Jens Blog :-)

Weeeeeeell I got my schedule, so here it is:

1st semester:
1. Band II
2. AP English-Koechling :-D That made me happy despite how much work he gives.
3. Honors U.S. History-Blanton
4. Honors Physics-Beiles

2nd Semester:
1. Band II
2. Honors Pre-Calc-Sweeney (ahhhhh! no shes not that bad really)
3. Laboratory Technician (*giggles* that sounds so official, especially when all I do basically is grade papers)-Thurston (woot! so what if i'm the only one i know that actually likes him?! he's cool-Steven no killing me please, we're even with you liking mr. lee)
4. German I-Heckert (my brother reminded me today that he had Frau Heckert too...oooooh boy)

So first semester is going to be tough. Especially if Mr. Rowe finds something for me to do with the marching band, which I really hope he does. Despite that, I'm glad to have the hard semester first this time, because it was the opposite this year, and by second semester I was such a slacker that it made it more difficult to do that much work. Second semester looks pretty easy though, despite the fact that I have Mrs. Sweeney yet again. That's the one Scotty decided was a recovering depressed alcoholic. She's not mean or anything, but she checks homework for correctness and she's boring. Oh well. If I have extra time when I'm lab teching, I can do my math homework, so that's nice. German will probably be my hardest class that semester, unless pre-calc is evil.

As of now, I've got Matt and Alexz in my English class, Rachel in my history class, and Melissa in my German class. I know Melissa has Mrs. Sweeney too, but I also know she's doing at least two pre-calc classes second semester so I don't know if we'll be together or not. I'll definitly have lunch with Matt both semesters and Rachel and Megan 1st semester. I might have lunch with Megan 2nd too, but we're not sure because we can't remember which section art goes with. I honestly can't remember what katie and I decided about lunch periods and I'm too tired to go get the list since it's almost 2 AM. Nothing else with anyone I've talked to so far. I haven't been able to get in touch with Corey yet though...I know we won't have anything except band and maybe lunch together 2nd semester, but we could have plenty 1st semester...I left him a message this morning but I haven't heard from him, and Torey said he's going out of town this weekend, which I assume means he's going to his dad's house. I reaaaaaaaally miss him...I've been driving everyone else crazy talking about him but oh well. I haven't talked to him since Saturday, with the exception of the very short call on Monday. *sighs* Matt's reaction is to tell me to "get a grip" and then tease me about the possibility of him finding "some beautiful band lark" as he put it...good thing I trust my boyfriend enough to not let that comment bother me. I just miss him...a lot. As stupid as it sounds, it made me really anxious to not hear from him or Hannah all week...Last night was NOT a fun night, stupid nightmares...but I felt better tonight just knowing Torey had seen him all week so he's fine and everything. Even at his dad's, at least I can talk to him online.

Anyway...please leave a comment if you have a class with me!

These are really old surveys that I got from Hannah a few months ago, saved, and decided to do today when I got bored.

1. What is your full name? guess who’s not stupid enough to answer that on a public blog?
2. Nicknames? Jen, Jen-bean, Nut, Juniper, a few random other ones
3. home town: Danville CA
4. home team: i don’t really care
5. Sex: female
6. Where do you live? NC
7. What school do you attend? Apex high
8. Siblings and their ages? 21 year old brother
9. Pets: none
10. Zodiac Sign: Sagitarius
11. Rightly or Lefty: Righty

*********YOUR LOOKS*********
12. Hair color: Brown
13. Eye color: Brown
14. Height: 5' 5” ish
15. Do u wear contacts or glasses? occasionally
16. Do you have any piercing? one in each ear
17. Where do you want more? not really anywhere considering how lazy i am about earings
18. Do you have a tattoo? nope
19. If so what and where? n/a
20. Do you wear any rings? class ring usually
21. Do you have a certain fashion you follow? sortof but it’s just wha i like to wear

**********JUST LATELY***************
23. How are you today? not bad, though I miss my Corazy
24. What pants are you wearing right now? gym shorts type things; just back from physical therapy a while ago
25. What shirt are you wearing right now? a blue one
26. What underwear are you wearing right now? regular white underwear as always lol
27. What does your hair look like at the moment? its in a headband
28. What song are u listening to right now? no music on actually, though I’ve got lyrics to “wouldn’t it be nice” on my away message if it counts
29. What was the last thing u ate? toaster strudels

its 12:42 and i just have to say that

30. How is the weather right now? uhh warm and overcastish
31. Last person you talked to on the phone: urm...left a message for corey, talked to my mom a few hours before that
32. Last Dream you can remember: oh boy that one’ll have to have its own entry; it was weiiiird
33. Who are you talking to right now? no one b/c they’re all gone so i put up an away message
34. What time is it? 12:43

************More about YOU!*****************
35. What are the last four digits of your phone number? 9695
36. If u were a crayon, what color would u want to be? rainbow!
37. Have you ever almost died? uhh i hope not lol
38. Do u like the person that sent u this? *huggles the hannah banana* yesh
39. How do u eat an Oreo? dunk it in milk!
40. What makes you happy? hanging out with Corey or anyone/everyone in the kidney
41. What's the next CD you are going to buy? no idea
42. What religion/denomination are you? right now i think i’ll go with methodist...seems to fit me the best
43. What's the best advice ever given to you? never give up but accept help along the way
44. Have u ever won any special awards? some academic/writing ones and one for dance just because i went to the studio for 3 years in a row lol
45. What are your future goals? get into a good college with *hopefully* a scholarship, keep in touch with friends, and be happy with my future life and career
46. Do u like to dance? only if it’s coreographed ahead of time lol
48. What's the stupidest thing u ever done? good question, too many to pick
49. What's your favorite memory? mmm lots with corey
50. If you could change 1 thing about yourself what would it be? i think i overreact to things too easily
51. Where do you shop the most? the mall or kohls
52. How many kids do you want to have? i dunno...depends on a bunch of stuff
53. Son's names? i’ve always liked david or michael

54. Daughter's names? elizabeth or emily
55. Do you do drugs? ugh no
56. Do you drink? yuck
57. What kind of shampoo/conditioner do you use? Aussie or Panteen usually
58. What sport do you like the least? well matt would kill me but i have to say football
59. What are you most scared of? Losing someone that I care about
60. How many TV's do you have in your house? urm...4
61. Do you have your own? yup
62. Phone line? nope but i have a cell
63. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? a dog i’ve had since i was two and a horse i got on valentine’s day^^
64. Have you ever broken/sprained/fractured a bone? dislocated my thumb once but that’s it
65. Who do you dream about? lots about corey...and then random ones with random people
66. Who do you tell your dreams to? anyone who’ll be interested lol
67. Who's the loudest friend you have? uhh marc has a loud voice...anna can be crazy when she wants to be but she can be really quiet too so i dunno
68. Who's the quietest friend? sometimes steven, though once again he’ll talk a lot at random times too lol...
69. Is dance a sport? sure, just not in the form that i do it i dont think lol
70. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? i actually counted that when i was little but i dont remember
71. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? the egg because breakfast
comes before lunch..duhh doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure that one out (*steals from hannah who stole it from taylor haha*)

********YOU and LOVE*********
72. Do you believe in Love? oh yesh
73. Do you have a girlfriend or boyfriend? boyfriend <333
74. Do you have a crush? only if Corey counts^^
75. Who is your crush? see above
76. Did you send this to your crush? yay for blogs sending it out to everyone
77. Do you believe in Love at first sight? not really
78. Where would you like to go on your honeymoon? i dunno...anywhere w/my love <333
79. What song do you want played at your wedding? it’d be kinda cool to have “When I See You Smile” play...
80. What's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex? smile, hair
81. Longest crush? and longest bf=corey
82. Who do u want to spend the rest of your life with? hrm take a guess
83. Do you find yourself attractive? not especially but i don’t care too much about it
84. Do you find yourself ugly? nope
85. Do others find you attractive? i dunno
86. Are you a virgin? yup

****ON GUYS FOR GIRLS TO FILL OUT (for girls only) ****
89. Boxers or briefs: whatever they like better lol
92. Tall or short: well considering the 10 inch height difference between Corey and me, I’ll go with tall
93. Six pack or muscular arms: don’t really care
94. Good or bad guys: mostly good...a little bad mixed in doesn’t bother me though lol
95. Hat or no hat: doesn’t matter
96. Ears pierced or not: as hard as it is to imagine Corey with a pierced ear, I’m going to go with “i dont care” because i think guys should have the right to choose their own fashion sense too
97. tan or no tan: tan=skin cancer which i’d really rather not anyone get, so i’ll go with no tan
98. Totally shy, or octopus arms? a little bit of each? O:-)
99. Stubble or neatly shaved: unless its prickly enough to hurt, i don’t care
100. Rugged or sporty: w/e
101. Studly or Cutie: Both if possible *also stolen from hannah hehe*
102. Accent or not: don’t care
103. Glasses? don’t care
104. Smart or dumb: everyone’s smart in some way
105. What sport should he play? hehe marching band rules
106. Dependent (whipped) or independent: a bit of both hehe

