End of fall break :(

Well, I'm sad to say, today is my last day of fall break. :( I got this week off of school, which was really nice. I didn't really do much, except yesterday we drove to a city about 2 hours away from where we live because my mom had to take a test. She's trying to get certified to become a teacher here. While she was taking it, my dad and I walked around the huge mall next to where my mom was testing and walked around for awhile. As you can imagine, my dad was thrilled about going shopping. lol. (he and my brother are both really impatient when my mom or I are shopping for clothes). But there was nothing else to do, so I guess he didn't mind too much. It turned out to be a pretty good day, because I ended up buying some things at the mall, and my mom passed the test! Now she just has two more to take.

I'm back!

Yay! I'm back! At first I created a new account here because I lost my password, but luckily I had it e-mailed back to me, so I can stick with this account. :)
Well, quite a lot has happened. I started school recently. And this is my first year of high school! Well, I was really nervous about starting high school, mostly just because I was afraid I'd get lost. But thankfully, the grades are still pretty much in their own halls like they are in middle school, so my classes are all pretty close together! Now around here, they do something weird. In most school districts, you have A days and B days. You have four of your classes on A days, and then the other 4 on B days. But instead, here we have the same classes every day, but we have 4 of them one semester and then the other 4 next semester. It turned out really weird for me because I got almost all of my core classes this semester, and then next semester all but one of my classes will be electives! So I've been having kind of a lot of homework lately, but I try to just think how easy it's going to be next semester. :)
Well, this semester, I have history, biology, Spanish, and geometry. Next semester I'll have driver's ed/health (driver's ed for half the semester and health the other half), choir, business tech, and English. So far things are going pretty well. History is probably my favorite class. Usually it's my favorite subject. My friend is in that class and my teacher is also very interesting. lol. Biology has been good so far. We had our first test on Friday, and I think I did okay on it. lol. I was kind of worried about Spanish at first because I was afraid I would have trouble learning a foreign language, but I also had my first test in there and it turned out to be really easy! So I'm hoping it will continue to be that way. lol. And then math is the last class of the day. It's been okay so far. It's just that math has never been my best subject, nor have I ever found it interesting. lol. I always end up doing okay though, luckily. :D
Well, it was a pretty fun weekend. Yesterday I went to my friend's house for a pool party (she has a pool in her backyard). It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately I got sunburned like I do 99% of the time I do anything outside in the summer, no matter how much sunscreen I put on. But luckily it's already a lot better than it was last night, so at least it's looking like I'll recover pretty quick. :)

Back from Chicago

Well, I believe I left off with my friend coming to visit. Well, we had lots of fun!! While she was here, we went to the mall, had a birthday party for my dog (lol, he turned 2 on June 24), and we went to the Space Center. It was sad when she left. :( But the next day, we left for Chicago just to visit for a few days, since my brother is home now (he has a job so he that's why he couldn't be here for the whole summer). Well, first, we stopped in Kentucky and saw the Land Between the Lakes and stayed at a hotel in Paducah that night. Then the next day, we drove the rest of the way to Chicago. I had never been to Chicago before, but it was really cool. The first night we were there we went to the Sears Tower. They don't let you go all the way to the top, but you can still go up reeeeally high and see for miles down below. Then the next day we went to the zoo there and that night, we saw the big fireworks show downtown. And then on the last day we went on a boat tour of the Chicago River. We had a lot of fun, but I'm glad to be back home! I've been sooo busy this summer, it actually feels weird to be at home! lol

Summer

Well, not much has been going on so far this summer. I did go on a trip to North Carolina and also went to Florida to visit my grandparents. I'm really excited though because I have a friend who I haven't seen in two years coming to visit! She's getting here tomorrow! I'm sooo excited about it. Well, that's pretty much all I have to say...I know this is a really short post but I just thought I should update seeing how I haven't made an entry for a whole month. :)

Yay! My last week of school is coming up!

Wow, I've been so busy lately, so sorry I haven't posted here in almost two months. Well, I'm sooo excited because this week is my last week of school! Unfortunately, I still have exams to face, but luckily we're doing a lot of reviewing for them. So hopefully they won't be too hard! And this weekend was my dance recital! :) As always, it was a lot of fun! I did four dances this year, one for pointe, one for ballet in just the regular flat shoes, one for tap, and one for jazz. They all went really well. We messed up with our counts on the pointe dance, but luckily the audience had no way of knowing since they didn't know what our counts were supposed to be. lol It was really fun this year because one of my friends came to see me. So yeah, this weekend was really fun. Now I just have one more week of school to get through! lol

Yay! Dakota won!

