"the quality of mercy is not strained"....

thursday tomorrow! yeah! that means only one more day till friday! hmmm this week seemed to go by really slow, but then when i stop and think about it, its actually been quite fast. i don't know i think i'm sleep deprived. i've been trying to memorize this stupid speech from the merchant of venice for english extra credit, but its so stinkin long. and it's full of doths, thous and all that good shakespearean language stuff. by the way my title is a part of the speech i'm attempting to memorize. i honestly think the whole play was pointless; nothing was solved in the end, but oh well. i still have to know it and it's not that bad. it's supposed to be demonstrating justice vs. mercy and the fact that we all need to be shown mercy sometimes. yep well, i haven't got much to say.

sooooo good night! :)

congratulations to the girls soccer team, who won today. it was an awesome game! we quick "finished" our track workout so we could go watch it. it was freeeeezzzzzzing! the game was intense though.

oh, today i found out that, for the first track invitational, we have to be at school at 5:45! yes, 5:45am.! i'm not even awake at 5:45 nor will i be functioning in the least bit. i mean i don't like to sleep in past 8:30 on weekends, but i don't want to be up at 5:00. ugh! remind me why i do track again?

oh well, better start the massive pile of homework i have. hmmm i cant believe today is only tuesday.

later! :)

rambling....

yup yup. i really haven't got much to say here at the moment....
hmmm?
-oh, i went and played tennis this lovely morning. i was really rusty. i seriously need to play more.um... then i came home, ate lunch and muchos chocolate. it was muy yummy, but now i'm hyper active and dont want to start homework.

lets see what else?

-God is awesome!

-i'm really craving a pineapple right now, but we don't have any.

-my bathroom smells like lysol and the smell is seeping into my room where i am sitting...it kinda smells funny after a while.

-i want it to rain, even though the sky is blue and there isn't a cloud in it.

-i hate homework. especially on weekends!

-i want to go swimming, but our pool is freezing cause we don't heat it.

ummm i'll be done now.... :)

*squish *squash

that was pretty much the sound of my shoes after track today. so i've totally been hyped up for today since our high jump coach was coming and we got to jump after a week of weight lifting...ick! so we walk out of the locker room and it's pretty sunny still. a little windy, but nothing too bad. i was thinking maybe the rain will hold off for a while....nope. while doing our "dynamic stretches" ,as they like to call them, a few drops here and there kept falling but not enough to get anything wet. we finish our warm ups and the sky still isn't too bad, but our coach wasn't there and it was already 3:50. rebekah checks her phone and there was a message from him telling her that he would be late. so we go out to the high jump pit and take the cover off only to have the rain begin to come down a little harder. we recovered it with just the tarp to keep the rain off. then we waited, and waited, and waited. our coach has a white truck so we kept looking for white trucks and must have seen like 8 different ones go by. i'm not exaggerating either. the rain begins to come down harder and we begin to amuse ourselves by thinking of ways to keep dry. the fist one was tying my hood stings in a knot while having the hole just big enough for my eye. the only problem with that was i quickly began to have a lack of air and, thanks to rebekah, we couldn't get her knot out. we also had fun crawling under the tarp that was hanging off the side of the mat. anyway... finally at like 4:45 we see coach jim walking towards us and at that point the rain started coming down hard and everyone else from track had left (see we do actually do work....we stayed out in the rain to practice. ha, so there!). we ran out, got our marks and were preparing to jump when we all decided that we would just wait till monday. since it was already 5:00 and we were all soaking wet. we seriously looked like we had just climbed out of a swimming pool. my hair was drenched, water was dripping down my face, my sweatshirt was soaked through and my pants were sticking to my legs. oh and did i mention my hands were blue. :) so remember how much i wanted it to rain during the day so i could enjoy it. well, i think i now have enjoyed the rain. 2hrs. worth. it was fun though! so that was my not so productive, yet fun day at track practice.

i just really feel bad for the varsity soccer girls.

enjoy the rain and stay dry! :)

....

spring is in the air! well, almost. maybe. not really, but whatever. what i'm trying to say is today was beautiful! it was a perfect temperature to just go outside sit in the sun with a good book and enjoy God's wonderful creation. too bad we had to be stuck inside doing all but relaxing. oh well. God is good all the time!

on another note.... i have been having the strangest dreams lately! i don't know where they are coming from. i told some of you about my dream i had last night. in my dream i stole/ borrowed ( since i gave it back) my friend's car, to ditch school, and drive up to the mountains. what on earth does that mean? so strange! because we all know i'm totally the type of person to do something like that. :) see i just seem innocent, but really what does go on in that brain of mine? wouldn't you all like to know. muhahaha!

