It's an individual thing.

Recently on facebook and other blogs, I've seen a lot of parents struggle with the decision to homeschool or send their children off to school. So I thought I would give my 2 cents about the struggle.

I don't think there is a best way in general. There is, however, a best way for each particular child. Yes, there are major issues with public school systems, but I know a good number of kids who went through public school their whole lives and they turned out great! They found students, teachers, and activities that they 'clicked' with. However, I also know other kids who went to public school who were miserable for the short time they were there. Bullying, uncaring teachers, and inappropriate classmates factored into their misery. Personally, I attended public school for a year and didn't have a problem. I loved my teacher and found a few friends.

At the same time, homeschooling can have it's difficulties also. I was homeschooled the good majority of my elementary years and half of 8th grade year. Some children have problems getting along with their parents or feeling socially excluded. I just had problems academically. I am a competitive person, and as odd as it sounds, I 'compete' to get a good grade. When you're homeschooled, there is no other competition, even if you have siblings. My grades were..uh...not as great as they could have been when I was homeschooled. I thrive in a classroom environment where I can make a better grade than the person sitting next to me. At the same time, my parents and I didn't want me to be exposed to some of the public school faults.

Private school just seems like the best option for me. And I love it. Right now, I'm attending a Christian school where the teachers care about you, there isn't as much bullying, and I still get that social experience that homeschoolers can sometimes miss out on. I understand this isn't the perfect ideal for each and every person, and finances play a huge role in the decision to private school. My mom is a teacher at the school I attend, so I get 'free' tuition. But I encourage people to see that homeschooling and public schooling aren't the only options.

Anyways. that's my two cents. I think that every kid and parent need different things in a school, so there isn't a right way and a wrong way. It's an individual thing.

Chicken Auction

I want to get something out before I tell this next story. I love my parents.

Free evenings for this busy high school girl are a rarity, so when I had an opportunity (I thought) to stay home alone last night, I jumped. I looked forward to a night home. alone. Singing my heart out, eating whatever I wanted, and maybe even doing something productive. Besides, after spending a week at school with 200 people shoving, pushing, crowding, and making me feel claustrophobic, I need a night ALONE.

Anyways. We came home from school and I sat down in front of the TV, contently watching the Waltons as I thought about what to do all that evening. You see, my parents were going to go to a chicken auction with my neighbor and Kyle and Kari. Kelly was working. My parents were came in from fixing the chicken coop (just in case they were to get any...), and my dad said that I really should go because they were going to eat out and it would be a nice family time. um. Kelly wasn't with us. that's not family time....in my opinion (which, by the way, apparently doesn't matter..)

But alas, they made me go. They pulled the parent card on me. So I reluctantly got into the car and went. to a chicken auction. on a Friday night. with my partial family.

A 30 minute drive later, and we were in the middle of nowhere in a barn in the middle of a field. Literally. the middle of a field. There were a bunch of... *obese*... farmers in overalls walking around, making strange comments about these noisy (and stinky!) chickens.

I'm telling you. This place was weird. After taking a picture of some guys hair, I decided to go call my best friend and sit out in the car. she didn't answer. I saw a crate of puppies, so I went and petted them, but they were FULL of fleas, ticks, and mites. it was so gross, the poor things.

The next thing I know, mom brings 5 chickens out to the car in feed bags. um. okay?.?. We went out to eat at this hometown diner, and got home 4 hours later.

Anyways. that was my chicken auction experience. never again..

their you go! Sea you tomarrow!

First and foremost, I want anyone and everyone to know that I am the official president of the OCD Punctuation Police. The OPP does not get paid. The OPP does not have an office. The OPP does not have uniforms or guns. The OPP does, however, put to use any members OCD. One of the only qualifications of a member (in case you were wondering) is OCD. You must be able to read and catch grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes on facebook, powerpoints, worksheets, tests, newspapers, magazines....basically, if it has words on it, it's your job to call 'em like you see 'em. Membership is not official (yet..). There are no meetings, groups, or Facebook pages, but if you would like to become a member, just keep your eyes peeled.

