Ice Cream

Brooms Bloom Ice cream is very, very good.

:)

Yay!!

...for friends,
...good books,
...Rita's
...Civil War Clothes.

All of the above made me smile today!

I'm back...

well, I've been back for a while, just haven't posted!

P.S. Happy now, Katie? :)

I'm going off the face of the earth...

...well, not really. I'm not going to be on the internet, and I might occasionally check my email. Just wanted to give you a heads up! I have no idea how long this is going to last....

We are home!!! That makes me happy!!

It's been 15 days....

...since I last posted. That doesn't necessarily mean that nothing has made me smile, it just means I am terrible at blogging. Oh well! There has been lots of smilely stuff lately! I just wanted to let you know that I have disappeared off the face of the earth! I would post more, but my dad needs the computer!

Effervescent!!! (This post is probably going to have lots of exclamation points in it!)

I'm very effervescent today!! I went swimming this afternoon, made cookie dough, attempted funnel cakes (this was all at a friends house), went to small group, got my final grade in science (95%!!!) and my friends birthday present arrived, and it looks great!!! So I'm really happy right now!

Swimsuit!!!

I got a swimsuit today!!! I got the shorts at Walmart and the top at Target. I'm really happy, because the last time I went swimming I was wearing a very old (I think it's 3 or 4 years old) swimsuit, with my sisters board shorts. And it could just be me, but I'm pretty sure that a blue swimsuit and light purple (floral) shorts don't really match! lol

edit: After my sis read my blog, she was like, " Hey, that's what I'm wearing!" (in a jokingly offended tone and referring to the blue swimsuit and purple shorts) so I am changing it to 'The designs on the suit and shorts clashed.' lol

Corn!!!

We had corn with dinner tonight! I love love love corn!

Les Miserables

We watched Les Miserables last night at TNMSGT (Tuesday Night Mime Small Group Thingy). It was really good! It was the first time I had seen the movie, but I had seen the play and I read the (unabridged) book. So I'm glad I got to see the movie!

I know I haven't posted in forever, and I'm sorry. I've just been insanely busy. I'll start posting again once my life calms down (a.k.a. after confirmation, Macbeth, and Science)

So Andee and Christine got a little crazy with sharpies last night...resulting in temporary permanent tatoos...lets just say that the results were extremely colorful backs...with pretty cool designs on them!

had fun at mime last night! and my back STILL doesn't hurt! It's been 24 hours without pain!!

Macbeth rehearsal

had a BLAST at Macbeth rehearsal today...

Went to Mt. Zion today! The sermon was on envy being the root of lonliness...it was intersting. Then I had a CYMA meeting!!! tons and tons of fun!

edit: if you want a more detailed version of my day, go here

I got 4 books at the MACHE book fair...but i finished one of them before we even left.. :)

i made a new blog...its called (you can laugh if you want) The Unforgettable Incredible Unpoetical Blog ....

went to see The Last Song movie...it was good....i cried...katie did but she said she didnt...but i know she did....lol

went to ritas today....

went Macbeth costume shopping at thrift stores....found some AMAZING stuff!! but the thing that kinda made me smile was that i actually am more excited about my brothers costume than about mine...his is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!

saw a friend at the crosswalk today....had some fun and interesting conversations....

and and and and...it was FINALLY warm enough for me to wear shorts!!! yay!!!

Olive Tree!

went to the Olive Tree for Lunch w/ my mom, bro, grandmother, and aunt! It was a lot of fun!

fun!

Macbeth rehearsal was actually fun today! and so was music practice...!

mime performance

had a mime performance today... there were a couple mess-ups, but nothing horrendous...

Mime rehearsal and performance...

we rehearsed and are performing (on Sunday) Seven Ways to Praise!!! eep!!!!

Buzz

I know that some of you think that Google Buzz is wierd...but it's what made me smile today! Well, not the buzz itself, but some of the comments....

sleepover...

went over to Danielle's house for a sleepover...talked for 3 hours strait...

Friends are....

Here is a friendship poem that I read :

Friendship Poem:

Are you tired of those sissy friendship poems?  Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of true friendship.  You will see no cutesy little smiley faces on this card...just the stone cold truth of our great friendship...


When you are sad -- I will jump on the person who made you sad like a spider monkey jacked up on Mountain Dew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.


When you smile -- I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.


When you're scared -- we will high tail it out of here.


When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining, ya big baby!!!!


When you are confused -- I will use little words.