:)

back to reality

today was a blur. first i'm sitting in 2nd period history and the next thing i know i'm in P.E! what's up with that? so ummmm not much to say here, it was just another typical day at school. i do have a geometry test tomorrow, which i'm dreading. i really should go study but i'm procrastinating. hmmmm..... why is that? i mean i really need to study, but the more i know i have to study the more i don't want to sit down and do it. oh well, i shan't dwell on it.

i shall now go yonder and begin my fearsome quest of knowledge in order to comprehend the mass of numbers and formulas that they keep telling me i'll use later in life.

sianara :)

part:2 saturday & sunday

okay this it the last i will post of my trip. so saturday we got to hit the slopes and ski as well as some other things! yippee! enjoy the many pictures!

it was a lot of fun and super warm. it was probably around 27 degrees up at the top which isn't that bad at all. my mom stayed at the condo with my sister while my step dad, step sister and i went skiing.

wow how kind we are to each other. all i want is peace and she has to stab me with her ski pole. :) no we were just being weird.

this was at the top of the mountain. were gearing up to take "the plunge" down a black diamond. ("the plunge" was the name of the run)

i really love the background in this picture. it was so beautiful and clear.

after skiing we went down to the lodge for a cup of hot chocolate and i made friends with the local bears. howdy! :)


katie was sooooo cute in her little snow suit. i think my mom seriously got carried away on the layered clothing thing. the funniest thing was when she was trying to walk around the room in her puffy suit. she couldn't move. it was kinda sad but funny at the same time. she kept falling over and eventually just gave up and lied on the floor until someone came over to pick her up. she didn't cry or do anything, just lied there. it was hilarious!

i also got to go ice skating at an outdoor rink for the fist time in my life.

unfortunately i'm not the best at coordinating clothing and it was right after we went skiing. i was kinda warm so i took off my ski parka and i had a black long sleeve tee-shirt underneath. it perfectly matched my black ski pants, my black snow boots and my black and grey hat. i felt slightly emo except for my blond braids. :)

okay talk about emo. now i look emo gone biker or something.....you know i don't even know what i look like. i do know that this somewhat unattractive jacket cost $1,300! can you believe that?! it's insane! who would buy that?

on sunday we went dog sledding. the dogs were really cute and the scenery was gorgeous.

this picture above was when the sun was setting.

this picture was when we were leaving to come back to LA. i thought it was funny that this little rustic woodland scene was inside the reno airport. yes, the same airport that had slot machines everywhere. strange huh? i bought that jacket at the same store that had the weird $1,300 jacket. mine cost considerably less money and it had a tree on it! i thought it was cool. so yep yep that was my trip!

school tomorrow fun fun. this weekend seemed really short. probably since i didn't have very much down time at home but oh well it was still a blast. :)

part 1: friday

i'm back! so did anyone miss me? :) ha ha just kidding. alright now you all get hear (and see) the breakdown of my super fun semi-annual family ski trip! what could be more amusing? this is going to be long so if you don't read it all i don't blame you. i think i'll do it in sections by day. before my little sister came along we used to go up to mammoth and ski every year, but this time we decided to visit tahoe for a change. we flew into reno on friday, since reno was the closest airport to tahoe. hmmm so when you thing of reno, nevada what comes to mind?.....gambling, casinos, lights kinda similar to las vegas....ick! not my idea of a fun time. or is it?......

