so happy and a bit frustrated

my camera rocks! i have already taken over 700 pictures with it. (i know what your thinking, that's ridiculous Shaina! and i agree. i don't even know how it happened. i think I'm taking a couple pictures and then BAM! there's 700. crazy, i know).
i have taken so many good pictures and i would LOVE to post them but I'm having trouble figuring out exactly how to get them on the computer. i uploaded the software but cant figure out how the heck you use it. i tried and the pictures just showed up under "my documents". i could still post them but yesterday they mysteriously disappeared. i don't know where they went. I've looked everywhere but nope. no new camera pictures. thank goodness i didn't delete them off my camera. Sarah is gonna help me this week figure out how to use the software.
so hopefully i will have pictures soon. but until then i don't want to post about anything. and trust me...a lot is happening! i love Christmas break. and i love my new camera. i DON'T love cleaning my room which is what im supposed to be doing right now....
ahem. bye.

Christmas 08

I LOVE CHRISTMAS. not just because i got an amazing new camera but its a plus.
Christmas was really fun. so was Christmas Eve. on Christmas Eve we went and saw Nothing Like the Holidays and then on Christmas we saw Marley&Me. They were both good but Marley&Me was sad.
and of course we also opened presents on Christmas. my camera really is amazing. i absolutely love it already. i have been taking so many pictures and I'm running out of things to photograph. tomorrow we are going to Peyton and Amy's to celebrate Christmas with them and the other siblings so that will give me something to take pictures of.
in addition to my camera i got a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble (woot woot!), the new Taylor Swift CD, a robe sort of thing, and butt loads of candy. oh, and socks too. :) there might have been something else but i can't remember right now. i was just so happy with all i got. especially the camera.
i was really glad Sarah was able to be with us for Christmas. it would have been really cool with everyone else too but at least we are all getting together this weekend. its kind of fun to have 2 Christmases.
here are some pictures with my new camera! i didn't get very many of us on Christmas day but the ones i did get are really good.







here are some of our decorations. i think they are so cute this year.











in case you didn't notice, mom has a whole snowman theme going on. i like it.

heres another one from yesterday i took when we went to go visit Raya. its one of my favorites. shes such a cute kitty.



hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! i did.

twas the days before Christmas...

wow. i haven't blogged in over a week. that's a first for me. i think...
a lot has happened since last weekend. i made it through my last stressful week of school (cough cough....prison) and was released on friday to be free for 2 whole weeks. it was a very happy moment.
on saturday morning mom and i huridly packed and headed for Virginia. yep, we went again. told ya we'd be going a lot while gas is cheap. the only part i don't like about going is the 4 hour drive. not fun. i usually don't mind that bad but i don't sleep very well in the car these days. it was alright though. we got to Kathy's at about 2:00 or 2:30 and didn't spend much time at the house before going to the Zuni Christmas parade. Kathy brought Ryan and Jake along so i could spend some more time with them which made me happy. anyhow...the parade was fun. there were some very strange things in it but my camera was being stupid and i lost my pictures of the weird things. i am so ready for that new camera. the pictures i got from the parade aren't that interesting and i am feeling kinda lazy so i'll just not post them.
the parade lasted a whole 15 minutes and then we left to go see lights in Richmond. they were amazing. not as amazing as the lights from the next night but i'll get to that. for now....









Ryan said i look like the spiders in the morning. it didn't really bother me cause i think the spiders are way cool but i acted like it made me mad so i had a reason to beat him up. :)
also where these lights were, there were a couple buildings you could go in that had mini train tracks and trains and stuff. it was awesome. here was one that had this really cool fairy-looking village. i would totally live there. you know, if i was a fairy...



on sunday we just hung around the house and then after the boys went home me and mom and Kathy and Charlie went to see more lights in Norfolk. these were SO amazing. my pictures arent as good though cause here you were in a car so everyones tail lights were making the lighting bad. and some i didnt get because i wouldve had to crawl over mom and lean out the window. oh wait, i did do that. i still didnt get some of the pictures though but it doesn't matter. i got some cool ones. and i guess its the memories that count.

















