i got a taste of the ground today

school wasn't so bad today...homework load was however, but hey at least i enjoyed my time off. it was nice to see everyone again, but other than that it wasn't too eventful. unless you count me totally eating it in chemistry class today eventful. :) yeah...so tell me how i can be coordinated enough to hit a small yellowish green ball around a court and jump over a bar fine, but when it comes to simple tasks like sitting down at a desk, i'm completely hopeless. so i was messing around with august and go to sit down and since the desks in the chemistry classroom aren't exactly stable (they are top heavy) it falls over. i put my hand on the desk part and it tipped forward causing me to fall on the ground and then a domino effect with the desks in front of it right as everyone is walking in for class. what a sight...me on the ground, august laughing hysterically and three desks on the floor. embarrassing? i think so! mr. baas just looked at me and goes "umm...are you alright?" and everyone else (along with myself) started laughing. but, that's pretty much all you can do in a situation like that...sad, sad.

well, track was good today...we ran and then "did drills"/visualized :) but then tennis was even better! my game was completely on! sweet!

i'm sleepy and still have some homework yet to finish! yikes!
ciao

busy as a bee! hehe!

school tomorrow! i'm trying to be optimistic, but i honestly don't want to go back...especially because of the fact that we have no extra days off in april! :( but we do have some fun things coming up in april. like JSB, which also happens to be on my birthday. yay i'll be 17! scary! i'm also going to be going to Lake Tahoe with my family to go skiing, so that will be fun. then at the end of the month we will apparently be starting block scheduling again on wednesday and thursday. my thrusday schedule is gonna be the worst! i have spanish, yearbook, chem and math! how's that for a suckie day? wednesdays are going to be awesome though, with only english, history and bible (those happen to be my three favorite classes, well not the work-load of english and history, but the actual class in during the day is cool) then out at 2:00. nice!

lets hope these next few months won't go by too quickly, but i do have some pretty amazing things to look forward to! like friends coming home in May...yay!
then about a week after i get out of school it is off to New Zealand with amy and august!!! how awesome is that?!?!? amy, being originally from NZ, is going to show august and i around. it will be so much fun! i'm gone for two weeks and then back home for three days before i leave for Costa Rica with my family! good thing i LOVE to travel. i'm just wondering how i'll do with the jet lag. New Zealand being 19 hrs ahead. but they will both be amazing experience i'm sure.

well, good luck on this week everybody! remember God loves you and so do i! :)

palm springs

so i mentioned that i went to palm springs this week. i left on wednesday and got back thursday evening, so it was a short, yet fun trip. julie came with, so it was my mom, katie, julie and i (betsy had volleyball and gary stayed for that). well, it was an adventure...as it always is. wednesday night we wanted to play tennis, but found out (after we had walked all over the hotel with racquets in hand) that they had no tennis courts. the lady at the front desk told us to walk out to the parking lot and take a dirt road to the next resort, where they had tennis facilities. it was an adventure in the dark. actually it was kinda scary. there were no lights except some in the parking lot, but they didn't help once we found the dirt road. oh and the courts weren't even lighted so we had to wait until morning anyways...lame. haha made for an adventure though :)
here are some pics!

by the pool...yummy!

yeah that's attractive...i know

pig!

flamingos! hopefully you all could tell that though

well, i best be off to bed...i'm sleepy! bye!

friday already?!

wow...time is flying by. and i have had so much to update about, yet so little time to do it in. i just got back from palm springs, but i'll first tell you all about tuesday and wednesday.
tuesday:
i didn't do too much. i got some time to relax and then around noon august came over and we partied it up with katie and dyed some Easter eggs. well, actually katie was adding her own touch and trying to dye everything in sight as well as mix the colors, which my OCD would not allow. finally i did manage to realize that she is only 2 and let go...i was proud of my self :) haha!
later on that day i went to track practice (i know i'm good), which went awful! no one was on with jumping...still it was fun to hang out for a while. i also played tennis after and was completely on with that!

