So sorry

I know, I know. It's been a while. It's been pointed out to me several times by several different sources. I can't promise anything substantial to make up for my lack of blogging recently, but here's a brief (hopefully) update of what's been going on these past couple of weeks.

First was the MEI Christmas banquet. It was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately I have no pictures to show you. But you can take my word for it - it was an amazing night. The hosts were awesome and hilarious and the entertainment they had was great. The entire evening was amazing, especially when I went with the girls I hang out with to Lindsay's house, where we partied and stayed up all night. :P Just kidding. We had a blast, and we watched Phantom. I fell asleep somewhere in there, and at some point in the night after the movie had ended Lindsay woke up Hailey and me so we could move to our sleeping bags somewhere on the floor. I was comfortable in my position against Gabrielle's lap, but I think she was glad to have me move. Sorry about that, Gabe. In the morning Lindsay's mom attempted to wake us up, but Hailey and Lindsay, as we learned, are very slow to respond in the mornings. We had trouble getting Lindsay up until I jumped on her and shoved her off of the couch she was sleeping on. That was fun. The best thing is she was too sleepy still to really do anything to me. I love it.

Wow. Looking back now, the banquet seems like it was a really long time ago. Anyhoo, I think that's it for that time. Next was........geez, I don't remember. Did anything else exciting happen before Christmas? I don't think so. Hm.

Moving on.

I'm all better now. I'm not sick anymore, and I'm very happy about that. Being sick is not so fun. It's rather dismal, actually. I'm glad to be rid of the evil cold type thing. Bronchitis. That's what it was. Well, it doesn't matter now. It's over. Hooray for me.

We celebrated Christmas as a family on Boxing Day which was a blast as usual. We had a brunch of waffles and then played Settlers of Catan for quite a while before opening presents. What an awesome game. It's so addictive. The day was fun, as just about all times where our family comes together are. Have I mentioned lately that I have an awesome family? No? Allow me to rectify that. I have the most awesomest family on the face of the Earth. Yep. True story.

After that day, I don't think much else happened. I've been on Christmas break from school for the last week and I have another week to go still before I have to return. Good stuff. Last night Chryssie and I went to our cousin's house where Jared and Lisa are house/dog/cat-sitting and played Settlers for a very long time, with a hot tub break somewhere in there. We played until very late....well, I guess it should be very, very early. Oops. Like I said, it's addictive. And, happiness of happiness, I won my very first game! I was so excited. I'm very proud of myself. And again today I won two games in a row against Lisa and Chrystal. I'm so happy.

And I think that's it. That's my past two weeks in a nutshell. Although for some reason I feel like I'm missing something.....hm. What could that be? Oh yes. There is one more somewhat thrilling event that some people might be excited about. What is it? Well, I'm pretty sure that by now everyone on Earth knows. But whatever. Let's say it again.

On Sunday December 24, 2006, my sister Yvonne gave birth to her daughter!!! A baby girl named Kyra Makenzie Gronau. She's so precious. I love her so much. She's so tiny with little wrinkly fingers and feet and she's just so adorable! I'm ecstatic!!! It's so weird, though. Suddenly there's this whole new person in our family. Today Yvonne brought her over again and we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding while Kyra ate for a bit. When Chryssie had to leave (ha!) and give her up, I got to hold her again. It's amazing how much joy I get just from holding her against me, watching her sleep and make her crazy faces. She's such a blessing. And she herself was blessed with some pretty darn awesome parents. If I didn't have such good ones myself I'd be jealous of her. Yvonne and Eric are awesome with her, and Kyra is going to grow to be such an amazing girl under their influence. But for now it's nice just to have her a little baby girl whom everyone can argue over whose turn it is to cuddle her. At one week old she's already growing. People always say that babies grow so fast, but I've never really seen it happen. It's unbelievable. She's still tiny, of course, but I can tell she's grown a bit. She's amazing. I think I've said that. I'm just so happy. A baby! What a Christmas present that was! Congratulations to Eric and Yvonne. May God watch over you and bless your little family. I love you guys!

Where has the time gone?

I swear it was Thursday just yesterday.... And yet here we are, at Thursday again. It's amazing to me how slowly the week seems to go by, but then when I look back I think, "Where has the time gone?". It's strange. Anyhoo, I'll try really hard to make this short. Although I'm sure we all know how successfull that plan will be.....

Last Thursday, the day that feels like it was yesterday, was the B.C. Loewen girls fondue. It was very fun. Almost all of us were able to attend, and we each brought different items for dipping. There was eating, talking, laughing, and all that fun stuff. It was great. Have I mentioned lately that I have the most awesomest family ever? No? Allow me to rectify that. I have the most awesomest family ever. They're the best. Loewen girls rock!