hmm...well maybe i did get some good pictures. cause i sure posted a lot if i didnt.
on to monday. monday me and mom and Kathy went shopping some and then we met Traci and had lunch and went to see Four Christmases. it was good but not a favorite. i dont remember what we did for the rest of the day...
this morning me and mom got up really early and headed home. i slept some but not as much as i wanted to. the whole way here we listened to Christmas music. i mean seriously, the WHOLE way here. oh the joys of being in a car for 4 hours 2 days before Christmas. it will be a miracle if i ever get Christmas songs out of my head.
after we got home mom cooked and we both cleaned and Peyton, Amy and the kiddos came to visit. it was nice getting to spend some time with them. we are going to eat breakfast with them again in the morning. i guess Sarah is coming too. she is on her way home from Nashville right now.
i guess that is pretty much it for this weekend/week's happenings. but dont worry. i am sure i will be blogging about Christmas. 2 more days!!!! i cant believe it. oh yeah....and guess what im getting for Christmas? ;)

(sorry if there are lots of misspellings. spell check isn't working. and i can't spell worth a flip. so hopefully this is readable...)

cousins and stuff

this weekend Patrice, Matt, mom and i went to Kathy's house for a family get together. it was really fun. i love hanging out with my cousins. they are so wonderful.
me, Ryan, Kaley, Jake, Amber, Emily and Matt threw a football some and played soccer and just hung out.
i am going to pretend that 30 minutes of throwing a football is not why i am aching all over. that would just be sad...
mostly everyone left Saturday night and after that those who were left played the wii. those things are seriously amazing. i want one so badly.
we left Sunday morning so we didn't get to do much more. but i am just glad we all got to hang out some.
me and mom are going back next week to see the Zuni parade. I'm pretty excited. it is much easier to leave when you know you are coming back the next week. mom said we are gonna go visit a lot while gas prices are low. i think that's a good idea.

overly excited

isn't it beautiful? yes, yes it is.

it is possible to be overly excited about something? cause if it is, i totally am. there are few things i have been so excited about. when it comes to material things at least. Peyton ordered it on Monday so it should be on its way. it is going to be torture when it gets here because mom will NOT let me open if before Christmas. i am actually okay with that though. if i opened it before, there would be nothing to be excited about Christmas morning. I'm pretty sure i wont be able to sleep Christmas eve. i have actually already had 2 dreams about getting it...

yep, there is definitely such a thing as getting overly excited.

8th grade sucks - volume 5

i was about to start this post and thought to myself....8th grade sucks - volume 4. here we go. but then i looked back and realized this is actually volume 5. that's pretty impressive.

i don't even really know if there are specific things i can write on this post. i mean, I'm sure there are small things i could write about but that would be boring. there haven't been any scar me for life embarrassing gym moments lately. oh wait, that's because we are having sex ed. now there are some embarrassing moments from that but i think you could live without knowing. i know i sure could have. anyhow, i have just really been hating school these days. and i don't even know why. i think it is just hard because we are over that whole having a break every week stage. that's right. we are now going to school 5 days a week. its torture. haha. okay, not really. but i don't enjoy it, that's for sure. Mondays are the worst. this morning i practically begged mom not to go to school but i guess she would be a bad mom if she let me lay out for no good reason. not to me of course, but to other people. note to self: while trying to get out of school, don't say "can i pretend to be sick?" its more effective if you throw up and cough and sneeze and say you feel reeeeally bad. my day wasn't that awful though. nothing real bad happened. just nothing good either. i am so sick of chorus though. no wonder i don't like Christmas music. i blame it on chorus. i am so tired of singing the same bad songs over and over and over again. at least it will be over after our concert which is Tuesday. ugh. i am really dreading that. but its either going to the concert or recording yourself singing the really hard and high pitched songs we have to sing. yeah, i pick concert. i cant even sing some of the high notes but...shhh. that's the joy of singing with other people. you can fake it. I've been practicing. I'm getting pretty good. :)

positive: Christmas break is only 11 days away!

thanksgivings

i have been meaning to blog about my thanksgiving break for a while now but haven't got around to it. but now i am.