Here are some other qualifications:

• No shyness here. If you see a mistake, let people know. Like I said, you call 'em like you see 'em!
• Must be able to tell the difference of 'their', 'they're', and 'there' and other alike words
  
• Must never make horrible spelling mistakes like 'tomarrow' *shudders*
• Must have some sort of punctuation experience. Lets,not,overuse,commas,or anything.

Anyways, if you're interested, just find mistakes!

Thank you and have a wonderful day!

huh.

Well. It has been a while. I love looking back at things I wrote years ago and seeing the changes in my writing style, my mood (...), and my maturity to handle things....better...
Life has been crazy lately. I absolutely love high school! I played volleyball, acted in our school's musical (Beauty and the Beast) and have grown in some amazing friendships. I have been crazy busy with school recently. It's official. Spring is the hectic-est time of the year. Teachers realize they're only on chapter 2 when they're supposed to be on 22. Musical rehearsal from 3-6 everyday. Musical rehearsal from 3-9 on dress rehearsal days. Concerts. Tests Galore. and Finals...finals...finals....shoot. I don't even want to think about those right now....
But as busy as it's been recently, I've definitely had more fun. I'm doing things I love to do, hanging out with people I love to hang out with, and being more of myself at school than I've ever been at this school.

Anyways. School tomorrow. Bright and early. and it's dark and late. and I'm tired and cranky. So I'll go to bed and sleep.
Maybe this time I won't wait another year before posting...

Tennesse Mission Trip - July 2o1o :)

Last week, my youth group went on a mission trip to Knoxville, TN (in that general area, no one really knows where we actually were ;) ) We drove through Memphis, then through Nashville, then to Knoxville, then to the TEAMeffort camp. We spent the week there, then came back home, going the same route in reverse. But the fun in between the long car trips went a little like this:

The first night, we stayed in Memphis. We got to our hotel around 4:00, dipped in the hotel pool, and then went out for a burger at 'Kooky Canuck's'. That was pretty neat! They were actually featured on "Man vs. Food" for their 6 lb. burger. Yes, we saw one. and yes, it was HUGE. Then we walked around Memphis, went on an old trolley (!That was really cool!), went in a mall, walked into a couple of stores, then went back to the hotel because it was Saturday night in Memphis - I don't think I need to explain more ;)

We then woke up, drove to camp, and went to chapel. But because of the time change, we didn't stop for supper before we got to camp. and then chapel didn't end until 10:00, so we were all half-starved by the time we had a chance to go to Taco Bell (our choice for the evening). Then we remembered that curfew for camp is at 10:30. Wonderful. So we raced over there, only to find out that the lobby was closed and we had to go through the drive-thru. Just Great. So all 12 of us pile into the 14 passenger van and crawl through the drive-thru. Amazing. we all ordered (thankfully, it was on one bill - the Air Force was paying for it!!). Complicated. But, amazingly, we all got our orders back perfectly. no sour cream on a plain taco, no soft tacos when you ordered hard. Wow! those guys in there were AMAZING :D haha :):) So then we went back to camp and crashed in our beds. What.a.night. :)

The next morning was the first work day. You see, this is a 'normal' Christian Camp, except they assign each youth group a different work site. Some people work on houses, in back yards, on churches, put roofs on houses, build sheds, ect. My youth group was blessed with working on a church. And I say 'blessed' because we weren't working outside in the TN heat (however, there wasn't any AC in the building, so it was still HOT). The church itself was already built, but we were doing jobs like painting, mudding, putting up sheet rock, and holding up compressed cement on the face of the church. When we got to the site, we were each assigned our jobs to do that day. I was assigned mudding and sanding. But somehow I got switched to holding up the cement boards, which was actually nice because I got to work outside where there was at least a little bit of a breeze :) After that long day, we went back to camp, but not before we made a necessary stop at Sonic to get a cold slushie. :) We went back to camp, showered, ate supper, went to chapel, and then decided we were hungry, so one of our leaders brought us some McDonald's fries :) excellent.