Um....hm. I think that's all that's happened this past week. That's boring. Maybe I should go burn the school down so I have an interesting story to tell. For some reason my friends don't agree with my plan. I don't see why. Flames are so beautiful. Can you imagine how magnificent an entire school of flames would be? I think it would be wonderful.

Um, maybe I lied. That's not all that happened. I got sick. I know, it's not a monumental accomplishment or anything like that. Actually, I wish I had never accomplished this feat in the first place. It's terrible. For the past two days I've my voice has been disappearing and coming back randomly. It's rather annoying. My throat is so clogged that most of the time I have to make a concious effort to breathe. What a blast. It has been at its worst for my Spanish classes yesterday and today. I couldn't talk at all, so whenever we had to call out our marks to the teacher (which happens often), the guy that sits next to me had to say everything for me. I felt bad, but he doesn't seem to mind. It just bugs me that I can't speak. It's getting better now, for today, because I've been drinking the disgusting mixture of hot water, lemon juice, and honey. It's actually not as nasty today as it was yesterday. I think it could become somewhat pleasant if I forced myself to drink it everyday. Which I'll probably need to because I need my voice for Saturday. Lindsay and I are videotaping mock interviews for Planning. Sort of difficult to answer questions on camera without a voice. Somehow I don't think that would get me full marks.

Jeez, I go on forever about stuff. I think if I had to read my blog I would get bored. What do you think? To be honest, I've never read over my blog after writing it. I have had comments saying that my blog is fun to read. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so. Being boring wouldn't be very interesting. Hence the term.

MEI Christmas banquet is tomorrow. I'm excited. They're always so fun. Well, the one I've been to was fun. But according to Chrys they're always fun. My friends and I are all going to Lindsay's house after the banquet for a sleepover. We're gonna watch The Phantom of the Opera, which is the theme of the party. We thought it was fitting. It'll be fun. Any time spent with those four girls is a blast. I love 'em to death. I have the most awesomest friends, too.

I did warn you at the beginning that this would probably be long again. The sad thing is, I think this is one of the shorter posts I've written. Maybe not. I don't really know. Maybe I should stop judging myself so harshly. I haven't had any complaints about the length or mezmerizingness of my blog. Only good comments. That makes me happy. Okay, then.

I'm sure I'll have stuff to talk about after my seemingly busy weekend (things always seem like they're going to be really hectic to me but they usually turn out not so much hectic), so don't expect anything before then. And, I'm not going to make any promises, but I'll see if maybe I'll be able to post pictures of the banquet and stuff. We'll see. I'm doubting it.

So, until later, buh-bye.

Haha, Oops......

Okay, so it turns out we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Langley instead. It's not my fault, though! I didn't know they had put one there, and no one told me otherwise. I figured it out, though, when we arrived and it was a completely different place. I know, I'm so observant. I should become a detective. Anyway.....

Dinner was good. We talked and ate and all that good stuff. The highlight of the entire evening, however, was the hunormous (it's a word, don't mock me) dome shaped stained glass thing that our table happened to be situated under. Normally this wouldn't cause much commotion, we all commented on it's size and beauty and then attempted to ignore it. Unfortunately, this dome was so large it covered three tables. Along with this it carried the voices of three people at another table to the spot where I was sitting.

I'm not kidding. I could hear the older lady (who had a really annoying voice, by the way) and who I'm assuming is her husband, Bruce. It was Bruce's birthday, too. Every time either of them spoke I could hear every word. It was like they were talking right behind my shoulder, but as though they were talking into a microphone. At first it was just plain weird, because no one else could hear them. You can imagine how I looked sitting their complaining about the voices in my head that no one else could hear. I got laughed at a lot, although, as usual, I ended up laughing with everyone. Then, after a while, Yvonne could hear them too. It was hilarious. Whenever they said something Yvonne and I would repeat what they said to Lisa and Chrystal (the others were on the other end of the table and weren't really paying attention to us) and they got so confused. Then they realized why we said those things and we all burst out laughing.

Lisa and Chrystal couldn't hear them, but for about a minute I switched places with Chrys and she finally realized what we were talking about. Bruce laughed a lot, which made Yvonne and me laugh. Then, near the end of dinner he laughed really loud and long, and Chrys and Lisa could even hear him through the dome. We all burst out laughing for the zillionth time that evening and we couldn't stop. We had just eaten, and laughing on a full stomach hurts a lot more than usual. Avoid it if possible.