****ON GIRLS FOR GUYS TO FILL OUT (for guys only) ***
107. Sandals or flip-flops:
108. Painted nails or not:
109. Regular or sports bra:
111. Cute n' mysterious or wild n' sexy:
113. Dark or blonde hair:
114. Long or short hair:
115. Curly or straight hair:
116. Dark, light, or crazy cool eyes:
117. Long or short nails:
118. Hat or no hat:
119. Good or bad girl:
120. Hair up or down:
121. Jewelry or none:
122. Tall or short:
124. Accent or no accent:
125. Pants or dress:
126. Tan or fair:
127. Glasses:
128. Pretty indoor chick or crazy party chick:
129. Freckles or none:
130. Shy or outgoing:
131. Funny or always cool:
132. Talkative or shy:

*****Pick One: THIS OR THAT***********
133. Lights on/off: off
134. Sun or Rain: generally sun
135. Mickey D's (McDonalds) or BK (Burger King)? Mcdonalds has better fries
136. Do u like scary or happy movies better? either
137. Backstreet Boys or NSYNC? *giggles* BSB!
138. On the phone or in person? in person!
139. Paper or plastic? paper b/c its biodegradeable
140. Sausage or pepperoni? ugh neither
141. Summer or winter? summer b/c no school and less stress!
142. Hugs or kisses? how about both? hehe
143. Chocolate or white milk: usually white but i like chocolate occasionally
144. Root Beer or Dr. Pepper: yuck
145. Glass half full or half empty? depends what mood i’m in
146. CD or Tape: CD
147. Tape or DVD: dont care
148. Cats or Dogs: dogs or very social cats
149. Mud or Jell-O wrestling: mmm never tried either but it would be fun
150. Vanilla or Chocolate: Chocolate of course!
151. Skiing or Boarding: never been boarding, but i liked skiing the one time i went when i was in 3rd grade haha
152. Day or night: evening
153. Cake or pie: depends
155. Diamond or pearl: diamonds
156. Sunset or sunrise: Sunset b/c im rarely awake for a sunrise

****************YOUR FAVS*******************
157. Color: purple, blue, aquaish green
158. Food: chocolate
159. Fast Food: habatchi xpress if that counts...or any type of sub place or taco bell
160. Candy: most chocolates lol
161. Beverage: sweet tea usually
162. Ice Cream Flavor: cookie dough
163. Sport: To watch: gymnastics and equestrian
To Play: ugh i suck at sports
163. Animal: horses
164. Fave type of music? oldies
165. Radio Station: oldies 100.7, G 105, mix 101.5
166. Song: dunno
167. Group: Dont really have one
168. Number: 8
169. Fav. Actor or Actress? johnny depp, though honestly i liked him more in Benny and Joon than recent movies
170. Fav. Day of the year? September 15th ;-)
171. Fav. Month? December
172. TV show? Everwood or Summerland
173. Store: probably Kohls or Deb
174. Scent: chocolate lol...and Corey smells good^^
175 Board Game: CLUE! and scrabble, despite my lack of spelling and vocabulary
176. Saying: i dunno

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~HAVE YOU EVER~~~~~~~
177. Loved someone so much it made you cry? yes
178. Drank? just sips and i don’t like it
179. Ever gotten dumped? uhh does 6th grade count?
181. Broke the law? *giggles* I feel really odd saying yes, especially when I can say “twice since Sunday” yay driving golfcarts illegally haha
182. Ran from the cops? Nope and that’s incorrect grammer! “Have you ever ran from the cops?” lol RUN but I haven’t done that either
183. Stole something? nope
184. Tried to kill yourself? nope
185. Made yourself throw up? ugh no that concept has always been very creepy to me...I HATE throwing up
186. Made yourself cry to get out of trouble? does a puppy dog face count? O:-)

************* A Final Note*******************
187. Do you like filling these out: gives me something to do
188. How many people are you sending this to? a lot since it’s on a website
189. Do u want your friends to write back: if they want
190. Who is most likely to respond? someone who’s borred
191.Who is least likely to respond? someone who doesn’t blog
192. Any other comments: not really lol

***here’s survey number 2 lol, some parts are similar but i dont feel like editing it***
1.Full name: Still smarter than to put that online
2. Nicknames: already listed them
3. Eyes: brown
4. Hair: brown
5.Siblings: 1 brother, age 21
6.Do u like to sing in the shower? oh yesh
7.Birthday: december 12
8.Horoscope: Sagitarius
9.Address: definitly not putting that online either
10.Gender: Female
11.Righty or lefty: Righty
12.What's the most important thing that every relationship should have?
happiness
13.Have you ever cheated? nope
14.Marital status: dating for about 10 1/2 months
15.Do you have a car? nope and i’m quite fine w/it lol
16.What kind of car do you want? a bug^^

FAVORITE QUESTIONS
17.Movie(s): dont really have one
18.Song: same as above
19.Subject in School: geometry!
20.TV Program: Everwood and Summerland
21.Actor: Johnny Depp
22.Favorite Number: 8
23.Favorite Month: December
24.Cartoon: Gotta love how Hannah and I even have the same favorite cartoon haha, and neither of us has watched it in ages! As Told by Ginger 25.Disney Character: hrm...i dunno
26.Color: purple, blue, aquaish green
27.Do u plan on having children? depends how things work out
28.Do u want to get married? yes
29.How old do you want to be when you're married? whenever it fits in well with my life and the life of my love <333
30.Would you have kids before marriage? nope
31.Do you have a b/f or g/f? yesh^^ <333
32.Music/TV: depends
33.Guys/Girls: With a few exceptions, I generally trust my guy friends more than the girls...girls seem to backstab eachother easier and get annoyed more easily over stupid things. That said, I have several friends of each sex that I couldn’t live without because they’re wonderful
34.Green/Blue: Blue
35.Pink/Purple: purple
36.Summer/Winter: summer
37.Night/Day: evening
38.Hangin' Out/Chillin': gathering
39.Dopey/Funny: Funny
40.You know I'm around when you hear: random comments that tend to make little sense...*giggles and thinks about toothpaste marbles and the look on Rachel’s face when I said that* This question has nothing to do with Favorites come to think of it...
41.Go to? anywhere with Corey or the rest of the kidney
42.Have you ever taken drugs? ugh no
43.What's a major turn on for you? physically=hair and smile, but i go for the sense of humor and ability to listen too
44.Have you ever been to Africa? How random was that?! no I havent lol
45.How far would you go on a first date? depends...not very far though
46.How far would you go with someone you love? well i’d hope that love evolves into marriage...and then what’s there to stop you lol
47.Which 3 people do you trust the most? Corey, Anna, and Matt
48.Is it right to flirt if you have a b/f or g/f? i personally wouldn’t but i guess it’s an indivudual descision, or rather, a couple’s descision
49.What was the last thing you cried over or got teary about? Missing Corey
50.What's something about guys/girls that you don't get? why guys think it’s such a big deal to share a bed with another guy lol--especially when there’s two other guys in the room sharing a bed without it being an issue!!--i’ve had long discussions with girls and guys about this and it still baffles me and the girls i’ve talked to
51.Are you happy? generally yes
52.Why? because i have wonderful friends that I know will get me through anything that makes me unhappy
53.An object you can't live without? well besides the obvious food and water, I’d need my friends
54.Love or lust? love
55.Gold or silver? Silver
56.Diamond or pearl? Diamonds
57.Have you ever gone skinny-dipping? nope
58.When is your crush's or bf/gf b-day? November 5th
59.Do you have any piercings? 1 in each year but i’m lazy about wearing earrings
60.What sound are you listening to right now? “i can only imagine”
61.Where would you want to go on your honeymoon? anywhere with the one i love <333
62.What's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex? hair and smile
63.What makes you happy? being with Corey or with the kidney
64.Do u wear contacts or glasses? occasionally
65.What's the best advice you ever got? uhh whatever i decided was the best in the last survey
66.Have you ever gotten an award? a few

In the last 24 hours have you...