oh darn! they caught me on the slot machine...better confess. ha ha. yeah, we all know what a gambler i am.....anyways, i didn't see much of reno but it was enough for me. there were slot machines and other gambling games everywhere inside the airport. yes the airport! i mean cant people in nevada find better things to do with there time. another strange thing about reno was everyone wears cowboy attire. cowboy boots, cowboy hats you name it. i just was a little shocked when i saw this guy wondering around.

it seriously must take alot of self confidence to walk around wearing that thing. surprised i have a picture of it? ummm yeah that took a bit of confidence too. i thought it was a once in a lifetime opportunity so i had to snap a picture of him. i'm not a stalker. i promise! everyone in the airport probably thought i was though. after laughing, discreetly, about his funny hat i ran down the isle after him with camera in hand. he stopped to talk and so i sat down on a bench and waited. he then walked into a restaurant/bar, which had no door so i didn't have to go inside. i walked a little farther, turned around snapped the picture and ran away. hey, this is nevada okay. i want entirely sure if their gun laws are the same as they are in california. not that he saw me but i just ran anyway. yes, i know i'm weird! :)

so after taking pictures of strange guys in hats that are so big they can barely balance, i went outside to take some pictures of the scenery while we waited for my step dad to get the rental car. the sky was beautiful with all the white puffy clouds.

after we got the rental car we had about another hour and a half drive to northstar,the place we were staying. the resort was awesome. our complex condo thing was right at the bottom of the gondola to get up to the mountain. also, right

below us was a whole village thing complete with an ice skating rink, many cool stores and places to eat. the only down side to this was the fact that it was a little crowded so you really couldn't enjoy the peacefulness of the mountains. it was still great though and was really nice to be able to just walk out to the gondola and go ski, instead of taking a shuttle bus or driving up a mountain to get there.

i think katie's favorite part was organizing the tea bags at the restaurant we ate at for dinner. we ate at a little italian place. it was in a small part of tahoe called truckee. truckee had a lot of cute little shops and old fashion buildings. it was really neat.

i think i will end here for tonight to keep from overwhelming you. :) i also need to go unpack.

good night! :)

i feel awesome!

today was a great day! i wasn't tired, it was the last day of school for four days and my jumping was totally on! after only one day of high jumping practice i tied my p.r. (personal record) of 4'6"! i was soooo excited seeing as though i've only ever made that once in my life before today, and now i have made it three times! so 4'8" that's my next goal! yup yup! apparently according to my coach i'm supposed to make 4'10" by the end of the season....yikes that's high!

oh, funny story. while rebekah, hannah and i were out there jumping today (our coach wasn't there) mrs. hogan comes up to discuss what the qualifying heights are for c.i.f. as she was walking away she goes "thanks girls for always working so hard at practice". i was like "is she being sarcastic?" she wasn't. that surprised me. :0

tomorrow i'm leaving for lake tahoe. another thing to be excited about! i'm just really praying that i don't fall skiing and break my ankle or something, then not be able to jump the rest of the season.....i think i would seriously cry. that would be really sad :( . that is something that would totally happen to me too....i've never broken anything and i'm hoping i won't, especially at the present time.

enjoy the long weekend! i know i will! :)

God is good!

i'm super sore again. yah! ...not. i think i have completed my physical activity for the next few days. so we had to run the mile at track practice today because everyone was talking :( ...okay so the mile, not that bad except then we had to go weight lift and after i had a tennis lesson. so i'm pretty much exhausted out of my mind. anyway enough about me...how did you guys all like chapel this morning? i really liked it. those kids were awesome! they seriously can dance ten times better than i can (then again most everyone can). they were so cute and it was unbelievable how they can just be so happy and have so little. like when that kid told his story about his life before coming to the choir. you can just tell that they have a passion to just praise the Lord and i think that's something i can take for grained a lot of the time.

tomorrow's thursday and we have friday off! and i get to high jump tomorrow. yippee!!!! i also get to go up to lake tahoe to go skiing this weekend! i'm soooo excited!

i will end here for tonight! adios!
oh, and happy valentines day! <3 (you know. i still don't really understand how that looks like a heart. i mean i know how it is but i just cant see it. to me it looks like a sideways carrot symbol with a three.) :)

and so it begins...

