Wow, what a trip!

We managed to leave at 1:17am (only 17 minutes late!). It felt very odd, because I'd spent the whole day getting ready and I was ready to go to bed... but it was time to leave. I was hoping that I'd be ready to go in time to sleep about 2-3 hours before we left, but that didn't happen.

I made muffins and pizza rolls for breakfast and lunch on the way up. (They lasted for breakfast and lunch on the way back too, and we just ate the last pizza rolls.)


Pesto and sun-dried tomato pizza rolls.

Mixed-berry cornmeal muffins and blueberry muffins

Pizza rolls (recipe from Trina's blog). Originally pepperoni rolls... I made these with ground hamburger, and, like Trina, I put the sauce in the roll instead of dipping. Dipping was too messy for a car trip.

I made two pans of the hamburger pizza rolls.

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures on the drive up because it was either dark, or I was driving or I was asleep. Sarah got some. She will post them... or else.

This is the swimming pool at our motel room. We arrived, unloaded, got into our suits, went down the pool... got to swim a little bit and then? It thundered, and started raining, and lightening was everywhere.

This is the view from our second-story motel room of the pool. In the rain.

Joel didn't want to swim anyway.

I failed to get pictures at the rehearsal dinner. I also failed to get pictures at the wedding. I don't know what I was thinking! I was just enjoying it all... Mom and Sarah got some pictures. But Chris and Kristen wrote their own vows, and they were so sweet, I immediately wished that I had thought to get it on video!! *bangs head on desk* I also wish I'd recorded the toasts. The groomsmen were amusingly unanimous in their expressions of awe and shock that CHRIS was married the first out of all of them. And he apparently told one of the groomsmen (AJ) only about a year ago that he would purposefully schedule his wedding one day after AJ's just to make sure he won. And, uh... he lost. AJ said the purple shirt and tie (his groomsman attire) did NOT count as payment for the bet. :P

But I am getting ahead of myself. Before the wedding, we managed to swim in the pool after all. It was the perfect temperature water, and it was a nice sunny day. We all got nice sunburns. So we swam, and then ate lunch, got dressed, packed up and checked out of our motel room.

The wedding was beautiful, and very unique. Kristen carried a bouquet that I believe was composed of Gerbera Daisies. The bridesmaids were in deep purple, the groomsmen in light purple dress shirts and ties, and Chris was in a darker purple shirt and tie. (I really like the idea of having the groomsmen and groom in a color and not tuxes.) The daisies were bright pink, orange and yellow. It was all very sweet and refreshing.

The reception was a full dinner. It was very formally set up, but some people changed into more casual clothes. The men in the wedding party had to suffice with just changing from dress shoes into flip-flops.












The wedding party table.

First dance.

Cutting the cake. (Yes, like a stupid amateur photographer, I cut the cake out of the picture. Get over it.)

Feeding each other the cake. Chris suggested that they step back and try to toss it in each other's mouths... Kristen almost went for it, but didn't want to risk messing up Chris's shirt.

It was a really special trip. I'm so excited for Chris and Kristen. I wish they lived closer so that we could see them more often! Kristen really brings out the best in Chris. He's always been a great guy, and a really nice cousin, but he was usually reserved and Kristen gives him so much joy. I've never seen someone so altered (in a good way) by a special someone. I know they will have a great life together. I just hope they're around enough for me to see it. =D


And now... can you see the "I didn't get much sleep, and now we're going to travel through the night AGAIN?!?" behind Sarah's smile? We left Illinois at 8:30pm for NC. We got home this afternoon at 12:15pm.

I drove a grand total of 8 and a half hours, and 621 miles.

It was fun!

~Lizzie

*uncontrollable laughter*

I really love driving my daddy's car. It's a 2001 Volvo S80 automatic turbo. I get to ride the automatic seat from Daddy's long-leg seat position to my very short position. I accelerate out of turns easily because the steering is soooo smooth. I stop for stop lights easily because the breaks are so responsive. And when I get on the interstate, the car accelerates to 70mph so quickly and gracefully... and then, at the end of the entrance ramp, there's a Chrysler minivan RIGHT next to me, who won't move because the driver is too busy talking on his cellphone! *sigh*

Voice, dance and theatre were fun today. Everything is finally falling into place. We know our dance, we have our dance costumes... almost everyone knows their lines for the play, except for people who got to go on exotic vacations (Greece?!?!? NOT FAIR!!!) or even just regular vacations.

