August 30 - September 5, 2015

Sunday, August 30th

Sunday morning, we woke up and there was power! Yay! Mom tried to clean up the tree debris a bit, then we went to pick up my friend HW. Mom dropped us both off at NV's house. For a few hours, we played some games (including The Resistence!) with N and his brother and his brother's friends. Then the three of us hung out for a while and chatted about stuff. I love hanging out with them, but there were a few moments when I distinctly noticed the fact that I was the only girl there. It doesn't bother me to hang out with boys all the time, and most of my closest friends are boys, but there are rare moments where I feel a little out of place. 

Carolyn picked H and I up and dropped me at the house where I was babysitting. For the next three hours, I played with the kids, then the dad dropped me off at my house. When I got there, Lydia was there! The Winslows still didn't have power, so she was staying at our house.

Monday, August 31st

I got up and didn't do much for most of the morning. I did some random chores around the house, read, played some games on the computer. Lydia and I went to the library to volunteer at 3. When we were done there, we walked downtown to get drinks at Cafe Adagio, then took a bus back to Haggen, where mom picked us up. Because the Winslows still were out of power, Lydia stayed another night.

Tuesday, September 1st

Again, a pretty boring day. Lydia left in the early afternoon. 

Wednesday, September 2nd

The morning was pretty slow. I went to park day, where there was a torrential rain storm, thunder, and lightening. That was exciting.

Thursday, September 3rd

The morning was again rather quiet. In the afternoon, we went to our dad's house for dinner. We had some left over cake, since it was our step-brother's birthday on Wednesday. 

Friday, September 4th

We spent the morning cleaning up all the debris from the tree. We hauled a bunch of stuff in our neighbor's trailer to a place the city had set up for people to dump storm debris. We went to Boomer's for lunch, then came home to do stuff around the house. Mom and I went to WCC to buy books before realizing they aren't open on Fridays in the summer (augh!). None of us were at all hungry for dinner, so we just ate popcorn while watching Lost.

Saturday, September 5th

The guy who was doing our carpet came back to finish. I was at YARC, where we had pizza and cake, because it's our one year anniversary! Mom couldn't come pick me up til the carpet guy left, so I had to wait for another hour and a half after the meeting ended. On the bright side, I read 135 pages of the book I got! It's super fantastic.

Saturday August 26, 2015 {WIND}

1. Saturday morning, Isabelle and Mom left for the farmer's market right after I got up. Isabelle was going to sell her stuffed dogs.

2. After they left, I didn't do too much. I listened to music, read, and hung out for a while.

3. Throughout all of this, it was really, really windy. It was warm, probably about 70, but really windy. The power kept flickering on and off all morning, and at about noon, it went out for good.

4. We have these trees behind out house that are very tall, and that sway a lot when it's windy. Two years ago, we had one of them fall when we were gone (we were in Florida at the time), but it fell at such an angle that it didn't come near the house.

5. Today, a little before 1pm, mom called to say that they had closed the market early because the wind was getting too dangerous, and were sending everyone home. A few minutes after that, one of the trees in the back fell straight at the house. Luckily, it didn't break at the roots, but snapped halfway up the trunk, and also luckily, it was a very flexible but not too heavy tree. 

6. I was standing in the kitchen watching as it fell into the back windows of our house, and, amazingly, did not beak through, but instead slid onto the ground. It was still leaning against the house, but did no major damage.

7. There was lots of commotion for a little while as neighbors ran over and looked around and all decided that everything was fine. 

8. After mom got home, we did stuff around the house for a while, then went to Haggen to eat dinner, and then went to my dad's house, since he still had power, to change our phones.

9. We went back home,played some card games, read The Time Traveler's Wife, and went to bed.

Saturday August 1, 2015 {Grand Coulee and Leavenworth}

1. We ate breakfast at the hotel, and then left around 9.

2. We made it to the Grand Coulee dam before lunch, and spent a while hanging around the visitors center.

3. We stopped at a grocery store in some really tiny town to grab some crackers and cheese for lunch.

4. By mid afternoon, we made it to Leavenworth. We hung out, did some shopping, and then had dinner at our favorite crepe place. We had some ice cream, and then drove home.

