best day

yesterday was pretty much the best day of school this year. for once i ended the day with a smile instead of a headache. *gasp*

we are having EOGs this week which is making the week better. it means that we spend half the day doing test (which personally i think is better than learning) , go to lunch, and then pretty much goof off the rest of the day. for the first 2 days we also got to stay with homeroom all day which is where lots of my friends are so that was pretty cool.

to explain why my day was so good though i'll have to back up to a few weeks ago. in language arts we had a huge research project on world problems. we could pick whatever topic we wanted as long as we could make it into a thesis. i really wanted to do something that actually affected me in some way so of course the first thing i thought of was jonah and EB. the hard part was turning it into a thesis but i thought of a pretty good one; Most people are unaware of Epidermolysis Bullosa and because of that funding isn't going towards research and that is why there is no cure. i thought it was pretty good because it's true. so true. after doing research and writing my essay i had to make a powerpoint and make a 2-3 minute speech to my class. i would say it went pretty well. i've found that its much easier to make a speech when you actually know what the heck you're talking about. apparently the class thought it was pretty good too because last week they voted for me and 3 others in my class to present it in front of the whole team (that's about 100 kids!). i was scared out of my mind but i wanted to do it. especially when ms. long said that at the end each kid got a "charity buck" and got to choose which charity they wanted to give it to. then the teachers were going to tally up the charity bucks for each charity and donate the real amount of money to each one. i knew i had to do it, for jonah and weston and all the other EB kids.

ok, back to now. well, yesterday. whatever. after lunch we went straight to the media center to listen to everyone's presentations. there were 10 kids in all making presentations (a few from each LA class). i was so nervous but once i got up there it was fine. at first i was stuttering around and a little shaky but i relaxed and it went smoothly. i basically just explained everything on my powerpoint, showed off pictures of jonah and weston, and then told them about my charity (debra). after everyone presented it was time to drop off the charity bucks into whatever shoebox they wanted and head out.

here's the cool part. i needed a bigger shoebox to fit all the charity bucks people were stuffing in there! seriously, my teacher said kids were having trouble fitting them all in there. how cool is that!? i can't wait to find out how much money was raised for debra!

oh yeah, another awesome thing is that after my presentation one of the teachers from my school, ms. tincher, called me over in private. it kinda scared me cause i never talk to her so i wasn't really sure what was going on, but of course it was nothing bad. quite the opposite actually. she handed me a $100 check to give patrice and matt for jonah's medical expenses! "give this to your sister to use for jonah's medical supplies. it's not much but...." um what!? not much? silly silly lady. it was plenty and such a wonderful thing for her to do! i was really amazed and so appreciative. God really shines through some people. after presentations it was time to go home and i had a smile on my face the whole way there.

so there you have it, the best day ever.

gabe's first birthday

for weeks i have been trying to think of what i was going to write on my blog for gabe's birthday. i wanted to make it something special... something that would honor gabe and show how amazing he is. but i have nothing. i'm not good with words like patrice is. i can't describe my feelings in writing, or at least not the ones i have right now.

all i can really say is that i miss gabe. i miss him like crazy. every day i think about him and long for the day i get to see him again and tell him i love him. i want to tell him how much he means to me and make up for all the hugs we missed out on. that day will come eventually. i just have to be patient. for now i will just hold on to the happy memories i have and try to forget the sad ones.

i wanted to make a post way better than this one but i know that gabe doesn't care. he knows how much i love him and that's all that matters. it doesn't have to be written down to be true.

happy first birthday gabe. i love you.