Thursday was actual thanksgiving and me and the siblings and Asher and Ainsley spent some of that with mom. she left around 3:30 though to go to my aunts house. so after that me and the siblings just hung out and played cards and watched football and all that good stuff.

then on Friday we went to maw maw's house to have another thanksgiving with her and paw paw and dad. that was also fun. we played outside a lot. for the past couple years we have been very lucky to have good weather at maw maws. i am so glad because they have fun places to play outside. like the barn. sadly i did not take any pictures that day but Sarah took lots with her camera. we got some really good ones of all of us.

i went home with Peyton and Amy and the kids and on Saturday we had another thanksgiving meal with 2 of Peyton and Amy's friends, Mike and Claudia. then me and the kids played outside some while Peyton did yard work. that same day some of their other friends came over. but we didn't have a fourth thanksgiving. instead we had some very good turkey noodle soup. :)

then on Sunday we went to church and then Amy's mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law and nephew came to visit. then mom picked me up later that day and we headed home.

then there was school of course, but lets not ruin this post.

so, all that is to say i had some very busy thanksgivings. but i enjoyed it. and i have definitely eaten enough turkey to last for a while.

guess what?!

guess what?!

i am getting a new camera for Christmas!!! and it is going to be a cool one too! i haven't decided on a specific camera yet but I'm searching for one. i really want a Canon. i found one i really like but it takes AA batteries which is gonna drive me crazy because AA battery life kind of sucks. that is what my camera now takes. it takes ALL night to charge 4 batteries and then i use them up in like 30 minutes. so I'm gonna go with a no on the AA batteries. but i am so so SO excited. i cant wait! only one more month till Christmas! :) i wish photography businesses would hire 13 year olds. that would be awesome! because i really need money and that would be way cooler than babysitting. not that i really even mind babysitting but i have no one to babysit for. this post is really kind of pointless but i was so excited and just wanted to write about it. i am going to have a hard time waiting for Christmas. I'm really not that patient at all. but its not too far away. i know no one really reads my blog but does anyone have camera suggestions?

p.s. - I'm excited, in case no one got that. :)

8th grade sucks - volume 4

some people are idiots.

(1 more day til thanksgiving break).

fighting and dress up

last night i went over to Delaney's house to hang out with a bunch of crazy girls. :) it was fun. we were supposed to watch movies but we totally didn't. i don't even know how to explain what we did. maybe the pictures can help...









i guess you could call it watching Delaney beat the crap out of people and playing dress up. i don't even know whats happening in the first picture but i love it. they wanted me to spend the night but i was really tired and just didn't feel like staying up all night. and i would not go to sleep while they were still awake. nope. i don't trust them. haha. so i only stayed about 3 hours. but it was still really fun. here are some actual good pictures...







haha...i forgot i had the hat on. oh well. :)

let it snow

it snowed this morning!!! not much but enough that we got a 2 hour delay. i don't think it was necessary but whatever. I'm totally fine with it. i like how forsyth county thinks the world is ending when it snows. :) it always gets us out of school. i am really glad we didn't get the whole day off though because if we had of we would have to go to school a day during thanksgiving break and that would suck. i am just so happy it snowed! it gives me hope that maybe it will actually snow some this year. we usually never really get snow. or not enough to have any fun with at least. i really hope we do get some. snow is the only thing that i like about winter. and it would be sad if we didn't have any. anyhow...that was basically all i had to say for this post. i was just excited about snow. and the 2 hour delay of course. :) ill leave you with a picture of our centimeter of snow we had today...