5. We made it back to Bellingham around 11.

Friday July 31, 2015 {Gonzaga University}

1. We got up and ate the provided breakfast at the hotel, then walked to the Gonzaga campus for a tour.

2. After the tour,  I met with an admissions counselor, and I swear it felt like I was interviewing for a job. She kept asking questions, and while I was talking she wrote notes on her clipboard.

Gonzaga has a beautiful campus!

3. We got some lunch, then walked back to the hotel, and rested for a while. We went down to the pool, and mom went swimming while Isabelle and I read and stuff.

4. We walked around a bit, then went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

5. We walked down to the Riverfront Park (a huge park on the Spokane River) and did stuff there for a while.

6. We went back to our hotel, read Frankenstein, and went to bed.

Thursday July 30, 2015 {Washington State University}

1. We left around 7:30 in the morning, and made it to Pullman, WA around 3pm. In the middle was a lot of driving. Once you leave I5, it's a whole lot of nothing for many hours.

2. In Pullman, we stopped at WSU. It was very hot, around 100 degrees, and we went to Ferdinand's (a pretty famous creamery at WSU) to get ice cream. After that, Mom and Isabelle went to the museum on campus to look at animals, and I went to the library, which is way more beautiful than the pictures I have can show.

3. I love libraries, and I spent a while wandering through the shelves, reading titles. I found myself in Philosphy at one point, and pulled a copy of the complete works of John Locke off the shelf, and I swear that spine had never been cracked.

4. We left Pullman and headed into Spokane, where we checked into our hotel, then walked to the Chipotle down the street for dinner.

5. After dinner, we went back to the hotel.

6. Read Frankenstien, went to bed.

July 14-20 {Another Catchup post}

This is becoming a theme lately... Hopefully it won't continue too long. Here is what I did this week:

Tuesday 7/14

We had homeschool academy week 2 this day. Grace and I taught Geology together, then Spencer did math, Grace did Improv, and I did Irish dance. I took or taught all the classes this week, which was honestly a little too long of a day. Next week I might take a break for a while in the middle somewhere.

Wednesday 7/15

On Wednesday, I took the math placement test at Whatcom. I didn't end up getting into Precalc, which means I have to take Math 99 (intermediate algebra) in the fall. It's kind of disappointing, because we have to pay for 99 because it's below college level, but it is what it is. After I took the test, we went blueberry picking with Carolyn, and then went to park day.

Thursday 7/16

In the morning, we went to WCC to change my schedule. As a Running Start student, I can't register online like other students can. RS students have to go into see a RS advisor to register and to make schedule changes. To fit Math 99 in, I ended up having to drop all three classes I was in, and add three totally different ones. Now, I'm taking Intermediate Algebra (Math 99), Introduction to World Religions (Philosophy 140), and German I (German 121). In the afternoon, we were at our dad's house for dinner.

Friday 7/17

We didn't to much in the morning. In the afternoon, Isabelle went to a friend's house, and Mom and I watched Lost.

Saturday 7/18

Another relatively boring day. Went to the grocery store, watched Lost, and that was about it.

Sunday 7/19

We didn't do much in the morning again, but in the afternoon, we went blueberry picking again, this time with another set of friends.

Monday 7/20

I volunteered at the library in the afternoon, and then went to Chocolate Necessities and then to Irish dance. Gelato of the week: Lemon and Green Apple.

Monday July 13, 2015 {Gravity Falls}

1. Monday, I had an appoitment in town, and then went to my friends' house to hang out.

2. Grace and I worked for a bit on our Geology plans, and then Grace and C. and I watched a few episodes of Gravity Falls, a really awesome show that you should all watch.

3. They very kindly dropped me off at the library to volunteer, and I did that for an hour. Megan, who used to volunteer with us, dropped by for a few minutes to say hi, which was fun!

4. After that, I ran into Spencer and IP at the library, and we all waited for Julie. After she got there, we all went to Chocolate Necessaties. Gelato of the week: coconut and salted caramel (I know, I know, only two flavors. I get made fun of every time I do that :P).

5. We walked across the street for dance. We're learning new challenging dances in both light and hard shoe classes, and I really like both of them!