67.Cried: not really
68.Bought something: yup, went to the mall today
69.Sang: mhmm
70.Eaten:yup
71.Been kissed: nope...only in dreams
72.Felt stupid: oh yesh lol
73.Wanted to tell someone you loved him or her: yup but i’m afraid to call and wake him since he’s been at band camp 10 hours a day since monday
74.Moved on: haven’t had anything to move on from lol
75.Talked to an ex: i talk to matt pretty often lol
76.Almost gotten ran over by a bus? and there’s another random question...nope
77.Hugged someone: actually, no
78.Fought with your parents: not really
79.Dreamed about someone you can't be with? if you count not being able to be with corey since he’s at camp
80.Laughed at something so funny it hurt? nope
81.Spell your first name backwards: refinnej
82.Worst sickness you have had? physically=tissue got blocked in my kidney, so I had surgery, but it still doesn’t work well so my other kidney has to do a bunch of work instead. mentally=basically freshman year lol, combination of depression and stress/anxiety i guess
83.Funny or scary movies better? depends
84.Hugs or kisses? i could really go for both right now
85.What song seems to reflect you the most? “when i see you smile”
86.If you died tomorrow, who would you leave everything you own to? i’d rather have things divided so that my friends and family could all have something that they’d like to remember me by and i’m not bothering to correct the grammer of that sentence because it’s late
87.Do you have any enemies? a few lol
88.Greatest fear? losing someone i love
89.What time is it now? 12:03 AM (sorry, last time it was a lot earlier lol but i took a lunch break that ended up becoming a mall trip and dinner and a shower and talking online a while before i came back to this)
90.Have you ever been in love? am now <3333333
91.Have you met Santa? lol who hasnt?
92.If ET knocked on your door what would you do? probably scream lol
93.Last time that you talked to the person that you like (or your
partner): monday on the phone for like 60 seconds lol
94.Do you have any pets? nope
95.What's your e-mail addy? hmm lets not post that online either
96.Last time you were depressed: urm...pretty much the majority of freshman year and the first few months of sophomore year...but i’m fine now
97.Are you an alcoholic? nope
98.Who sent this to you? hannah...like...2 months ago and i saved it haha
99.What do you think of this person? she’s kinda my little sister hehe...and despite the fact that she and corey don’t get along well and that makes things a little weird, I love her.
100.Do you want your friends to send this back? if they want lol

Mmmkay, quick update:

I went to the beach (Baldhead Island) with Rachel and her family for a few days. We had a great time! I DROVE A GOLF CART! Twice! And apparently they used to let anyone drive them but now you have to have a license but Rachel and I drove anyway...well, so did Cameron and Collin haha, and they’re 12. So yeah. It was fun though...much easier than a car; it’s more like driving a go cart only there’s a reverse (which I never used because I wouldn’t back out of the parking space for fear of hitting something) and a parking break. So yeah, we took a ferry across from the mainland to the island, which was neat, since I’ve never been on one before. It didn’t even make me sick lol, which was good to know for the band cruise, especially since that’d be much smoother than the ferry anyway. I just felt better knowing, considering how easily I’ve gotten motion sickness the last few months. We stayed in a bed and breakfast. Rachel, her mom, and I roomed together, and the boys took the other room. We walked along the beach, found some shells, went to gift shops, saw two crocodiles and tons of turtles in a lake, went wading at night (about 300 yards into the ocean and it wasn’t even up to our knees, and the water was clear-though we’d kinda forgotten about the crocodiles...but we didn’t see any haha), and other such things. It was really fun. I also got more sleep than I had in a while lol, which felt woooonderful...about 9 hours each of the two nights, plus I slept at least an hour each way in the car. I have a lot of inside jokes to add to my profile when I steal the list from Rachel (yes we did write them down!) I finished Cold Mountain and The Glass Meneagerie, so now all I have left is the very evil The Sound and the Fury and the journal that goes along with it. Today, I had physical therapy, which was tiring ugh evil arm weights. Then Anna, Sarah (Anna’s sister), and I went to the mall...we got some cute tops (I found one to match the skirt I made!) and Anna found some cool shoes. Yay for making this all one paragraph. We almost had a gathering to go see a movie, but not enough people could come so it got canceled. I called Marc’s house to tell his mom to tell him about the gathering and later called to tell his dad to tell his mom not to tell him afterall since it was canceled, and apparently both of them thought I was Anna hahaha even though I said “Hi, this is Jen.” And I miss Corey. A lot. It needs to be Saturday so I can see him-or at least just talk to him, phone, online, whatever, I just want to have some contact with him! So until then I’ll keep myself occupied with the crazy book that makes no sense because it’s from the point of view of a person with a mental disorder that doesn’t allow him to know the difference in the past and present so it skips around all over the place and is really hard to follow. Does anyone know how to write “What characters have you met? What are they doing? What is the setting?” without giving a plot summary since that apparently will make you lose points? Arrrrgh I really hope this isn’t how most of the cirriculum will be...I’m getting nervous about AP English...lots of work. I just checked the Apex website and it says that schedules will be sent out today (Thursday), so I guess they’ll be delivered Saturday for most of us. I want mine. And I want classes with my friends, especially Corey, especially since I might not be able to do anything for the marching band afterall, since Mr. Rowe isn’t sure what he’s doing about using extras, so I’d to be able to see him some other time that in the mornings and at youth first semester. And I think I need to stop ranting because that’s about all I’ve done all night and I have no idea why. Poor Anna has had to listen to me rant all evening. Nothings wrong, nothing bad has happened, and I’m not really in a bad mood...I think I’m just tired and stressing a bit because of the journal and therefore I’m complaining about EVERYTHING lol. So now I’ll shut up and go to bed. Much love and huggles to you all!

I'm supposed to be in bed but I don't feel like it and I'm leaving tomorrow for a few days so I'm updating now! Yay. From where I left off last time:

Sunday night, Corey came over...I think that was the night we watched "My Cousin Vinney" or something like that, because this other movie on TV wouldn't work because the TV is stupid and won't show some channels even though the other TVs in the house do and it's not like my parents have blocked them b/c it drives Dad crazy that he can't watch some of his races. Anyway, so I was very happy to see my Corazy after so long...I swear I spent like every free minute in Atlanta daydreaming.

Monday, I had a doctors appointment (a neurologist appointment) and the other doctors sent records of some stuff but didn't include blood tests so we have to wait for some of them to transfer before I can have more work done and possibly some muscle test thing where they put a lot of needles in you and send electric signals from one to the other and see how long it takes. Lovely. She also brought up the protein issue...and thinks that could actually be causing more of this than I expected, since I figured going 7 years of being a vegitarian with no problems meant that had nothing to do with it. We'll see.

That night, some of the Kidney went bowling...So I got to see people...but Corey wasn't there because of marching band and work, though I did get a phone call from him^^ which was nice. Then Anna and I ran off outside to the warmth because it was cold inside and we sat and talked about a bunch of stuff, including some career discussions...and she made the very good point of me being afraid of a lot of things lately...and I'm not really sure what to do about it, but she's right. After bowling, Corey and I had a 'phone date' to watch Iron Chef and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which we've done every night since as well...It's nice to at least be able to talk to him when we can't see eachother for a while...even if he did fall asleep on the phone one night haha.

Tuesday, I went down to visit the UNC Wilmington campus....which was pretty much what I expected. It was nice, and I liked the things I heard about the dorms, especially the on campus appartments...though those are pretty hard to get. They've got some nice tutoring programs and help areas-like, if you're writing a paper and want to make it better, you can go talk to these people for free and they'll help you edit it for spelling, grammer, and generally make it sound better, as well as give you ideas for it...sounds nice. They're even building a whole huge new building for the Watson School of Education. And I really like that you really have to walk or bike everywhere because all the parking lots are on the outskirts of the campus.

I can't remember what I did Wednesday.

Thursday night, Corey came over^^ and we had another wonderful evening and discovered that I have a Star Wars movie that my parents taped in 1987 on TV so it had all the old commercials and such lol.

Friday, I found out Zach had been in an accident (ugh six car pile up)...he's fine though, as is Carli, who was with him...and there's too many details to go into, but it wasn't his fault. So yeah, that shook me a bit of course...Corey got his license that afternoon...and that night, some kidney members came over for a gathering...much DDR and part of a French movie that Marc brought which was odd and had subtitles...I should be used to subtitles from the Indian movies I've seen, but I got really lost in this one haha.

Tonight, we had a big gathering birthday party at Katie's for her sweet 16. I got to see some people I hadn't seen in quite a while-I don't think I've seen Robin or Jo since last summer, and I hadn't seen Ben since the end of school. Aside from a few things that seemed to mostly go unnoticed, it was fun, with much DDR and talking. And sugar. There were definitly some sugar-high people there I'd have to say.

