from locking oneself in cars to me flying off bikes!

well, when i was young (by young i mean young...like 3-4 yrs. old) my grandma accidentally locked me in the car with her keys right outside of my preschool. i honestly don't know why i was incapable of unlocking the car door...i don't know maybe i was in my car seat or something, but all i really remember is her calling the fire department (yeah, again i have no idea) and a big red fire coming to get me out. i also remember my entire preschool coming out to see the fire truck...i was pretty much unfazed by the whole thing. well, i did get out of the car (obviously). so, how is this relevant you ask? well, i'm going to tell you. apparently my mom and katie were at the grocery store today (this was during school so i only heard the story) and since katie had been in the basket seat so long my mom took her out and put her in the floorspace of the backseat. she closed the door to prevent her from falling out while she unloaded the groceries into the back. so, apparently she left her purse, with her keys in it, in the car. she closed the trunk and here's the lock click and the car beep. ummm not a good sign. she tries the trunk door and it was locked. she ran around to the window and passenger door and sees katie holding her keys pressing the lock button and laughing. at this point i am very glad i wasn't around, as i can imagine my mom probably went into hysterics. but, i guess some lady in the parking lot was nice enough to offer her cell phone to call triple A. at least katie was unfazed by the whole thing; she had a grand old time sitting in the car. i guess she also got a hold of some jelly beans and was eating them during the 10 min. it took the triple A truck to get there. but, how funny is that; my 18 month old sister locked herself in the car and ate jelly beans while no one could stop her.....hmmmm? sometimes i wonder if babies aren't smarter that we give them credit for? :) any way, i just thought that was pretty funny!

now for something sad i did today. i was trying to borrow a sports bike for a bike ride on saturday since beach cruisers arn't exactly the most efficient for long distances. when i got home i realized my cousin, justin, left his bike in our garage since he just went back to utah for the summer. well, i decided to attempt to ride it. first mistake was not lowering the bike seat...bad idea since he is like 8-9in. taller than me. second mistake is i forgot that it has hand brakes. i'm used to just pedaling backwards to stop, but as i'm rolling down the driveway and trying to stop it's not working (smart i know). all in the time span of about 1.5 seconds i realize that it has hand brakes. i grabbed the brake and well, the bike did stop. in fact it stopped so suddenly that i went flying forward and pretty much ate the handle bars. in the process i also managed to scrape my shin all the way down on the bike petal. ouch! i thought i just banged it, but when i walked in the house and my mom goes "what did you do?". i looked down blood was dripping down my leg; it looked worse than it felt. i didn't really even notice. actually it doesn't look bad at all; it just bled a lot for how small the actual scrape is. ummm...but yeah that was my big adventure! :) it's all good now!

have a good friday tomorrow! :)

warning: one week!

yes, one week from today i take my drivers licence test!!! so scary! i'm kinda nervous, but i still have six whole days. so, i'm not panicking yet. maybe the rest of you who drive should though. ha ha just kidding! i'm an excellent driver! :)
well, i shouldn't be saying that...i haven't passed yet! that has to be my number one concern: passing. but, it will be what it will be.

just thought i would warn you all! :)

i'm am very glad to be back in my nice warm house! tonight we had our track "banquet" get together-talk a lot-give awards thing. it was supposed to be held in the gym so i figured i wouldn't need a jacket. wrong! we had to have it outside...burr! hace muy frio!!!! but, it was still okay. coach gave me a card that completely almost made me cry! (for good reasons of course) i don't know maybe i'm just emotional.

oh, i almost forgot. i did get to see pirates yesterday and i must say that i was thoroughly disappointed at the ending. not that i thought it was bad...just disappointing to end all 3 movies on. so sad! it was intense though! you wouldn't have believed how excited i was, unless you saw me at the movie theater...i was so focused on it! ya, i'm crazy, i know! :) the good thing was that jack's fate turned out okay. (sorry orlando fans i'm partial to johnny) but, ya enough about that!

yep yep that's all for now folks! :)

muchos photos de mexico!!!

so, i know you have all been dying to see pictures from my trip! :) oh, and yes, i am still alive. you all don't have to worry! :) well, i got back yesterday, but i was too lazy to post pictures so here they are now! :) enjoy!

ooo! katie is stylin' in those! someone needs to tell her to get a smaller pair though.

okay, these water bottles were so cool! they gave them to us in the ginormous van we rode in to get from the aeropuerto to the hotel.

oh, and the best thing ever! everything was written in spanish!!!! sooooo awesome! you all know i had mucho fun with that! come on you know you would have too!