6. We stopped at Quizno's for dinner, and the woman who worked there said she liked Isabelle's new haircut! I think maybe we go there a bit too often... :P

7. Came home, watched Doctor Who, read Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

July 6-12 {Catch up!}

Monday

I went to the library to volunteer, to Chocolate Necessesites, and then to Irish Dance. It was the first day of the summer session. Gelato flavors of the week: chocolate, strawberry, and lemon. We've had a number of wildfires in the area, and early this week, the smoke was really bad. Monday in particular, I could really feel it effecting my breathing. It looked like we had full cloud cover Monday and Tuesday, but really it was all smoke!

Tuesday

This was the first day of Homeschool Academy classes! I got there around 1:30 and helped Spencer set up before his math class, which went very well! I then taught a literary analysis class in which we dissected the song American Pie, and then I had an Irish dance class. The dance class was a little underwhelming, but the rest went quite well!

Wednesday

I taught a Latin class and we did some Harry Potter translating, and then we went to parkday in Lynden. Grace and I did some planning for our Geology class we're teaching and then we hung out for a while with Hailey.

Thursday

Thursday was pretty quiet. I mostly did schoolwork that needed doing and read, and played a bit of Don't Starve. That game is really fun, but also endlessly frustrating. My best score so far is 17 days, and in that last one I was killed on Day 17 by a spider I was trying to kill because I had forgotten to put on my armor. Gah. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google "Don't Starve." It's pretty great. Mom went out for dinner with friends, and Isabelle and I made a pizza, and hung out.

Friday

Another low-key day of school, reading, and such. Mom, Isabelle, and I took a walk around after dinner.

Saturday

I had a YARC meeting in the morning. It was another very quiet meeting, and another where all (three) of our boys were gone! That makes two in a row. In the evening, I babysat some kids, and ended up watching the neighbor kids for part of it as well, making for 5 kids under 10!

Sunday

It was my dad's birthday, so we went to breakfast with him and my stepmom. When we got back, we headed to my grandmother's house for her 80th birthday. Both my aunts and all my cousins were there, and we had lunch/dinner, and hung out for the day, which was fun. Two of my cousins are going to college in the fall, and one is going to the University of Edinburgh. She'll be home for Christmas, but we probably won't see her before then and it was weird to realize that the next time we'll see her, she'll have been living in Scotland for a few months already!

Saturday July 4, 2015 {4th of July!}

1. Didn't do too much during the morning. Mom and Isabelle did some cooking and Isabelle painted Mom's nails (after declaring mine too short)

2. Isabelle cut about four inches off of my hair, which was slightly terrifying, but turned out quite well. It's not noticeably shorter to most people, but it feels shorter to me.

3. At around four, we headed to Julie's for the annual 4th of July party, which was fun.

4. There was a Klikaklu hunt, some sparklers, water balloons and guns (for those who were brave enough, which did not include me), Smash Bros, and lots of food.

5. A bit before 10, most of us headed downtown to watch the city's fireworks display, and then we headed home.

6. I had a strange experience during the Klikaklu hunt. We were on teams of three, and I was on a team with Isabelle and my friend C. We were running around the neighborhood, and I knew I wouldn't be able to run much because a) it was really hot and b) I didn't have my inhaler with me. If I had realized I was going to be running, I would have used my inhaler before we started on the hunt. I've obviously had bad experiences with asthma before, but after running for a bit uphill in the heat, I had what was definitely the worst asthma attack I have had. I usually just have my lungs close up, but my throat was closing too. One of the problems with that feeling is that it is so easy to panic because  you are physically unable to take in air. I've had enough experiences with asthma to be able to not panic and know that it will pass, but it's a scary feeling, and not something I'd like to repeat.

Wednesday July 1, 2015 {Latin and Park day}

1. Got up, and did some math and history.

2. I made some worksheets and such for the day's Latin lesson. I always tell myself I'll do lesson planning some time other than mere hours before the class, but that never happens. :P

3. Walked to Gloria's house for Latin. We had our class, then had a Harry Potter Latin meeting, both of which were fun. I do need to figure out a way to change it a bit though, to make sure everyone is interested. I think the two younger girls tend to get a little lost when Spencer, Grace, and I are able to handle more of the grammar and such than they are. That is something I need to figure out for future weeks...