When you are sick --Stay away from me until you are well again. I don't want whatever you have.


When you fall -- I'll pick you up and dust you off   (after I laugh my butt off!!)


This is my oath...I pledge it to the end.


Why? you may ask -- because you are my FRIEND!

I post this 'cuz I love my friends....the smiley thing was that my friend made me laugh when I wasn't in a particularly happy mood....but she made me smile....more specifically...she had be laughing so hard I was almost crying..it was GREAT!!!

i know, i know...

I know I haven't posted in a while...

The Celtic night was fun last night...even if I was in a TON of pain........

Puppies=cute...

Book!

I'm so happy! I actually got to read a book today!

AHHH

I just realized that I haven't posted in days!

Mime tonight was fun....but my back was hurting really bad.....

I had my PT appointment today...I have to go back three times next week for more electric stimulation and traction...which I fondly named medieval torture....

I call it medieval torture because there is a belt around my hips and one around my ribcage, and the one on the ribcage is holding me in place while the one on my hips is attached to the machine that pulls it so its stretching out my back...it doesn't really hurt, just feels like I'm stretching my back...and it doesn't pull that hard...I think it was only 45 lbs.

Smoothie!

I made a smoothie!! It has...
frozen cherry yogurt...
banana...
an ice cube...
milk...
chocolate syrup...

blend them together and you come up with an awesome smoothie!

Paul Wilbur Concert! and church...!

Had an amazing time at the concert...

And it was fun seeing friends at church this morning.......!

Jeans!

I went to a thrift store and got a pair of jeans!

Rita's!

Went to Rita's today...

It was their first day open...

It was the one on Rt. 22

!!!

smile

stuff that made me smile:)

unexpected visitor in church

riding in a 43 year old very noisy car

cute kids

a great friend

cute puppies

andee's play

i went to see the play that andee's in last night...the play is called once on this island....its pretty good..... :)

mime

mime tonight.....that was fun....might be watching phantom of the opera later....!

nothing much

nothing much happened today....we had  a Macbeth rehearsal...i can't wait till we actually start rehearsing the play! right now we are just kinda doing activities to learn about the play...

Macbeth rehearsal

We had our first Macbeth rehearsal today! It was a lot of fun!!

LIT meeting

We had an LIT meeting today....it was great fun! The topic was spiritual warfare, so we sang the song Romans 16:19. It was hilarious! There were just 7 of us doing it, but it was hysterical!!! And SOMEBODY wasn't participating in the hand motions (quite fun), and then an 'argument' started about motions for songs, and it was, well, great! oh yeah, the same SOMEBODY doesn't like the rapping part of that song......

Puppies!!

All of the puppies eyes are open and they are walking!!! They are so
cute, but getting really big...the smalles i think is bout 29 ounces,
and the biggest is 52 ounces!!!!!!!

Casting Crowns, Kutless, and Caleb Chapman concert

The concert last night was AMAZING!!!!! For all of you mimes who are
reading this, they played WhoAmI, Stain Glass Masquerade, and a couple
of other mime songs.....

Recitation Contest

So today we had our recitation contest for our Shakespeare
Workshop.....by the time it was my turn, i was freaking out, but I
managed to do it, and not totally freak out! However, if you ask me what
occurred between the time I left my seat and the time I sat down to be
critiqued, I would look at you with this blank stare and say "I recited
something????" :)

Purple

I'm guessing that you're thinking that this post is going to be about the color purple, but you are wrong! Our puppies each have a different color collar, and that is how we tell them apart. The post is about the little pup with the purple collar.......she opened her eyes today!!! She will still be blind for a couple of days, but she is so cute! I expect that the rest of the pups eyes will be opening in a couple of days....oh yeah...some of the pups are starting to walk!! They are sooo cute!

Mime performance

Isn't my title so original?? :P Anyway, the mime performance this morning was awesome....nobody fell off the stage.....we didn't leave anybody behind, and we made Pastor Craig cry!

Is anybody going to the Casting Crowns Concert on Thursday?

Mime Performance

I had a mime performance tonight....lots of fun! During the sermon, Andee decided she wanted to make a bracelet out of a water bottle wrapper thing, and decided she wanted to draw on her knee.........The mime went really well, and nobody fell off the stage!!  :)

Mime pants

I bought new mime pants today...  :) I've been needing new ones for a long time, and I remembered that I didn't have any....it's a good thing I remembered when I did, cuz I have a mime performance tonight.....