okay so i've now officially started track. yep. today was the first practice and what a fun practice it was! our high jump coach was there and i got to jump for the first time in almost 6 months! it was super fun and brought back memories of last year's season. i can already tell this season is going to be sooooo much better than last year. want to know why? (i bet you do)
1.) i am no longer a freshmen!!!! woooot wooot! okay sophomore....not much better but hey it's still an improvement. right?
2.) i actually know what to do this year and how everything works, which is very helpful
and 3.) i have a goal that i can now try and accomplish and i'm not starting from scratch....i'm starting from experience. ooooo.

anyway, i'm really excited. it also was kinda fun to watch the new person (yes person, not people) start and not really know how to jump at all. gosh i don't remember having a lot of trouble with it....hmmmm. oh well i'm sure he will improve. it was just cool to actually know how to jump already.

yep yep. well i'm off to study for my bio test tomorrow! how fun!....not

later alligator! :)

wow this was all saturday?

oh history! what will i do? so i woke up around 7:15 (sleeping in for me) ate breakfast and decided to get started on my history project. see i'm the type of person who likes to get up, get ready and get out. i don't really ever like to just sit at home all day in my p.j's (well occasionally). anyway, right after eating breakfast i sat down at my computer to start this dreaded project and really started making headway on it. i put on my headphones and just worked. we were supposed to go pick up my cousin, justin, from whitter collage around 4:00 and were planning to leave around 3:30. being in my "working mood" i didn't look at the clock until my mom calls upstairs that were leaving in 15 min. i'm sitting there thinking "where are we going" i looked at the clock and was like oh shoot its 3:15! i jump up and then look down at my self...ummm. i was still wearing a pair of sweats and a t-shirt and my hair looked like it had just been through a wind tunnel. i ran, jumped in the shower, got out, threw on a pair of jeans and a shirt, put my sopping wet hair in a ponytail and ran out the door. all in 10 min. i was quite proud of myself for moving so quickly.

when we were like 5 min away my step dad calls justin to tell him to walk out to the front of campus, which is on a moderately busy street corner. gary (my step dad), if you know him, you'll know he likes to mess around. so we pull up and see justin across the street. my step dad was like okay lets pretend like we don't see him. my mom and i are like "sure whatever" so justin starts crossing the street and gary makes a sharp u-turn and pull along the opposite curb. justin, being confused, turns around and starts running to the other side where we parked. he was coming toward the door and gary makes another u-turn. so justin keeps running back and forth in the middle of the street trying to get in the car. meanwhile my mom and i are screaming that justin will get run over.....it was interesting....my family's strange but hey there's never a dull moment.

after gary finally let justin into the car we went out to dinner at "bubba gumps"; i had never been there before. if you guys have ever scene the movie "forest gump" that's what the restaurant is based on.....a little creepy actually. everywhere you look there's a line or picture from the movie and they have tv screens playing it in the background. oh and your waiter (or waitress) asks you trivia questions from the movie. they were a little obsessive. it was fun though and the food was good.

i also went to the movies tonight with my mom and justin. we saw "the pursuit of happyness" with will smith(and no i did not spell that wrong. that's how the title is spelled). i think this was the first movie i have scene in theaters since "pirates of the caribbean 2" last summer....wow i don't get out much....well actually i do, just not to the movie theater. which doesn't bug me. any who the movie was good, but sad and long. it demonstrated some good qualities and a good moral. i guess i would recommend it if you can sit that long. it was a long movie and it moves pretty slow. not bad though, and it made me cry.

so yep yep that was my day....gosh it seemed really long. that's a good thing though. has anyone else had that feeling like the days are moving slow but then you look back and your like "wait that was still today. that seems like a really long time ago". like friday seemed like a lifetime ago and it was only yesterday! hmmm? oh well i don't really know what i'm saying....i'm rambling now so i think i'll stop here for the night. sorry this post is so long and all over the place.