Mom, Dad, Eric, and Jared all looked at us like we were crazy (which, I'll admit, we usually are) and then Eric started mock-laughing with us, which got us all started up again. It was a very interesting evening. It was disappointing to have Bruce and his family leave. They were a source of great entertainment for my sisters and me. We mocked them a lot. At first we were afraid that maybe they could hear us, too, but we tried talking directly to them and got no reply. It was fun.

When we got home Mom opened up her presents. Eric, Yvonne, Chrys, Tash and I got her a light up snowman that raises his hat. It's an outdoor decoration thing. Very cute. Jared and Lisa got her a picture frame that says "grandkids". It's very pretty. After the opening/assembling of presents, we had cake. That didn't last very long as it was getting late and everyone was tired.

It was a very fun day. I love our family dinners. They're always so much fun. My family is awesome. There is usually much laughter involved when we get together and although lots of it is directed at me, I enjoy it.

Jeepers. Every time I go to write a new post I know what I'm going to talk about, and I never think it's going to take very long to say it. Yet every time I look over my updates they're always so long! I guess I'm just making up for my lack of vigilant posting. Of course, it might also be a habit from English class. When I have to write an essay on something and I don't have enough to write about so I expand on a lot of things...... Well, whatever it is, it's just making this thing even longer. I shall allow you to stop reading now.

The Pretty and the Not So Pretty

On Monday while walking to the library for my spare (yes, I actually go to the library to do my work. Sue me.) it was impossible not to notice the HUMONGOUS Christmas tree in the grade 12 lounge. I'm not over exaggerating this time. It's huge! It's too big for the room, so it's sticking up into the skylight area in the ceiling. It makes the entire room and part of the hallway smell soooo pretty. It's decorated and stuff, too. I love it! The entire school is decorated, it seems. The best part is the Student Services lounge. It's completely decked out in decorations! There're red bows, lattice lights everywhere, and it's absolutely beautiful. I love it. I've said that a lot already. Oh well.

The not-so-pretty part occured today, when I arrived at school to find that the grade 10/11 lounge smelled disgusting. No one's sure what it is. It's not formaldehyde from any dissections, and it's not chicken manure, as some people believe. It faded quite a bit by the end of the day, but it was nasty. And I had to walk through there for half my classes! Yes, that's only two, but half sounds much more dramatic, don't you agree?

Today is my mom's birthday. We're going to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Vancouver for her birthday supper. I'm not too fond of the Spaghetti Factory, but Yvonne said that they have chicken strips. I can deal with that. I'm not much of a pasta person.

Anyhoo, I know you're all devastated that this isn't the 10 page update I usually post, but it's the best I can do for now. Until later, hasta luego!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Everywhere I look now I'm reminded that the Christmas season is upon us. There's snow on the ground, there are decorations in the streets, and the nativity scene is being put up on Clearbrook. For a while now, my mom has had Christmas decorations all around the house, and Christmas music has often been playing. Now, on top of all that, WE HAVE OUR CHRISTMAS TREE!!!! It's amazing! It's so pretty and green and pretty smelling and IT'S SO PRETTY!

We went to a place in.....Langley? today where they sell Christmas trees. $40 for any tree in the field. There were a lot of trees, too. After wandering around for quite some time, my mom and dad and I finally found one that we really liked (well, okay we found a lot that we liked, but we settled on this one) and cut it down. When we got back to the main barn thing where we had to pay for it, one of the guys that works there asked if we wanted him to shake it off for us, so there's no more snow on it. My dad said yes, and the guy put the tree on this weird machine thingy that shook the tree so all the snow fell off! It was very fun. I love Christmas trees. Real ones. My mom was considering just getting a fake one this year, but I'm so glad we didn't. Fake trees don't look as good, and they don't smell pretty, either.

Our tree is now sitting in the garage, for some reason unknown to me. Ask my dad. But we have a tree! I'm so happy! I loved running through the snowy fields searching for one. Okay, fine, I wasn't really searching, I was just running through the field. I like running through the snow, okay? Sue me. Although, that was only when my dad wasn't making me drag the wagon through the snow, between trees, and over stumps. It was rather difficult. The snow made the process a lot harder than it should've been. But it was fun.

And now, my mom is making cinnamon buns! That just about completes the Christmas package! All we need is for the tree to be set up in the living room and decorated, have preents under it, and have Tasha home.

Christmas gives me the warm fuzzies. Warm fuzzies are good.

Hey, my toes have thawed! Yay for that!

Man, Jesus sure knows how to throw a birthday party.