wednesday:
twas a busy day. i was up at 6:00am and driving over to my cousin's house to go up to Santa Barbra and visit Westmont. so that was a very long, but fun day. we got up there around 9:00 and then had breakfast at an amazing little coffee shop...cute and awesome food. then we went to Westmont (by the way my cousin, kristi, graduated from Westmont so that's why i went with her) and attended their chapel, walked around the campus and met with an admissions counselor. i do like the school and i mean i could see myself there, but there are also some things that i didn't like as well. i don't know as of right now Calvin and Westmont seem to be the only two schools i'm seriously considering, but that is also probably due to the fact that they are the two i've had the most association with, knowing people who have graduated/attend them...if that makes sense? i don't know...this whole college thing seems so surreal.
anyway, after i met with the tennis coach while kristi went into town to run an errand, which ended up taking and hour and 45 min! i was pretty much a loner sitting on a rock for an hour since my meeting with the coach only took about 45min. but oh well. we ended up going on a hike after she came back and got me. there was an amazing view from the top of the mountains! then on the way back down we decided we were hot and actually went swimming in the river...so cold, but it felt so good! unfortunately neither of us had bathing suits, but at least it was pretty secluded area and it wasn't as if we went skinny dipping; we had sports bras on. yeah...i'm officially crazy, but i didn't want to get my cloths soaking wet! haha! it was pretty awesome. on the way back we got smoothies and rice cakes for dinner! yum! that was fun, but not as fun as getting stuck in traffic and then amusing ourselves by turning on the radio and making up words to songs that we couldn't stand. pretty hilarious when you're bored. fun stuff.

well, i'm tired, so i shall post about palm springs at a later time. hope you all are having a great week! i know i am! :)

i'm feelin' hot hot HOT!

well, we all can admit i am pretty hot haha :). no, i have the WORST sunburn from going to the beach today! i went with caitlyn, matt and some other people from school. it was fun, but my thighs got fried, since they never see the sun. i've had a pretty bad shorts tan from tennis and now track, but it's gone now...or at least it will be when my lobsterness goes away. it burns SO bad. no other part of me is burnt, just my legs. oh well, at least i'm evening it out, right? haha!

oh my gosh i have a random story...i almost hit a pigeon today! well, actually the idiot pigeon WALKED out in front of my car and just kept walking across the street. dumb bird! why didn't it fly away...nope it just walked across the street. i was on the phone and screamed "pigeon move!" then began cracking up. yeah...slightly embarrassing. funny though.

well, i'm going to go visit my new best friend: aloe vera! and then go to bed.
good night!

Happy Easter!

haha! that is funny! :)
katie just looks like she is high on sugar with chocolate dripping from her mouth and all...so funny!

well, sorry for my lack of posting...life has been busy. i hope everyone had a good Easter. i know i did. it wasn't too eventful. justin (my cousin, which you should all know who he is by now, since i feel like i talk about him a lot) came over to spend Easter with us. we stayed up late watching a movie and then this morning went to church, went to brunch and then came home and had an Easter egg hunt for katie, which turned into gary also "hiding" eggs for justin and i (betsy was in Baltimore with her volleyball team). the thing is he didn't really hide them...more put them in places that are impossible to get at/find. like...on the roof for example. it was interesting, but still fun. fun that is until i got thrown in the pool fully clothed (meaning i had shorts and a shirt on, not a bathing suit, but hopefully you all got that...just making sure haha!). lame! i believe my mother also took a video of it, so i'll see if i can put it up. i just happened to like the fact that after climbed out of the pool soaking wet i gave gary a huge hug and then tackled (with gary's help) justin to the ground so he could get wet too! ha! :) never a dull moment at my house. our family gatherings are never normal. something random/crazy always happens, for example...whip cream fights at Christmas dinner, the bride and groom throwing the cake at each other instead of feeding it to one another, singing Beatles songs during thanksgiving dinner...you get the point.

anywho i shall bore you no longer with my crazy family stories...here are two pictures and a video that is way tooooo long!

okay, a couple things to say about that video. one is do i really sound that way??? if so....ewww! i think i'm going to just stop talking. haha just kidding. none of you shall be that lucky! :) oh and i love how my mom asks "are you okay" i then i yell "no", but i wasn't responding to her. i think i was talking to gary. oh and if you are confused about the whole chocolate thing...gary was throwing eggs and one landed in the pool, so that's why i was supposed to go get it out.

hope you all had a blessed easter! and in the midst of all the bunnies and eggs, just remember the true meaning of Easter.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:16-17

i almost died today!