have a fantastic sunday tomorrow! :)

costco rocks! and is like my new favorite store

so i feel slightly rebellious yet happy. see i kinda ditched track practice today to hang out with cristina and jenny. we went to golden spoon where i received a call from rebekah wondering where i was.....(sorry rebekah). i was celebrating my last day of complete freedom from track before i'm forced into everyday hard labor.....or is it hard labor for us high jumpers? as everyone would say. seriously everyone gives us so much junk about how all we do is lay on our mat and stare at clouds.....if you haven't heard this story i'll tell it another time, this is not the time. mrs. hogan will probably be like "so where were you on friday?" but oh well. anyway back to my good day..... after golden spoon we went on a mission to costco, where i think i tasted every sample imaginable to man-kind. seriously you could get a meal out of just walking around the store. that place has everything imaginable, its huge! so needless to say i had a super fun friday! weekend's finally here! hope you all enjoy it! and just keep thinking four days off next weekend, during which i will be up in lake tahoe, skiing! i hope there will be lots of snow.

i love you all, my friends! :)

prayer = peace

so the last few days i've been really bummed, but i've been trying not to show it because i don't like to be sad. but yeah i unfortunately failed my first history quiz and then had a D in the class, causing my GPA to be a 2.7 (this was without half of my other grades imputed).....not good at all! i know it's really not that big a deal since we have only had a few assignments and have plenty of time to get grades up, but i just felt like i had lost my security or something. so after being really stressed out, i just asked God for help. i just started praying and now, starting yesterday, everything has been going awesome! i took another history quiz today and got a 25/25. plus some other grades that my teachers have recently updated i now have a 3.5 ....not excellent but much much better than a 2.7! yikes! i was excited that my GPA went from a 2.7 to a 3.5 in two days though. God IS GOOD!!!! :)

until tomorrow! adios!

smile! its a beautiful day!

i had an awesome day today

that's really all i have to say

i ran the mile in p.e

and it made me feel great. yippee

then i ran sprints at track

which pretty much broke my back

i don't know why i'm rhyming

it just seems like great timing!

okay i'll stop now. i know that was lame but whatever. i've totally been super d' duper d' hyper all day today! but yeah i had an awesome day even with all the sprints we had to run at track. i'm sooooo excited for monday! we get to jump! yes! :) i'm looking forward to it. that's really all for now....not much.

adios! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~smile!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i dont know what to title this post....

so just when my butt has finally gotten over being sore from track now all i have to worry about is falling down stairs.....last night i turned the corner to go down the stairs and since i was wearing socks (which were nice, warm and fuzzy, but had absolutely no traction) i slid on the hard wood and landed hard on my rear. *thud "ouch!" then my family (who were downstairs) try to suppress their laughter as they asked if i was alright. oh well.....now that that's out of my system.....

yesterday i was in the grocery store to buy yogurt (why is it always yogurt?) for my mom since she stayed in the car with my sister who was taking a nap. i got up to the check out and the guy, seeing my school uniform, goes "valley christian eh?" i was like "yep"
"so, what's the first commandment?"
caught off guard i didn't respond right away. but after a pause i said "you shall not have any god's before God"
"close enough. i was getting worried there for a second. i thought i would have to call your mother and tell her to save all that tuition money she's paying."
i honestly didn't know how to reply to that so i kind of smiled, payed, said good bye and walked away. i really wasn't sure how i felt about that and i'm still not sure. i just thought i would share that.

i know this post is kinda all over the place but i had a really strange dream last night. in my dream rebekah and i were at track practice (surprise surprise. since i feel like i live there now) and somehow we got in trouble and the coaches made us run back and forth across the foot ball field chasing sea gulls off of it.....pretty strange huh? oh and then i started screaming that i found a pigeon amongst all the sea gulls. don't ask i have no clue. i think school is really getting to me.