Well, tonight I watched the Kids Choice Awards on Nickolodeon, mostly because Dakota Fanning was nominated for "Favorite Female Movie Star". And she won! Yay! lol. And although they didn't actually show her on TV, her sister Elle was there too, because I went to dakota-fanning.org to see if they had put up pictures from the awards yet, and discovered that there were pictures of them together! You can see them here: http://www.dakota-fanning.org/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=661
They have both grown up a lot! And Elle's 9th birthday is coming up, on April 9th! So happy early birthday, Elle ( in case I don't post here again until after her b-day, lol)!
Well, currently I'm working on a research paper for language arts. Everyone in my class was supposed to choose a controversial topic to write about, so I'm writing about cloning, and the possibiliy of cloning humans. I haven't really thought about it a lot, but I think I'm against cloning because I don't think it's right for us to be doing the work of God by creating people. Plus, wouldn't it just be plain scary to see a copy of yourself? lol.
Well, not much else is going on, except this week at school will be short! We have Friday off because we always get a day off in April unless we got out of school earlier due to snow. But since it practically NEVER snows here, we always get to keep the free day. lol. I guess it's kind of better that way, because the day that we get off, we have nice and warm weather.

Almost spring break! :)

Well, I'm very excited because tomorrow is my last day of school before spring break! It's always so nice to have a whole week off of school. And hopefully none of my teachers will be mean enough to give us homework over the break. lol
Today, all of the 9th graders went over to the high school for an orientation. Yeah, we're still in middle school right now because the high school is so crowded that there's only room for the 10th-12th graders. But a lot of the teachers at the high school told us about what the classes will be like. Since we're already considered high school students, and it's just that we don't physically go to the high school, I guess the work next year probably won't be much harder than it is this year. But one thing I'm nervous about is trying to get around in that huge building!! There's really not anything to worry about when you're starting middle school, because all of the grades have their own hallways, so it's not too likely that you'll get lost. But it looks like in high school, your classes are all over the school! Hopefully I won't get lost on the first day next year! lol. I'm thinking for my electives, I'll take drama and choir. The only problem with choir is that you have to audition to be in it in high school. My mom says that I would do fine, but I'd still be really nervous! Oh well. I guess as long as the teacher is the only one listening to me sing, it won't be too bad. lol

Sick

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted here. Unfortunately, I'm not at school today because I'm sick. I think it's probably just a cold, so hopefully I'll get over it soon. We were going to go visit my great-aunt and uncle this weekend, but that had to be cancelled. But they still might come here to visit us next week.
Well, this week was really busy! I went to a Taylor Hicks concert, now that he's touring his new album. It was awesome!! I had sooooo much fun. We ended up getting home pretty late, but it was worth it. :)
I also had my pictures taken in my recital costumes for dance this week. My recital isn't until May, but they do the pictures really early. And we were supposed to leave to visit my great-aunt and uncle after school today. I'm really disappointed that we can't go, but hopefully they can come here next week.

Uptown Girls movie review

Well, I thought I might also post a review of Uptown Girls, the movie I watched last night. It was actually my second time seeing it (I saw it for the first time a little over a year ago).