hooray! :)

baby :)

on the post before this Patrice commented and said i forgot to mention only 14 more weeks till the new baby arrives!!! that is definitely something to be happy about but i didn't want to put it on my 8th grade sucks post. its too special. new baby deserves a whole post of his own. i cannot believe its only 14 more weeks! its crazy. i am so very happy though. i cant wait to snuggle with him and give him hugs and kisses! i don't even mind changing his diaper (which I'm sure i will be doing.) i don't mind doing anything as long as he is here with me. i would've done anything for Gabe too. he taught me a good lesson. you have to treasure the time you have with the people you love and make it count. because life doesn't go on forever. now i know we couldn't really spend time with Gabe in the way most people think about it but i do have memories which means something. and those memories will last forever and ever. my favorite was when i went with Patrice to and ultrasound and got to hear Gabe's heartbeat. it was the most wonderful sound in the world and i wont forget it. anyhow...i don't think Gabe will mind if i give extra hugs and kisses to his little brother. i think he'd like that. new baby is going to be SO spoiled. but its okay. i cant wait to see both of their sweet faces! what happy days they will be. :)

8th grade sucks - volume 3

I'm really not trying to be negative with all these 8th grade sucks post but i know it looks that way. i am just venting which i guess you could also consider being negative. but whatever.

okay...so science fair projects are stupid. i have never done one because of switching schools so much but i cannot think of a good reason for them. how will doing these pointless projects help us in life? how will it help me become a photographer? because that is all I'm really worried about. what makes me really mad is that they are only making the AG students do a science fair project and i really don't think that is fair. everyone is just as capable as we are to do one. we are not AG students because we are necessarily smarter than everyone else. we are AG students because we work our butts off to complete our work and study and do the best job we can. basically being an AG student means loading lots more stress on yourself. and what is our reward for all this hard work? even harder work and longer tests and stupid projects, that's what. some reward, huh? i don't even want to be an AG student anymore. it sucks. but anyhow...i am considering writing a letter to our principle about these science fair projects. i would really love if i could convince lots of people to write one too so I'm not all alone. I'm not really sure if my one letter would make a difference. and i don't want to just seem like a whiny student who doesn't want to do their work because that is not at all how i am. i will do my work but i have a problem with doing pointless work that only 1/4 of the 8th grade has to do. oh, and did i mention that we are supposed to conduct our experiments during Christmas break? umm....yeah right. this is what i meant by school is consuming my life. you cant even have a break or be at home or anything without having to worry about school. now i am not usually like this about school. i usually just keep my mouth shut and do my work but it is getting ridiculous. they expect too much from us and they expect everything to be perfect. and i am not blaming all of this on the teachers because i know they have no control over some things. but still. i just cannot handle all this. i am usually really good about getting work done and stuff. i don't know what to do. if i can convince myself writing a letter would actually do some good i might do it but i don't know. i wish Patrice would do it for me. :) shes a good writer. me, not so much. i just need a break! and not a break with projects or anything school related. a real break. i am hoping thanksgiving break will at least be relaxing. one more week...

oh yeah...i almost forgot the positive. 1 more week till thanksgiving break, 1 more month till Christmas break, 1 more year till high school and 4 more years till college! (well, nevermind about the 4 years till college. that's kind of depressing.)

8th grade sucks - volume 2

i am SO ready to be out of school. it is consuming my life and i don't like it one bit. one of Sarah's friends told me not to wish away life but i don't wish away life. i wish away school. but i guess i shouldn't do that either because I'm sure once i am grown and have some job i hate i will wish i was back in school. maybe...
my Sunday pretty much sucked. we went to church (which was not part of the suckiness) and then the whole entire day i worked on a children's book we had to write for language arts. and i still didn't get it done!!! that was the sucky part. silly me got all creative with my imagination and wrote a pretty decent sized story that i had to make into a book with illustrations and everything. silly silly me. so i worked on it until about 10:00 last night and then got too tired to care whether it was done or not. i worked on it a LOT today and still didn't get it done. i even had a friend helping me on it up to literally the last minute of the day and we still didn't get it done. ugh. i could have just turned it in late but the whole point of doing a children's book was so i could enter it in some competition that Ms. Long wanted us to participate in. i was on my way to turn it in when Janel said she was staying after school and would finish it for me. oh how wonderful she is. the only thing left to do was go over one page with an ink pen so i am hoping she got it finished. i was going to make the cover all pretty with ribbons and stuff but oh well. i am just thankful that i got most of it done and that Janel is so wonderful to help. stressing over the book was really the only bad part of my day. except for the bus of course. its always bad. especially because there is this really annoying guy with the most obnoxious voice i think i have ever heard who yells across the bus ALL the time. and i don't even know what he is yelling because it is all in Spanish! it is so annoying. today he screamed in my ear to try and scare me and it totally didn't work. it just gave me a headache. and it made me want to hit him. now i am home with a butt load of homework sitting there waiting to be done. hip hip freaking hooray.