:)

anti-lock brakeing system! dum dum dum.

i've known for a while what abs does and what it's good for, but today i had the unpleasant first hand experience of trying them out. before i go any farther with my story let us clarify that it was not because i needed to make a sudden stop or because i'm a "bad" driver. no, this was my last driving lesson with my instructor and he wanted me to experience the way the car feels when you must slam on the brakes. he told me to go out to this deserted parking lot (free of cars. not of light posts and trees though) and drive down to the other end and turn around. i was especially worried about the light poles...if you have ever heard my golf cart story, you know why. :) anyway..i turned the car around and then he says "okay your going to floor the accelerator and then slam on the brakes when i tell you." i was thinking "you have got to be kidding me" the parking lot wasn't more than 200ft long and i was supposed to accelerate for 180 of those feet....yikes! he goes "whenever your ready, and what ever you do don't take your foot off the brake once it's on."...he said it like these were my last few moments or something.... i took a deep breath and slammed my foot on the gas, while praying as hard as possible. i was coming closer and closer to the tree at the end of the row and seriously had like 20ft left when he told me to brake. i don't know if any of you have ever had to use the abs brakes or not, but the pedal kinda starts pulsating up and down and the tires pretty much grind (or that's what it sounds like) in to the road.... i lived (obviously since i'm typing this) but it was terrifying. wow!and i thought him telling me to floor it on the freeway was bad. he made me do this 3 times until i got it right. then a fourth time he made me do it while steering the car to the left so i could see that the car wont skid and i would still have control..... ahh the stress of learning to drive.

well that was my days big adventure :)
school tomorrow! yeah! (kinda)

fun fun! cheerio my friends! :)

early spring?

what's up with this weather eh? it was groundhog day yesterday, which i didn't (and wouldn't) know if my friend hadn't told me and seriously been obsessed with it....anyway everyone knows the old myth that if the groundhog comes out of and sees his shadow we'll have six more weeks of winter and if he doesn't see it an early spring will come. does all this warmer weather mean were gonna have an early spring? i just was curious about what it said so i looked it up online and supposedly punxsutawney phil predicts an early spring. i didn't even know that there was an actually "punxsutawney phil", i just thought it was made up for that movie "groundhog day".

so while i was looking i found this website all about groundhog day and let me tell you. if i thought my friend was obsessive, she was nothing compared to these gung ho groundhogers.
i clicked on a section that said "about groundhog day/predictions" and it came up with these random facts. they called them "answers to frequently asked questions"

- Punxsutawney Phil is the only true weather forecasting groundhog. The others are just impostors.

-How often is Phil's prediction correct? 100% of the time, of course!

-How many "Phils" have there been over the years? There has only been one Punxsutawney Phil. He has been making predictions for over 120 years!

-Punxsutawney Phil gets his longevity from drinking the "elixir of life," a secret recipe. Phil takes one sip every summer at the Groundhog Picnic and it magically gives him seven more years of life.

-On February 2, Phil comes out of his burrow on Gobbler's Knob - in front of thousands of followers from all over the world - to predict the weather for the rest of winter.

-According to legend, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.

-No! Phil's forecasts are not made in advance by the Inner Circle. After Phil emerges from his burrow on February 2, he speaks to the Groundhog Club president in "Groundhogese"(a language only understood by the current president of the Inner Circle). His proclamation is then translated for the world.

-Punxsutawney held its first Groundhog Day in the 1800s. The first official trek to Gobbler's Knob was made on February 2, 1887.

-So the story goes, Punxsutawney Phil was named after King Phillip. Prior to being called Phil, he was called Br'er Groundhog.

pretty scary huh? i hope the people who created that website don't honestly believe what they wrote on it. i mean...."groundhogese"....is slightly freakish and obsessive. yep yep i just thought i'd share that with you all.

good by my friends!....or how would you say it in "groundhogese"? "squeak squeak chip chip" ha ha just kidding. :)

so soooooo sore!

i officially cant move my legs. my arms are also losing their ability of motion. if i wasn't sore enough from yesterday's conditioning/practice (they say it's conditioning, but it goes the time of a normal practice) i will be tomorrow. i seriously don't think i will be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning. oh well. tomorrow is another day.
just remember....

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"
Philippians 4:13

i love that verse. it's just a good reminder that God's always got my back, even in the smallest situation.

on another note i thought chapel was awesome today. do you guy's agree? his story was amusing and made a good point.

i would write more but i'm tired and going to go read a book then sleeeeeeep!

farewell! :)