4. We went to park day, which was just down the street. It was quite hot and not super interesting, though my friend L. showed up, which was great!

5. We went home, had dinner, watched Doctor Who, read Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

Tuesday June 30, 2015 {Inside Out}

1. Got up, got ready, worked on history.

2. Did some more math to study for the math placement test at WCC.

3. We went to Mt Vernon because mom had an appointment there, then we went to the mall in Burlington to watch Inside Out.

4. I am always a bit skeptical of animated movies, but this one was really good. Despite my "hardhearted" reputation (as given by my mom and sister), I did even tear up a little at the end. It was funny and well made, and the whole concept is very clever. I would recommend it.

5. We stopped at Target on our way out of the movie to pick up some stuff, and then went to Chipotle for dinner.

6. We came home and watched Doctor Who, read Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

7. Also of note: I know I'm years late to this party, but I recently discovered Homestuck, and it's amazing. Homestuck, Gravity Falls, and Don't Starve are my favorite fun things of this summer so far.

Friday June 26, 2015 {Gay rights, debate, and a party!}

1. When I woke up this morning, I was looking at my email and FB notifications and such, and somehow the email from NPR (I'm on their mailing list about important world events, which I actually highly recommend) about the supreme court ruling was the last thing I saw. Mom came in a minute later and said "Have you seen the news? Obama's making a great speech." I did end up missing most of Obama's speech, but it was still an exciting way to start the morning! :)

2. Cleaned up the house a bit, moved furniture around, and did whatever else was required to prepare for the final current events class of the year.

3. Listened to the new Cortex podcast.

4. Current affairs class! It was the last class of the year, and it was debate style.We were divided into two teams and we debated a number of topic, with the parents voting on who won each round. My team won overall, but just barely. Our topics were - 1) if you could only read classic books or modern books, which should it be 2) Should school stop using grades 3) Should all dogs be allowed to get a license to be in public spaces (like service dogs do now) 4) Should we let Google move to Bham, and 5) Should their be family presidential term limits (ie, should Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton be allowed to be president).

5. After the debates, we all went to the Pyles house for a party! It was a ton of fun, and we played lots of Mafia and Bush Commando.

6. Ted told us that when he was in 9th grade, he did this challenge to transport 7 people 50 ft with only 4 feet touching the ground. We spent a long time trying to do it, and it was challenging. We did manage it eventually, though. Spencer had my arms/head, EK had my feet, and they each had a person on their backs, and there were two people sitting on me. It was crazy, but we did it, and I'm still a bit sore. :P

7. We left the party around midnight, and went home.

Sunday June 7, 2015 {Highland Games}

1. Got up, got ready, and drove to Hovander Park. We hung around for a bit, and then danced on the side stage at 10:30. It wasn't a great performance, but it was okay.

2. We hung out for a while and ate lunch, then had our second performance. This time, we danced with live music. It was a much better (though certainly not perfect) performance.

3. We left pretty quickly after our second show. We went home, and I took a shower and changed, then we went to Connie's for a party.

4. The party was great - there was lots of good food and awesome people. Hailey, Claire, Hunter, HW, L., and I spent the entire party hanging out in the basement, which was super fun. Other people drifted in from time to time, but it was mostly some variation on that "teen" group. We had a great time.

5. Went home, read Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

Saturday June 6, 2015 {Sleeping Beauty}

1. I got up late, probably around 8:30, and got ready for the day.

2. I really didn't do all that much until 12:00, when I went to YARC at Village Books. It was a pretty small meeting, only six or seven of us, and we finished early. I got some pretty good books though, including the new David Leviathan book, and a new book by Avi.

3. L. and I hung out after YARC for a while, and watched a wedding party taking pictures in the village green. We decided that my wedding colors should be teal and yellow.

4. I went home and worked for a few hours on a paper for my Geology class about the history of the PNW over the last 200 million years or so. I spent most of the day doing that.

