Publications

In 8th grade I took publications with a couple of my friends. Publications is just like journalism. I really enjoyed that class and the teacher. It was really cool because we were able to get out of class. We had a fundraiser at school and the kids that sold so many were able to watch this BMX group preform during the last hour of school. I did not sell any but was able to go and take pictures. It was the coolest thing ever. I got to run in front of the other kids and take pictures of these really cute guys. We also worked on the school newsletter. I have an article that I wrote about the fundraiser. For most of the year we worked on the yearbook. We each got dealt a certain page to work on. My page was the band. The yearbook was different than most because we turned it around sideways and the theme was theme parks. It was also pretty cool because being in yearbook I have my picture in the yearbook in more pages. 


My 8th grade year is when September 11th happened. My publications teacher was the only teacher to not have a lesson that day and we were able to ask her questions about what was going on. Looking back that was a pretty cool thing for her to do since it is such a historical day. Her name was Mrs. Clark. She was a super cool teacher. Here is a couple pictures showing what I did.

Ebay and Family History

The last month or so I have started a new adventure in the World of Ebay. I read this blog called My Dear Trash. It is about these two ladies who go to yard sells and Goodwill buy clothes and sell them on ebay. They make pretty good money too. So I thought I would give it a shot.

So far I really enjoy it. My best surprise was that I bought these shirt at goodwill for 4.99. It was a Nanette Lepore shirt. I never heard of this before but googled it in the store and they sold well. So I took a chance and it sold for $33.00. I was pretty excited. I try and do brand name stuff. I have a lot of Banana Republic and J. Crew stuff. I am still try to understand Ebay. For new sellers they put limits on how much you can sell and how many things you can sell in a certain category. It is super frustrating because I reached my limit and have to wait 60 more days or until I establish good feedback. So we will see how this goes but for now I really have enjoyed it. I have made a little over 200 dollars and have only spent 45 dollars.



Sold for 33 bucks.



My other current time consuming hobby is look back at Family History. My father's side is not done because his mom and dad came over from Poland. It gets so hard to find information. My mom's side is pretty much done but I enjoy looking back at the old censuses. My Great Great Grandmother came over from Germany at 15 all by herself. This was in the 1860s. I really wish I could go back in time and ask questions. I wonder what happened to her family? If anyone has any clues to help me find out information please let me know. I use familyhistory.org and ancestry.com.

I truly cannot believe that I am 24 years old. I want to stay young and do sometimes freak out over getting older but I try to remember that I am lucky to be getting older. I was going through old yearbooks and in high school I had a couple kids pass away that were in my class. So when I get freaked out about getting older I try to remember the ones who can’t anymore. Well, enough morbid talk, I did have a birthday and it was great.




I pretty much got my way the whole week of my birthday. I would always tell Nate “It is my birthday week we have to do it my way” I am pretty sure that it will come back and haunt me in August. On Saturday, Nathan threw me a party. He went and bought an ice cream cake from Coldstone. We had some of our friends come over and we swam. After cake I opened up my gifts. I sure am spoiled. I got three movie companions for Twilight, a Twilight shirt, Harry Potter Pen, Harry Potter Necklace, Harry Potter Legos, and Nathan bought me Turtlebeach head phones. It was a great party.

On Sunday I received Skittles from church and then had to share them with the 4 year olds. After church Nathan and I went to the Home Expo convention. Nathan is currently planning on redoing the backyard. We ate at Five Guys and then shopped around. It was a nice relaxing day with Nathan. On my actual birthday Nathan had to work so I did some shopping and had lunch with Nate. I stopped by to visit my parents and they bought me my Hunting and Fishing License (a tradition). Nathan and I went to dinner at Carrabbas and then I had a Call of Duty party that night. It was great birthday week of celebrations and I have to remember to make Nathan’s this great too.

13th Birthday

Oh geez… Those awkward middle school years. I mean seriously how much more awkward can you get. I have a mouth full of braces and what the heck am I wearing.



In honor of my birthday  I found some pictures from my 13th birthday I thought I would share.



My mom never liked parties. Some kids were able to have a birthday party every year we only got 2 parties where are friends would come over. Don’t get me wrong birthday’s were still a blast with the family but when we were able to have party we got pretty excited. I had a sleepover for my party. I had a few of my friends come over and we ate and pretended to be models. We put up a back drop up and put make up on and take pictures. We thought we were pretty hot stuff. I remember getting mad at my friend Nicole for no reason. I was being a brat. I apologized and the night went on. My sister also joined in on the fun. I was such a nice big sister but I guess it was her room too. Here is the pictures of the night.

