Tipping Isn't Just for Cows (8.30.11)

I had my first test of senior year today. I feel pretty confident about it, but I am never quite sure with the first test. I never know the format or how hard the teacher grades on essay's. After school I came home then went to work. I work at a local frozen yogurt place one night a week for three hours. It doesn't pay much, but it gives me experience I need for future jobs. It started out as a slow night. My mom popped in, the family I babysit came in, one of my friends who also works there came in, and three people that go to my gym came in and they all knew me from the gym. That was kind of funny yet a little embarrassing. The positive thing about knowing everyone who comes in is you get lots of tips. I got $8.26 in tips! I usually barely get $5. It was a very good night.

Same ole Same ole (8.29.11)

Just another boring Monday. I woke up not wanting to get out of my comfy bed. Got ready and went to school. It is still to early in the school year for anything exciting to happen, so I won't bore you with those details. I came home and studied for my first test in AP Psychology. Three days into school and we already have a test? My pregnant teacher must be cramming things in before she pops. The info on the test was just basic terms and early kinds of Psychology. 

On a non-school note, I have been living by George Strait's newest song, Here For a Good Time. It says that you don't know what will happen tomorrow, so you should make the best of today. I know it sounds like such a cliche, but it is a really upbeat fun song and I am a fan of the message.

Lazy Day! (8.28.11)

The first weekend after school starts always seems to be the laziest of the year. I sat at home, cleaned my room, did my homework, and did my nails.

I am super proud of my nails. I used a hot pink Revlon nail polish on all of my fingers except for the middle finger. On that one I put a layer of Sally Hanson's white nail polish and let it dry. After it was dry I drew a black line diagonally down my nail. To do this I used a Sally Hanson nail art pen. After that I painted the top half of the nail pink and added the dots with the nail art pen. I am impressed with how well they turned out. Unfortunately, my right hand did not turn out as successfully as my left.

Hurricane Irene! ahhh! (8.27.11)

I woke up with absolutely no voice and  a "hurricane" outside. The football game combined with a cold caused my throat to go bizerk. The hurricane was just a little rain and wind. It wasn't anything to worry about; my dad and I even went to the grocery store.

Afterwards, my friend Kayla came over and we did some sewing. We sewed her a pencil case and we each sewed ourselves a keychain lanyard type thing. Three hours and a bag of Cheeto Puffs later, Kayla left and I went to babysit Ben and Sophie. The kids watched Soul Surfer, which is an amazing movie, and then went to bed. I finished most of my homework after they went to bed. It was an easy night and Ben was very entertaining as usual.

White Out vs. Sanderson! (8.26.11)

Well there were no snapping bones as some people thought, and it seems that the Panther Creek Catamounts are not the new Green Hope Falcons. We played the Sanderson Spartans and did well, to put it lightly. We weren't going to let little Hurricane Irene stop us from enjoying some quality football.

Prior to the game our school threw a Fan Fest carnival. The carnival included music, games, food, and face painting. I didn't spend very much time there because we got there closer to game time. The theme for the night was white out. I wore head to toe white: baseball cap, leggings, shorts, and t-shirt. I brought a raincoat as well but ended up not needing it. 

Once we secured our seats we waited for the game to start. It seemed like forever, but it was only about an hour. Fifteen minutes before game time the student section did our pre-game "stretch." Our team entered and we went nuts. We were ready to cheer. We received the ball first and our running back ran it in for a touchdown on the first play. The Cats were already doing better than we did the whole first game. The rest of the game went pretty much the same way and we ended up winning 50-0! 

Successful White Out!

Seniors Twenty-Twelve!

Alex, one of our student section leaders, and THE mittens.

Beautiful Sunset Courtesy of Irene!

After the game we went to our post game hot-spot Buffalo Wings n Rings. It's always the best part of football Fridays. We left the game a few minutes early and got the the restaurant in the nick of time. We had ordered eaten and paid before it got too crazy. The players showed up and we got a bit excited. We ended up having the cops called on us because the residents above the restaurant were complaining. Seriously, if you rent an apartment above a bar shouldn't you be expecting noise? After that we decided to leave; we aren't big fans of quiet. Overall it was an amazing night! Next week we have our first conference game against Athens Drive!