well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. what i should have said was "i almost crashed today", which i then would have been killed by my parental units. but let me just say that it was NOT my fault. i'll explain. i was coming home from my track meet (i will also tell you all about that, but in a minute), i was getting off the 605 at seventh street, where the ramp speed is 55mph. so i'm going 55 (the speed limit), following the car in front of me at a safe distance when all of the sudden a car about 6-7 cars in front of me decides that they don't know how to MERGE and decides to STOP! learn how to drive! merge does not mean stop!!! ugh! this of course caused a domino effect and me, being the last car, had to make the most sudden stop since i was last to come around the curve. so i pretty much had to come to a complete stop from 55mph in about 30-40 ft. scary? i think so. well, obviously i slammed on my brakes and was praying (no actually screaming) something along the lines of "God help me! i don't want to die!" lucky for me it was not in God's plan for me to die today and i have a good set of brakes. i managed to come to a halt just inches away from the car in front of me. it was terrifying! honestly...it doesn't sound that bad, but i was shaking afterwards. people make me soooo mad!
anyways...

moving on to my track meet. it was home against maranatha. i don't even know if we won or not (can you see how much i care about 'team unity' haha sad), but it was good. i had a nice little fan club going, consisting of my mom, katie (my sister), julie and ms. admiraal...haha thanks for coming! well, i don't know if we won or not, but i do know that i made 4'8"! yay! no 4'10", but seeing that 4'8" was my PR up until a couple of days ago, i'm not too disappointed. actually i'm pretty happy. hopefully that will keep mrs. hogan happy as well seeing that i don't think she will be too happy with me tomorrow once i tell her that i won't be going to a certain meet. talk about terrifying...i have had yet another near death experience this week (okay that is a major exaggeration, but it was creepy); i shall enlighten you all.

so the other day she gave us this whole speech about how she needs to know at least 2 weeks in advance if we are not going to be at a meet. well, i'm not going to be at the meets on the 10th of april or the 12th because i'm going on a ski trip with my family. so, i go to tell her this yesterday and here is what i learned: don't ever tell mrs. hogan anything she won't like hearing when she has a tennis ball (or any other throwable object for that matter) in her hand. i tell her i'm not going to be at those meets and she goes: "danielle you know that the meet on the 10th is a league meet right?"
"uhhh...yeah"
next thing i know she has a look of death on her face and makes a throwing motion with her hand, that is holding the tennis ball, towards my face (mind you i'm standing only about arms lengh away). i saw my life flash before my eyes. we all totally thought she was going to throw it! (we being me, hannah, caitlyn, amy and matt). the thing is when you and four other people aren't sure if a person would throw an object forcefully at another person's face, we have a problem. can you say trust issue or bipolarness? see if had been any other person i wouldn't have cared and probably thought it was funny, but when you aren't too sure...

so, this is my life story at the moment. i haven't been doing to much else. just catching up on my sleep in chemistry class. yeah...we had a sub monday, so we watched a movie. i took notes and then was out for a good 10-15 minutes...didn't even wake up till the sub turned on the light and the bell rang. no joke! that was the first time i have ever actually fallen asleep in a class before (school class that is :) quite sad.

well, i hope everyone is having a good week and managing to stay alive, since this proves difficult for me.
one more day and then spring break!!! so excited!

the farm of knotts berries

so, i have a lot to post about...friday i went to knotts berry farm with julie and jane. it is always and adventure, but i found out something about myself; i do NOT like roller coasters! icky! they made me SO sick...i thought i was going to puke. it was still fun though and at least i tried to go on them. i was pretty much done after xcelorator, which i went on right after supreme scream...anyways. if that wasn't enough fun for us, julie and i got super lost going home. i mean uh, we didn't get lost we just...ended up in the ghetto and got chased down by a couple of police officers for "looking suspicious". sorry officers didn't know dancing in the car counted as a suspicious action...haha. anyone who just believed me: you are WAY too gullible. actually we just got lost for an hour. we went from buena park to downy to la mirada then finally in whittier...then we caught the 605 and made it back to cerritos (see doesn't the other story sound more exciting). no, it was an adventure. especially when you have us hitting and punching each other as julie is trying to drive. talk about unsafe! :)
well, here are some pictures of that day. i stole most of these off of julies blog...actually all of them. haha! :)







snoopy! i look kinda scared to get too close..haha

on the log ride!