The movie begins with one of the main characters, Molly Gunn, who is the daughter of a rock legend who died when she was young. She feels very alone in the world because of what happened to her parents, but covers it up because her father's inhertiance was left for her, so she lives off of that. She is very immature- she has never had a job even though she's 22, her apartment is a complete mess, and she still is obsessed with guys. However, when Molly's manager steals her inheritance, life isn't going to be so easy for her anymore. She is now forced to do something she's never done before- get a job. She then is hired as a nanny for an 8-year-old girl named Lorraine "Ray" Schleine (played by Dakota Fanning). You couldn't imagine two people more different from each other. Ray is a spoiled, snobby "eight-year-old going on forty". So basically, Molly is childish and immature, and Ray is already acting like an adult. The only music she will listen to is Mozart, and she also takes ballet but refuses to ever do "freestyle" dancing. But we soon see that Ray's mother is always too busy with her job to pay any attention to her, and her father is very ill and is confined to his bed. Like Molly, Ray is painfully alone in the world, only she finds a different way to cover it up. One night, Molly talks to Ray about how they are both going through the same thing, and she also tells Ray what happened when her parents died. Molly explains to Ray how she ran away after her parents died, and wound up in Coney Island, an amusement park in New York where the movie takes place. She went on the teacup ride and she explained to Ray how it felt like she was still on that ride, confused and scared with everything around her all in a blur. This is when Ray and Molly really start to understand each other. A few days later, Molly gets the news that Ray's father has died, and her mother, in a panic, asks Molly if she's seen or heard from Ray, who didn't come home from school that day. Molly immediately figures out where Ray must be and goes to Coney Island. Sure enough, she finds Ray sitting in one of the teacups as the ride is getting ready to start going. Molly climbs into the teacup and they both go on the ride together.
In the end, Ray finally learns to be a child and Molly learns to be an adult, because they both taught each other how to act their age. Molly decides to finally get her life together and moves out of her friend's house where she was staying to get her own apartment. She also goes to Ray's end-of-the-year ballet recital. The movie ends with Ray's solo, where she does a special performance for Molly to one of the songs that Molly's father wrote for her. We see that Ray has finally loosened up, because her solo consists of modern and freestyle-type dance moves.
So I definately recommend this movie. It is has both comedy and drama in it, and has a very enjoyable storyline, although it does get a little sad at the end. Overall, it's a great movie and I'd give it 4.5 out of 5 stars!

Yay! No school today!

Well, since today is President's Day, we have school off! How nice it is to have long weekends like this. :)
Well, today I thought I might write a little bit about one of my favorite actresses, Dakota Fanning. You might know her from the movies I Am Sam, Uptown Girls, The Cat in the Hat, War of the Worlds, Dreamer, Charlotte's Web, etc. Three things gave me the idea to write about her, 1. Dakota turns 13 on February 23, in 4 days, 2. I was watching Uptown Girls last night, a movie that Dakota starred in when she was eight, and 3. My mom made a comment last night about her newest movie, an independent film called Hounddog, which we haven't seen since it's not a movie that's being released in theaters.
Well, the first time I heard about Dakota was when I was at my friend's birthday party and we went to see The Cat in the Hat at the theater. I thought the girl who played Sally was really good and I wondered who she was, so I looked her up and found out that her name was Hannah Dakota Fanning (she has the same first name as me, even though she uses her middle name!) and I had also seen her in her small role in Sweet Home Alabama. At that time, Dakota had a new movie coming out soon, called Man on Fire, although I couldn't see it since it was rated R. But I still watched Dakota's interviews about the movie at that time and I was able to see clips of her in the movie, since she wasn't in the violent parts. I immediately liked her a lot. She was a great actress who could play both silly parts in comedy movies and emotional parts in dramas. And in her interviews, she was always kind, down-to-earth, and very mature. I was so glad to see that seeing how a lot of celebrities are these days. She is also really great with her fans. I read such a great story about a fan that got to meet her and her sister Elle on the set of Charlotte's Web (you can read it here: http://www.elle-fanning.org/sarahstory.php ). I have never met Dakota but I wrote her a fan letter last year and she was kind enough to send me an autographed picture back with a little note (it was personalized too- she wrote "To Hannah" at the top). I also love how she and her sister Elle have such a great relationship, even though they are both actresses. Dakota says that there is no competition between the two of them and that she is just really proud of her sister. And of course, I ended up seeing most of Dakota's movies. I've seen all of them except for Man on Fire, Charlotte's Web, and Taken (which was actually a mini-series that aired on sci-fi). And of course I haven't seen Hounddog, since it's not in theaters, and it is also (apparently) "obscene".
Oh, wow, I'll never forget all of the drama over Hounddog that started in July, when word got out that in Dakota's new movie, she was playing a sexually abused girl in the 1960s who finds a safe haven by listening to the music of Elvis Presley. She was supposedly raped on-screen and also shown naked. I was worried when I first heard about this, but I couldn't imagine that Dakota would ever do an "obscene" movie, or that her parents would let her. On a message board about Dakota, everyone was completely spun up- many people were panicked, slamming Dakota's mother for letting her do the movie, and even saying that Dakota was probably on her way to becoming "the next Lindsay Lohan." Others said that we haven't seen the movie yet, so we can't judge it, and, since we were such loyal fans of Dakota, we should support her and not be so judgemental until we find out more. It turned out, though, that the media was exaggerating to try to start drama, like they always do. I suppose they saw it as a great opportunity to get everyone all spun up, since Dakota is so popular now and has so many fans. According to Dakota, and others who saw the movie, she was raped in one scene, but it was done in a close-up shot of her face so you could only see her facial expressions, and she was also wearing a body suit. Of course, this movie is meant for adults, and I don't plan on seeing it if it ends up making it into theaters, but I am still a fan of Dakota. I'm still going to support her because I, like the other fans, am confident that she would never do anything like what the media was saying. She has always been one of the nicest Hollywood stars and has always had morals. I have faith that she will not end up like Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton. I think that both she and Elle have a very bright future ahead of them. Go Dakota and Elle! And happy birthday to Dakota (it's a little early, but I figured I'd say it now in case I don't have time to post on her birthday)!