Tomorrow, I'm leaving for the beach with Rachel, her family, and a kid I used to babysit for (he's a friend of Rachel's brother). We're going to Baldhead Island, and we get to take a ferry across to it and ride around in golf carts because they won't let cars on the island, which I think is pretty cool. I'll be back Tuesday night.

Mkay, enough updating for now...byeeee!

oh boy well apparently it did work the last two times i tried plus the most recent time haha...i'll delete two of them later...too tired now.

Ok well I tried to post this earlier but the site wouldn't work...oh well. I'll finish it another time, too tired now.

Hey again! I've been lazy about updating this since I got home lol...and now I'm completely lost on what happened each day at my aunts but oh well. I'll try.

One night, my cousins two oldest kids, Ellen (9) and Hannah (7) spent the night. I was glad to get some time with them...They're adorable and sweet and I love them. Hannah's so funny though...ultra-impatient...especially when she wants to learn to crochet lol. Anyway, we played Dead Man (which I've only played on the trampoline before, and a very different version...on the trampoline I've always played where you're zombie-like and your eyes are closed and you have to tag another person to be the "dead man" but they play that everyone except one person lies still and can only move their eyes and breathe but nothing else, and another person tries to catch one of them moving...doesn't sound too hard until you realize that the other person can try to make you laugh, and laughing counts against you...and I swear those kids make me crack up; I didn't ever have to "let" them win haha) and they did some crocheting while I worked on my skirt and on the computer...That night, I stayed up til like 3 talking to Corey online lol...which wasn't smart...because the girls were sleeping over in the same room with me. Hannah kicks and moves around a lot, so she slept on the floor, and Ellen and I got the bed. However...Ellen snores, besides the two of us managing to roll into eachother a few times haha, and even on the floor I felt Hannah moving around, because she'd grab my covers every time she moved lol. And then we got up early to go swimming. So...yeah I was a little tired hahaha. It was worth it though-time to talk to Corey and to spend with Ellen and Hannah.

The last night I was there, we had dinner with my cousin and his wife again. We got to see their wedding album, which was reaaaaally cool. It made me crack up to hear the fire engine story though, since I apparently was somehow completely oblivious to it during the wedding...Apparently one of Lindsey's bridesmaids is obsessed with fire engines, and one went by when they were taking pictures during the wedding. It parked down the street, not for a fire or anything though. So the girl went down and asked if they'd come back and be in the pictures. And they did. They paired each bridesmaid with a fireman and took a picture. They've also got a few with the firetruck as the backdrop. There's a really good picture of Lindsey holding onto the rail like she's swinging off, her roses in one hand and her veil flapping in the wind. It's really pretty, and the flowers matched the firetruck's color exactly lol. Apparently the people at the wedding album place know them as "the firetruck people" now hahaha. That amuses me.

The next morning, I got up and got all my stuff repacked and together again...and we actually left even earlier than we planned because my aunt's cell didn't work and she wanted one to communicate with me at the airport, so we went to pick up my cousin Randal's from his house. Then we went to the Marta (train/above ground subway thing that runs through Atlanta) station...and waited. It usually comes every like 10 minutes but apparently that's not true on Sundays lol. And the ride took a little longer than we expected. And then when we got to the airport, we had to pick up my E-ticket and we had to do it through a desk instead of the computer since I don't have the Delta card since it's my dad's. By the time we got to the desk, I had less than an hour before my plane was going to leave. Then there was a family a few people ahead of us that I swear had like at least 30 bags to check in. It was crazy. They have an X-ray machine thing for regular bags too, not just carry ons, so I had to wait for them to put it through and say it was ok (after those 30 bags from the other family) because I didn't want to leave my suitcase unlocked. Then onto security. I got lucky and had a short line to wait in there. I was scared to leave my place in line to do the little shoe-checker thingie that tells you if your shoes will se the security thing off or not, so I just took them off even though they were tennis shoes and therefore are very unlikely to set it off. Then, just as I was about to go through the security metal detector thing, they had me stop because some official guy had to put a card into it and I guess check some things. So that took a few minutes. Then I went through with no problems, went down the escalator, ran into the train thingie that connects you to the terminal, got to the terminal and had to walk down allllllll the way to the other side because I was gate #1, and I was like two gates away when I head them calling my section to board. So I wasn't late or anything, but it sure made me nervous hahaha; I'm used to being there for planes in the waiting area for a good while before the plane even comes in. Oh well. I made it. I called my aunt from the plane before I had to turn my cell off, and she was much relieved to hear that I made the plane because she sounded really freaked too lol.

I've got some more updating to do, but it's going to have to wait a while because I've got a phone date in a few minutes lol. Gnight!

Allo again! It's late and I'm really tired so forgive me if this doesn't flow the best...

I'm having fun at my aunts, working on my skirt a lot in addition to other things. The skirt will maybe be done tomorrow except for the hem, which will take a while since I'm going to do that by hand. I saw my cousin and her kids tuesday. The baby spent the day with my aunt and me while the family went to six flags. Gabby is sooo cute! She loves to help out with anything...We hand her a few forks and tell her to set the table and she'll go throw them up there, hardly able to reach the table lol (shes 1 1/2) and she's even really good about cleaning up toys. She talks a lot for someone her age, but very little of it is understandable, many "gaaaagoo!"s and such, though I SWEAR when she was looking out the window it sounded just like she said "Kitty cat" but there was no cat and I can't imagine her pronouncing that when she only knows a few words and even those are hard to distinguish. Anyway, we met up with the rest of the family for dinner so I got a few minutes to talk with Ellen, but I don't know when I'll get to see her again on this trip...I think she's feeling left out lately since she's the oldest and easiest to care for, so she wants some attention, and she asked me for some help with her crocheting because my aunt never gets a chance to work on it with her when she's here because so are the other three kids and it's practically impossible to do something with one without the others wanting to join in, get frustrated, and go wild. I hope I get some time with her before I go home, but she lives like 45 min away so I don't know how that'll work.

Tonight, my other cousin and his wife came over for dinner...I'd never really been around either of them much (I've actually only met Lindsey three times, one being her wedding and another being tonight) and somehow I never really spent any time with Randal when I was little. I like them both a lot though...Lindsey's a math teacher and so we talked about that for a while and my aunt and Randal told us we were crazy haha. They're so cute together though...They've been married since the beggining of April and they still act like a new couple...teasing eachother about things and sharing inside jokes all the time...It made me smile to watch them, but at the same time it intensified how much I miss Corey.

Not much else to write about...because I don't want to get into the gay marriage voting thing except to say that I'm not happy with the descision that was made but I don't really want to have an argument (or "discussion" with someone against me) about it so I'll leave it at that. I'm exausted and things are really blurry since my eyes don't want to stay open lol...So I'm off to bed to wish that it would be Sunday. I'm having fun here, but I miss the kidney! (i almost wrote "I miss my kidney" but that sounded weird) Gnight!

I've decided that when I write long entries, no one reads them because no one comments hahaha.

I'm writing from my Aunt's house now...and I promise this won't be as long as the last few entries.!

For sake of keeping this in order I have to first talk about doctors appointments lol. Tuesday I had physical therapy and a chiropractor appointment in the morning, and another doctors appointment in the afternoon. That one was kind of weird...He's like a combination doctor. He helps people with certain types of pain medications, regulating doses because a lot of them can have serious side effects and such...but then he also has a degree in psychology, and from what I could tell, he (or at least the other doctors in his office considering the pamphlets in the waiting room) does some work with hypochondriacts (I think I spelled it right maybe?) and people with depression and eating dissorders. I had to go in and talk to him alone for a while before my parents came in, and it was weeeeird. I was already rather paranoid because of the psychology part...which is stupid because I used to want to be one and he was everything I expected and really nice and easy to talk to and everything...but psychology in general makes me nervous. So he asked me about symptoms and did some reflex and strength tests, just like all the other doctors and physical therapists have done...and randomly he'd throw in questions about my life. How I get along with my family, when my curfue is, how many close friends do I have, etc. He asked a few questions about Corey-from "how long have you been together?" to "does he smoke?" lol. He asked about my last major growth spurts and weight changes and things like that and asked if I thought I'd ever had an eating disorder. He asked a few questions about depression, but since that's in the past and I'm happy now and that had absolutely nothing to do with my shoulder and such, I didn't really get into any of it. In the end, he told me that I had absolutely no psychological problems (to which I felt relieved even though it wasn't really suspected that I had one, I was just going for a pain medication evaluation) and that I needed to go see a neurologist, which was next on our list anyway. He doesn't want to put me on any more painkillers unless the pain gets a lot worse because they've got some icky side effects, and considering how half of a dose of some of the other kinds I've tried have made me feel, I'm all for avoiding them lol.