my positive of the day: i have friends like Janel that are always there to help me. and i am so very thankful.

my crazy cousin

last night i went to Kaley's house and spent the night. then we hung out all day today. it was so fun! it is awesome having a cousin your age who is actually really cool. i feel like we would be friends even if we were not cousins. shes crazy but its okay. she makes me laugh a lot. it was really great getting to spend some time with her. we didnt do much last night but today we went to where she gets her hair done and she got a perm. it was very pretty! then we went back home and rode the four wheeler and swung on a rope they have hooked to a tree and played the wii and all that fun stuff.





i am hoping we can start hanging out more often. i will see her again on December 13th i think for a family Christmas party Kathy is having at her house. i am really looking forward to it. we have a pretty cool family :)

8th grade sucks - volume 1

welcome to 8th grade sucks. this is the portion of my blog where i talk about how crappy school is. feel free to just skip over these (yes, there will be more). it is mostly just for me so i can vent. i am starting this because today was a bad day and i wanted to write about it. but then i was like...i have a lot of bad days. so why not just start a whole volume of 8th grade sucks posts? so, here is goes.

first of all, it is cold outside. i absolutely hate cold weather. especially at 7:00 in the morning. but that's really not a big deal. just though I'd add it. okay, so first period i have gym which totally sucks because me and gym just don't go well together. here's an example why: you play stupid games that cause you to collide with a much bigger person than you that happens to be a stupid boy with stupid boy friends. and the colliding totally makes you slam into the hard gym floor. the stupid boys get a lot of joy out of that. or at least the stupid boys at my school do. thank goodness you are okay and only like 8 people saw you. shwew. but enough of gym class. it could have a whole post for itself but i have other things to complain about so ill continue. the next bad thing was math. we had a substitute so of course everyone was doing whatever they wanted and not caring if the substitute was watching. especially the girls in my group. we only got like 8 problems done the whole class period if that explains anything. i am really hoping that substitute didn't know our names or was either too nice to let ms. day know who was misbehaving. i am on ms. days good side and would love to stay there. and then science. oh science...how i hate you. there are lots of reasons why i hate science. its just one of those classes i dread every single day. so nothing new there. lunch was not wonderful either. the whole time i got to listen to my 3 friends talk about someone one of them likes. "he is hot!" "no hes not!" "yes he is!" "have you ever looked at him?!" yeah...you get the point. well...being a normal, curious person i ask who it is and they wont tell me. that wouldn't bother me if they hadn't been talking about it the WHOLE lunch period and acting like me and my other friend didn't exist. i kind of overreacted but it really annoyed me so i decided to pretend they didn't exist either. then when they did decide i existed again, they wondered why i was mad. hmm...i wonder why. but anyhow. that was partly me just being annoyed and overreacting but it still wasn't good for my already bad day. nothing much happened the rest of the school day. i started my homework and didn't finish until about 8:30. i missed church because of it and that made me mad. why of all days did they give us so much homework on a Wednesday? i just don't understand. and on top of that i am just majorly exhausted by the sleeping issue last night. i took a sleep tab tonight so hopefully i will rest good.

so i am not totally negative, for each 8th grade sucks post i will add something positive about my day. so here is today's: the bruise on my behind from slamming into the hard gym floor isn't that big.

