relax and take a deep breath. I complied.

The rest of the test went much smoother than that. He was very polite, which made me relax and not make anymore horrible mistakes that made it look like I had never driven a day in my life. I had never parallel parked before, but I thought I managed that all right. We pulled back in front of the building, he gave me a grin, and told me I passed. I almost fainted I was so relieved I would never have to do that again. I found out later that I had passed with a 71, and you needed a 70 to pass. I didn't care that I didn't do very well, I passed and wouldn't have to take it again, and that's all that mattered.

Afterward, my dad handed my the keys, implying he wanted me to drive home. I almost laughed and handed them back. I had enough driving for today.

I'm not usually real big on these things, as I usually make them and fail to follow through, or they're pretty much meaningless generic crap that everyone wants to do. But! I do like to set goals, and I think it's good to evaluate things from the past year in order to try and become a better person. So here are some resolutions/goals that I hope I can fullfill in the upcoming year:

• To maintain a 4.0+ GPA. I don't think this should be terribly difficult, as I'm taking a few honors/weighted classes (meaning an 'A' is a 5.0 opposed to the traditional 4.0), so I have a bit of leeway to make a B and still have a good GPA. Which is good.
• To eat healthier and maybe shed a few pounds. I like junk food, and I love eating candy even more. The unfortunate thing is, these are not healthy at all. I'd like to become a bit more active, stop eating like a cow, and start living a little healthier. I think I'll feel better about myself, and I'll be more prepared for my upcoming trip to Europe this summer.
  
• To read more. I used to love to read and I would read all the time in middle school; I'd read a book a day. Now, I read about a book a month. :( I still hold the same passion for reading that I used to, but now I have much less time on my hands. I now have a boyfriend, am taking much more difficult classes, still am an active part of my youth group, spending more time on the computer and on my blog, etc etc. I received quite a few books for Christmas, so I plan to read them, which I'm excited for. :)
• Try to not be such a worry-wart. I can and will worry about every little thing. This worry inevitably causes stress, to the point I just sit down on my bed and cry. It's not healthy, and I hate it. I know this is something that I can't just fix overnight, this will take time. But I know that if I can worry less, I'll be less stressed, and I will be considerably happier. Who doesn't want to be happy? 

I hope you all had a fantastic New Year. I spent it with Becky and Andrew; we didn't really do too much except eat a bunch of junk food and watch a few movies. It was nice, nonetheless. We didn't have any fireworks, so we drove to a convenient store nearby and got Pop Rocks, haha. That's close enough to fireworks, right? :P

My family and I traveled to my aunt's, who lives about an hour and a half away, yesterday for my mom's side of the family Christmas. Because she has such a large family and there's tons of cousins and aunts and uncles and whatnot, we don't just buy gifts for everyone. We all just buy a $5 gift and we put the gifts in a pile and play a game called Rob Your Neighbor. (I'm not really sure if that's the "official" name of the game, but it's just what we call it. :P)

It's pretty simple. Everyone draws a number and that's the order that you go in. So, number one goes and picks a gift out of the middle and unwraps it. Then, number two can either still the gift or can pick one out of the pile, and it just goes around like that. It's actually really funny because people get so competitive over these cheap $5 gifts. xD Nothing spreads holiday cheer like stealing presents does!

I ended up with a $5 gift card to Dairy Queen (mmmmmmm, so good!) which I was perfectly content with. I stole it from my grandpa, haha. I'm still his favortie. ;)

Then we all ate entirely too much good food and kind of sat around and talked for a couple hours. I always feel so awkward when it comes to that part because no one is for real my age. I'm 16, and the closest two people to me are 21 and 23. So while my older cousins talk about college and everything, I'm kind sitting there, twiddling my thumbs, thinking about how I can't wait to get out of high school. Or, wishing someone would ask how I'm doing in school. I really like to see my family and stuff, I just always feel so awkward as I don't have anyone to talk to. Does this happen to anyone else?