Wednesday I had yet ANOTHER doctors appointment...I was so sick of doctors appointments by then...but this one was an eye doctors appointment, which I needed...and I get a new left lense because now my left eye has astigmatism (sp?), and the strain on it is probably causing my weird vision lately. I don't have to change glasses though; they're just going to get a new left lense and switch it with the old one. I still only have to wear them in class and such though, so it's not a big deal.

Then came the fun part of Wednesday...

I officially owe Steven majorly because, thanks to him, we carried out an awesome evil plan! wOOt! Steven is in Matt's scout troop but he didn't go to camp this year, though Corey and Matt did. Steven called his leader and got names and numbers for a bunch of people and called around until he found someone willing to give us a ride up to the camp. This lady had never met either of us, and she drove us about 2 1/2 hours each way, so we were really greatful. So we went to Matt's troop's campsite first, since Steven knew where it was, and waited for him to come back since he was still at a lesson. We were going to surprise him somehow, but Matt's rather hard to surprise, so we just stood there and let him be baffled as he saw us while he came up the road. Then he ran up and hugged me and swung me around and started laughing...It's been a while since I've seen him look so happy. After the accident, I think he needed some company, and his scout troop has a bunch of annoying kids in it, so I guess we were a nice break. Anyway, we talked with him for a while, gave him some "survival food" (aka smarties-it made me laugh that his mom sent him mints and I brought smarties because the camp food is awful) and then I got impatient and asked if we could go see Corey lol. We were going to just meet up with him at dinner since it would be soon, but we found out that Matt's troop was eating dinner at their campsite because parents had come for visitor's night. He walked us to Corey's camp though, and we planned how to surprise him...We could see that they were having a meeting, facing away from us, and Corey was in the perfect position because he was right at the back of the crowd, towards us...so Matt was going to go around and talk to him as a distraction, I would come up behind him and cover his eyes and shout "guess who?!" and Steven would step out from behind a tree and take a picture. But of course it didn't go that smoothly haha. Dan, a guy in Corey's troop that Matt and I know from band, saw us coming, and Matt tried to make him shush...but either he couldn't see what Matt was doing or thought he was waving or something, so he said something to Corey about how he might recognize some people...so as we were going down the road towards our "positions," Corey turned around and saw us lol. I couldn't see his face-between the distance and my eyes being dialated from earlier lol-but he described his thoughts later as a series of blinks so I guess he was pretty surprised hehe...and I gave him his "Camp Survival Kit" that I'd made...with an odd varriation on the normal idea...Food=smarties, First Aid=Magic Jen Bandaids and Emergency Kisses, Entertainment (which Zach said you'd put in a survival kit? sure why not)=a paper with pictures of Iron Chef, Emeril, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a spatula, and most of the kidney; aka things he'd miss. As a random filler, there were a whole bunch of <3s and 42s all cut out like confetti, along with like 10 googly eyes. Hehehe. Steven and I went with Corey and his troop to eat dinner...where I go tto feel ultra-special because that's the first time Corey's ever introduced me as his girlfriend...Oh boy I got lots of questions before that though hahaha, a kid asked if I was Steven's girlfriend, Steven's sister, Matt's girlfriend (we got an "oooo busted!" when he responded with "not anymore"), Steven and I were both asked if we were Corey's siblings, and some kids in Corey's troop I guess decided to try to make me jelous and ask Corey if I was "Stephanie who you keep talking about?" lol...I think that was it...Anyways, after dinner we walked around for a while...which is when I decided I really hate having muscle problems because I had a hard time going up those hills and it's rediculus...Then we went back and hung out with Matt for a while so that Corey could get changed for a ceremony...and then we all went over to the ceremony place and found Corey. I got to sit with him, but there was no more room after that, so Matt and Steven went off somewhere. The ceremony started with some skits...They had one about Harry Potter going to camp that was pretty cool...and they kept having to consulte their "memory spells" (aka scripts) when they forgot their lines haha. Uncle Vernon told Harry "There's no such thing as scouting!" instead of magic, and Hagrid came and took him to boy scout camp. They had to go through a window to get to the supply store, where they bought a hiking staff the way that Harry found a wand in the books-err, sort of. Then there was a whole 3 Little Bears spin off but then it went back to normal haha. He went to buy an owl...and the owls head was spinning all the way around over and over and it was really odd...and something happened so that the medical crews had to come take the owl away...but as they put it on the streatcher, it rolled off, and the head of the owl went flying hahaha. I take it that part wasn't planned, but it made us all crack up so it worked. The rest of the ceremony, I honestly didn't understand very much...There were some Native American dances, a fire lighting ceremony, and some people shot flaming arrows in the lake. Scouts in different..levels? Areas of scouting? something like that? were honored...Oh somewhere in there, they read a cool poem about the American Flag and we sang a song...And I just have to randomly add in that the scout sitting on the other side of me asked "uhh...why do you keep feeling eachother's hair?" when Corey and I patted eachother on the head hahaha. After the ceremony, Corey walked me back to Matt's campsite so I could find the lady who was going to give me a ride home...and I felt bad because I knew it was going to make him late for some meeting he was supposed to go to, but he said he wanted to walk me back, even after we found Matt who could've showed me the way...but it was really sweet of Corey so I felt special again hehe. As always, the goodbye was tough...I wonder if there's just something about standing outside hugging someone that intensifies the feeling of not wanting to let go...or maybe it was just that that was the 3rd time I'd thought it'd be the last time I'd get to see him until July 18th, so it was the third round of goodbyes within 5 days. Anyway...I had to let go because he had to go off to the meeting...and pretty soon Steven and I left, taking Matt along with us so he could go use the phone or computer or something on the other side of the camp...Then said goodbye to him...and then drove back home. We listened to a book on tape that was insanely detailed and therefore it bothered me even though it had a decent plot...except stupid moments like when this guy tried to kill a dog because it had darted out and startled his wife so that she jumped and got hit by a car. The three of us spent a lot of time laughing and making fun of it though so it was ok lol. We got home around 1 AM on Thursday...which addmitedly made physical therapy rather hard the next day...but it was worth it and a whoooooole lot more because I got to see my Corey :-D and Matt, which made me feel a little better since I hadn't seen him since the accident, and you all know I don't deal well with those kinds of things.

Ugh its 2 AM I'll finish this up quick:

Saw "The Day After Tomorrow" on Friday with a group of people...and 4 of the 5 girls that came ended up riding together, which made the car rides really hillarious lol...Anna's mom took us, so I guess she's used to me being loud by now, but Hannah's mom took us home...and for some reason I'm not usually a loud person around her...I guess Corey and I just don't talk a lot when adults are around, because we're the same way around my parents. Anyway, we were really wild by the time she took us home so I'm wondering if she thought that was weird or not. The movie was pretty good, though odd and not what I was expecting since all I'd been told about it was "a tidal wave hits New York" when it's really about how global warming can lead to a sudden Ice Age lol. That was definitly an interesting night though...Zach had asked Carli out earlier that day, by the end of the movie Hannah and Andy were going out, and another two who shall remain nameless were kissing at the end and no one seems to know what's going on there, or at least I don't hahaha. Oh and Marc's cousin came and he's from France and doesn't speak a lot of English...and I'm a fast talker...and I was the first to hug him, which scared him enough, but when I patted him on the head later, he drew back like he thought I was about to slap him. Marc even said that I scared him the most. It amuses me, of all the people there to be scared of, he's scared of Jen the peace maker that can't even kill a spider lol.

Friday, I went to my Aunts. The security at RDU was really lax that day for some reason, so they let my dad walk me to the gate and everything, which made me feel better lol. The Atlanta policy says no one can come to meet you or take you to a gate though, so I had to find the baggage claim on my own, but for some reason I was more confident about that, even though I had to go downstairs, take a subway-like thing, get off at the right place, get back upstairs, and find the right baggage claim area. Somehow that phases me much less than finding the right gate. Go figure. So I found my aunt and we took Marta and then went to her house and talked a lot...including a long political discussion lol; Anna would've gone crazy...and today we spent a lot of time finding patterns and materials and such because my aunt's going to teach me how to make a skirt for myself and then we're going to work on a hoopskirt and corsett set for Anna :-D

Ok 2:09 so I'm going to bed lol sleeeeeeeeeeep goodnight!