SENIOR YEAR BEGINS! (8.25.11)

The first day of school jitters always get to me the eve of the first day and the morning of. Even though I have done this eleven times before I think this year was the worst. I don't know if it was the excitement of being a senior, or the realization that high school is almost over, but all I know is I couldn't sleep and I had terrible butterflies. 

I woke up and began to get ready. I straightened my hair, which I rarely do; then I put on my makeup and got dressed. Now you know the first day of school outfit is extremely important and that was no different this year. I wore a long sleeved plaid boyfriend fit button up shirt (American Eagle) with the sleeves rolled up since it was still 93 degrees. I belted the shirt with a thick brown belt (TJ Maxx) to give my waist more definition. I wore denim shorts (American Eagle) on the bottom and brown sandals (American Eagle.) The outfit worked out well inside the school because it was so cold, but in the afternoon when we were waiting to leave it was brutally hot and too hot to be wearing long sleeves.

After I got ready I ran downstairs to pack my lunch. At my school we have off campus lunch for juniors and seniors, but I am trying to save money so I have decided to bring my lunch at least twice a week. I knew we'd be going to Wendy's the first day, but I packed anyways to make the process easier. I used my bobble lunch box from Target, and I packed a peanut butter sandwich, and brownie, and a mini bag of popcorn. It was plenty of food to sustain me and I only finished the sandwich and didn't touch the brownie.

My lunchbox that I use most of the time. I have a cooler one for special occasions.

I left the house at 6:37 which is super early for me, but I had to get to our senior parade. The senior parade is a tradition at our school where the seniors decorate their cars and drive to school together. We had to meet in the parking lot of a nearby Harris Teeter. We had a Survivor theme, but most people just went with school colors and writing on the car. I wrote "The End is Near... 2012 is Here!" and "PCHS Seniors" on my car. 

After the parade I went to school. It was nothing special. I have all hard classes this year and I think I'm going to die. We went to Wendy's for lunch along with the rest of the school and barely made it back to school. Overall I'm loving senior year, but I don't feel any different than I did last year.

 My brutal schedule.

New Blogging Concept

I have decided to do something new with my blog. I was inspired by the 365 Project and Shay Carl to do a daily blog everyday throughout my senior year. The 365 Project is where you take a picture everyday for a year. I have been doing this since my birthday back in April and am scrapbooking all of the pictures. Shay Carl is a YouTube personality that makes a video of him and his family everyday and posts it. I have been watching them for almost two years now and they are the funniest family ever. So I am going to write a blog every day, but I will write about the previous day to ensure that I get all of the information into the blog. For example, today is August 25 and I wrote a blog about August 24. I will always include the date in the title of the blog. I will also be writing multiple blogs a day on some days if I have an extra blog (such as baking) to write.

Senior Brunch! (August 24, 2011)

Every year my school throws the seniors a Senior Brunch. They do this to allow the seniors to get together before the start of school. We arrived at school at 11 AM and waited in a long long line to check in. After check-in we went into the cafeteria to pick up our senior t-shirts. They are turquoise with a Catamount on the front and the quote "The world's not ending we're just taking over." It's not my favorite quote but it's okay. I also got two unofficial senior shirts that have roman numerals on the back and just say seniors on the front.

After we got the shirts we found a seat then headed to the buffet. They had Subway sandwiches, meatball subs, chicken wings, and Chick-Fil-A nuggets. I chose the nuggets, some watermelon, and some salad. While we ate we filled out a trivia sheet with a bunch of random questions. They also had a "Guess How Many Game" and a raffle. Unfortunately I failed to win anything, but that is okay. I had to leave the brunch early to get back to babysitting, so I missed the information given out at the end. Overall it was a fun experience with free food, so there is no reason to complain.