Schoolwise, I'm almost done with this semester! I have all my finals this week; three tomorrow, two on Tuesday, and two on Wednesday. Thankfully, Tuesday and Wednesday are half days, though I sometimes wish they would just shove Tuesday and Wednesday together so I could get on with my break! I'm really not too worried about any of them except for my physics final. This year my school implemented this new dumb grading system where finals are only worth 5% of your grade. Uh, what? Does anyoneone else agree how dumb that in itself sounds? Finals are supposed to show what you know but nope, not anymore.

On the upside, I can get a 0% on five out of seven of my classes and still pass with an A. On the downside though, in Physics, I have to get 110% on my final to get an A, so I'm pretty worried. Our teacher told us that there would be extra credit on there, but that means I have to completely ace it, which is pretty unrealistic since I really struggled with that class. :/ I was aiming for straight A's this semester, but I guess I can handle one B...

Anywho, I hear most of you are out on break! Woot! For those of you who are, I hope you're all enjoying it and for those who aren't, good luck on finals and whatnot!

For a whole semester, I have been considered a junior, an upperclassmen at my high school, but really, I haven't felt like it too much. I mean, people before me have always talked about how great it is to be a junior and senior, not having to deal with freshman, etc, etc. Until recently, I hadn't felt like that.

This year I've been taking a lot more challenging classes, so only juniors and seniors are allowed to take them, which I recently realized, is a wonderful, wonderful thing. I hadn't realized how much I enjoyed not having freshman in my classes.

I'm currently taking a class, Personal Finance, that everyone is required to take to graduate. It is such a pain in the butt. The teacher is terrible, the other students are terrible. It's just terrible terrible terrible. I mean, some of the people in there can't do the simple math. (Ex: Bob works 5 hours a week. He make $7.25 an hour. How much does he make in a week?) I just don't understand how you can't figure out how to solve that! I realized lately that most of the students in there are freshman. They're just so frustrating.

Now don't get me wrong, not all of the freshman are terrible. There were quite a few freshman girls on the tennis team this year that I really liked and became friends with. So, I think it's just safe to say that most of the freshman are just... freshman.

Anyways, I think I'm rambling and losing the point I was trying to originally make. I really like not having class with freshman. And I'm finally feeling like an upperclassmen.

Another reason I've been feeling my upperclassmen-ness is I got my class ring! (YAY! :D)

I'm not sure if all schools do this, but we had a ring ceremony and they made it into a pretty big deal. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the ceremony because I was sick. Either way, I'm really happy with it! The green stone (I don't even remember the name of it, gees-a-lou!) isn't my birth stone, I just picked it because I thought it was pretty. :)

On one side of my ring, I had the tennis symbol, as I have played on the girl's tennis team the last two years and I plan on again next year. Plus, it's something I really love to do, and when I look back on my high school years, I'll remember tennis and all the memories I had on the team. <3 I also had my name on this side.

On this side I had the music symbol, as music has always been a big part of my life. I've taken piano lessons for the last five years and my freshman and sophomore year, I was in choir (though I'm currently not now, which is a long rant for some other post). When I was little, I was part of the musicals at my church and performed in the different children choirs. I'm still participating in the youth choir.

Lastly, I had my name engraved on the inside of the ring in all fancy lookin' letters. :)

I was really nervous if it would fit; I didn't want to have to give it back so they could resize it and then have to wait for it again. Luckily, it fit perfectly! The only thing I'm a little peeved about is that on the side of the ring, (you can't see it in any pictures) there is the black streak and it won't come off. I tried to rub it off, but to no avail. Andrew said it might need to be shined or something. I'm not really sure. I'm going to have to call the company and see what they say. I mean, I spent a good deal of money on this ring, so they should do their part right?

Anywho, on to sitely stuff. If you hadn't noticed, I added a visitor page! Whaatttt! I know, right? It's not really much because I'm like, graphic-ly challenged, but I added some recipes like I said I would, and I've added a book review.

School is almost out for break! Woot! I've got finals all next week to take, so this current week just seems to be dragging. I just was to take them and be done for the semester. Besides, I've been needing a break. Just some time to myself, or to spend with family and friends.