Snack Attack lyrics

Well, today was pretty much a normal day, except that Mr. Richardson turned on music today during class. The song "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder was playing, and Mr. Richardson started singing along and dancing to it. But we're pretty used to that stuff happening now. It's Monday, unfortunately (my least favorite day! lol), but at least after this week, we'll get a long weekend since next Monday is Presidents Day. Yay!
Well, I happened to be flipping through my folder today, and I found this weird song we had to sing in choir at the beginning of the year! Although it wasn't really a song, because we just spoke the words in a rhythm. But I'll post the lyrics to "Snack Attack" here, so you can see the bizarre lyrics for yourself. lol

Home from school, feelin' beat. Got to find some food to eat.
Check the fridge, closet too, any food will do.
Chorus: We're havin' a snack (clap) snack (clap) snack attack.
Candy, popcorn, cracker jacks.
A snack (clap) snack (clap) snack attack.
Got to get our bodies back on track.
I don't know if I should. Pizza's looking awfully good.
Pepperoni, cheese on top. Now some soda pop!
Repeat chorus
Try some fritos or doritos. How about a bag of Cheetos?
Home-baked chocolate cake topped off with a shake.
Repeat chorus
Just wolf it down and hit the sack.
Nacho chips, lick your lips. Save room for some double dips.
It's all right to take a bite of everything in sight.
Repeat chorus
One last thing before we go, one thing that we'd like to know:
If junk food's bad as bad can be, why does it taste so good to me?
Repeat chorus

I'm back

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted, but I'm back. Everything at school is going ok. I had a math test today, which Mr. Richardson claimed to be the easiest test he's ever given. Luckily, though, it was pretty easy. In choir, we've started singing this song called "We Can." And this guy who is a student at one of the colleges around here has started coming to observe our class because he wants to be a choir director, and he wants to see what it's like to be one. Yikes. After seeing our class, he'll probably be going back to the university and begging them to let him change his major. lol. My friend and I agreed that observing our class would be more like seeing what it's like to be a zookeeper.

Yay! Tomorrow's finally Friday!

Haha lol, I know that title is kind of random, but I couldn't really think of a different one! But yeah, I am really happy that tomorrow is Friday. :)
Well, school has been going pretty well. But there was another incident in choir on Tuesday (surprise, surprise). I could not believe how disrespectful some of these people acted, but then again, I'd almost believe anything in that class. Well, I've already said that our class is extremely chaotic. There's this group of girls that don't feel like listening and participating in class. They even have tried to get our teacher fired! And the only reason they hate him is because he tells them that they need to participate whenever they're talking, listening to iPods, or writing notes. Well, now they're mad because we sing "boring" songs. True, we're singing a song that repeats the same sentence over and over throughout the whole thing. But the reason that Mr. Sutton won't let us sing better songs is because of how people don't pay attention in class! Well anyway, these girls are obsessed with the song "Lean on Me" and are begging Mr. Sutton to let us sing that. But he said we can't until the class gets through this song and we all start paying attention and participating. Well, apparently that wasn't enough for them, because when Mr. Sutton told us to start singing, those girls started singing Lean on Me instead of the song we were supposed to sing! Then, Mr. Sutton walked over to the girl who was doing it the most and tried to tell her to stop, but the girl kept turning away from him. So finally, Mr. Sutton tapped her shoulder and told her to turn around, and then the girl started whining, "Omg, you hit me!!" And then she stormed out of the classroom even after Mr. Sutton told her to go sit in his office. It was completely ridiculous! Of course Mr. Sutton hadn't hit her; she was just trying to find another way to get him fired. Well, luckily, it looks like the principal didn't believe her, because Mr. Sutton still has his job.
So yeah, that's just one of many of the incidents in choir. I really miss choir last year. It was so much better because people actually sang! For some reason all these girls joined this year even though they weren't in it last year.
But to end on a positive note, I got another recital costume! I'm still waiting for the one they're supposed to exchange. But I got the tap one! It's really interesting. lol And like I said, tomorrow's Friday!! Yay!!!