8th grade sucks - volume 8

shortly after jonah was born sarah bought all the girls in our family necklaces from a foundation that makes jewelry and gives ALL of the proceeds to EB research. pretty cool, huh? well, i always always wear mine except for when i take a shower. it makes me feel closer to jonah when i can't be with him.

today in math class a boy that sits at my table told me i should get a new necklace, i guess because he's noticed i wear the same one all the time. i said no, that is was special and it meant a lot to me. then he told me i should get one that was cooler in a disgusted tone that basically meant that my EB necklace was ugly (which it's totally not!). then i told him to shut up ( i don't play when it comes to EB... or jonah... or what i'm wearing). another girl stuck up for me and told him to leave me alone because she actually knew what the necklace was. then he got really mad and said he was tired of females telling him to shut up.

i didn't say anything because i was mad and sad and figured that whatever would come out of my mouth i would later regret saying. if i HAD of said something though, it would gone a little bit like this. I'M tired of insensible, immature jerks like you who don't give a crap about anyone's feelings. then i would have told him to grow up. (and yes, that was actually the nice version of what went through my head).


i could of also gone through the list of other things i'm tired of.

• sadness


• death


• pain


• crying


• sadness


• hospitals


• blisters


• aquaphor


• sadness


• bandages


• EB


• people not understanding


• and sadness (did i already mention that one?)

it could keep going but its about time for me to go to bed. and the point of this post is not to name all the things i'm tired of.

i admit, maybe saying shut up wasn't the best way to handle things, but he shouldn't have said what he said either. i guess there is a lot of things we all do that we shouldn't. i have forgiven him. why should i waste my time worrying about what he thinks? him saying that has not affected me in anyway except for making me angry (for that moment) and making me want to show my necklace off even more. i will keep wearing it and i'll keep being proud of it and i'll keep being proud of jonah.

my positive of the day: that same boy got in trouble today for wearing an inappropriate shirt and was embarrassed in front of the whole class about it. so HA!
ok ok, maybe i'm still a little mad... or maybe i'm just glad he got in trouble. either way...

jonah's first easter

happy easter jonut!

unfortunately jonah is spending his first easter in the hospital. before this happened me and mom had plans of taking eggs to patrice and matt's house and dying easter eggs with jonah and wearing bunny ears and taking pictures and having a fun time celebrating jonah's first easter. its hard to not get sad when you think about it, but i am trying so hard to be positive. jonah could be doing much much worse than he is right now and i am so thankful that he's doing so well. in a way i am glad he's in the hospital where he is safer and in the hands of doctors. and honestly, i wasn't surprised when i found out he was in the hospital. i had been preparing myself for it just in case. i guess its a good thing i did. and now i am preparing myself for lots of (gentle) hugs and (gentle) kisses when he comes home again. pray that this will be soon and that he keeps improving. i am eager to find out what's going on in his little body. hopefully it is nothing too serious. whatever it is, God will give jonah the strength to get through it.

oh, and i WAS going to post a really scary picture that i took yesterday of Patrice attacking a chocolate bunny but i decided not to do that. i figure she sorta has a lot going on and that i should be nice. you can thank jonah for that trice. ;)

back from DC

i am back from Washington DC. actually, i have been back for 3 days, i just haven't had time to post yet. i've been too busy posting my tons of pictures on facebook. it took part of saturday night and all of yesterday but i'm done!

DC was awesome!!! we arrived there at about 10:30 on tuesday night and got our room assignments. i was with emily, cathy and angela which rocked! i was SO scared i was going to be with someone annoying or mean or someone who might steal my stuff, but not at all.

the rest of the week was pretty much all the same. wake up, eat breakfast, load bus, drive to DC (we weren't actually staying in DC), go to lots of museums and memorials, walk, eat lunch, walk, go to more museums and memorials, eat dinner, walk, go to MORE museums and memorials, load bus, ride to hotel, take shower, and crash. it was very busy but totally worth it.

i don't remember half the places we went or in what order we went to them so i'll just say what i remember. my favorite things we went to were the Arlington cemetery, the holocaust museum, and the world war II memorial. they were all amazing. the Arlington cemetery and holocaust museum were both so cool but in a sad, depressing sort of way.

the Arlington cemetery is just thousands and thousands of graves of former soldiers stretching on and on and on. i was really looking forward to seeing the tomb of the unknown soldier and the changing of the guard but after we walked all the way there they made us turn around. for some reason we couldn't go at the time and we couldn't come back because we had other memorials to see. it was disappointing but at least it gave us more time to look at other graves and things.