Back for more updating, continuing from where I left off last time:

The next morning, we woke up and took our last hot showers for a while. Anna’s dad called and told us that we’d better be up with our feet on the floor lol. Then we packed up most of our stuff, went downstairs, found Corey, and ate breakfast. I had green tea for the first time...not bad, but there’s like no flavor unless you add a few packs of sugar. Then we went back upstairs, grabbed our stuff, put it in a van (We all got together that time! Yay!) and then met up with the rest of the group. We had a devotion and then communion. I’d never done communion before...and I don’t know that I’d ever seen it done either, so it was interesting. Then back to the vans and then we left!

We got to the Elementary School where we were staying early afternoon. It amused all of us that the town was called Fleming-Neon and a lot of us heard “Flaming-Neon” and it just sounded odd. First announcement made: we had air conditioning! It made me happy, because we weren’t expecting to have air conditioning, so this was like the luxery version of ASP. We moved our stuff in-3 rooms for the girls including the leaders, 2 for the guys, and the guy leaders stayed in the library since there was no space in the other guys’ rooms. It was amazing how small the school was though; just one building, and only 50 kids actually go to the school. We saved space in our room for 4 girls that weren’t supposed to get there until later, but they ended up going in another room anyway, so we had plenty of room in ours; only about 12 people in the classroom. There were showers outside-2 for the guys, 2 for the girls, all made out of wooden posts covered in black plastic. There was only cold water, which we discovered was more like the water left over from a cooler, but at least we had single stalls, instead of community showers where you just use a hose and wear swimsuits like they’ve done in past years.

We met in the cafeteria and the four people that run the center introduced themselves by singing a song to the tune of Avril’s “Skater Boy” which was kinda odd but funny. Then we went up and introduced ourselves by workteams, and we had to say what our names ment. Most were pretty normal, but we had a few funny ones, like this one girl’s whose name means “leader of elves” lol, and Corey’s means “hollow” so he knocked on his head when he said it. We also sang a few songs. It made me crack up when they put the lyrics of “Country Roads” on the overhead, because Anna had been singing it in the van and had gotten it stuck in my head and probably a lot of other people’s heads too. We had to sing “East Kentucky, Lecher County” instead of “West Viginia, mountain mamma” though.

I was really impressed with the food we had...because we’d been told ahead of time that it would be “cafeteria food” which usually makes me think of icky stuff...but it was really good. They even had plenty for us vegitarians. I know at least a few of us gained weight on the trip lol, which is saying something considering we usually just sit around on the computers and such and now actually had to do at least some work, some much more physical than others but still.

That night we also made our “warm fuzzy” bags. We hung them on the wall and used them throughout the week to write notes to eachother and put things like candy in them. I’m going to type out my warm fuzzies sometime on this entry so that I can remember them because some are funny.

One person from each group got to go up to their worksite that night, but since our site was really close (you can see the school from like two houses down from it), my whole group went. However, the family was gone because their daughter’s car overheated and they had to go help her, so we couldn’t go inside...so we went to “support the local economy” by getting icecream instead hehe. Then we went back, and I played cards with people for a while. We had “quiet time” (more like “really loud crazy time where you get ready for bed with one bathroom with two working stalls among 38 girls”) and lights out at 11.

The next day we were woken by the sound of loud music coming from the hallway, so we got up and got ready and went to the morning devotional and gathering and then had breakfast. I swear, I am so spoiled from those breakfasts now...We had grits every day, plus usually toast, french toast one day, and the nonvegitarians had eggs and sausage and bacon and that kind of stuff most of the days. Anyway, after breakfast, it was time for sandwhich making! I had “sandwhich duty” the first two days, along with another person, so we made sandwiches for our group and put them in the cooler while the others got drinks, bags of chips, and gathered supplies for the day.

Since it was “mosey (sp?) Monday,” we were supposed to spend time getting to know the family that lived in the house we were repairing before we really started doing much work. We didn’t spend very much time talking though. The people that lived there were an older-ish couple named Mike and Ruthann. They were pretty nice. Mike was apparently burned really really badly (he said he basically watched his skin melt...ugh) over most of his body a few years back, but you could never tell by looking at him now. Mike’s parents lived next door, and the lady was soooo sweet to us...constantly asking if there was anything she could get us; food, drink, she offered us pickles with lunch and walnuts to take home, all kinds of stuff, and in a poor economic area like that, those little things really mean a lot. She decided my name was “Jenny” lol, and since it was one of the few she could remember, I let her think that. We didn’t see her husband much since he’d fallen and broken a rib a few days before we came. We heard stories about him though, mostly about WWII. Their grandaughter (through a different kid, not Mike), Taylor, lives near them, and she comes up all the time because her best friend lives across the street. She’s a really sweet kid, and it seems like her friend Brittany is too, but we didn’t get much time with Brittany because she was sick. Taylor’s family is going to apply for ASP work too I think, though I’m not sure since they’ve missed the cut off for the summer session, but maybe they can get into one of the year round programs or something. Her dad’s been in jail for a few years, and her mom was in a bad accident where her car was run over with her inside of it, so she’s waiting to have surgery on her knees, so now they’re living mostly off disability coverage. They just moved from another house where they lived without electricity for a few months because they couldn’t pay the electric bill. She and Brittany and I think a few other kids share a box of crayons. Those kinds of things make me really glad I did ASP.

Anyway...we got to work on our project pretty quickly. The bathroom floor apparently had a leak under it for like 20 years almost, so we got to replace it as well as doing some plumbing. I don’t really know what the groups before us did honestly...All I could really tell that had been done was that they pulled up the old flooring, and that doesn’t take two weeks of work to do. They also fixed some of the plumbing, but we had to refix most of it because they didn’t glue it well enough, so there were more leaks and the pipes weren’t secured well or anything. So we started putting reinforcement boards throughout the bathroom floor-which I got to cut a bunch of! With an electric saw! And it was kinda fun! And yes I do still have all 10 fingers because I don’t understand how you can cut your finger off with something like that since it has a guard around all but like two inches of it, which is the part that cuts into the wood, and hopefully you’re smart enough to put your hands on the handles instead of on the wood you’re cutting. Then again, I’ve yet to understand how you can possibly sew through your finger on a sewing machine, but I know people who have done it. Anyway, I cut a bunch of wood while the others screwed it in inside and worked on some plumbing stuff. I don’t really remember what we got done each day, so I’ll just do all the work stuff right in a row and fill in other stuff in a minute. I did some screwing too, but our drills kept running out of power and the batteries take forever to charge, so it was interesting...Mr. White taught us that if you put soap on the screws it makes it a LOT easier, which makes sense but I’d never thought about it before...So Leslie and I could actually get screws in after that; before we’d been putting like all of our weight on top of them and still not having enough pressure lol. We took out some more flooring because for some unknown reason, the past groups had taken one cabinet out to get the rotten wood out from under it, but not the other one, which had very rotten wood under it too, so we took that one out. For some reason, every third 2x4 board was a little lower than the rest, so we had to add a thin piece of board on top of those before we put the OSB (I’m having a mental block on what that stands for and it’s really bothering me, but it’s kinda the same thing as particle board with bigger pieces) down. I didn’t do much cutting on that part because I was afriad I’d mess it up and those were big pieces to mess up. I did cut the vent for the air conditioning though, which I was very proud of, since it was in the middle of the board and they wanted me to use the electric saw for most of it since the jigsaw takes a while to cut, though I had to do the corners with a jigsaw since the electic saw’s blade was too long to cut all the way through the shorter ends. Leslie and I screwed those boards in. We had to use a few separate pieces, so we filled in cracks and indents from the screws with some stuff that I’m not sure what you call it but we reffered to it as “mud.” Then again, we reffered to another thing that was similar to that that we used on the bathtub “mud” also, but they definitly weren’t the same thing. Anyway, we also got to remove the side of the bathtub and replace it, hence it needing the mud for the screws in the sheet rock. I got to paint it! It made me happy hehe; I love painting stuff. And that’s one thing I can actually say I knew how to do before this trip and so when Mrs. Coats asked me if I knew how to use a paint roller I could say yes :-D We put down the new floor too. It was supposed to be linolium, but it ended up being some other type of similar material that I forget what it’s called. In the mountains they call putting down lenolium “putting down a rug” which was interesting and it confused the counselors. I got to help cut that. Apparently it’s easier to cut it while it’s in place rather than measuring, in case you measure wrong and cut the wrong place off or something, but I think it would’ve been easier by measurements. Oh well. I can’t cut in a straight line, I definitly learned that, but it was ok because we put down quarter-rounds along all the edges anyway, so you couldnt see it lol. Mr. White said it was good though, and he said he was glad to have a “tedious female” do it hahaha. Then some people glued it down and we all basically worked on nailing in the quarter rounds, except Kevin got to cut them. I didn’t do much plumbing work, which was fine with me; I’d rather do the carpentry anyway. The only thing I did was on the last day. We had to cut into the wall of the bedroom behind the other bathroom because there was a broken piece of the bathtub. Mr. White couldn’t figure out how to get it out though, because it had a weird hexagon shaped hold in it but it was too big to use a tool on...so he searched for something makeshift with Michael...and I kinda stared at it for a while...and then I proded it...stuck my finger in, and pulled the piece out. Mr. White came back in the room right as I did that, and he just cracked up and said something like “well that works!” Then Michael and I got to put the wall back together and patch it up with more mud stuff...and in the time that we spent together, he gave me a lot of college advice. Go figure, right? His sister goes to Appalachian and she’s on a Teaching Fellows Scholarship...more college talk later, but it just seemed odd to have that conversation...He also told me to not worry about where my friends are going because “friends come and go.” Anyways, by then we were almost done with the week...and I was the only one who had a long sleeve shirt with me that day, so I got to go under the house and help Mr. White with insulation. Unfortunately, it was a really humid day, so my safty goggles fogged up really fast...and so I could kinda see, and I saw a beam of wood ahead of me, but I couldnt see the lip on it, so I ended up hitting my head into it and it made my neck pop a bunch of times. Ouch. It stopped hurting for a while after a few minutes though. Insulation was actually a lot easier than I expected. You just kinda put the sheets of it up there and stick a metal pole thing between two pieces of wood to make it stay. It only took us a few minutes to do all of it. And by then it was almost 6 (dinner time at the center) on the last day and we hadn’t had showers or anything, so we decided it was present time! We’d gone to Walmart the night before to get presents for the family. We got Mike and Ruthann a nice towel set that matched the new flooring and paint we’d put in the bathroom. Ruthann cried when we gave them to her and went around and hugged us all. We gave Mike’s parents a pretty designy watering can (his mom LOVES gardening) and a box of chocolates. She tried to gives us back the candy, saying we should eat it on the way back home tomorrow, but we told her it was for them to enjoy. For Taylor and Brittany, we got them each an art set with markers, crayons, colored pencils, and I think some water colors or something in it, two coloring books each, and some candy. Our church also donated t-shirts to the families so we gave out some of those too.