wow...thats attractive...

bumper cars!

jane and me

i like how julie made half of this picture black and white...great expression of emotion. definitely my true feelings for julie kim. haha! just kidding :)

fun day! i love this picture...yay for self timers!

more stories of the weekend to come, but for now i'm going to go relax and prepare my mind for another fun filled week of school!

oh, in my fortune cookie today, my fortune said "opportunity awaits you next monday". could that mean tomorrow? we'll see...

bye for now!

not 4'8"

so, i only have a second...i just got home from my track meet and i'm supposed to leave in like five minutes to go to my sister's volleyball tournament in San Diego (its tomorrow, but we are staying down there).

anyways, i just had to post this really quick...i made 4'10"!!!!!!! i'm soooooo excited. unfortunately it being a relay meet they limit how many jumps you can take and i met my limit on my 4'8" jump, but the guy allowed me to try 4'10"and 5ft (that's high!). so it didn't count for the meet score, but i still made it! :)

everyone else did really well also. these are the girls heights:
hannah made 4'8", but had some solid attempts at 4'10"
laura 4'10" (tied her pr!!!!)
jesse 5ft.
amy pr'd also at 4'10" congrats!
caitlyn had some good attempts at 4ft

awesome day, but i gotta run. i have so much to post about...well, you all have something to look forward to! :)

the adventures of the day: getting lost, broadway showcase and losing my voice! :)

first off let me just say this: i have completely lost my voice! that has never happened to me before. i have'nt even got a clue why...i haven't been screaming and i'm not sick...weird. i totally squeak! :) i lost it somewhere during the first half of Broadway showcase (good thing i'm not in it).

oh well...moving on. i went to Broadway showcase tonight. good job to all that were in it! it was amazing! it was fun...we had some issues getting there and julie wasn't even driving; jane was. it was an adventure. while we were lost i found us a rite aid, at which we stopped for some delicious, cheap ice cream! chocolate malted crunch...yummy! my tummy is very happy and content with olive garden and then ice cream...doesn't get much better.

yesterday jumping was good for me. i made 4'6" without a touch and also managed to sit over 4'6" on another jump because i had so much pop! (for all you non-hj people "sitting" basically means it had no form to it what so ever, also meaning that a jump with that much height and some form would have cleared 4'10"...pretty sweet!).

well, it's almost the weekend (no school friday)! i'm tired, so i shall now leave you all in suspense of what is to come next in my oh-so-interesting life. hopefully my voice will return soon...

happy birthday to mi madre

si! it was/is my mom's birthday today. and what a fun day it was! so, after church this morning we went on a bike ride down to the bay and got brunch...i had yummy pancakes with peaches! i also took katie to the park for that was across the street for a little while so that my parents could actually enjoy some of their meals (betsy was at her mom's house this weekend). that was fun to play with her on the slide and stuff. oh, wait i mean it was fun to watch her play :) haha so what if i'm still a kid a heart. no, we found a lady bug and katie literally started screaming when it crawled on my hand and said it was going to hurt me. i showed her that it didn't hurt and then after it flew away she wanted me to go find another one. good thing two year olds are still pretty dis tractable.



when we got home from our outing, my parents went to run errands, so i had the house to myself. i decided to watch a movie and relax some. i decided on Titanic since i hadn't seen it all the way through before; just parts of it. anyways then i get a call from my mom telling me that we are going to go out to dinner and that i should invite julie since she hasn't ever really gone anywhere with my family. (there is a point to my rambling, i promise). so, after i called her (she had to call me back) i went back to watching my movie, thinking "watch i'm going to be at a sad part and start crying when she calls". i was right. just picture this: i'm home alone just watching a movie crying to myself. sad? i think so. i pick up and she goes "whats wrong?" i was like "umm...i was watching a sad movie". wow...i'm lame. funny though.



scroll down for some crazy videos :)



hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and remembered to set their clocks forward!

video time!

katie actually enjoys the song "eh bay bay" (not a clue how you spell that), which is a ringtone julie has.