Movie

I went to see the Percy Jackson movie last night...really really good!!!!!! It's very funny and has a couple of quotable lines....

Math

I got all of my math right today!! That makes me happy because I usually don't do that well!!!!

Bomboys Candy and puppy update

Today Katie came over to help with the puppies, but after a while I just needed to get out of the house, because I was going crazy.....so we walked to Bomboys and got candy....it smells so good in that store!!

Puppy update ~ one of the puppies (big orange - collar color) was really listless and wasn't eating anything, so we took him to the vet......for a while there we weren't sure if we would be going into the vet with a puppy and coming out without one, but he's hanging in there....the happy part about this is that he was nursing earlier and seems to be improving a very little bit, but he is moving a little bit, so its a very slight improvement, but still an improvement but....he's still not out of the woods yet....so we have to wait and see what happens

P.S.....I know i didn't post yesterday...cuz there wasn't anything to make me smile....we had to go to the dentists.....uggg.....

FREE Panera Bread

Our neighbor (somehow or other) managed to get Panera bread that is a couple of days old but still really good.....he had tons, so he gave some to us......there were bagels, 2 loafs of bread, and big bag full of bagets(sp?)!!!!!! YAY!!!

Day three with puppies (for yesterday)

I think that over the next few days, maybe weeks, that most of my posts will be about the puppies, since that is what my life is going to revolve around for the next few weeks. So yeah. I know I didn't post yesterday....I kinda got busy and then really tired, so I didn't post....but I'll post now for yesterday and then later on today for today. We started supplement feeding the puppies yesterday, and it is so cute!! Most of the time the puppies are fairly clean about it, but then there is this occasional puppy that had to make a mess and get a milk mustache! It is so cute!!

Here is the link to the site with the picture of the puppy with the mustache!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ctswimmer/Puppies#5435215008123518978

Day 2 with puppies

The puppies are sooooo cute! They are starting to develop personalities, and they are the sweetest things I've seen!! I know some of you already have it, but here is a link to puppy pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ctswimmer/Puppies#

Day 1 with puppies (for yesterday)

Yesterday was the first day with puppies.........they are so cute! Mr. Orange (we identify them by their ribbon color) was the last puppy to be born and there was a fight for his life. However, now that he is alive, he is the LOUDEST puppy of them all. He is constantly making noise, and driving us bonkers!

PUPPIES!!!!

We have 10 new puppies, the oldest being just of 12 hours old, and the youngest being 7 hours old.....there are 5 females and five males. They were delivered between 10:00pm and 3:30am.....which meant a long night with a little under 5 hours sleep......I actually took a nap between 12:30 and 2:30 so thats how I got so much sleep (compared to christine, who got like 2.5 hours)!

Shakespeare, Puppies

We had another Shakespeare Workshop.....it was a lot of fun!!!! Also, my dog should be having her puppies soon......but it might be longer...........

Muffins

I made blueberry muffins, and despite the fact that I forgot the baking powder (I then remembered and put it in) and I thought I put in to many blueberries, they turned out great! They are so great my dog licked the plate.....seriously though, she did have some......she gets treated like a queen when she's pregnant......

SHOCKED!!

My family received some shocking news today. I am sure that by now most of you know that our golden retriever dog is pregnant. Her due date is Saturday or Sunday. We took her in for an x-ray to determine how many puppies she has. Between our family our guesses ranged from 5-8. We were all wrong. The x-ray shows that she has 10-11 puppies!!!!!!! Thats crazy.....an average litter is 8......It's going to be interesting!!!!

Ice Skating

We went Ice Skating today with Michael's Boy Scout Troupe. I didn't fall!! That makes me happy because last time I went to that rink I fell and broke my wrist, but I didn't this time!

Express Church

Since it's snowing, there were only like 20 people there at church, no cantor, and no organist. So we sang 2 songs with the cd player, and church only lasted 30 minutes.......the funny part was that Father Sam talks really fast, and he could probably beat me in a talk off.......

For Last Night......

I went to mime last night......it was fun.......

*Bonus Post*

I babysat this evening! The kids are fun!

and so is the money :)

Science Class

I went to science today....had bunches of fun.....

(Actual conversation...)

"Ha! We beat you, and we had one less person that you!" ~ Me

"Yeah, well, thats cuz your team had you!" ~ Another person in the class

Doesn't it make you feel great when someone compliments you like that?

This shows how well we pay attention....

