Some more pictures

Colton and me

Momma and me at the park

My Abstract Painting

Jen, Laurel, and me at Valentine's Hoedown

Spring Break

Day One- Spent all day at school for a teen seminar. It was a seminar based of the book 7 habits of highly effective teens. It was very beneficial and worthwhile. I am hoping to put some of the habits into practice.


Day Two- Woke up at 5:30 am to watch the Carolina game. It was worth every sleepless minute. I felt full of energy all day long and didn't get tired once. It was an awesome day. Later that evening I made UNC celebration brownies. They were pretty good. We had a friend over to spend the night and ended our second day of spring break.


Day Three-The Depp's arrived from Kazan early in the morning. Hung out with them all day and just relaxed.


Day Four- Went on a picnic with friends. It was perfect weather; +20 C. I even got sunburnt a little on my arms and face. After our wonderful picnic we went to the mall and hung out then we went and hung with the Hansons and Busses. Over all a great day.


Day Five- My dad got back from his trip to Turkmenistan. He was really sick so we didn't go any where or do anything with him like we had hoped to do. We went and said goodbye to the Hansons, who were leaving to back to Kazan. It was like every goodbye I say...said with tears.



That ends our spring break. Now I just have to survive the next nine weeks of school. Hopefully that will be possible. I have made it through 27 weeks what are nine more?

Carolina!!

The Carolina Tarheels are the 2009 NCAA Champions! *SCREAM* I am so happy. I just finished watching the game and I have to scream and shout it out to everyone. Plus I have been up since 5:30am watching the game and couldn't get back to sleep because I am soooo happy and excited. GO TARHEELS. They beat Michigan State 89-72. Two out of three of my brackets made the top two spots in our group. My third came in fourth place but still that is awesome. My day just keeps getting better. The new Rascal Flatts album, Unstoppable comes out today! This is like the best spring break ever.

Pictures

Pulling down the tree!

Jen and I after we won the soccer tournament

Family Pic at a local park

Jen, Tiff and me bowling

Christmas Holiday

Wow I haven't posted anything in like forever. I have been busy with school and Christmas preparations. We had our church-Christmas-gift exchange on Christmas Eve. It was fun we had a big Christmas meal with the Buss and Tilton family. We all exchanged gifts with each other after our meal. I got a feather-fountain pen and ink. As well as a Princess Diana bookmark from England. After opening gifts we watched "Jack Frost" (movie with real people not the cartoon). On Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents with two friends. I got a Rascal Flatts cd, Taylor Swift cd, Jonas Brothers cd, jewelry, a cute suitcase and matching bag, fingerless gloves, toe socks, movies, candy and a CAROLINA rug!!!! After opening presents we had to go over to someones house for a traditional English Christmas meal. It was fun. We played taboo and white elephant(dirty Santa). I got a hat from that and Tiffy got a soccer clock that she gave to me. Then we got home and watched movies. Today we went shopping at the market. It was cold and rainy and no one would bargain with us. That's about all that has happened since Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Busy Life

Last weekend (12th-13th) Jen and I attended the school's high school retreat. It was an awesome time. We had fun. It rained practically the whole time we were there so that kind of ruined some plans or at least postponed them. We had worship time which was very good and insightful. We had games like capture the flag, volleyball, flamingo football, fruit salad and many more. Flamingo football was a blast. It was just like American tackle football except the guys can only use one leg the whole game while the girls get to use both. The girls lost but we got in some pretty good tackles. It was so funny to watch all of us tackle one person. We also sat around the bonfire and sang songs and heard a ghost story told by one of my classmates. We froze our tails off and enjoyed ourselves all at the same time. After getting back on Sunday night I finished up what homework I could and went to bed. I had at least 3 tests that week and felt like I was studying late every night of the week. Then, that weekend (18th Saturday morning) Jen and I went to a school here in Turkey to take the wonderful PSAT. We then attended a friend's party where we played the game, "Honey, if you love me ,please smile." That was a fun but ackward game because we played guys vs. girls (girls had to get the guys to smile somehow). Then we kicked the guys out and had a sleepover where we stayed up till 3:00 a.m. So the past two weekends have been late nights, early mornings, and not enough sleep. I had a busy week this week, too. I had at least 4 tests or quizzes and felt like I was staying up and studying all night long. We got to skip school on Friday because the girls' soccer team had an all day tournament. That is pretty much all that has occured within the past two weeks. If I think my life is busy now I wonder what I am going to think about college?

Operation: Return back to School!

I could hear the sound of beeping like a bomb about ready to explode. I must be dreaming, but wait, I'm not dreaming. . . it is a bomb...a time bomb also known as an alarm clock. I have just a minute to diffuse the bomb by awaking from my slumber. I awake and successfully diffuse the bomb but now I have another operation/mission to do. I must get ready for "Operation: Return back to School." This mission is going to be a semi-difficult one. After I arrive at the base of the operation, I realize that I have a big mission before me. There will be many testings of my abilities to succeed at the task. I will have many obstacles in my way. Traps just lying in wait for me. What are these traps and obstacles you may ask. They are the tests and quizzes that are being given right after a 10-day vacation. They are the homework assignments given and also the soccer practices afterwards. Operation: Return back to school was a success. We were not defeated nor was our cover blown and all went well. We will now be better prepared when another operation similar to this appears on our agenda.