the holocaust museum was.... wow. there aren't even really words to explain it. unfortunately we were in a rush when we went and didn't get to read a lot of the things there but we still got the same effect. what was most amazing to me is that there were actually possessions of the holocaust victims in the museum, like shoes. there were so many shoes. there were also hair brushes and tools and clothes and all sorts of other things. another interesting/sad/cool thing there was a model of the process of getting gassed. it was hard to see but it really made you understand more. the whole museum did that.

other things we saw were the Vietnam veterans memorial, the Korean war memorial, the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, iwo jima, the capitol building, like 5 museums, and a quick walk past the white house. we also saw Obama's car go by which was really cool!

here are some pictures of all those things.

capitol building....

Korean war memorial...

lincoln memorial...

Vietnam veterans memorial...

jefferson memorial...

white house...

world war II memorial...

arlington cemetery...

iwo jima... (this is probably my favorite picture of the week)

pretty cool places, huh? here are some pretty cool people too...

i'm so glad i got to hang out in Washington DC for 3 whole days with these awesome people. it was wonderful. :)

almost time for DC

today the 8th grade is going on a field trip to Washington DC!!! i am so excited but really dreading being away from jonah and everyone else. we aren't coming back until friday night. last night i told jonah he had to be really good while i was gone so i didn't have to worry about him. lets hope he listened. its gonna kill me to not know what's going on throughout the day. i will call mom to get an update at night when we are in our hotel rooms. that is the only time we are allowed to use our cell phones. i am also going to be worrying about baby stellan while i'm gone. he is having a very rough time so please pray for him. mycharmingkids.net.
i gotta admit.... i'm going to miss the computer while i'm gone. but i'm pretty sure i'll be having too much fun to really care. we are going to see tons of memorials and some museums and things like that. we are also going to have a dance on a ship tomorrow which will be really cool. please pray for our safety to and from DC. its a 5 hour bus ride. kinda dreading that part but i am hoping to sleep the whole time, if my brace allows it.
well...that's pretty much all for now! i just have to get through the school day and then its off to Washington DC!

this is the song i made up when i was little when peyton and amy lived in DC,

on the road again, til we come
to DC Washington.
we will have lots of fun!
when we come to Washintonnnnnn.

(you can't really gut the full effects by just reading it but whatever. just imagine me being little and cute and singing it with much enthusiasm). :)

a not so crappy day

for once i am going to write about school...but not in an 8th grade sucks post! hooray! i never thought the day would come. but here it is!

all this week we have been having end of quarter test which i actually kind of like because that means we don't have so sit through most of our boring classes and we don't have homework! Monday and Tuesday (we had a field trip Wednesday) we just took our test and then went to 2 of our core classes and did regular work but today we just goofed off the whole day. it was awesome! i stayed with my home base all day and pretty much did nothing. we took our integrated math test which was very hard (now this was a bit crappy) and then played games, watched tom and huck, played more games, and went outside. it was really fun! then we had lunch and went to our encores and pretty much did nothing there too. i had gym but we didn't have to dress out and we went outside. as long as we were being active we could do whatever we wanted so i just walked the track and talked to friends most of the time. i would have been playing soccer but we only had one ball and all the really good people were playing with it and i didn't want to play with them. i would just make myself look like an idiot. so anyhow, gym was kind of boring but i would rather it be boring then be inside playing stupid games that make you collide with stupid boys. refer back to 8th grade sucks-volume 1. jeez...i am STILL embarrassed about that. moving on...
in art we are working on self portraits so our teacher just showed us ways that we could paint them and that was all. then we went home! :) hooray!

i was VERY thankful for a good day. i really needed one. i was very worried about jonah yesterday (it was just one of those days...) and i was afraid today was going to be the same way. thankfully it wasn't though. of course i am always thinking about him and worrying about him to some extent but that is reasonable i think. i am just so stinking proud of him. he's so tough. i am ALWAYS bragging about him. i'm sure it annoys some people but i don't care. they can deal with it. :) i haven't heard any news on how jonah is doing today but i am hoping that God blessed us both with a good day. keep praying.