On the Road Again August 10, 2006

I didn’t have any time to post something before we left, but I am going to now.

Going on road trips, packing is the part I dislike the most. I always over pack, but I can’t wear the same clothes more than 2 times in 2 weeks. I am okay wearing pants more than once, but I at least have to have some variety with my shirts.

I also always feel like I am going to forget something important, that isn’t easily replaceable. Clothes are replaceable, and my mom did say that we would do a bit of school shopping on the trip, but there are lots of clothes that I can’t leave behind and wouldn’t like to forget.

Then, there is leaving behind all of the animals. The dogs always know when we are going somewhere, and they will just watch you, with their sad puppy dog eyes. They miss us terribly when we are gone, my dad, who is home, said that they didn’t eat anything for the first couple of days. It’s not that we neglected them, but we didn’t pay that much attention to them.

Packing always reminds me of all of those things, but it also reminds me of what is ahead, the wonderful vacation (complete with palm trees).

Palm Tree Sightings August 9, 2006

I have a fascination with palm trees. I was born in California, and we moved when I was five, so I guess it is just me wishing to go back to
California. My mom loves it in
Washington because of the mild weather and all of the green, but I love the hot weather and palm trees. The brown doesn’t bother me, if there are palm trees scattered throughout it. (I also like eucalyptus trees, but they come second). At first, before we left for the trip, my mom and sister wanted to fly to California so they wouldn’t have tot endure the driving portion, but I desperately wanted to drive, so that I could say where the first natural palm trees were.

 

When we pulled off in
Redding, (we were looking for a grocery store) we saw a bunch of palm trees, but they were all in front of stores, there weren’t any lonely ones. We decided that those must have been planted and we didn’t count
Redding as the first palm tree bearing city.

 

We were driving for about another hour or so, and just before Orland, we saw a couple of lonely palm trees, but not a large amount. We are a few miles past Orland now, and there haven’t been any more palms. They must have been planted too….

 

I have just spotted a few more palm trees in Willows.

 

There haven’t really been any more palm trees until
Los Angeles, and then from there on they have been really abundant.

 

We have finally arrived here, at my Grandparent’s RV, at about 2:30 AM. It was long, but worth it!

Day One (Driving) On Our Trip to California August 8, 2006

Today was our first day on the road. We left the house at around 12:30 (pm), and then we had to run a few errands. We went to the library, returned and bought some stuff at Target, and returned some more stuff at Sears. Then we went to Joann’s and bought Mimi a lap desk for the car (bright pink I might add). To top it off and fill up our tummies we went to Taco Time and all got kids meals (along with the ‘watch water games’ toys). Then, at about 1:30, I pulled out the GPS device and we figured out how to find I-405.

We just made it to
Oregon and I had to hold my arms out (at request of my sister) and it is 5:48. Just beyond the border there is…..a Hooter’s! What a lovely border marker. So, we have found different ways of keeping ourselves occupied and among them are:

• Coloring little strips of paper to make Mimi’s window pretty. (But Mimi got tired of it after about 10 minutes, so there are only about 5 strips on the window.)
• Playing with states flashcards and playing for (Dark Chocolate, my favorite!) Raisinets. I especially enjoy this game, because it is really funny listening to all of the capitols that they come up with, like how Mom said
  Butte for practically every state until I told her that that wasn’t even a capitol. My favorite one is
  Annapolis, Maryland. Mimi has a friend named Anna, so my hint was that it had Mimi’s friend’s name in it. So my mom and I would just sit here, laughing at what she came up with, it went sort of like this…

“Maryland!”

“Annaplalpolis!”

“Annanapolis!”

“Annanaplapolis!”

“Annapolis!”

• Laughing at Mimi and her silly things…such as being excited to having her own hotel coupon book.
• Listening to Mimi sing along to her MP3 player. We tell her to quiet down a bit, and she belts it out, so if you are trying to sleep, you have to imagine that she either isn’t there, or is politely singing you a lullaby.

I have set up a states excel page, so I can keep track of who wins (and who to award the Rasinets to.) I am getting Mimi ready for 8^th grade if she gets Harris. Mrs. Harris said that nobody in her class has ever aced the beginning states and capitols test (it is a pop quiz) so I am hoping that she will get Harris, and show her that it is possible…..heehee.

We are going to do another round of States, so I’ll blog again later. As soon as I get to the hotel, I will post this.

We made it to
Medford, Oregon and I will be posting at night, because that is when we have internet access.

Mimi’s New Room, and My New Bed August 5, 2006

First off, I would like to apologize for not blogging for a few days. On Wednesday and Thursday, I had my final exam for summer school, and I got an A- on the first and I don’t know on the second one. The highest that anyone did get was an A-, so I am pleased with my grade.  