STOP!!! isn't that cool that their stop signs say "alto"

cute perro!

strange sign!

ummm...yeah i don't really know why that was on top of a building....i just thought it was funny

here is the beach where we went jet skiing! it was fun! my arms are really sore from steering the thing...i was going really fast! it was sweet! i hope i didn't scare you too much, august! :)

this guy with a guitar started serenading katie. he sang "pretty woman" ...yeah not exactly umm...native :)

this was all in downtown cabo.

oh, this t-shirt with the mcdonalds logo on it....strange i know, but i just had to take a picture of it. so, this was where there was a bunch of shops, kinda like an outdoor market. the people there love to barter with you and make deals with you, but if you really don't want anything it's soooo hard to just tell them "no". you can tell there is just something about them that is really nice and friendly so you feel kinda bad. there was this one guy who was trying to sell me a petrified puffer fish with a light bulb in it....weird! then he starts showing me his swords that he makes and he hand me one and is like "i make all these. you should bring one back for your boyfriend" i'm thinking "ummm...i don't have one and even if i did what would he do with a sword!?!?!" another guy started talking to me and august, while my family was looking at some necklaces, about coming to a party at the restaurant he works at. he goes "oh, are you ladies coming to the party here at 11:00" "ummmm...no" "oh, you need to escape from your parents and i'll give you free tequila shots" ahhhhh!!!!! i'm thinking "run away!!! escape!!!! he was just plain creepy! made for a good cultural experience though. :)

red happy star makes me happy!!!

bandito frog!!! awesome huh? :)

we had to check out of our room at noon, but our flight wasn't until 3:00 so we had time to kill. we stayed at the resort's pool and the guy told us we could go and take showers in the spa. august and i decided to go early. this is what the spa shower looked like. it was crazy it was outside, but covered so it wasn't. it's hard to explain. it had a vine in it, which was odd and the leaves kept falling on my head. seriously the most interesting shower i've ever taken!

here is the view from right outside our condo thing. it was beautiful!

here is gary drowning me in the pool! why does everyone enjoy trying to kill me? :)

this was the swim up bar in the pool. it was pretty cool! they had bar stools in the water! sweet stuff!

katie also thoroughly enjoyed the pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris...virgin of course!

yep yep! that's all for now! fun trip. it was definitely an experience. it was also really neat to see a different culture since i've actually never been out of the country; off the continent, but not out of the country! well, now i have! :)

adios mi amigos! :)

result of a weekend together...

the unsuspecting august falls asleep as she reads, not aware of the maniac on the loose...

MANIAC!!!!

she prepares to strike...

a timer rings and august awakens to go check her cookies in the oven...what a pity for the maniac! :)

she strikes again!

she is unfortunately caught in the act. oh no oh no!

hiding under the table is always good, especially when august has now become the potential serial killer...

"if you can't see me i can't see you!"

as danielle tries to get a drink from the faucet, august attempts to kill by drowning

yeah, not going to happen! danielle retaliates with a forceful punch!

august is napping...perfect timing for suffocation!

unsuccessful yet again!

august knows how much the maniac loves apples, so she poisons it! (idea taken from snow white).

august prevails! :(

and that is what happens when you and a friend spend too much time together!

moral of the story is: never take you're friend to mexico! :)

mas photos de mexico

jorge el lizzard
WOW!!!!
august y mi! yep yep everybody speaks espanol down here! its soooo awesome! except the fact that the computer is in spanish and i don't know what it says. well, we are off to go jet skiing!

adios!

adios amigos!

well, i'm departing for the airport soon to fly to mexico! you know i'm the only person in my house who is ready! always, but i'll try and post from cabo if we have internet access so you all can be updated! :)

well, i have to go pack food for my family now....i really wish i didn't because i'll pack stuff that i like and then they will all complain, but oh well! :)

adios for now! :)

it's been a while...let me fill you in briefly

what a week! had some good and not so good things, but more good than bad.

tuesday: we went to a food bank for NHS and we packed 800 boxes of food!!! crazy and fun! me and two buddies were in charge of the canned chicken or i like the other name en espanol carne de pollo (sin huesos). :) after, i had the most delicious burrito at la salsa!