Ok, non-work ASP stuff...Tuesday we went to “culture night” where we heard folk music about the settling of the area and such that I didn’t pay much attention to lol but the guitarists were really good. One guy had a lefty guitar strung backwards, which greatly amused Rachel and me. There was a group there from Canada that was kind of abnoxious though...I mean, I guess they’d never heard Southern-style music, but they started clapping and slapping their knees...which wouldn’t have been so bad, aside from a little mockery, if they hadn’t been clapping on the wrong beats. They clapped on the on beats instead of the off beats. The guy on stage gave them the most hillarious look and started clapping on the off beats, but instead of taking the hint, they just clapped louder, which I thought was kinda rude. Afterwards, we went out for icecream again, but the line was really long at the place we went before (since like all the ASP people went there) so my group decided to go to Dairy Queen instead, but they were nice and let me go ahead and get out because I saw Anna and Corey and Rachel and I got a ride back with Anna’s group since someone in their group decided to abandon them for another group too haha.

Thursday was our picnic in a state park about an hour away from the center. We climbed on playground equipment lol. I even went up to the top of one of those dome-ish thingies but I held on tight because I don’t like being on tops of things but I didn’t want to be the only one of us just sitting on the ground either. After we ate, we worked on a crossword puzzle lol.

Friday night was really emotional, but not really in a bad way. Well, except at first, during dinner, I started feeling really sick and my neck was throbbing from hitting my head earlier that day, and it was swelling, which I think was the reason it made me feel sick. Mr. White gave me the option of coming back to the worksite for a little while, since he and Mrs. Coats had to go back and the guys wanted to go with him, but he said there wasn’t much to do...and since I didn’t feel good and figured I’d probably just end up in the way, I said I’d stay...I didn’t find out until later that I was the only one of our group to stay, and then I felt bad...but anyway...I took some medicine and didn’t eat much and went to lay down for a while...Then I was smart and got some ice and put it in a bag and iced my neck for a while...and the swelling went down, which made me feel a little better...and then it was time for Evening Gathering, which was really special that night. We sat in a circle with our workgroups-except mine was still gone, so I temporarily joined Corey’s group. We went around and said things about the week that inspired us or talked about any “God moments” we’d had or just anything we felt like saying. I talked about how much people give when they have very little. Then we had communion. After that, my group came back, so I went back to sit with them, and we did a very rushed discussion and then one of the counselors told us that one person from each group could stand up and talk about the week. Some of the stories were amazing...I was trying sooooo hard not to cry, especially when one guy started talking about how, because of the work that was finished by them this week, this lady was allowed to have her kids back in her home. They’d been taken away by social services because of the living conditions, and she was only allowed to see them for two hours a week, and I think now she has them full time again. He started crying as he told us about it...and I think that was when most people started crying too...but I didn’t...I came awfully close but I kept my tounge bit hard because I didn’t want to cry...and I was ok through the other ones for the most part...and then, the last one to go, was my group. Michael was our speaker. He started off by talking about things about each person. He said that he was a very stubborn person and that basically if we don’t do things his way, he doesn’t help. That made me smile a little bit, and then he said something about how I’m the same way, to which I called out “thanks Michael!” and laughed, and then he elaborated about how I’m a perfectionist and therefore we don’t work well together...That’s what I get for going back over some of the stuff he did, like when I resanded something he’d sanded hahaha...so I started laughing and I guess that was my emotional release...because all the sudden I had tears just streaming down my face. Then he went on and talked about everyone else, other little comments that kept me laughing and crying...and he talked about the family...and when he got to Taylor he said “This little girl is 7 going-” and I called out “six” and I’m not even sure why I bothered lol, but he’s like “see! perfectionist! This girl is 7 going-” Leslie and Jessica call out “six!” which he ignores, “-going on 30. I’d try to make little kid jokes with her, and she’d just look at me like I’m stupid.” And the way he said that was absolutely hillarious. Then he started talking about the work that was done, and he said a lot of stuff about getting high off the glue they used for plumbing, which had everyone dying laughing, and he was talking about how it happend to him AND Mr. White, and then he said something like “Well, it wasn’t like we were sitting there just sniffing it...Well, I did once” and the whole cafeteria cracked up yet again. I was laughing and crying soooo hard; it felt really weird.

Later that night, we had a T-shirt auction...the highest selling item was a D.A.R.E shirt that went for $104.50, which Mrs. Coats gave to Michael. The auction raised $920 for ASP, which was reaaaaaally awesome. And I got a neck rub from Corey during it, which made it less stiff so that was nice^^

Saturday morning, we packed up all our stuff and then went to take a picture after doing chores...and I kinda had an argument with Melissa...which I guess we both just decided to ignore later in the day after basically not talking to eachother that morning? Because by the time we were allowed to switch vans after stopping for breakfast (we all got together again, yay!) we acted like nothing had happened. I don’t want to start another year off with things tense between us.

On the ride back, I didn’t pay nearly as much attention to the scenery as I did on the way up...and I got a little car sick for the first time the whole trip, which surprised me because I’ve gotten carsick really easily lately. I think it was kinda in combination of not being sure what was happening with Melissa and dreading the fact that I wouldn’t get to see Corey for at least two weeks.

Then we got a phone call from Matt on Rachel’s cell...Rache looked horrified...and I was like “Oh God there’s been a car accident...” while Anna thought he’d blown up his driveway with fireworks or something since it was the day before the 4th of July. It turns out I was right...but everyone’s fine. His mom’s car, which was to be his within the next few weeks, was totaled though...and if the other driver hadn’t swered, Matt wouldn’t be here anymore...which scared the crap out of me. I swear, people are going to think I’m crazier than before, but even though he’s fine it made me cry. I don’t like car accidents...so I just clung on to Corey (err, as much as you can in a van on a church trip?) and that made me feel better after a while.

When we got back, my parents and I went out for dinner and I talked a LOT hahaha...and then I took a really long hot shower...and then...Corey got to come over afterall! Even though he probably shouldn’t have, but he told me he had all of his stuff for scout camp together, aside from the clothes in the wash that had to go in first, so therefore he couldn’t pack til later anyway...but apparently “togther” is from looking down from the top of his house like an xray, so he had things in a few rooms on top of eachother :-P but you know what, I’m still glad he came over lol. We watched Footloose and hung out and had a great time. Saying goodbye was awful though.