The second day of work was basically the same : Wake up, eat, go to work site, work, take a break to eat lunch, go back to work, finish the day's work, go to Sonic, go back to camp, shower, eat, go to chapel, went to Wal-Mart (that was crazy!) go to bed:)

Wednesday was pretty cool :) It was the same as our other two workdays, but for lunch, the pastor of the church brought us pizza - which was a nice replacement for the sandwiches :) We went back to camp and after chapel we went to Taco Bell again - only this time the lobby was still open, so it wasn't as ... complicated.

Thursday = best day of camp :D
There wasn't a work day, so instead we went Whitewater Rafting! that was so.much.fun :) Then we came back to camp, but the scenery on the way was beautiful! I could have definitely got used to the mountains and tall trees! When we got back to camp, we showered and cleaned ourselves up again for the last chapel. The last chapel was really cool! We got an opportunity to 'lay down' our bad scaffolding (i.e. things that are in our lives that basically shouldn't be) at the cross. We really opened up spiritually as a youth group that night - which was awesome. By the time all of that was over, it was 11:30, which would've been fine, except we didn't eat supper. So we snuck past the staff, piled in the van, and crawled out at IHOP. All was fine until we saw each and every staff member walk through the doors. Apparently it's their 'tradition' to come to IHOP every Thursday night. And who would've walked up to our table other than the director of the camp. But it was okay - they thought it was just as funny as we did! :) So finally around 1, we all went back to camp and slept like rocks.

Friday is sight-seeing day. We went to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge to walk around, see the shops, and do some other cool things like "Ripley's Mirror Maze". that was FUN :) [warning: that place is very expensive for what you get]. But we made it back to camp in time to pack up for the next day's journey to Nashville.

On Saturday morning, we woke up and left for Nashville! Once there, we found our hotel and dropped off our trailer with our luggage (it was too early to actually check in) , then went downtown to see Nashville! We walked around, went in shops, ate at a cute little cafe, then went to the TN Titan's Stadium! Then back to the hotel because of the rain. Then another girl in our youth group, Ashlyn, and I decided to go swimming in the outdoor pool (by this time, it had stopped raining! After showers, the group decided to brave the weather again to go see a movie - Despicable Me - it was a really cute movie (recommend it!) .
[so I'm not really sure of the order of the day's events, but it went something like that]

Then on Sunday, we woke up early (too early if you ask me) for the looooonnnngggg drive back. but we made it - and here I am at home on the computer typing this :)

Book Review: Little House on the Prairie Series

Ya, ya, I know. Most people read the Little House books when they're in 4th grade. But I don't like reading, and it took me a while to find the WHOLE series, which I wanted to read at the same time, in order. All that to say that I just read the series, and I thought it was great. Personally, I prefer non-fiction books or realistic fiction books - I'm not into Sci-Fi, Harry Potter, or anything like that. So the Little House Series was a perfect pick for me in the first place. However, I honestly think that the perspective of the books is perfect! Laura Ingalls Wilder really knew how to just write about simple, family stories. And to think, I've gone my whole life thinking that the show followed the books exactly. Ya.right. As much as I love both the show and the books, they're totally different! Anyways. Just a short little post to let you know that, yes, I like Little House on the Prairie - both the books and the show :)

P.S. Okay, so the show actually gets me out of bed every morning - it starts at 10:00 and I promised myself I could only watch it if I got out of bed, showered, and got dressed by the time it started. But it's a great, sappy, cheesy show to start my day out with :)

mInNeSoTa MaDnEsS 2o1o

This last week, my family and I took our yearly trip up to Minnesota - only this time, we drove a lot farther, and we had a few more complications.