wednesday: pretty much a boring typical day. i did get my new nano ipod set up though! i got it for my birthday, but haven't used it because i had to download the new version of itunes. i did that last night! it is so cool! it's like 3D as you scroll thorough your albums (it's hard to explain). i also added some more music, which is pretty sweet! oh, and since i'm lazy i decided to not look up all the artists on cds i got, so i just saved them under the people who made the cd's for me! so cristina, rebekah and hannah you guys are now all officially music artists on my ipod! don't you feel special??? :)

today: not much...i did go visit track practice and now i'm typing this and going to be leaving soon for 2nd street where i get to sample lots of yummy food! they have this thing called stroll and savor, where restaurants set up samples and you buy tickets and get to try food at a bunch of different places...pretty sweet! :)

oh, and i'm not sure if i've said it on here, but i'm leaving for mexico mannana! yo estoy emocianado (if that is spelled wrong, oh well. we all know i have a problem spelling english, so how do any of you expect me to spell in spanish?)! ha ha i'm practicing my espanol! :) so so that will be fun fun fun! :)

lessons of the day

1.) don't wait to pick your subject for an informative speech at 11:30 the night before. this will cause you to fall into bed around 1:00am and then wake up at 5:00am to practice it. running on four hours of sleep isn't the best start to a new week. wasn't a bad day though. tennis this evening must have made up for it! :)

2.) when drinking water, avoid snorting with laughter into the water bottle while it is up to your mouth...especially if it is completely full. it just causes bad things to happen such as your water going every which way; ending up all over your lap, as well as up your nose, and your friends to laugh at you.

3.) when attempting to get extra credit in english, by standing up and talking about a given subject for 30 sec. while not saying "um" or "a" (not the letter "a", but the sound) try not to stand up and go "movies...okay...ummm....darn" this will result in everyone laughing at you, including the teacher, but then again i was laughing at myself so i wasn't embarrassed. :)

these are all speaking hypothetically of course. i mean i'm not speaking from personal experience or anything *cough*cough. what kind of person has all of these happen to them in just one day??? i mean come on seriously. :)
no, it was still a pretty good day though! :)

my identity was almost stolen!

what a great weekend! so many things to say, so this post may get a little long...deal with it! :)

yesterday since i had nothing better to do and i love to go support my friends, i went to go cheer rebekah on at her track meet! which at, i might add, she did awesome (congrats on the p.r. rebekah). so earlier matt had sent me a text message and asked if i was going. i told him i was and that if he was going to go he should bring his school ID because you might get a discount on the ticket price.

so, my mom drops me off, i buy my ticket (i was happy i had my student ID: regular price was $9 and with a student ID it was $5) and i was about to walk it when i see matt walking up. being the nice person i am, i waited for him. so we start walking back to the ticket booth thing and i asked him if he had his ID.
"umm...i think i lost it."
"oh, okay then tickets are $9"
he reaches in his pocket and goes "oh, man!" i was like what? he had forgotten his wallet in his other pair of pants and only had $3. i only had $5 left to give him, which only adds to 8 (as i'm sure you all could have figured out). i said "lets just call hannah and ask for a dollar." then he goes "wait can i see your ID."
"umm sure why?"
well, i found out. he takes my ID and goes to get in line. i kept saying it would never work
he goes "ya it will. i'll just cover the picture"
"they are going to check it"
"oh, no. you'll see"
we get up to the window and i stood off to the side so the lady couldn't see me. matt hands her the 5 bucks and she goes "can i see your student ID?"
"sure" he says, covering my picture. the lady takes it out of his hand and looks at it...
"ummm... this is a GIRL!"
now, at this point i'm completely dying of silent laughter until this giant buff mean-looking security dude comes up behind the lady and looks at it (he was standing at an angel so he could see me). he looks at me, bends down and looks at the picture and goes "that's her!" well, he was intimidating and that pretty much silenced my laughter.
then, not helping matters, matt chimes in again "well, that is my school though."
the lady looks at my ID again and replies "valley christian? huh? then what church do you go to son?"
"Emmanuel CRC off of so and so st." (i don't remember what st. he said)
"oh, so do i"
"really? i've never seen you before. well, i have $8. can i just give you that?"
"no, in church we are taught to tithe" (yeah don't know where she was going with that, but just wait it gets even better) :)
matt just goes "well, i'll pay you back on sunday" i clapped a hand to my forehead not believing he just actually said that!
at this point the giant buff security dude gives us this look that clear as glass says "get out of here before i throw you guys out".

we get out of line and i was just about to call hannah up for that dollar, but matt goes "no we can just go down to the end and you can buy another ticket for yourself from the other lady." (what we should have done in the first place). i wasn't keen on the idea, but grudgingly agreed. so matt stood around the corner of the building and i went up to the window. i was about to hand this other lady my student ID and money when the same giant buff security man comes up behind her. he looks at me and goes "hey you!" let me tell you all, he was scary. i froze and then ran the other direction. but, yeah we finally ended up just calling hannah to bring us that extra dollar. hilarious experience though. :) so yep yep that was the big event of my weekend! :)

monday tomorrow and i am such a procrastinator! would you all believe that i still don't know what i'm doing for my informative speech and i'm going tomorrow! yikes! well, better go get on that!
later alligators!
oh, and remember. don't let your friends use your student ID's...especially if they are the opposite sex. :)

so, i'm up late again!