if only i could sleep...

i am so tired right now and should totally be in bed but of course as soon as i laid down i couldn't go to sleep. i just don't understand. i never sleep good anymore. and it pretty much sucks. i don't know what is wrong with me. every night i lay down and cant go to sleep and then once i do go to sleep i wake up all the time. it is very annoying. and it just makes me extra tired during the day. i seriously don't know what is wrong. maybe it is this stupid brace. that could definitely be part of the problem. or maybe my bed is just not comfortable at all. that's a good possibility too. or maybe i have a lot on my mind. hmm.... but that's nothing new. i always have a lot on my mind. and no, its not necessarily bad things. sometimes, but not always. a lot of times it is just something totally random. like last night i knew i would have to write a children's book today for my LA homework so all last night i was thinking about what i would write about. it was SO annoying. or sometimes i have a song stuck in my head. that is even more annoying. but tonight i don't know whats wrong. i just cant sleep. i just don't think nights are good for me. now sleep is a very good thing. its just night. i hate it. I'm sure if it was the middle of the day i could fall right to sleep. isn't that weird? i think so. well...i am so not looking forward to school because of course i will be exhausted. but i am getting used to it. sometimes i just wish i was a bad kid who didn't care about my grades so i could just sleep during class. ahh....wouldn't that be nice? it wont happen though. i am not bad and don't plan on ever being bad. so i guess i will just be tired. oh well.

pictures from my fun filled weekend

sorry again about there being so many. i just have so many favorites! :)

a fun filled weekend

i had a very good weekend! on Saturday we cleaned and then Emily came over and we went to the town square to listen to music. by the time we got there it was almost over though. we only got to hear one song but oh well. it was still fun to walk around and take pictures. then we went to Gaye's house to visit. after that we went to Barnes and Noble and the dollar store and Wal Mart and then took Emily home. yesterday Amy and Peyton and Sarah and the kids came over to eat for Peyton's birthday. I asked Emily to come back so she could meet everyone. she had never met the kids so i thought she might want to. they are cuter than ever! especially Ainsley. they stayed pretty much all day which was awesome. we ate, played frisbee and baseball and monopoly. Amy killed everyone in monopoly. it was just luck though. :) i took lots of pictures this weekend but i am at school so they are not on this computer. i will post some of them when i get home. they are also on facebook for those of you who are friends with me.

tomorrow is Veterans day and we have no school. hooray! i am so excited. it was much easier starting my Monday knowing i only had one day to get through before another break. we are getting spoiled with all these breaks. not that I'm complaining. i just know after Christmas it is going to be hard because we are going to have no breaks. i guess i better enjoy it while it last. well...i am done for now. but i will post pictures later. happy Monday!

happy birthday Peyton!

today is my big brother's 33rd birthday. i cant believe it. hes growin up. sniff sniff. hopefully i get to see him this weekend. i think we are planning on eating out with him and Amy and the kids but i am not sure of the exact plan yet. but anyhow....happy birthday brother! you're the best.

:) love you!

rewind

I am bored so i am going to rewind time and blog about the beach. We went to Corolla, NC the weekend of October 10th. it was really really fun! it was awesome getting to hang out with the family some! a lot of our family lives in Virginia so we don't get to see them a whole lot. my aunt and uncle were there, quite a few cousins, mom, the siblings, and Asher and Ainsley. i think that was everyone. oh, and the new baby of course. :) unfortunately Amy didn't come because of Shakori Hills which stunk. we missed her! it was a lot of fun though. we spent most of our time at the beach and at the beach house playing games and relaxing. it was nice. i really hope we do it again next year. here are some pictures from the trip...

(sorry there are so many. i really did try to limit how many i put on here.)

i have no clue what was so funny but they were trying really hard not to laugh

this is my cousin kaley. shes pretty awesome.

Sarah and Asher

they loved this

these are my cousins Amber and Emily

me and Sarah

Ainsley! isn't she adorable?

baby bump!

so fun... :)