"I want you to memorize 42 of the elements on the periodic table." ~ Teacher

"Do we have to memorize the whole periodic table?" ~ Student (not me)

"What did I just say?" ~ Teacher

"Ummmm......." ~ Student

It was hilarious!

Also.....We had to list as many of the elements as we could without looking at the periodic table. We were in groups. One in my group put down Tin. One guy disagreed.......I thought that Tin was an element.....So we asked the teacher....of course, the girls were right!

YAY

I went to the Shakespeare workshop today.....lots of fun!!! Also, my shoulder is doing much better, and I got the results back from the MRI and nothing is out of place!!!!! YAY!!! Thanks to all of you who have been praying.....yeah, it still hurts....but there is nothing seriously wrong with it!

Sweet Potatoes

We had sweet potato fries for dinner!! yay! I like them a lot. Thats what made me smile today.......

Sorry

I've become really really bad at this. . . .its just hard when there isn't anything to make you smile. . . . PPA (PlayPlace America) was fun. .. .nothing spectacular. . . ..

I know, I know. . .

I know I did not post yesterday. . . .sorry 'bout that. My happy news was, as of yesterday, I was healthy and could go to the Lock in and March for Life, the Youth Rally at the Verizon Center in D.C., and all that kind of fun stuff!! So that was my happy news for yesterday.

Today's happy news is that Steve Angrisano is really cool, and has a good knack for mixing up songs and making them good! And that the Youth Rally is amazing!! But, I got sick again, and had to come home from the March for Life early. . . :(

Little Something

A call from a friend made me happy. It was just the fact that the person cared, and I've (otherwise) had and awful day. So the call just cheered me up a little, which is what a person needs when they are sick. . . .

Ummmm. . . .

I'm trying to think what made me smile today. But I can't think of anything. Oh, wait. . . I have remembered something! Science class today. I know, science class? But it was fun, and I have a bunch of friends in the class. Anyway. .. . yeah. Just science class in general.

Typical. . .

This is kinda weird, but it made me smile today. A little background. I volunteer at PlayPlace America, a daycare center. Today I was there from 1-6. They close at 6, so by the time 5:30 rolled around, all the kids that I was working with had left. So I went over to another room, and a worker was there, but she was in her teens. We got talking and I asked her how old she was. She then asked me how old I was. I proceeded to tell her I was 14. I got the expected response of "Really? I though you were older than that!" I just find it amusing that people always think I'm older than I am. I take it as a compliment.

Chauffeur

Today was hilarious!!!!! We went to Mt. Zion this morning, and had a blast. It was pouring rain. After church, we were getting ready to leave and a friend was getting ready to walk, in the pouring rain, to a friends house. We offered a ride, but he refused. Then my mom just basically told him to get in the car. At this point, we were all laughing. But don't worry, it gets better. So we drive him where he needs to go, he gets out and starts walking into the house. He then pulls out his cell phone. I put down the window, and ask whats wrong. He says he forgot something at the church, and he was going to call a friend to have her bring it. So he hops in the car to call her, and my mom says that she can go back to the church to get it. But by that time, he is already connected to his friend, but he just basically says never mind. Ok, so while the phone conversation is going on, my mom drives back to the tent. He hangs up, and tells her that what he needs is in the Sanctuary. So we drive back up there. Then, we drive him back to where he needs to go. It was HILARIOUS!!!

My dog

I know I should wait till the end of the day to post, that way I will have the whole day to find something that will make me smile. .. .but I might not be able to post later because my mom, sis and I are going to be watching a creepy movie call 1408, and I'm thinking that I won't want to go into the basement after that. . .

So, the thing that made my smile today was my dog, and my friends dog, but it was mostly my dog. You see, my dog is a people dog, not a dog dog. (if that makes any sense) Basically she likes humans better than dogs. As my mom puts it 'I don't know if anyone ever told her she was a dog'. So we were picking up Christine today from a friends, and the friend has a dog. Our dog was basically, being a royal snob. It was quite amusing to watch. I know you people who are reading it are probably thinking 'Is that the only thing that makes her smile?', but on a day when you're not feeling up to snuff, and your stuck at home all day while everybody else is out, yes, a dog will make you smile, and make it onto your optimism initiative blog.

Launching of 'An Optimism Initiative'

This is my optimism initiative blog, where, everyday, (theoretically) I will post something that happened that day that made me smile. My friend Katie and my sister Christine both have their own optimism initiative blogs, and apparently, they are a lot of fun. I will be changing the layout later, with help from said Katie! Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I am sure I will enjoy writing it!