Yesterday, I went to see the fireworks from the golf course with Rachel, and we met up with Zach, his sister Allison, Corey’s sister Hannah, and Megan. Then Rachel and I went back to her house (after a quick Kroger stop for some food and fireworks hehe) and set off the fireworks really quick before it started to rain too hard.

Haven’t done much today...some errands with my parents and such...and some evil planning with Steven! :-D If we can make this work, I’m going to be an ultra-happy Jen hehehehe!

Wow this is 7 1/3 pages...off to send Corey and email and then soon off to bed! Goodnight!

I’m baaaaaaaaaaack! And I need a crazy huge blog entry that I’ll attempt to write without falling asleep!

I just scanned through my past few entries and I’ll try to put down a few things that happened since my last update and when we went to ASP:

I slept over at Anna’s house! We had much fun and watched a chick flick...We would’ve watched two, but we ended up stopping the first one because it was weeeeeeird lol. Something about a girl wanting to make Thanksgiving dinner for her family but there was NO BACKGROUND MUSIC which bugged me, and then there was a scene where she and her boyfriend or husband or whatever he was had sex while discussing the dinner...random shouts of “And gravey! And cranberry sauce!” in an orgasmic voice were creepy. So we watched another movie that I can’t think of the name of, and it was good. Then we got online and talked to people for a while, including planning things with Corey because Anna is wonderful and lets me whine about missing Corey for a few days when she hasn’t seen Marc in ages and agreed to the three of us spending time the next day so I could see him. We planned a cooking gathering...more on that in a minute. Oh and Anna kept trying to force me to eat things lol. I ate a TON of ice cream during the movie, a few grapes, and a chocolate cookie and she’s like “Aren’t you hungry? You need food!” which just cracked me up. Around 4:30, we finally went to bed.

The next morning, Corey called my cell at 10 (as we’d told him to do) to wake us up...and he kept trying to make us stand up because he was afraid if he hung up the phone with us still sitting or lying down we’d just fall back asleep haha. We eventually got up though...Ate breakfast (or I did anyway...Anna the “YOU NEED FOOD” girl didn’t have anything lol :P ) and then went off to the grocery store with Corey. I think the only thing of note that happened there was that Anna danced around in an isle singing “We All Live in a Yellow Submarine” hahaha. Then we went back to Anna’s house and made pizza and chocolate chip cookies, both from scratch. Yummy. I love making pizza because I can put my weird combinations of food on it (ricotta cheese, pineapple, oregano, mushrooms, and regular cheeses, but no tomato sauce). The cookies were good, and I know Corey’s going to think I’m crazy, but I don’t think I have much of a preference between them and slice ‘n bake. They’re both good.

We somehow convinced Corey to come with us to VBS since our other teacher wasn’t going to be there...He said he doesn’t like being around “childrens” but he did really well with them and seemed to enjoy himself...so we got him to come back the next day too! We discovered a container of markers in one of the cabinets, which helped prevent a lot of the usual arguments, so there weren’t too many problems either day. The main thing that comes to mind is the time one little girl decided that a Raspberry marker would make pretty lipstick and drew it over her mouth. I can’t believe it didn’t end up all over her face, but she managed to keep most of it on her lips...luckily we were able to stop the second kid from trying it before she’d gotten very far. I took both of them to the bathroom to get cleaned up...and they were crazy wild the whole time. They kept trying to kiss eachother as we walked towards the bathroom, and I was more worried about them spreading the marker even further than I was about them trying to kiss eachother, since the main purpose seemed to be to get “lipstick” all over the other one’s face. Once we got in the bathroom, they both decided they needed to use the bathroom too, so they went in the stalls...and a few seconds later, one crawled under the doorway into the other ones stall...and that just made them crack up even more...so by the time they came out and I could wipe the marker off their faces, they would hardly stand still. Thank goodness for Crayola washable markers lol; a little water on a paper towel actually took the Raspberry off a lot quicker than I thought it would. The other girls red spot was apparently made by another kind of marker though, since I couldn’t get it off, so I just told her it was gone since she wasn’t paying attention to the mirror, and I figured after a few washings it would dissappear. So then they had to stop by the water fountain on the way back to the class...and they kept trying to gargle the water...They were just crazy hyper. The rest of the classes were pretty good though. I got to cary one girl inside when she didn’t want to leave her mom from the recreation center, but once I’d picked her up she seemed ok. On the last night, the kids had a performance where they sang songs they’d learned throughout the week...and it amused me that they had the lyrics to the song that the 4 year olds sang up on the wall like they did for the other songs...because I think there was one girl in the class that could read more than “Cat” and stuff like that.

Friday, I packed most of the day and went out for a yummy dinner since I was kinda worried about the ASP food. Corey came over that night for what I thought would be the last of our “alone time” we’d have for weeks. I don’t remember what movie we watched...I just remember having to make myself not cry because I didn’t want it to be the last night we could spend together for so long...So I just clung to him for a while and was kinda quiet at first...and then I decided that that’s no way to spend time together...and then I had fun, as always.

Saturday was ASP day! We picked up Corey early in the morning since his mom was gone getting Hannah from camp, and then went to the church. We had to ride with our groups for the first half of the way to the hotel, but we were told that we could switch after lunch, which made me feel a lot better. I knew Leslie from school, since I’ve known her a little bit since 5th grade and she was my lab partner part of this year, and I knew Kevin really vaguely since he’s pretty quiet but I’d had classes with him. I didn’t know Michael at all. Jessica didn’t ride with us at that point since she came a day late from basketball camp, but I didn’t know her at all either. Mr. White was one of my leaders, and I knew him since he was my small group leader when I came as a freshman. My other leader was Mrs. Coats. I know her three daughters...two of which are very nice and are friends with Anna...the other one...She was in Godspell...and we don’t get along well. I was kinda afriad Mrs. Coats would be like her, but she was actually really nice and hard working and everything like that. She and I were the only two in the group that hadn’t been on ASP before, but she’d done AOSP (Apex Outreach Service Project...basically the same as ASP but not so far away and you stay at the church each night and it’s only a one week job, compared to ASP, which lasts 8 weeks but each church only goes one week), so I was definitly the one that had no idea what I was doing lol.

When we stopped for lunch, we waited around for a while since Corey’s van was behind, and then the five (Corey, Melissa, Anna, Rachel, and I) walked over to Subway, which was insanely slow lol. We talked to a group returning from ASP while we waited though. Then we ran back to the vans and ate in the parkinglot and switched rides...Unfortunately, we didn’t get it worked out so that we could all ride in the same van, so Melissa rode with her group while the rest of us rode together.

When we got to the hotel, we found out that the room arrangements were actually really nice...Mrs. Toby had put Melissa, Rachel, and I together already...and she said we could trade people as long as no one’s feelings were hurt in the process...and since we could have up to four people in the room, we just grabbed Anna without having to trade anyone out since we only had three. We had a lot of free time...so we played cards lol. The leaders let Corey stay in our room as long as we kept the door open, so that made me happy. Oh, and there was a freezer in the room with an ice tray in it...and Rachel had brought some trailmix like stuff with dried fruit in it and such...so we made ice cubes with random things inside of them. We put Skittles in a few of them...which was really odd...because we discovered that as the water freezes, the “S”s from the top just float up...so at the top of the ice cube, there was a random “S.” We called a few people from Rachel’s cell just for sake of something to do, and I told everyone I talked to about the ice cubes haha.

Bah my wrists are hurting and my eyes keep closing...which means this will probably be continued in a second entry lol...but I’ll keep going for a little while.

That night, we were given the option of a few resturants to go to...So about 30 of the 70ish (not sure how many people came late; there were 77 total by the next day) people decided to go to Cracker Barrel. I’d never been there before...but the store greatly amused me, and that was good since there were so many of us, as well as another group of about 40, so it took a while to get seated. We were very well fed though lol....I think we all felt like we were about to burst by the time we left...yet we got some candy and things from the store...I got a container of buckeyes that I made everyone eat too since there were a lot...but I couldn’t resist them lol. Mmmm candied peanutbutter coated in milk chocolate, in case you don’t know what they are. Then we went back to the hotel...and found out that Mrs. Toby had gotten a cake and cupcakes since it was two people’s birthday. I didn’t eat any, but I was amused by Corey being very excited about being able to light the candles lol.

I love how I typed most of that last sentence with my eyes closed.

Then we went upstairs and watched a lot of “The Munsters” hehe...They didn’t have the Food Network, which made Corey and Melissa mad...We had “lights out” at 11, so Corey had to leave...and then Anna and I stayed up and whispered for a long time haha wooooooooooot evil plans!

I think I’m going to end there for the night and go to bed and write more tomorrow or whenever else I feel like writing. G’night!