5. We had dinner, then went to the Mt. Baker Theater to see Sleeping Beauty. It's a production put on by the studio I dance at, so I knew lots of people in it, but Hailey and HW were the ones we were most excited to see. I sat with L. an C. for most of the show, which was fun. There was lots of snarky commentary going back and forth.

6. After the show, we stayed outside and hung out for probably close to an hour. We then went home and went to bed.

Friday, June 5, 2015 {James's Graduation}

1. Woke up a little late, and was scrambling all morning to get out the door on time.

2. When I got to the Cordata bus station, I took a detour to the Co-op to buy 6 potatoes, then ran to class. I still got their 5 min early.

3. Geology was good. The quarter is clearly winding down, and everyone is so ready for it to be over.

4. After this, C. and I went by his uncle's office, but he wasn't there. We stayed there for a bit, then headed to Syre to our usual spot. I ran to the bathroom where I put two packages of candy apple rings in the bottom of a gift bag and filled the rest of it with potatoes on which I had written things like "Happy Birthday" and "POTATO." I presented this gift to C., which he seemed to appreciate, though that might have just been him being nice. :P

5. I went through some practice SAT problems with him to give him an idea of the process I would go through for the English ones. We both headed off to class.

6. In English 102, we did an exercise I love where you take an index card for each paragraph of your paper, and write the main idea of it on the card. You then shuffle up the cards and rearrange them physically until you find the best order.

7. I missed the first bus, but caught the second one back home. Mom picked me up, and we headed home to change, and then to Stanwood to pick up my grandma, and then all the way to Seattle for my cousin James's high school graduation.

8. The graduation itself was good, though long. It started at 6pm, and was over around 8ish, and we left the school around 8:30, maybe 8:45.

9. James was going off to a school sponsored all night party, but his parents and brother went with me, Isabelle, mom, and my grandma to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

10. We finally left Southcenter around 11pm, and dropped off my grandma at her house, then finally got home around 1am.

11. I finished the blog post for yesterday, published it, started this one, and went to bed around 2am.

Thursday June 4, 2015 {Rehearsal}

1. I got up, ate some breakfast, and worked on my Latin lesson plan. I took a shower and walked to Gloria's in time to meet H. for Latin. We're starting to get geared up for our grand adventure translating Harry Potter this summer, which I'm really excited about.

2. After I got home and ate lunch, I worked on school stuff for a few hours including math, some history reading, a geology lab, and a paper for English.

3. I wrote a blog post for my main blog, and took a walk with Isabelle to obtain part of a birthday gift for a friend (more on that later).

4. I got ready to go, and when Mom got home from work, we went to a dance rehearsal.

5. We got to rehearse with the musicians who will be playing for us, which was really great. I love dancing to live music.

6. We came home, ate some pizza, and then I frantically finished the homework I had due for both English and Geology.

7. Read Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

Saturday May 30, 2015 {Geology Fieldtrip}

1. Got up around 7:30. Mom and Isabelle left around 9, cause Isabelle was selling her knitted dogs at the farmer's market.

2. C. and his dad picked me up at 9:30, and we headed to WCC. A little after 10, we packed into a van, and headed to Larrabee state park, stopping on the way in the Happy Valley neighborhood to look at a giant rock there.

3. We spent the day around Chuckanut Drive, looking at various sites at Larrabee and Clayton Beach.

4. The weather was awesome, and it was actually pretty fun. We saw a layer of coal in the bedrock in a few locations, and we saw some pretty awesome fossils, including some of palm fronds!

5. We have to write an essay about the geologic history of the Pacific Northwest based on what we saw on the fieldtrip, so we also spent some time trying to put the "events" we saw in the correct order.

6. We got back to school around 4, and my mom picked me up there and we went home. We went to the bus that sells fish and chips in Fairhaven for dinner, and then came home.

7. Watched Doctor Who, read Jane Eyre, and went to bed.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015 {Teaching Irish Dance}

1. I got up and got a slow start to the morning.

2. I worked on my English paper for a good chunk of the morning, and then did some other miscelanious school things that needed doing.

3. In the mid-afternoon, Gloria took me to the bus, which I rode to the dance studio downtown. I hung out there for a little bit, and then I taught a beginning Irish dance class!