however, this time it isn't from caffeinated tea. no, when i got home today i had a massive throbbing headache so i just went to lay down and read. i didn't even get through the 3 paragraph before i was asleep! the next thing i know my mom wakes me up and tell me to come eat dinner. i looked at the clock; 8:45! i had been asleep for a little over 4 hours! that never happens...like ever! i just don't really take naps often. so, the good news is my headache has been gone since i woke up, but now i'm not tired at all. so, i decided to work on thank you notes from my birthday...yes, sad i know it was like forever ago. i'm really bad at doing that type of thing, but at least i did them and they are done! so, better late than never!

well, i'm going to try sleep, but i don't think it will be achieved any time soon. i'll probably just turn on some music and relax...i don't mind that though! :)

oh, and i have to give my info speech on monday and i have no clue what to do...suggestions please???? anything and everything will do! any ideas are helpful! :)

"iiiiii wana rock and roll all niiiight and party everyday!"(it's a song if ya'll didn't know)

yep yep! fun day through the tears and the laughter. the tears were only in the kitchen while cutting onions and the laughter was just all around! :) but, multicultural fair tomorrow! at least i get out of class for 2nd-5th period! that is so worth it. well, i have discovered many things today so let me enlighten you...

1. i have absolutely no clue how to pick out chicken....we had to call my mom from trader joe's and ask her what it was supposed to look like and how much it should cost... it was pretty pathetic

2. cutting chicken is 20 times worse than picking it out. i hate handling raw meat. it was disgusting

3. cutting bread is a muscle builder for your biceps when you are cutting 5 long baguettes

4. ummm...you know how oil and water don't mix...well, we wanted to see if the oil was hot enough to cook the chicken so kelly tells me to sprinkle water on it. bad idea. oil started splattering everywhere...it was just bad.

5. if i thought that me at trader joe's was pathetic...it's not half as bad as taking like 5 minutes to order a drink (i have issues making decisions). all i wanted was a decaffeinated tea drink at coffee bean, but then the guy starts reading me the entire tea list and i couldn't stop laughing because cristina was laughing at me....so the guy was pretty much looking at us like we were insane. fun times!!! :)

no, but seriously i should have gotten a decaffeinated drink! i am 100% awake! no sleep tonight amigos! fiesta time!!!! woooohoooo! :)

well, i'll have to crash eventually!
have a good night! (i know i will!!!) :)

yet another thing to thank God for

isn't it great that each day we can just start over new and fresh? i thank God for new days! even if we mess up today, we always get another shot at it tomorrow! :)
not that i messed anything up today *cough demonstration speech *cough.


oh, well i'm over it...like i said tomorrow is another day and i am so glad that i will not be speaking in front of a class! :)

the countdown

-23 days until i go to the DMV and take my licence test (i could have officially gotten it this sunday, but i waited too long to call and make an appointment)

-11 days until i leave for mexico and also until Pirates comes out!

and wait what was the third one again??? oh yeah, and approximately 17 hours until i have to give my demonstration speech! i was originally supposed to go on thursday, but since i'm doing high jump and my friend is doing long jump we thought it would be easier to go on the same day. so, mrs. brewer thought tomorrow would be good. just super! *sarcasm.

oh, well i'm trying to look at the bright side; i get it over with and then i don't have to worry about a speech for another week! :)
no, it wont be that bad...there are worse things in life.

:)

ahhhh! bees!!!

right outside my sliding window thing is a bee hive. it was there a couple of weeks ago, but we thought we had gotten rid of it....wrong! i was sitting on my bed reading a book today and i thought it would be nice to open up the door and get a breeze. i am honestly thanking God that i didn't open up the screen! (that would have been a disaster). i sit back down and hear this buzzing noise. i look outside and there were about a million bees swarming (i'm hardly exaggerating). i don't really mind them as long as they don't get in my room, but i just need to remember to keep the screens shut until we get the problem fixed.

i also still cant breath through my nose. i'm feeling great, i just cant breath! oh well, there could be worse things in life.

have a happy monday everyone!
i'm personally dreading tomorrow, but the faster the week starts the sooner it's over right?
later! :)

spider man 3

well well well, i just returned home from seeing Spiderman 3. good movie, however...it was a little long and Toby McGuire wearing eyeliner and dancing...that was just plain scary. otherwise i really liked it; the special effects were intense and done really well. i just didn't really like the ending. i wont say what it was, in case any of you haven't seen it and are planning to.

