It is Finished!!!!!

It is Finished!

Ok, I'm sure you're wondering "what is that crazy girl talking about?"

Well, for school, we have to do a 40 hour project - something that involves what we have learned that takes at least 40 hours to complete. It can be whatever we want. Last year, I turned the book Midnight Rider by Joan Hiatt Harlow into a movie script and Nathan made a Lego animation movie of the Monitor vs. the Merrimack (a sea battle).

This year, I had the brilliant idea to write a novel. (If you don't know this already, I never think small. If I'm given a 40 hour project assignment, it results in a 600 hour project. Maybe I'm exaggerating just a tiny bit.) I got the inspiration for my story while reading the Hunger Games: a post-apocalyptic world with a totalitarian dictator government and the "good guys" trying to overthrow the dictator. My story's about a seventeen-year-old slave who turns into a spy. I personally thought it was really good.

By the time the story was completed and turned in for Mom to read/grade (Saturday afternoon), it was 202 pages long. Yippee! I wrote a novel! Mom started it Sunday afternoon, figuring she'd only read a couple pages, but got "sucked into it" since it was exciting and unpredictable (in a good way). She finished it late last night when she was supposed to be in bed.

Anyway, I'm very proud of my accomplishment and happy to have written a book that Mom enjoyed. I admit, I was scared e-mailing to her in case she didn't like it. She tends to like what I write, but I've never written something that included this sort of "heavy" subject matter. Also, I put my whole heart into it and the book, Hope and a Future, is my baby. I didn't want her to destroy my baby since that would hurt.

But she didn't! Except for pointing out one improbable plot twist (yah, it was a little far-fetched) and saying my favorite character was obnoxious (I highly protest that! I absolutely loved this character!), she said she loved it! Yay!

So I'm happy. My story's done. Mom liked it. Life's good.

Now I just need to hear back from Newlife as to if I got accepted or not. Hopefully their response is in the affirmative.

Adios, amigos!

Shopping Adventure

This morning, Promise and I went shopping. We both absolutely love checking out what's new at Target and Kohls. At Kohls, we had to buy some stuff for Nathan and Isaac (there's nothing more awkward than standing next to a guy looking for the right size of men's underwear...) before we could have fun and shop for ourselves. Our first stop was shoes. Kohls had just gotten its batch of new flip-flops in and they actually had some in my size. *gasp* We stayed and played around with fancy shoes for a little while. Then, Promise had fun trying on two adorable Easter dresses, and I tried on a couple shirts. I bought three shirts. (Mom is having me return all three shirts, but that's a different story.)

Our next stop was Target. We had to finish buying clothes for the boys, then we looked at shoes again. Target had a fun selection of high heels which we tried on. I found out why I don't wear 8 inch heels - I can't walk! The funniest part was when Promise was trying on the 8 inch heels, tottered forward three steps, and fell over. :-D

By the end of the shopping trip, we had spent three hours and were tired and hungry. As we were walking out to the car, I gave Promise knuckles and said, "Three hours on a shopping trip!" and Promise smiled and replied, "That's us!"

I love my family. <3

Oh, and tonight we get a girl's night out! Mom's taking Grace, Promise, and I (Joy Anna's too young) to Boston Market to dinner. The original plan was after dinner, we'd drop Grace and Promise off at home then Mom and I would go watch Journey 2, but Mom's too tired. So we're dropping Grace, Promise, and Mom off and I'm picking up Dad and Nathan and we're going to watch Journey 2.

Newborn Photos

Hi Everyone!

What a week! I survived (yay!) !

Oh. You're probably wondering what I survived. Let's see... Last week I had to work my tail off and write two major papers for my AP classes (of course they were due the same week!) and I had to take a 30 page hand-written history final... It took me six hours - I timed it. I started at 1:05pm and finished at 7:15pm. My hand was DEAD. So was my poor brain.

The next morning, I had to get up really early (anything earlier than 7:00am is early for me) and take the ACT test... I was already mentally and physically fried from the day before, so by the time we reached science...well...I couldn't make sense of the words in front of me.

The highlight of the ACT test was that Nathan and I got to go out to lunch afterward! Yay for Subway!