This summer, when my dad and my sister were on their vacation to New Mexico, we (me and my mom) redid my sister’s room, I cleaned it (which took a good week) and we finished painting, and such like that. Even though it was my sister’s room, I did it how I might’ve liked my room when I was twelve (if I hadn’t liked the marine biology thing). So we were at Ikea searching for anything that would fit and work with her room, when I remembered that I had found my dream bed there. It was a loft bed, that would fit in my room with my low ceiling and would also create a bigger space for me. I love looking at all of the displays they have, with all of the different loft beds. So we did end up getting it, though we agreed that we wouldn’t put it up until Mimi’s room was done. I found this one display with a couch and a light fixture that you put on the wall, and I fell in love with it. Although, we only got the bed and decided that I could get the couch after my mom got new couches for the living room. Now you need to understand that my mom has been looking for new couches for a year or so, so my new couch could be a couple years away.

So anyways, we had gone to Ikea the Sunday before they were supposed to come home, which was sometime on Friday. We still hadn’t finished painting and organizing everything, so it was crunch time. We worked really hard those last couple days, and on Wednesday, my dad had called my mom when I was in summer school and told her that they would be home in 2.5 hours. We freaked out, because the room wasn’t done yet, we still needed to put up the light, organize and vacuum, and the organizing part could take forever. (I sorta got fed up with her stuff when I was cleaning her room at the beginning and I put all of the unorganized stuff into boxes in the living room, and we still needed to sort through about half of that.) We ended up getting everything done with around an hour to spare, but left a bunch of stuff in the living room for my sister to take care of when she came home. (We thought it was the least she could do after spending three and a half weeks on vacation and we slaved away on her room, including mostly cleaning it.)

So as soon as we were done in her room, I ran outside to the car and attempted to take my bed out of the car. I almost managed to get it out, but I didn’t want to hurt it, so I asked my mom to help. She said that she needed a break though, and I was forced to also. So we got it inside, and I started reading the instructions, and soon enough, Mimi and Dad came home. So then I managed to get my mom, and at times my dad to help me put it together. When we got through most of it, I realized that the stupid man at Ikea that tried to help us, was stupid. We were missing the bed frame. It was too late, so my dad and I managed to get my mattress into the bed, but on the floor. I slept on the floor that night.

When we had gone to Ikea before, we were making sure that we had all of the pieces, because we didn’t want to make another trip, so we asked a guy if we had everything. He assured us, but we weren’t really assured, I think he was getting annoyed and just said that. Both me and my mom remembered the tag saying $199, but the part we were buying was only $101. So we went back to Ikea, and got the bed frame, I think it was on the Friday when they were supposed to come home. We finally put it together, and I got to sleep in my new bed.

That is how I got my new bed, and my sister, her new room.

Insight on my Hobbies August 1, 2006

Here is my very long list of my hobbies, and their descriptions. 

Okay, so let’s start with beading. I like to make jewelry. I think I am best at making earrings, (versus bracelets and necklaces) because I wear them most, they are easiest to make, and it uses fewest supplies. I don’t wear bracelets much, but occasionally I will wear a necklace. Sometimes my earrings will be on the longer side, and I have to readjust them, because somebody *cough, cough* namely my father, thinks that wearing longish (and by long, I mean 1.5 to 2 inches) earrings is sending the wrong message. Although that is not why I like them, I usually just go by style, not length. 

I do martial arts, but I wouldn’t say I was an expert at it, even though I am testing for black belt in November. I have been doing it for about 4 years, almost 5. I like how it challenges me and, oh yeah, teaches me good values and stuff.  

I like to keep my grades up. Yeah, I am something of a teacher’s pet, it actually gives me pleasure to see that I get a 4.0 or an A, but I get pretty disappointed when I get anything less than that. (Especially last year, in orchestra, because one girl in my group for the ending project flaked out and got me an A- for the class. Now I won’t be one of the people mentioned as the people who got 4.0s all three years, but at least it won’t go on my transcript!)  

I love to read, I’m not a very fast reader, (unlike Eva, who reads nonstop for hours…how do you do it?) but I do enjoy it. For a while, I wasn’t allowed to watch Lord of the Rings until I read the book, but I strongly protested, so eventually my dad gave in to letting me watch them. (I watched them for the first time around 2 weeks ago, they were awesome!) I am now reading the series and have just finished The Hobbit, (for those of you who read my mom’s blog that may explain the relation from a hobbit to my grandpa) and am planning on continuing on. 

Okay, so from reading this (extremely long and possibly boring) entry you have probably come to the conclusion that I am a nerd, which is true, and I am proud to say it!