I started thinking about the trip early on - my cousin's wedding, my grandma's 80th Birthday party, seeing all of our relatives, and bringing our pop-up camper along. But my anticipation soon came crushing down when we found out there was something wrong with the engine in our suburban - the only vehicle that could pull the camper AND fit all 5 of us. Of course, this happens the day before we were supposed to leave, so there was no time to fix it. So my parents looked into a few options: rent a car and spend an extra 600$ that week, not go, or cram into our little tiny Subaru legacy. (Which, by the way, is a great car). So they used process of elimination (without me, of course) to decide what to do. Obviously, they didn't want to see an extra 600$ go down the drain just for our comfort. Obviously, we all wanted to go - no matter how we got there. So. We all crammed into the Subaru, and let me tell you: that was a tight squeeze. You see, the poor car is supposed to seat five . . . but let's just say you can only fit 4 comfortably - especially for long car trips. haha :) Then there came the issue of packing. We are all used to having the Suburban to spread out all of our stuff and basically bring what we want. But this time, we had to cram all of our junk (for a whole week) into the tiny trunk of our little car.

To this day, I'm still not entirely sure how we made it all the way up there, but we managed somehow, because sometime after a cheap hotel, we were all standing in my Grandma's driveway. Whew! My rear end was so sore I was sure it was going to fall right off, but somehow, that's still here too ;) So we spent Tuesday and Wednesday night at Grandma's (my Dad's mom) house, and then we were off to see my Grandparent's (My mom's parents). Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa live only about 45 minutes away from my other Grandma - so it was a short little trip :) When we made it there, we all went over to my Aunt and Unlce's house to eat and 'chill' for the afternoon. Well...my unlce as a speed boat, and we talked him in to taking his neices out for a swim on one of Minnesota's lakes. That was wonderful. We got to go tubing and jump in the fReEzInG cold water and go for a little swim :) I then spent the night at my cousin's house and woke up and went Strawberry picking! I love strawberry picking: the 'eat more than you pick' rule, the fresh air, and all of the sweet little red berries. Then my sister, cousin, mom, and I went back to my Grandparent's apartment to de-stem and clean all of the ripe berries so we could freeze them to bring them home to make jam :) After that, unexpectedly, my parents decided to go to the new Twin's stadium and take the 10$ tour (which, by the way, was WELL worth the ten dollars). There were only about 40 other people besides my family, and we all got to walk around the new stadium and see everything. We went in the visitor's dugout and locker room, we sat in all of the private rooms that your company has to rent for a LOT of $$$$$ (waaaayyyy too much if you ask me), we got to walk on the fields [okay. so we weren't supposed to walk on the actual grass, but just guess who decided to step on it a few times just to say she'd done it?!] Anyways. All in all, we definitely had a blast at the Twin's Stadium :)
[just a warning - everything in that gift shop is WAAAYY overpriced, but it's the MLB, what do you expect??]

Then, after the strawberry picking and the Twin's tour, I went back to my cousin's house and got to hang out with her (the rest of my family was at my Grandparent's apartment) . Yes. that was an EXCELLENT day.

Then. (yes, there's more), we went back to my other Grandma's house for some of her delicious food:) We woke up, and went to my cousin's wedding. That was a perfect wedding :) So we spent the afternoon there (and evening, really) and went back and crashed at my Grandma's house :) We woke, went to church with her, went out to lunch with her, and then we were in a cute little town somewhere in Minnesota at a cute little tea room for my other Grandma's 80th Birthday Party (which was perfect too, of course) Boy, was she surprised when she saw that laptop! :) We then spend the evening walking around that cute little town, wishing the stores were open. We stayed at a little hotel with the rest of that side of the family, then woke up to my "Birthday celebration". ya. It was my Birthday, so we made the best party we could. Mom went to the gas station and got me a couple of doughnuts and an orange pop :D and then I opened the 'presents'. But basically, because we couldn't possibly fit anything more into that car, I just got a bunch of cards with some money :) I was content. Even if it wasn't the BEST Birthday, it was better than some of the other ones I've had. haha :)

Then, like before, I don't know how we did it, but we were home. It was 1:00 in the morning. and we were all exhausted. I crashed into my bed, and that was the end of Minnesota summer trip, 2o1o :)