That afternoon, I had a newborn photo shoot. It was so much fun! I think newborn photo shoots are my favorite since 1) it deals with babies, and 2) they're super pose-able and 3) it doesn't matter if they're looking at the camera and smiling. Anyway, I finished editing the photos already (yah, I'm normally pretty fast about that) and posted some on my photography website. http://risingdawnservices.blogspot.com/2012/02/baby-e.html

Let me know what you think of them!

Another Quick Picture Bomb

Many Faces

Great Wolf Lodge

Tuesday morning, after family worship, Mom and Dad announced that we were going on a surprise vacation for the next two days to Great Wolf Lodge. We were given 90 minutes to get packed and ready to go. My first thoughts were about school - do I have enough of a grip on my school to take two days out of my week? However, Mom assured me she had taken care of that.

Then, as I was feeding Joy Anna breakfast an hour later, Dad came in from loading the car and said, "Danielle, go outside and greet your guest for the trip." I couldn't help but think "What?!"

When I went outside, there was my friend Molly. I was absolutely stoked. Until an hour before, I had absolutely no idea that we were going anywhere, and now we were going to a very fun water park with one of my good friends.

When we got to the water park, we found out some more of our good friends were there too. It turns out, it was home-school day at Great Wolf Lodge, so we saw a bunch of people we recognized.

Another thing we found out was that Dad purposely had us leave early (and get there before anyone else) so we could eat lunch at Five Guys. That would be dad. :-D

At Great Wolf Lodge, there were many different water slides and pools for different ages and heights. I suddenly felt a little nervous, hearing that one of the slides had a drop (!), so I started with the "easy" slides. One of them had double tubes so two people could ride at the same time.

Nathan and Promise coming off the tube water slide

 Nathan tried to encourage Molly and I to try out the "Howlin' Tornado" water slide, the one with the drop, but I decided to build up to it. I wasn't sure how to deal with a drop. Finally, after trying all the other slides, I agreed to ride the Tornado.

In reality, I was so scared, I could scarcely breath. Wild adventure is not usually my thing. The tube for the Tornado held four people, so Nathan, Molly, Grace, and I rode it together. Then the life guard purposely flipped the tube so I rode backwards. Thanks a lot, dude. There were many twists then suddenly the enclosed slide got dark. There was a light up ahead, which I could barely see because I was having to look over my shoulder.

Then suddenly we were dropping. I'd guess the drop was about five feet. I started screaming, "I'm going to die!" When the drop ended, we ended in an open area where the tube flew up the sides. I was certain we were going to fall out so I continued to scream, "I'm going to die!" Then as suddenly as the excitement started, it ended. And I was still alive.

And would you believe it? The Howlin' Tornado became my favorite ride! Though every time I rode it, I still screamed like there was no tomorrow on the drop. The funniest part about the ride was when I rode it with Isaac and his friend Luke. Luke can seems very calm and steady, not the type of person who would scream on a water slide. But I was wrong. The moment the slide started moving, he started screaming like a girl. I was laughing so hard, I almost forgot to scream. :-D

Another funny part was Grace. She didn't have her "ears" on, so she could hear nothing. Whenever we went down a water slide with her, she'd cackle like a maniac. It was hilarious. But she was a big dare devil (surprise, surprise) and her favorite ride was the Tornado also. Actually, she drove the life guards crazy because she wouldn't respond when they blew the whistle at her... Haha!

And now here's some pictures from our mini-vacation.

Decoration on the wall of the hotel room. I thought it was pretty cool.

Some creepy animatronic creatures in the lobby who put on a show...

Stuffed wolf.

I wanted to get a picture of the front of the Lodge, since it was really cool with a wolf on either side, but it was raining so I had to content myself with standing under the portico getting side profiles.

The kiddy fort. Joshua loved it! The bucket on the top would fill with water then dump everywhere. I stood under it once with about five other people, only to be surprised at how hard the water came down. Seriously? They could knock someone out with it! Ok, maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration... :-D

My little friend, Sophie. :-D

Depths of the Soul

Photo Update

Here's a quick photo update from January. It covers my birthday and mom's birthday.

Enjoy!

Staal likes my camera.

The white chocolate peppermint cheesecake we had for my birthday. It was yummy! :-D