4. Heather, our teacher, is out of town right now, and so she asked if I could fill in for her for the beginning kids. It was fun, albeit challenging. The kids are young ,and their attention span is short, but it was still a good experience for me. They didn't really learn much new stuff, but they got to practice some things, and hopefully have some fun.

5. I ate some dinner that I had brought with me, then went to Chocolate Necessiteis to get some gelato, since I had a gift card there. Flavors of the week: lemon and watermelon. I did my geology homework while I was over there.

6. I headed back to NW Ballet for my ballet class. I hadn't been in two weeks, so I was glad to be back. I am still having a lot of frustration with my pirouettes. I can hold a balance in retire for about 4 seconds, which means I should not have trouble doing double (or even triple) pirouettes, but I can barely do a double. Gah.

7. Mom picked me up and we went home. I finished up my English homework, and submitted it online. I debated doing a bonus assignment for Geology, but ultimately decided against it.

8. I read Jane Eyre, and went to bed, totally exhausted.

Monday May 25, 2015 {Memorial Day}

1. I got up around 8:30, and hung around for the morning. I worked a bit on a paper for English. I also listened to the new Hello Internet.

2. At about 1pm, Gloria and Spencer picked me up and we went to Fairhaven. Spencer and I walked down to Boulevard Park, and then continued all the way to downtown, and then came back, which is, I calculated, about 2.5 miles one way.

3. It was great catching up with Spencer, and we talked about all sorts of college stuff, and the state of the homeschool group, and our future plans.

4. We stopped for donuts at Rocket Donuts in Fairhaven, then met Gloria again, and they dropped me off back at home.

5. I ate some food quickly, and then left to babysit. The weather was nice, so the kids and I played outside for most of the time.

6. I got home about 8:30, and watched some philosophy videos on YouTube for a while before reading Jane Eyre, and going to bed.

Friday May 22, 2015 {Western Washington University}

1. Got up and got ready. Took the bus to school. Stopped at Cafe Avellino (a little coffee shop right by WCC) for a chai tea latte on my way to school. I love that place, but I don't go there often because I don't have that kind of money.

2. Despite stopping, I still got to class 15 minutes early. The door was locked today, so I had to wait outside the classroom for Bernie, the teacher, to get there. Geology class today was about "mass movement:" landslides, rock slides, mud flows, etc. Apparently we aren't allowed to call them "mudslides" because mud is a liquid, and liquids can't slide, they flow. So it's a mud flow, and a rock slide.

3. After class, C. and I hung out as per the usual. We talked about various things, including this game called agar.io. Click that link at your own risk. Seriously, it's an odd game, and because people get to choose their own names, very often not at all family friendly. We also talked about lots of other random things.

4. C. left for class, but my English class was canceled, so I sat in Syre for another hour. I saw my friend Jake multiple times when he walked by. Once, he told me about a hilarious (and not appropriate for young audiences) tarot reading he had just gotten, another time he showed me a glass eyeball he had found in the lost and found, and then the last time I was staring at him as he walked down the stairs and he threatened to throw quarters at me. Hey, free money! :P I have weird friends.

5. I left WCC and headed to Western. We started by going to meet with an admissions counselor, and then went on a campus tour.

6. This is the part where I should probably talk about how I feel about WWU, but I am so conflicted about it. In a lot of ways, I really, really like it. They have a good English department, their travel opportunities are good, and as a homeschool student, I feel like it would be pretty easy to apply there. The problem is that it's literally 15 minutes away from home. I do know that if I go there, I don't want to live at home, but that seems kind of irresponsible. Why spend another $10,000 a year if I don't have to. After visiting today, I can say Western is certainly in my top three or four, and might even be my top choice if only it weren't so close to home.

8. After that, we came home and had dinner. Then we walked down to the convenience store two blocks away to buy ice cream bars.

9. We went home, I did some homework, then did nothing for a little while.

10. Mom and I spent a while trying out the "net price calculators" on the websites of a few different colleges. I know that you can't put too much stock in those, but it was interesting to see what they estimated I would get in scholarships and such. It's also a bit terrifying.

11. Watched Doctor Who, read Jane Eyre, went to bed.