Friday Night Lights

Tonight, I got to go to my first school related event as a senior. It was our first football game of the season. We played an away, out of conference game at Leesville Road High School. Last season we went 13-2, won our conference, and made it to the state semi finals. This game did is not give us hope that we will be doing that again. I'm not even going to put the score here because it was so bad, but I will tell you that there were fireworks from Leesville, and I mean legit fireworks. They seemed to be very happy with their blowout victory, but we weren't. Even though we didn't win the game it was still fun. As a senior you get to stand in the front where you can see. I was in the front row and when our viking (student section leader) gave up I ended up having to start the cheers which was super stressful. Next week we have our first home game, and I hope the shock of this game will snap our team back into working order.

NC State Tour

Today, my mom and I went to North Carolina State University to take a tour. We got there at 9:30 A.M. for a 10 A.M. appointment. We went to the front desk at the welcome center. They gave us a map, information packet, and a parking pass. We then went into a room where we listened to a forty-five minute presentation about the school and undergraduate programs. After that we drove to Reynolds Coliseum where we waited for our walking tour to start at 11:15. While we were waiting I ran into a friend I knew who is a freshman at State this year. I talked to him for a few minutes and he seemed to really like the school. Once the tour guide showed up we split into two groups and began the tour. We began with a residents hall where we got to see a dorm and how the halls were set up. Next, we headed over to the library, which I think was the coolest part of the school. It was nine stories and it had everything you can imagine. Our tour guide said she would live there if she had the chance. They had a room with giant iPads, video games, and computers. Right next to that room they had an ice cream shop. However, there were places to study quietly as well, but they weren't very interesting. After the library we saw a classroom then headed back to the cars. I really liked NCSU; it came in a close second to UNCW. The more colleges I visit the more excited I get to go to college.

Bald Head Island Weekend

This past weekend my dad and I went to Bald Head Island, North Carolina with some family friends. I was the only one in our whole group of ten people that had never been to the island. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I love the beach, so I wasn't worried.

We left on Thursday afternoon and stopped at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington on our way there. I loved it! This was the third time I had been to the campus, but the first time I had ever walked around and went into building. It definitely jumped to the top of my college list. The idea of living five miles from the beach is just amazing and I would be in heaven. I am so excited to start applying to schools so I can figure out where I'm going.

After we finished at the school we headed to the ferry to ride to the island. The coolest thing about the island is that there are no cars. You get to the island by ferry so you leave your cars in Southport, North Carolina. When you get to the island everyone rides around on golf carts and bikes. The only cars on the island are construction vans and police officers. It is so cool not having to deal with cars or stoplights or gas. We got there pretty late on Thursday, so we couldn't see any of the island.

On Friday, we woke up, ate breakfast, then Mrs. Joy and I went to the boutiques and surf shops on the island. They had a lot of cute stuff, but it was all summery and I didn't want to buy anymore summer things. We went back to the house and got ready to head down to the beach. Since Bald Head is an island there is beach all around. On Friday we went to East Beach. Johnny, Justin, and Jackson took me to see the tide pool when we got there, but it was nothing cool. We got into the water and swam for about four hours. We boogie boarded and body surfed. It was a ton of fun. At about three o'clock, we went to the country club to grab some lunch. That afternoon Mrs. Molly, Ben, and Sophie arrived. We hung out at the house and ate junk food all night. The adults and I went to a bon fire on the beach late that night. There was the cutest golden retriever puppy ever! We didn't stay there for very long.

Saturday started out a lot like Friday, minus the shopping. We went out to South Beach and hung out. The water was super calm and not very good for boogie boarding. We swam for a while and the sky was slowly getting darker and gloomier. Justin and I were trying to help Ben catch some waves when we saw a huge lightning strike. We quickly sent Ben in on the next wave and ran in after him. Mrs. Molly was already freaking out because she saw a dolphin next to us and thought it was a shark. We were totally oblivious to the fact that there were creatures swimming right behind us.

We waited for the storm to pass at the house. When it cleared up Mr. John and my dad took me to see the lighthouse. Old Baldy is apparently the oldest lighthouse on the East Coast. It was very pretty. Right next to it was a little church. Then behind the church we went to see the marsh part of the island. It was so calm and my  dad absolutely loved it.

