Conferences, colleges, and cats.

This weekend I was up in Virginia at the homeschool convention. That was pretty fun. the Home4school store had a booth there, so I got to hang out with Brianna, which is always fun. :) I arrived at my aunt's 1700 style "plantation" (it was built by the man who built Tuckahoe, and my aunt and uncle added on two wings) on Thursday afternoon. Mary Katherine and William immediately introduced me to the newest temporary residents of Joe Brooke: 3 stray kittens they found in the barn. There were 2 black ones and a gray kitty. Aunt Mary guessed they were maybe 2 weeks old, and we think the mother may have abandoned them. At any rate, they were sooooooo sweet!! The only bad thing was that they hadn't been de-clawed, so I now have scratches all over. They think they have found a home for the gray kitty (which MK kinda took under her wing).

On Friday, we went to the conference. The best session (to me, anyways) was a college panel session. They had invited admissions counselors from ODU, University of Richmond, Patrick Henry, Regent, and the VA community colleges to come answer questions for 1 hour. Since U of R is one of the colleges I have been considering, it was great to get to hear what the counselor had to say. I got to talk to her afterwards, got some info about the school, and she gave me her card.

We had invited Brianna to come back with us and eat dinner at Aunt Mary's that night, but she wasn't feeling so great, and decided not to go. That was probably a good thing, because if she had she would have ended up spending the night with us. We had a really bad storm that night. I think the power went on and off at least 6 times, but the house has a backup generator, so it only went completely off twice. Aunt Alice and MK had come for dinner and to watch Johnny Kapahala, and they had to wait until the storm was over to go home. We stayed up until 12:30 and watched "The Pursuit of Happyness" (misspelled on purpose).

On Saturday, we went back to the convention until 2:00. Bri and I had so much fun playing certain jokes on Vogel (who deserved them. :)) Then Mom and I drove to my grandma's, where I got to see my horse, and hang out with Emily for an hour.

Memorial Day

A friend of mine brought up an interesting point on his blog. America does little to honor our soldiers on Memorial Day, a day that is purposefully set aside for the commemoration of our soldiers. It makes me so mad. I have several friends who are either over in Iraq or Afghanistan, on leave, or getting ready to go over there. Josh is over in Iraq for two years with only a two week leave. Why does America persist on considering Memorial Day simply another day off work?

Apparently, Memorial Day hasn't always been on the last Monday in May, though. Fronm 1868 until 1968 it was observed unofficially on May 5th. Then General John Logan got Congress to make it a national holiday on May 30th (chosen because it was the only day that a battle was NOT fought on). However, shortly after it was celebrated for the first time, Congress moved it to the last Monday in May to create a three-day weekend. In a 2004 Memorial Day speech, the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) stated that:"Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day."

I find it difficult to believe that Americans can treat this day like any other. Even as I write this, American soldiers are DYING defending this country. Even if they don't believe we should have entered into this war, they should at LEAST respect the soldiers and what they are doing to keep this nation free. I know that we wouldn't be here today if it weren't for our soldiers. If it weren't for the brave men that we had during the Revolutionary War, who stood up and fought when all odds were against them, history and this country as we know it would be severely altered. If it weren't for our soldiers in the both WWI and WWII, all of Europe would be completely different from what we know it to be today. We need to be congratulating and remembering our soldiers sacrifices, not forgetting their memory.

Carl Klang sings the song "I Am The Unknown Soldier". Carl rewrote it for music from a poem written by Patricia O'Grady Parcells. She wrote the poem for her father who is POW/MIA. Patricia has visited Vietnam twice attempting to find her Father. I thought it would be fitting to end this blog with the lyrics to that song. This song is dedicated to all the POW and MIA soldiers.

"I am the unknown soldier
Some call me M.I.A.
Some say I can't go home again
Some say I chose to stay
I am the unknown soldier
who you refuse to know
A brother and a friend of yours
Who left so long ago
Some call me P.O.W.
The one they left behind
I am the unknown soldier
The one they never tried to find
I'm the one they never tried to find

I'm a farmer from Missouri
The soldier from St. Paul
I was the hero of my family
And still my pictures upon their wall
I'm a poet and a scholar
And the boy who lived next door
I am the unknown soldier
Forgotten on a foreign shore
Long forgotten on a foreign shore

I was someone's lovin' daddy
I was someone's pride and joy
I was someone's tender lover
A worried Mama's little boy
And if you should just forget me here
Then I should forget you too
Please won't you try to bring me home
For I'm someone who belongs to you
I'm still someone who belongs to you

I am the unknown soldier
With no more tears to shed
I'm just a fading memory
A part of the living dead
My country has betrayed me
Yet I have forgiven you
And every night I pray to God
That somehow he'll forgive you too
Yes even somehow he'll forgive you too

I am the unknown soldier
The one for whom you cried
That familiar face that you can't face
The one your country told you died
I am the unknown soldier
With dreams you'll rescue me
And I am a man who understands
Only death might ever set me free
Only death might ever set me free

I am the unknown soldier
And I'm black and blue and grey
I said I am the unknown soldier
And I die slowly every day
And I'm tired and I'm hungry
I am the unknown soldier
The one you bought and sold
I'm the one you bought and sold

So lay down close beside me now
And gently stroke my face
And wrap your arms around me now
Before we leave this place
Some called me P.O.W.
Some called Me M.I.A.
Some say I can't come home again
But I will return someday"

Sisters

I'm in a little bit of a reflective and a little bit of a melancholy mood right now. I was just thinking about my sisters. Ok, so they are really my cousins, but we have practically grown up together, so I think of them as my younger sisters. Emily is 12 :) (actually, she's 13, but because of "grandpa" I had to throw that one in), and Mary Katherine is 11. Even though there have been times that I have wanted to wring their necks (ok, not literally, but you get my point), I can't imagine life without either of them. All three of us gals are so different. Emily is the sporty and boy-crazy one of us. Mary Katherine is the genius, who also swims and is quite good at it. I'm not the genius MK is, but I do have my moments. I'm the bookworm, actress, and future lawyer/agent. Like I said earlier, we are extremely different, but we compliment each other a whole lot.