ummm....just don't ask about this one...one word: HYPER! :)

first track meet today!

oh, my goodness what a long day!!! got up at 5:20 and was at school by 6:15 am! i just got back to my house literally three minutes ago.

today was the first track meet of the season at more park high school, so that was a super long drive. we left at 6:30 and got there around 9:15...there was a huge traffic jam on the freeway. but, after finally making it there the meet was running behind schedule and so i didn't jump until around 1:30. twas not a good jumping day for me. only made 4'4", but the most frustrating part is the fact that all three of my attempts at 4'6" i was WAY over...i'm just breaking my arch. grrrr! oh, well everyone else did good though. amy matched her PR 4'8", jesse-5ft, ryan 5'6" and matt also matched his PR at 5'8". we finally left around 5:30 and then stopped at In n' Out, where i ate the worst possible meal: a burger and fries. but it was SO needed and delicious. i also got to talk to rebekah on the way home, which was hard to hear because i was on the bus, but it was made even harder since she was also on a bus. still good.

oh, and something totally random, but worth mentioning! i saw will smith! no joke...his son does track for Malibu high and he walked by. we all were like "oh my gosh that's will smith". ryan actually went up to him and started talking to him about "I am Legend" and asked him if he really killed that dog...i haven't seen it, so i don't really have clue. so funny!

any who...i'm tired, sunburned (even though i used sun screen, but i have a flip flop tan!!! :) and smell super bad (used deodorant too). seriously, you all should be glad you aren't near me and are just able to read about my adventures. i'm going to go take a shower and crash.

enjoy the rest of your weekends!

good day

oh, i can't wait for the weekend! i seriously have no time to breath, but whatever...i'm managing. the rest of this week should be okay except for my math test on friday.

i can't wait for this year to be over. actually, i can and i can't at the same time. i'm really looking forward to summer, but i know that it will all go by so fast and i do want to enjoy the rest of my time in high school. classes are driving me crazy though! mostly the work load. oh, and yearbook is pretty annoying. today was fun though. alicia had to take pictures of chapel, but didn't want to go alone, so i went with her. so awkward walking around when everyone is singing and staring at you. we ended up just sitting down on the opposite side of the gym as to not be rude to the speaker and then getting "hushed" like 10 times by mr. valdez. no idea if he was kidding or not, since we weren't even talking except when the speaker said something funny. seriously the girls in front of us were talking more than we were, but did he shush them...no. oh, well...the speaker was good today as well.

another thing that went well in my afternoon; i had a good jumping day today! 4'6"...not too shabby. its only two inches below my PR and that is the first time i have made it this season, so i was excited. coach says i'm totally over 4'8", but i'm breaking my arch too early over the bar. he also says i'm on my way to 5 feet this year...yikes! that is high and i'm only five inches taller than that! we'll see...

other than that today was pretty dull...i had a massive headache when i got home, so i decided to lie down and try to to my math homework...bad idea. i was out within five minutes and didn't wake up for an hour and a half. so, now it's midnight and i'm awake! good thing though since i still have more hw to do.

well, that is all that is happening in my oh so interesting life...hope all is well with everyone!

my voice is gone...almost

tonight i was actually school spirited and went to the boy's basketball game...along with 600 other people! the gym was packed!!! it was still awesome though.

the game was intense...we lost, but only by a couple of points. and another thing that made it entertaining...i had SO much energy! i think i may have frightened a few people, but now i'm beginning to crash and that is all i have to say.


i truly shall try to post a better post in the near future...

bye for now!

the melting pot

last night my family went out to dinner for my mom's birthday; we went to the Melting Pot, which is a fondue restaurant...well, i'll let the pictures do the talking...

my sister and i...can you say posed and forced picture by the parental units... :) ha!

here are two more accurate displays of our emotions towards eachother...haha...sisters gotta love em'.

well, we managed to loosen up with some help as the night went on...ha! TOTALLY KIDDING! this is sparkling cider, people! don't worry.

i had to put this on just because of betsy's face...she looks like she is breathing steam.

uh...hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil...i think???

kaite was asleep most of the time...her yawning...so cute!

oh, a family picture...how lovely. like i said, katie was asleep for most of this, so she didn't make it in that one (minus part of her stroller, which she was in).