You probably had to be there, but Mr. Green tweaked one of the scenes, and it was so funny, we all burst out laughing! And then they tried to run the scene again, and they couldn't even start the scene without everyone cracking up again! After many tries, they finally got through it without TOO much laughing. And then they ran it again about a half hour later, and before they got to the funny part, Mr. Green cracked up, and everybody lost it again. It's going to be HILARIOUS.
Anyone can come! It's at NRCA (7300 Perry Creek Rd. Raleigh, NC) Friday, June 12th, and Saturday, June 13th both at 7pm. Tickets are $5/student (18 & under) $7/adult. Sarah and I will be in the Friday show, but Kara will probably be in the Saturday show. I don't care if you come see me, just come to either show if you can. It'll be great.

~Lizzie

Mondays.....

It seems like on Mondays everyone's intelligence is lower than normal.... maybe too much TV over the weekend? And I feel so lucky that this universal daze falls on the day that I drive the most. On Mondays I take Joel and David to basketball (and attempt to finish my math book from last year to the sound of dribbling balls and hoarse shouts), then we come home, grab something to eat and I take Joel to baseball practice, drop him off early, and rush to Wake Forest to pick Sarah up from band... always arriving a few minutes late. Then we run errands and go back to pick Joel up from baseball. Today I encountered at least 5 people who didn't know how to drive, and 7 people who couldn't read speed limit signs. Nothing is more frustrating when you're late than to be stuck behind a car that's just coasting around. Hello... the speed limit's 45! Whyyyyyyyy are you going 30?

When Sarah and I got to baseball, Sean was pitching and Mark was batting. Sean threw a ball, and Mark teased, "Air ball, Sean! If it'd dropped down about 20 feet it would have been a good pitch!" A little later, they switched; Mark pitched and Sean hit. Sean hit a foul and Mark taunted, "Is that where you wanted it?" It really cracks me up how the guys are all friends but they still tease each other like that.

Joel's started taking strange drinks to baseball. On the way home he announced that no one has yet managed to guess correctly. "Christian guessed orange juice... and Sean guessed apple juice."
"Well, how are they supposed to know to guess pomegranate and mango juice?" I asked, incredulously.
We're probably the only people in the world who drink mango juice instead of orange juice. Actually, our usual stock of juice includes cranberry, pomegranate, mango and occasionally apple.

Then my day of driving was topped off with a two-mile long line of cars backed up over the 540 overpass, which we cross over on our way home from baseball. We probably sat there in that line of cars for 10 minutes.

I'm looking forward to the release of two movies.... "Eagle Eye" coming out on the 26th and "An American Carol" coming out October 3rd. I don't know if they're going to be any good or not, but the trailers look pretty interesting to me.

Driver's Ed.

Sounds normal, yes? Driver's Ed is the thing that nearly every young teen in the world can't wait to do, because after they finish, they'll finally be able to drive!!! Before you drive though, of course you have to take the classroom part.

My last day of this was 2 days ago.

I went on the first day, excited and somewhat nervous. Lizzie had finish her classroom part about 2 1/2 years ago, and from what she told me, it seemed like alot of fun. Her teacher was really nice and funny.
Also, I was doing it with friends (Kara & Nathan from swim team, and Daxton who was more of a acquaintance.) This would add to the overall funness of it, and make it less boring.
I thought it would be boring because I already knew how to drive, so I thought I wouldn't learn anything. I was wrong. I learned quite a bit (and I'll get to that later.) My Dad had even taken me out on our dirt road in his Volvo a couple times.

So I got up at 6:30, packed up a lunch and notebook, and arrived at least 20 mins early.
After all their overly-strict rules, and roll call we split up alphabetically. (Luckily I ended in the same class as all the people I knew!)
And then we met our teacher. He was a football coach. I imagine he was a good one too; he was big, mean and unforgiving. Which works for football. Not Driver's Ed. Practically everyone in the class got in trouble with him.

The other teacher apparently was no better. She seemed a little crazy. At any random time she would burst into our room, and start talking in a very loud voice. At lunch one day I heard some one tell some one else what some one ELSE and said about her: "You know that water bottle she's always drinking out of?? I don't think that's water."

We did the whole class of the computer. Module1, topic1. Quiz. Topic2. Quiz... etc. Through 10 Modules, whos topics ranged from 3 to 6, whos pages ranged from 1 to the 20's. We also watch corny movies, took 2 15 min breaks, and 30 mins for lunch.

On the last day we did drunk driving, where you would drive around a cone-course, once normal, and once with "drunk goggles" on. Everyone did really well. I'd say that overall, less cones were hit when the person had the goggles on.
NBC 17 news was there doing a story on these goggles. The reporter interviewed two people, then filmed them driving. When they drove with the goggles, she actually TOLD them to hit the cones (!!!!) in order to make it seem that the goggles work really well!!! I will never watch the news the same way again....

And now what I learned:

- I'm SOO glad I'm home schooled!
- a new interesting way to crack my neck.
- ABS means Anti-lock Brake System.
- I don't need glasses.
- way more than I wanted to know about organ donating.
- girls like to get attention by screaming at bees
- guys like to get attention by kicking things and acting silly.
- Driver's Ed isn't quite as fun as I thought it would be.