Back again

Well, I had to return to school again today after a long weekend (we got out for Martin Luther King Day). Today Mr. Richardson did something weird, and completely random!! When we all went into class, he had this paper cutout of a dog's head, and he started walking around the room, and he stopped by some people's desks (including me) and made barking and growling sounds. And of course, everyone was like, "Mr. Richardson, what on Earth are you doing?!" (although, after being in his class for 5 months, not much surprises us anymore. lol). He told us that it was the class pet and that his name was Mathicus. So now Mathicus is up on the board for everyone to see. I have no idea where Mr. Richardson ever got the idea to do that! lol
Well, not much else really happened at school. But tonight, American Idol starts! Whoo! I've been watching that show since season 3, but last season was the best one. My favorite last year was Taylor, who ended up winning! So tonight, they're starting a new season with the auditions, which are really funny, because a lot of people go on there that can't sing. A lot of them know they're bad singers and they just go on there just to be on TV, but it's still really funny. lol
Well, I guess that's it for today. But if Mr. Richardson does something weird tomorrow, I'll be sure to mention it here! lol

Back to school

Well, today was my first day back at school. Luckily, my weird Algebra teacher, Mr. Richardson, wasn't too weird today. I remember the day we returned from fall break, he started yelling, "It's so good to see you all again!!!!!" and jumping around the room!
Then after math, I went to language arts for the first time. Last semester, I had a class called freshman composition, which was just writing, but now I'm just in regular language arts. My teacher's name is Mrs. Gluck (lol, great name, huh?). She was nice, but what was weird was that she looks a lot like my language arts teacher that I had in 6th grade! And luckily, she told us that she doesn't give much homework. And also in that class, she wanted to get to know our names, so we went around the room and told her our name and our favorite animal. I said that my favorite was a dog, but some of the boys gave really weird answers! Josh said that he likes donkeys, and Chris said that he likes cows! As you can tell, the people in that class are really weird. lol
And then after that was choir, which I've had all year. Okay, I could go on and on about that class. You'd just have to see it to believe it. I think that class should go in the book of world records for the most chaotic class in history! It's combined with 7th, 8th, and 9th graders, and there are tons of people in there who don't even like to sing but they just took the class because they had to pick an elective, and they never listen! People are always talking or writing notes during class, even while we're singing! And our teacher, Mr. Sutton, is new and hasn't had experience, so he has a lot of trouble controlling the students. I'm surprised that we ever managed to learn our songs for the Christmas concert last month! And then after choir was PE, but nothing really interesting happened there.
And last, I went to science for the first time (I had history last semester). My teacher is Mrs. Cleveland. She seemed like one of those people who is strict with the people who are bad, but as long as you do your work and don't cause trouble, she'll like you. But unfortunately, my seat is next to this really weird guy named Conner! Oh well, he hasn't bothered me at all so far, so maybe it'll be ok.
And then later, I had dance class. Wednesday nights are when I have regular ballet and then pointe. We got our recital costumes for the ballet! They're white and they're really pretty, but my costume ended up being to small, so I didn't get to bring it home! My teacher is going to see if she can exchange it, which she said she can probably do. So I should have the costume by next week!

My last day of winter break. :(

I'm so sad. :( Today is my last day of winter break, and I have to go back to school tomorrow. Well, at least we got two weeks off. My friends in Virginia I think only got one week.
Well, nothing interesting has really happened today. The only place I went was the dentist, but at least I got good news that I didn't have any cavities! But now, I'm just trying to make this last day of winter break go by slooooooow. lol

My first post

Well, this is my first post in my new blog, and I'm mostly just using it as sort of a journal. But my friends are welcome to look at it! Well, I just wanted to get my blog started, and I hope everyone enjoys it!