i will have to say this though. although i like the Spiderman movies i am definitely like 20 times more excited for Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (which comes out may 25). seriously that is like my movie! the good thing is we have that friday off of school. the bad news is i am leaving for mexico that day, so really the only way i could see it before i leave would be to go at midnight. or i can always see it when i get back. anyone interested in seeing it with me??? it's going to be awesome! :)

well, i'm going to bed now. especially since i think i may be getting sick. i cant breathe through my nose, i have had like 10 sneezing attacks today and my brain is not functioning at all (more so than usual). i also sound really funny. well, hopefully it's just my allergies. :)

good night, don't let the bed bugs bite!

decisions, decisions

so i have decided i like the new look for my blog. with all this hot weather i figured it needed a warmer feel to it. i also decided on the book i'm going to read. i have gotten multiple recommendations for Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and i also have read another book by her, The Last Sin Eater, which i absolutely loved! the third thing i made a decision on was what i will be doing my demonstration speech on next week. i was going back and forth between multiple ideas, but none were really things i would know enough about to give a speech on. i though it would be easier to go outside and do something...less intimidating than standing up in front of the class. as i though about it more, it came to me. i went up to mrs. brewer after class and asked her if i could do "how to high jump/how not to high jump" (depending if i knock the bar down or not). she said, since we have a pretty small class, that it would be fine. to be honest i think doing it on this subject just made the whole speech thing like 10 times easier. i mean it fits within the time limit, i know how the steps work pretty well and it will just be like talking about something i like in front of a whole bunch of people. now the only thing i really am worried about it knocking the bar down in front of my english class....not too big of a deal though. :)
hope you are all having a fantastic week! almost the weekend! :)

so what do you all think?

first of all what do you all think about the new template...i'm not sure i like it. i may just play around with the colors a bit, but i don't know.

second: does anyone have any recommendations of books they might have heard of by any of these authors, that have not been made into a movie?

-Barbra Kingslover
-Amy Tan
-Jan Karon
-Alexander McCall Smith
-Francine Rivers
-Tim Dekker
-Sandra Cisneros
-Dan Brown
-Kaye Gibbons
-Ernest Gains
-Catherine Marshall
-Frank Peretti
-LaVyrle Spencer
-Agatha Christie
-Phyllis Whitney
-Ursula LeGuin

i have only ever heard of like five of them.

so, if any one has any suggestions about the books or the blog....feel free to recommend! :)

so much free time...

...and nothing to do! yep yep! today was my first official day of no track practice. it felt really weird to just go home after school and do pretty much nothing. i finished my homework by 5:00 and then went to play tennis. but, seriously i don't really have anything to do. i am slightly missing the social part of track already...but then again i have added an extra 3 hours of life to my schedule! :)

let me know if any of you are bored too...we could be bored buddies! it's always better to be bored together! :)

PAR-TAY!!!

fun stuff! i was so mad i didn't have my camera (it is temporarily having some issues; the lens wont come out). so if any one would like to e-mail me some of their pics and stuff that would be awesome. my family did take a few for me though...

okay, i had no absolutely clue that my mom had rented a limo! all i heard was "i't's time to go" then "oh, danielle don't look out your front door."

well, what do you expect me to do??? i looked immediately...... and needless to say, i was pretty much in shock!!! :0

limo pics! sweet sweet!

so the "surprise destination" turned out to be ...well, i'm not sure what it's called, but it was like a pirates version mid evil times. pretty cool

so, tell me. why do rebekah and i take such strange pictures together?....

...but, talk about strange! this had to be another one of the most awesome things we did! racing down the stairs in sleeping bags! too bad the pics came out super blurry! :( still hilarious.....cristina and i look like caterpillars! :) we're so cool!

so, i just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for making my 16th birthday a very memorable one! you all rock!!!! hope a fun time was had by all....i had a blast!

i love you guys....you are all the bestest friends anyone could ever ask for!

i am so blessed! :)

oh, the fun of track meets...

what can we say; we were board...but we managed to amuse ourselves. :)

fun fun! oh, and i today made my p.r. official! i jumped 4'8" in a meet!

sweet stuff! :)

back on evens

4 feet 8 inches everybody!!! i was excited. i now have a new p.r.! sweet stuff. made it on my second attempt; clean without a touch.

coach gave me this medal he found on e-bay. it's from the early 1900's, so it's like an antique. cool stuff.

my next goal is 4'10". yikes that is high! i'm only six inches taller than that. doubt i'll make that this season (seeing as the season for me is over on thursday), but it's all good!

:) hope you all had a good day!