All us girls.

I was being silly.

The birthday with the family. I got dress code for that shirt too.

Dance

In middle school I took dance for 2 years as an elective. We would get dressed in our PE clothes and then go to the cafeteria and have our dance class. I really enjoyed dance. We would warm up to NYSNC. There were times were we were able to make our dances and perform them for the class. I learned different types of dances too. In 6th and 7th grade I was able to perform at UNLV. It was a lot of fun. In 7th grade I had to try out and was super excited I made it. That year is also the year we had professional costumes. (I don't have a picture of that year.) My parents came the first year and then the second year my mom and neighbor Ellen came.

6th Grade performing at UNLV with Nicole.

Also one of those years my friend and I made a dance up and performed it during open house. It was a cool dance with canes and top hats. I am sure I looked goofy but back then it was pretty cool. All the dance classes would perform at Assembly's. We even did a ribbon dance.

In high school you could take dance instead of PE. I totally signed up for that. This was a lot cooler because we had to buy special shoes and actually had a dance studio. It was so much fun. I loved learning a Mamma Mia dance. One year I actually passed out in dance while doing ballet. I woke up on the floor with all the girls around me. (I don't think I ate breakfast that morning.) Looking back I sure wish I could remember the dances I learned because they were pretty awesome.

Home Improvement

I never put up pictures of our remodeling the house we moved into. In November and December, Nathan and I started fixing up his dad’s house to move into. The kitchen was a dark green and the living room was 3 different colors. Nathan’s dad says he is never picking paint colors again and I would have to agree with him.  Nathan and I painted almost the whole house except the extra bathroom and bedroom. We chose our gray color. It is such a nice color it goes well with almost anything and it makes WHITE pop. Here is a picture of the kitchen before.



Before-pardon the mess



Here is the after picture. I still need to decorate more and add some pictures. We plan on changing the color of the cabinets to a darker color.


After



I painted all the baseboards and doors in the house too.



Look at the difference in whites.



The master bathroom I painted a light blue. It gives it such a spa like feel. Here is a picture of the toilet room before and after.

Before

After

We also changed all the light switch plates. In the bedroom and bathroom they looked like this.

Gross! We added some lights throughout the house too. Nathan’s pride is the TV. He hates seeing the cords and boxes so he moved everything to a hall closet. It was a pain in the butt to get in the ceiling and run the wires but he did it.

We move the couch around all the time. We also need to cover up that top window.

I still need to take pictures of the office and our bedroom but that folks is for another day.

Childhood Past- Montana the Horse and Gracie the Chicken

While in high school we had some neighbors with horses and chickens. My mom has always loved horses. So we all went over there to introduce ourselves. Sometime later one of there chickens hatched a baby chick but kicked her out of the nest. So they gave her to me to take care of. We put a box in my closet with a heat lamp. I named this baby chicken Gracie. (I had a big thing for Miss Congeniality the movie. The main character Sandra Bullock is named Gracie Lee Freebush.) The first night Gracie was lonely she would not stop chirping. I had a little stuffed animal bear in her box but she wanted something warm. I than laid on the floor trying to sleep with my hand dangling in the box while Gracie nestled up next to me.





She stayed inside for a long time while we waited for our chicken coup to be built. We would set her on the floor and she would run around while we feed her pieces of grapes. Once she got a bit bigger we moved her in the living room. I would take her outside so she could play in the dirt and grass. After she moved outside we would still let her inside in the kitchen and throw grapes to her and she would run so fast and swallow the grape whole. I had Gracie for about 4 years. My mom gave her to someone in our 4H group that a had a little boy. I kinda forgot about Gracie and than asked my mom one day about her and she told me Gracie died. She was a really cool chicken.

Montana. The same neighbors boarded horses and had Montana. He was so tall. My 9th grade summer I would go over to there house and muck the horse stalls. I remember the first day I was not drinking enough water and walked home sweating up a storm. I learned to bring water bottle over and actually got pretty fast mucking the stalls. The reason I mucked the stalls was so I could ride Montana and get riding lessons. I than joined 4H and did a few horse shows. I really liked riding English and jumping. I got a few Blue Ribbons (not to brag).

The Spider costume. My mom made 4 legs and then Montana had 4 legs.

I would sometimes get very frustrated during the shows and start crying. During every show they usually had a fun competition. They had one were it was a costume contest. My mom came up with the idea to make a spider costume. It was really cute. I had my own helmet and saddle. It was fun bathing the horses. I really enjoyed learning to ride and think about Montana quite often.