I also built alot of character. :D

--Sarah

What a week...

It was quite busy, in a fun way. The only frustrating thing was trying to get all my schoolwork done. Monday wasn't too busy, the only place we went was a Hawks middle school game in the afternoon. But because it was a Monday, I was just unproductive and got hardly anything done. And then Tuesday I got up, ate breakfast and left for my piano lesson, and then went straight to swimming. We came home for a couple hours in the afternoon, and I got some school done. Then we went to a Hawks varsity game (they beat Ravenscroft!), came home and went to bed. Wednesday I got up and got a little school done. Then we left for swimming and water polo, and then went straight to the middle school Ravenscroft game (we lost). We went home, ate real fast, and went to the Wednesday night Radical meeting, then came home and went to bed. Thursday, I got a bit more school done (but somehow forgot my Chemistry homework... urgh) and then we left for swimming, went from swimming to another middle school game, went straight from the middle school game to theatre, and then came home and went to bed.

There's a kinda funny and pretty embarrassing story about me getting lost driving to theatre and consequently, getting my friends (who were following me) lost also and I haven't decided if I want to tell it....

But other than the really boring explanation of all that we did... I don't think I really have anything to say. Oh wait!

Wednesday in water polo, since 4 of the older guys were missing, Coach decided that a boys vs. girls game was in order. It was awesome.... we girls stomped them! Of course, it wasn't really fair, since we had all the older girls, and some of the older guys were missing. But still, we won! 14-4. :P And usually we'd lose, even if some of the guys were missing. We were all excited.

And some more serious (but still happy) news is that I've finally decided what I WANT to do after I graduate. I'm still not sure if I'll actually get to do it, but at least I know what I want to do now.

What? Okay, fine, I'll tell you. I want to stay home, keep swimming and doing theatre, and add in some things I've always wanted to do, like sewing, cross-stitching, basket-weaving, improving my poor cooking skills, exploring interior design and all sorts of things that I've never seemed to have time for. I'd also like to do some traveling.... and I might try teaching beginner piano lessons again. I just don't want to graduate and then tie myself into 4 more years of school-type learning. I want to learn all the things that I've wanted to learn! And anyway, if, by some miracle, I discover that I miss math and science, maybe I'll even do more school.

So here's hoping that what I want to do is what God wants me to do. I feel really peaceful and decided..... we'll see!

~Lizzie

Driving.

I was just thinking of a few weird/funny things that have happened to me involving driving.... and I think we need another post.

A couple weeks ago my sister and I were going to theatre class, and it was dark out. We were just blaring Switchfoot and I was going about 70 mph (on 540 - the speed limit is 65... so I wasn't really speeding, just FYI. :P). Then suddenly I saw this strange looking thing in the road. I swerved because there were no other cars around me, but I didn't swerve in time, and my left front tire hit the thing, and threw the left side of the car up in the air for a millisecond. The mysterious thing was a LADDER. Strangely enough the car was fine... (I love Volvos); the tire didn't even go flat.

Also a couple of weeks ago, I was driving home from swim practice with my dad in the passenger seat. I was in the center lane, and there was a truck in the right lane going kinda slow. There was a huge line of cars behind the truck, so I decided to pull over in the left lane so some of them could get over if they wanted. Just as I pulled into the left lane, Daddy noticed a cop a ways up in the distance on the side of the road and suggested that I get back in the middle lane. I was checking my blind spot getting ready to change lanes, when I noticed..... a chair in the middle lane. It was the kind of chair you might have in your living room, cushion and all, wrapped in plastic. Since I couldn't possibly pull over, I slowed WAY down to pass the cop. And the rest of the drive was without incident.

Lastly, two days ago. I drove myself to Chemistry class in our Suburban (that thing is huge!) and when I arrived at Homelight, I tried to get into the first parking space I saw. Unfortunately though, I had to do basically a U-turn to get into it, and there was a median in the way of swinging out as much as I needed to. To keep from hitting the red bug in the space next to mine, I had to hit the curb on the other side of the parking space. When my back tire hit the curb, I backed out to try to get into position... but my front tire hit the curb coming out! I was basically stuck with the corner of the curb under the Suburban. So I went forward and back a few times, and finally managed to get out of the space, and go park elsewhere. As I was backing out of the space, I saw one of the guys in my Chemistry class, sitting in his car (perfectly parked) staring at me with his jaw hanging. *sniff* He had a little Honda.... of course he doesn't have trouble parking. :P

Anyway, I guess I thought of that because I can get my full license tomorrow. It'll have no restrictions: just say that I'm under 18. Woo!! lol.

~Lizzie