Later that night we went to a beach party the island was hosting called Howl at the Moon to celebrate the full moon. A lot of the island gathered on East Beach to hang out and eat while we waited for it to get dark. However, as the night went on the moon became the least interesting part of the night. We noticed people gathering a little ways down the beach so we went to check it out. A sea turtle nest had begun to show movement which indicated the turtles hatching. They had little tracks set up for the turtles so they couldn't stray away from the ocean. There didn't seem to be any turtles coming out so we quickly went to the bathroom, and when we came out the turtles had begun their "turtle walk." You couldn't take pictures because any extra light would confuse them, but they were about the size of a silver dollar and they were adorable. They walked so fast toward the ocean it was amazing! The moon did come out and a few people howled. It was very pretty just not as cool as the turtles.

 Our plan was to leave on Sunday and since there was an 80% chance of rain we didn't think we'd get any beach time, but we went down pretty early to try to take advantage of it as much as we could. It ended up being a beautiful day and we didn't leave the island until 5:30 P.M. It was an amazing weekend and I can't wait to go back again.

Kenny Chesney Goin' Coastal

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I can't even explain how excited I was for this concert. Kenny Chesney is my favorite artist ever! If you knew me, you would know that I'm pretty indecisive and I can't choose favorite things very easily, but there is no doubt that Kenny is my favorite. I know every single word to every single one of his songs.

I went to this concert with my friends Kayla and Kara. It was part of Kayla's birthday present from back in April. We drove there with my dad in his truck so we could do some legit tailgating. He made us hotdogs and we had chips and dip. I also made some cookies 'n cream cupcakes since it was a birthday celebration. We went in to the concert and got seats in the middle of the center section, which we later learned was the party section. One of the things I was most impressed by with this concert was that the performances started right on time. Uncle Kracker came on at 7:00 on the dot. He wasn't amazing; I am not a fan of cover songs and that was the main part of his act. After Uncle Kracker, Billy Currington came on. I think I would have enjoyed him much more if I hadn't been so excited for Kenny, but Billy was very entertaining and only did what cover song. I seemed to know all of the songs that Billy sang as well which may have annoyed the people around me because I sing at the top of my lungs at concerts.

Finally after waiting for what seemed like forever Kenny Chesney came on. He started out with two songs from his newest album: Live a Little and Reality. My favorite songs that he performed were Summertime, There Goes My Life, Don't Happen Twice, and She Thinks My Tractors Sexy. However, my favorite song of his is Boys of Fall, and I thought that he wasn't going to do that one. To my pleasant surprise that was his only finale song. I had so much fun at this concert. Kara and I are kind of crazy and Kayla keeps us in line, but at this song she couldn't control us. We figured since everyone around us was drunk, no one would remember if we looked like idiots dancing, so we went all out. This concert was amazing and it will be hard to ever top it. I'm going to see Jason Aldean and Brad Paisley in September, so they have a lot to live up to.

Uncle Kracker

Billy Currington

KENNY CHESNEY!

Super Easy Cookies 'n Cream Cupcakes

I am obsessed with baking and will bake for just about any occasion. I recently baked some cookies 'n cream cupcakes for a concert I was going to. However, I took the easy way out with these cupcakes. I used plain white Duncan Hines cake mix, Harris Teeter brand vanilla icing, and regular Oreos. I lined my cupcake pan with these adorable mini cupcake papers I got at Michael's and preheated the oven to whatever the cake box said. Then I made the cake mix following the directions on the box, and crushed up 6 Oreos in a blender. Next, I poured the crushed Oreos into the cake mix and stirred it until combined. Then I separated the batter into the cupcake papers (about 2/3 full) and baked them for 14 minutes. You do not want to cook them for the suggested 24 cupcake baking time since these are mini.

Now for the icing. I crushed up another 6 Oreos in the same way, but I had to sift them afterwards. If you do not sift the crushed cookies then the larger pieces will get stuck in the icing tip. After I have sifted the cookies, I add them to the icing and stir until combined. I filled my icing bags and used a small icing tip to create the swirl on top of the cupcakes.

My friends and my dads friends all loved these cupcakes and they were super easy to make.