I spent last weekend with the two of them at Nana and Papa's lake house. We had some quality girl-time together, which consisted of certain...um..compromising photos (haha), concerts, plays, STARBUCKS, scrapbooking, and discussions of clothes and boys. That was so much fun! Usually whenever all three of us are together, there is at least one of the boys around (there are 7 boys), so we don't get as much uninterrupted girl-time. Not to say that I don't like having y'all boys around, but sometimes it's nice for it to be just the girls. Anyway, I just wanted you gals to know that I love you, and can't wait to do this again!

Cinderella

So I apparently haven't dropped my old cyt roots that much.:) I'm 99% sure that I'm going to audition for the 1st CYT summer show ever!!! They are doing Cinderella, which is probably the most popular cyt play ever, (this will make the....3rd or 4th time that I've been in it) but it is so much fun!!!! I've missed doing theatre so much, especially with Ms. Natalie. Even though I love working with ALP a whole lot, I miss the old CYT days. One of the many things that is so special about CYT is all the prayer and worship that goes into these plays. Some of my favorite and most treasured memories were made sitting around in a circle with my friends, lifting up the cast, play, audience members, etc. I honestly can't wait!

PS: If any of you want to/are going to audition, let me know. :)

Sitting on the dock of the bay

I spent a wonderful weekend at a gorgeous location. It was my aunt's 50th birthday, and all the ladies in the family (the three girl cousins included) went to my uncles parents lakehouse for the weekend. Mom, Mema, and I got to the house on friday and ended up having to wait an hour or so for the rest of the fam, but that was ok, because I got to relax on the dock swing with a good book. :) That night, we went to see "Smoke on the Mountain" at some local theatre. It was an ok play, it just wasn't my favorite. (Not to mention that I had just seen High School Musical at Memorial and then CYT's Le Fantome de l'Opera the day before (which, btw, was an excellent play and made me sad that I wasn't in CYT anymore)) We didn't end up getting to bed until 1:00ish.

On Saturday Emily, MK, and myself decided to brave the risk of hypothermia. We put on our swim suits and waltzed out to the dock. We stopped on the way down there to get the Super Mable, which is a three person inner tube raft thing. We tied it to the dock and climbed on it so that we could attempt to get a tan before getting in the water. I happened to get into the water in a rather, um, unconventional method. Mk got off onto the dock first, then Emily and I both went to get off at the same time. Unfortuately, she got off a fraction of a second before I did, causing the supermable to flip, which then caused me to go head over heals into the lake. I came up shaking from the coldness, but less than 2 hours later, all three of us were in the water.

As we were all out there, we saw an old friend, Hall, drive up in his boat. We then hooked Mable up to the new speedboat and we all went over to their house for a while. Out of Hall and Molly's 3 sons, only Harry (the 9th grader) was there.

That night, we attended a four tops concert. That was interesting. Only one of the tops, the Duke, is still in the group. The other 3 members are newbies. They did a good job, I just didn't know a lot of the songs. Aunt Alice, Aunt Mary, mk and I went to Starbucks to get coffee afterwards.

I have SAT's on saturday. I'm a little stressed about the math section. It's the only one that I still consistently have a low score on.

Babe

We started our pig dissections in class on wednesday. I have to say these next few weeks are probably going to be the most, um, memorable ones out of the whole year. Several of us decided that our pigs deserved names. Mine is Babe (after the movie), Chelsea's is Bojangles (because she was craving it then) Blake's is Smithfield's (after the barbecue restaurant), Joey's is O.J. (after O.J. Simpson (he said that if he had to be cutting the pig up, it might as well be someone he disliked)), and Becca's was originally Wilbur (after Charlotte's Web), until she realized it was a girl. She tried to change the name to Wilburetta, but Blake pointed out how much it sounded like a gun. :)

We've already identified the outside structures, and skinned them, so now we get to start cutting them up. We have all pretty much decided that the one thing we will remember 20 years from now was when Cameron's dead, skinned, fetal pig pooped on him. I'm serious. It was nasty, and yet incredibly fun to watch his reaction. :P

In other news, I'm pretty much as stressed out as I've ever been right now. I have 2 major essays coming up, several ap exams, SAT's, scholarship essays, dissection write-ups, finals, three speeches to finish, and countless other things. I have to admit, it's a lot of stuff to do just for college. It's scary to think that your whole future may rest on one test, but it might. If I don't get a high enough score on them, there is no way I'll get in to William and Mary, which is where I really want to be. It also might decide my future career. If I can't do good enough on the SAT's, how can I ever do good enough on the L-Sat's? Anyway, I'm just stressed and not in the worlds best mood when it comes to homework. :)

addendum to previous entry

I was just informed by mom that I should clarify something: The mouse/snake incident was the 1st time I have ever seen an animal inside that house, so never fear, her house is not normally animal-infested (unless you can count my dog and my cousins 2 dogs.) :)