Thursday, April 7, 2011

just some thoughts

This is going to possibly be the most random, scattered blog post you have ever read or will ever read. In your life. But I feel like if I don't do one of these types of posts, I will never post again, and that would be a very bad thing indeed. So, are you ready? Brace yourself.



School: Oh my goodness. School. Where do I start? The fact that my junior year will be basically over in a mere 20 days? The 9-page paper I wrote for my college English class? My wonderful history and literature classes? Hmm. Well, I can hardly believe that I'll be a senior in the fall. A senior. A SENIOR. A STINKIN' SENIOR! Yeah, I'm a little flabbergasted, if that's the right word, which it probably isn't. Oh well.

But yeah. Let me start with PSEO, I guess. For any of you who don't know what PSEO is, it's just where you get to take college classes in high school, for both college and high school credit. For free. That's right. Tuition for this awesome opprotunity is a whoppin' $0.00. It's pretty sweet. Anyway, last semester, I took a Nutrition class online, and a College Algebra class through a Christian University, but at a homeschool co-op thing. It went really well! I was challenged, but in a good way. Probably my biggest challenge was having due dates. Having been homeschooled my whole life, "due dates" were very flexible, even non-existent. So, getting things done in a timely manner was a big stepping stone for me :)


This semester, I'm taking college English and general psychology at the same University, through the same co-op, and it's going fabulously! It's pretty hard--even more challenging than last year. Psychology really isn't bad at all, but English just about killed me with the large research paper...just kidding. It really wasn't SO bad. The problem was mainy my perfectionist self. I couldn't stop thinking about it, ever. And I way over-researched--I had to take out an entire subtopic! But now I have the rough draft complete, and the final draft isn't due until Monday, so I have some time to polish it up a bit before my teacher sees it. That's another thing that's been weird--my English professor doesn't read any of the rough drafts! We just do peer reviews, which are...interesting. Thankfully, my professor is wonderful, and so are the kids in the class. It's a tiny class, actually. Like, really, really tiny. 8 students. Just 8. Where else could I have taken college English 1 with such an awesome teacher/student ratio?! It's really great.


Oh, and this year I've also been taking history and literature classes with some amazing friends. The mom of two of the girls is the teacher, and she's so awesome! Maybe you remember me posting about her blog, Orange Marmalade? If not, definitely check it out! It's super cool :) Anyway, we've been studying mainly 20th century history and reading literature that goes along with a similar timeline. It's been so rich, and I've learned so much! It's incredible. It's been so fun, to boot! Instead of a final exam, we have been making history scrapbooks with pictures from the Internet of the things we've been learning about. On the days we work on them, we have "Scrapbook Parties" and listen to music from the time period we're studying and eat food from that time period. It's so awesome. I wish it wasn't ending so soon!


Spring/Summer: Spring is definitely in the air around here! It's glorious. I slept with the window open last night, and today my room smells like spring. The sunlight is so lovely, and I can't wait for the leaves and flowers and grass to grow. Already I'm wearing lots of skirts and tank tops and dresses!


I'm very excited for summer this year, although I'm savoring every moment of spring. But this summer, I can't wait to have lots of picnics, read dozens of books (just wait until I post my book list!), bake lots of cookies, drink yummy smoothies, swing on swings, go camping with friends (even if it's just in the backyard), play with my siblings, ride my bike, go for walks, go to the zoo, eat tons of barbeque, go swimming, and have people over nearly every weekend. It will be so wonderful, I can't wait. How will I have time to do all of these fabulous things? NO SCHOOL, BABY! FREEDOM! :D

Oh, but summer can't fully start until after June 11. The dreaded ACT. Yuck. Thankfully, I have a great book about how to do the math section, which is my Achilles heel...anybody with me on that one?


Oh, and here's something I can't believe, almost as much as I can't believe I'll be a senior in the fall: June 26, I'll be 17. Wow.




17.

Let that just sink in. It's crazy.

Anyway, on to a new topic: As mentioned very briefly in my last post, I have a most adorable new nephew, named Elijah! He was born on December 3, and he's just the sweetest, chubbiest baby you ever did see. And he's a little snugglebug! Big brother Gideon took a little while to warm up to him, but now they're best buds. Oh, and Gid is 2 now! Yesterday was his birthday, and he was such a trooper, opening present after present with his little drippy nose running, saying "de-di" ("thank you"). So precious.

Well, I should probably start to bring this variously topic-ed post to a close, since I have quite a bit of school to accomplish today. But there is so much more I could write! I'll try to post again very soon about all that God is doing in my life. Things are quite exciting!

For now, I'll end on a very unrelated note: Tangled.


Can you say "absolutely positively amazingly adorable, funny, and sweet"?




I can. "Tangled." Sha-bam.

4 comments:

Maddie said...

YAY! You finally posted!!! I can't believe junior year is almost over either. I'll be 17 on July 22! Only a month after you!!! I couldn't believe it when I turned 16, and now 17 already!!! But it's sort of like, I can't believe high school is almost over, but I also CAN'T WAIT to go off to college next year. I took the ACT in February and I'm taking it again this Saturday. My score is rather low because of the math and especially the science, so my mom keeps pushing me to sign up for the SAT because it has no science and is geared more towards those who are better at english and reading. (like me.) So we'll see about that.

Your summer plans sound great! I can't wait for summer either! I also really hope I can find a summer job because my teacher told me today how much a new violin would cost, and my JAW DROPPED LOWER THAN THE FLOOR!!! lol

Hey, my brothers and sisters and I just watched Tangled on Monday night!!! I absolutely LOVED it too!!!! Don't you love flynn rider? He's like my cartoon crush. haha!
-Maddie

Jasper Illusian said...

Yaaaaay, awesome long post! I like hearing about what my friends are doing. =)

Spring is going to be AWESOME. In fact, it already is. ^_^ I love spring.

I hope you do amazingly on the ACT! I think I took a pretest thing or something for both the ACT and SAT, and I think I did medium well? I don't remember. Don't get stressed out!

Tangled was cute. Like I said before, I like the Princess and the Frog more - but that may just be because I've watched it a bunch more times. (I've only seen Tangled once.)

I love you!

Sara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wordgirl said...

I love long blogposts! It is crazy how we're getting so "old."

Spring is so WONDERFUL! I have spent many hours outside these past four or five days...which somewhat messes up my schoolday, but it's so beautiful! And warm. And alive. There's something new every day. First there was the mud. And the Canada Geese flying overhead. Ladybugs and flies rousing themselves after a winter's sleep in the molding. Then a huge flock of robins swept through our property. Then the birds began their summer choruses again. Then warmth. Then tiny new plants breaking out of the dirt. Then the frogs began to sing. Winter is nice in its way, but after a while you long for hot sun again. And you know, if we didn't have winter, we'd likely just take summer for granted. Water after dehydration is a lot sweeter than if you'd never been thirsty in the first place. :)

Tangled is SO sweet! We watched it as a family tonight. Eugene is so...wonderful! Watching it again I realized he really does have real-man mannerisms - a lot like Hiccup does, only ones that go along with his own personality. And Rapunzel is so adorable. They're such a cute couple!!!

Thanks for posting! I didn't watch the video because we're trying to conserve our downloads right now because we have a limit and we're pretty close to it right now. God bless you! I love you! How is everybody?