Good luck to everyone else with their finals/exams!

I wake up this morning and the first thing that I notice is my alarm clock blinking back at me, announcing it is 8:13. Well, that's odd. My mom usually, by now, has come into my room at least 3 times trying to get me up to get ready for church. I sit up in bed, and through a peep in my curtains, see bright whiteness.

I hop out of bed, throw back my  curtains, and BEHOLD! Little white balls of happiness are floating to the ground! The ground and cars are covered in snow! Not a foot, but a good three or four inches! Pure euphoria!

I run out of my room and into the kitchen where my mom and dad are sitting, drinking coffee and reading the paper, and chant over and over excitedly, "IT SNOWED IT SNOWED IT SNOWED!" They look at me like I'm five, but I don't care. It snowed. :) My mother comments that she should wake me up everyday, telling me it snowed, just to get me up. Psh, silly woman, you can't fool me!

Since church was canceled, me and my mom decided to be productive and we spent all morning and part of the afternoon making cookies. Every Christmas we always make tons of cookies; it's really a tradition. So we get busy, playing Christmas music in the background and happily baking away. We have a window right above our counter, so as we cooked, we could see the snow falling outside. It was beautiful.

We even got my dad to help us a bit. And, for the life of him, he can't cook. Nor can he stand the amount of estrogen in the kitchen all at once. ;P

He peeled the wrappers off of Hershey's Kisses and Reece's Cups so we could use them for Peanut Butter Blossoms, which are, if I do say so myself, absolutely delicious. Tabor seemed to, as he always does, get in the way, so he finally just settles himself under my dad. The perfect spot to be if my dad accidentally dropped something.

I think I'll add a couple of my favorite cookie recipes to the site, if anyone would care to try making some of them. I'll try to do that in the next day or few.

In all, we probably made enough cookies to feed a small country. But they're so gooood. :D

In an hour or so, I'm going to be heading over to Andrew's to have him sample some of our creations and to watch some movies, where I will probably fall asleep. Baking can be so tiring...

Today is happiness at it's finest. I hope you all had a wonderful day as well. :)

• You can't see the carpet through all the tissues by the side of your bed.
• You carry a roll of toilet paper around in your purse because a box of kleenex won't fit.
• You look like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
• You only leave your bed to eat and pee.
• You don't remember what solid food tastes like.
• Your outfit every day is your pj's.

In other words, these past couple days have been crap. I hate being sick. :/ -throws pity party-

But I'll stop my complaining. Today I took the ACT. For those of you who don't know what the ACT is, it's basically a really big deal if you want to go to college. Colleges look at the score you received on the test so you want to score well.

It sucked having to pull out a tissue every five seconds to blow my nose. But anyways...

I'm really nervous about how I did. I think I did decent, but I'm afraid that I'm going to get a horrible score and all my friends will have done fantastic and I'll look like an incompetent loser. I guess it doesn't help that my boyfriend's mom got a 31 the first time she took it, without studying, (The test is graded out of 36. A 19-21 is about average. Anything above a 30 and you get really good scholarships.) and told him she expected him to at least get a 28 the first time. So if I do bad, it'll just make me feel stupid compared to them.

I guess I should just stop worrying (ha, right!) until I get my scores. I'm going to be taking it again in either the spring or beginning of summer in hopes to do better, but I'm hoping I did alright.

After days and days of people nagging me, I've finally created and finalized my Christmas list. It took me so long because really, there's not a whole lot that I really want or need. There are a couple things that I would like that are rather expensive, like a closet organizer (which run around $100 or more) that I haven't included on my list, but the main thing is just books. I love books. I especially love new books that I can call mine. I feel like such a nerd saying that. :)

So here is my list:

1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
2. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
3. All 6 Harry Potter DVDs
4. Cry Baby DVD
5. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus DVD
   
6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
7. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
8. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
9. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
10. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
11. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
12. Peter and the Sword of Mercy by Ridley Pearson and Dave Berry
13. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
    

What do you guys generally have on your list, if you have one?