Our Holiday Excursion

This morning after we woke up and got ready we headed by taxi to the port. There we boarded a ferry boat along with the Tilton family. We went over to the European side to go to the Archeology Museum and also to hang out as a family. We got off the boat and went to the museum. We saw many different historic items... to me they looked like a bunch of ruins and rocks. It was an interesting and fun day though. They had a kids play place with a smaller version of the Trojan Horse. The smaller kids were allowed to climb up inside the horse. It was cool; I just wish that I had been able to climb up in it. Colton liked it. After we left the museum we began our journey to find a place to eat lunch. As we were searching for a place to eat we began to notice how crowded it was starting to get. We finally found a place to eat. After our lunch we decided to make our way back to the ferry port. We then noticed at how much more crowded it had gotten since we had eaten. It was the most crowded I have ever seen a place. We started to push and shove through the crowd to catch the boat. It was so thick that we were either not moving or taking itty-bitty baby steps. We finally got to the boat and came home. It was a very fun day. We all took a little nap and our excursion was finished. It was an awesome day!

Officially Break!

It is now officially our 10 day break!! I still don't have any plans. My class was thinking about taking a trip to some island here. Yesterday was a somewhat bad and good day to start a break. My classes weren't boring and it felt like the day flew by. We got to watch the Bourne Identity in government class. That was the good part of the day the bad part was that I was 5 minutes late to one of my classes because the teacher had moved to another room and I didn't know it. If I had just walked into the regular classroom I would have seen a note on the board that told me where to go but I didn't go into the classroom. I ended up running up and down the 6 floors of the school looking for my class in the computer labs and places I thought they would be. I went to the front desk and asked someone if they knew where my teacher was. They took me to the third floor computer lab and my teacher wasn't there either. We asked someone if they had seen her and it turned out my whole class was in the next room over to the third floor computer lab. I felt so blonde because I didn't go into the regular classroom and see the note that would have saved me the time and effort of searching for my class and teacher. Then on top of that after soccer practice Jen, Sarah, and I caught a bus to come home. We got off too soon and started to begin the long walk home. After many phone calls to our parents explaining what had happened and where we were Sarah's mom called and said that she would just pick us up so that we wouldn't have to walk all the way home. Then we got home and our restful and peaceful break began. Well, I have to go do my chores.

Upcoming School Break!!

Tomorrow is our last day to attend school before the 10 day break. We get to be out of school for 10 days because of the Turkish holidays and stuff. It is awesome. I have no clue what we will do during our break. Most of my friends have plans or some idea of what to do. The only thing I have planned right now is sleeping in and relaxing. I may try and go to the guy's soccer game that is coming up. I have completed most of the homework that is due after the break so that is great. We go back to school on the 7th of October and then that weekend (11th-12th Oct.) we have our high school retreat. I can't wait for that either. Well, I have to get to bed I have school tomorrow.

Tiffy's Birthday Party

We celebrated Tiffy's birthday finally this weekend. Her birthday was August 25. She invited 5 of her friends and had a sleepover. We played lots of games and had heaps of fun. We played twister, musical chairs, birdie on the perch, the foot game, hot potato with a giraffe though (the theme was giraffes), we also played American Idol on the PS2. I think Tiffy had a great time. We all watched Ella Enchanted and then some Home Improvements. Her birthday cake was a giraffe and we had this totally awesome fire-hazard candle. It was a flower that you were supposed to light then it was supposed to open up and sing happy birthday. It did everything but sing. It opened up in a big flame then died down and started to melt the plastic petals. We had to blow it out quickly. I have finally got some pictures to put on here. I found my camera cord so now I can load all my pictures onto the computer.

Soccer Games

I had my first soccer game of the season. We played against some British school here in Istanbul. Unfortunately we only got to play 35 minutes because we arrived a little later than expected. We played a good game and we won two to one. The girls team managed to go undefeated last year and we are hoping that we can manage to do the same this year. It was awesome. I was center forward. After the game the coach made us stay on the field and practice a little more. That was fun also because we had a small game amongst the team and it started raining. We got on a bus afterwards and it took us over an hour to get home because of traffic. It felt almost like everyone on the bus had just gotten back from a girls sleepover or something. It was cool. Then today I went along with some friends and Jen to watch the guys play. I not only went to support the school but also because my two yearbook partners were playing and I had to support them plus try and get some good pics. The guys played the same British school as we did and they also won!!!! Way to go Lions (schools mascot). They had a longer game of about an hour and won five to two. They played well and made us proud.

The First Week is Over

The first week of school is over and there are many weeks left to go. It was a good first week. I had homework every night that took me until past 10 pm to finish. I got homework in every subject this weekend except in one class. I have enjoyed most of my classes. I have made some new friends too. I think that Jen had a good week too. Jen and I are on the soccer team and we have our third practice this Tues. Then we have our first game on Wed. There were a lot of girls that signed up for soccer so we are going to have to have two teams. I am guessing that our coach is going to alternate between teams for games. So, I do not know if I will be able to play in the Wed. game. I hope that this next week will be good but less homework. I will try to post something new as soon as possible and I will try to get some pictures next time.

First day of school

Today was the first day of school. Jen and I are attending the international school here. IGA is the name of the school. We got on the bus this morning and left for school. It was our first time going to school in a bus. Everything went well today. My class was very welcoming and I met a lot of new people. My classes are Church History, Biology II, Grammar & Composition, SAT Prep, Yearbook, Painting, PE, Pre-Calculus and Comparative governments. I like most of my classes so far. I got homework in 3 of my classes today. I didn't attend two because of the schedule that we had today. All in all it was a good first day and everything went well.

My New Blog

O.k. here it is my very first blog. I am new at this and it may take a while to get everything organized. I am possibly thinking about just doing a blog instead of doing my monthly newsletters. I will try to keep this as updated as possible. O.k. I need to get to bed because it's getting pretty late