What's Koching in Kansas

Fun in Colorado

2010-03-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

We all had such a great time in Colorado over spring break!! To see the mountians again was so breath taking, Steve said it was such a shame to have taken them for granted when he got to see them everyday. I am so thankful that we got to expirence them with the girls. Syd said she knows she will be mad when she gets her pictures back because they just won't look the same and she dosen't want to forget how they look.

We saw lots of antelope and deer on the way which was really cool. I couldn't believe how many antelope we saw here in one area. Never seen antelope before!!We had great weather. I actually got a little sunburn one day, but also saw lots of snowy mountians and lots of pines which I love. We went to Cave of the Winds one day which was cool but I was a little nervous I might freak out inside being in such a closed in area but I was good!We headed to the Seven Falls next and thought that was awesome. Korin really wanted to walk all the way up to the top so we gave it a try but we were all huffing and puffing half way up so we stopped! It's a good test to see how good of shape your in.

Driving to our hotel Steve was like "No Way"! We hit the breaks, turned around and there was a guy selling pinon nuts. He was really excited and I found out the embarressing way that they have a shell that you need to crack open for the nut! I thought they were really good with the shell on!

We got to our hotel and smelled something wonderful outside so we sniffed our way to this awesome family owned italian resturaunt! We all pigged out, we did that alot!

We also pigged out at this other resturaunt called "La Placita". Not sure if anyone knows about that one! It was very good and brought back lots of fun memories for Steve.

We drove around Brighton MANY times and heard LOTS of stories!! I wish I could have been tape recording all Steve's memories. It was really nice for the girls to hear him(most of his stories anyway, some were a bit questionable!) and see all about his childhood.

It was really cool to see his house and for him to remember so many things. We know his route to school, where he did things he shouldn't have been doing, where he played football, his route during open lunch hour, where he and spencer beat up other boys, where he had his first accident, how big the tree behind the house got, and lots of cool stuff! It was a really nice time

We also went to the Royal Gorge which we all loved, us girls more than Steve, but it was beautiful and scary at the same time.To look over the bridge gave us chills, it is so far down! I didn't look down much. And the shaking of the bridge as cars drove by I could have done without! But what a site just looking straight out.

The girls wanted to try this over the gorge!! Just watching the people in front of us do it made me about cry because it was so scary! I think someday they would love to go back and do it but it will probably be when they are 18 and I can't talk them out of it.

CASA BONITA!! What in expirence. The girls just couldn't figure out what in the world this place was going to be like, but you just have to see it to know.

The Sopapillas(sp) were something that we have got to figure out how to make! yum, yum. We will sure miss them too.

Steve took us to Boulder Canyon and we were able to stop along the way and climb down to the river and just being that close to the mountians was so awesome. We said that was maybe our favorite but we keep changing our minds on that! It was absolutely beautiful and peaceful. The water was so cold but we picked out a few rocks to take home.

We also had really cool, relaxing rooms! We got adjouning suites and I could still smell the "new" smell of the hotel. Each night there was hardly anyone else in the hotel so we got the pool and hot tub mostly to ourselves. It would look better if i would have taken the pictures before we slept!

We sadly had to leave to go back to the exciting state of Kansas and of course there was a snow storm all the way back!

It was a great trip that I hope we can do again before another 3 years passes by!

Pack Rat-literally

2009-09-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

We always thought of the term "pack rat" as a person who keeps everything, but we unfortunately found out the true meaning!

I found the little or I mean big critter while weed wiping our lawn a few days ago. After screaming and running up to the house to hide, i decided to wait for the girls to get home from school to help me get him. I knew we needed to catch him because he was not coming into our house!!!!! Korin decided she was going to be brave and went out with a broom to scare him out of his hiding spot and then smack him when he came out. Well she scared him out, but instead of smacking him, she ran faster then I've even seen her run, whipped and broke the broom, and screamed alot!! Courtney and Syd decided to come help but we were unsuccessful.

We did not catch him that night, but when Steve got home the next day and noticed he had built a nest in Courtneys car and chewed through head light wires, he was determined to get him. And when he did see him under the car hood he decided that maybe he was a little bigger then a field mouse.

We set rat traps under the car(which is now named the ratmobile). The first night nothing except eating our peanut butter and not setting off the trap and making us more mad.

The second night, after Steve leaves of course, Korin decides she wants to check the trap before we went to bed. We were very excited to see him caught!! We were so happy that the rat was dead, but then...

We called Steve to tell him he was caught but not dead. He told us we needed to get a hammer and smash his head, but I knew I could never do that! So he said to get a shovel and stick it between his ears and push down, but I knew i could never do that! He told me to be the adult and kill it! With a little support from my 13 year old daughter, i figured we better do it so he doesn't wiggle himself out of the trap.

So we counted to three and smacked him on the head. It was quite stressful!!!

I didn't trust that this monsterous rat was actually dead so decided to cover him up with something heavy and pray he wouldn't get out and die over night.

I decided to wait for my teammates to get home from school the next day to help me get rid of him. It was still so creepy even though we knew he was certainly dead this time. Korin shoveled him up(I held the bag though!) and we threw him away.

My girls think that I need therapy now. It was definately an expirence we'll never forget and probably have nightmares over.

:(

2009-04-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

Well i havent blogged for awhile so i thought i would. this is a real tragic incident that has recently happened. as some of you may recall in owatonna sydney had a friend named karrisa hilstad and her mom (lisa) was my moms friend. lisa was really really nice to all of us and was happy and lively every time i saw her and we all liked her alot! after we moved we discovered that lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer. it shocked us to hear that and we stayed updated for awhile from my friend alexa whose mom helped out alot with lisa and the kids. we hadnt had much of an update for a long time. until last thursday. i was haveing a really good day after alot of weeks of bad days and i was talking with my new friend brooke who is a softball manager like me when i got a text from alexa. we usually cant text during softball so i didnt answer it right away until practice started and i replyed here is the jist of our convo.
Lexa: :(
Me: whats wrong? (she has alot of guy problems)
Lexa: you remember lisa right?
Me: hilstad?
Lexa: ya
Me: yeah i remember what happened (i kinda had an idea)
Lexa: she passed away last night (april 1, 2009)
i started tearing up a bit and brooke asked what was wrong so i told her and she was shocked. i called mom and told her about it. i was kinda in shock for most of the day cause there were alot of things going on. i went to brookes and went swimming with her but then at night i was laying in my bed thinking that her kids are gunna live the rest of their lives without their mother and karrisa who is 10 or 11 is gunna have to go through all the hard times of growing up without lisa there with her and they are going to have to live with the fact that there mom died and go through all the big moments of their lives without her there to share the memory with them and its just hard to think that shes dead and her kids will have no mom and her husband will have no wife and sence i knew her pretty well its hard to picture her dead and not there anymore.
i was talking to alexa yesterday and we were talking about how we dont think its fair that lisa who was always happy and so nice to everyone had to get breast cancer and die when she takes care of herself and the people around her. she was so full of life and yet she had to die when there are a ton of people in this world who kill themselves everyday because they want to die and dont want to be here anymore. why couldnt god have done this to one of them who wants to die and not to her who is leaving her family and friends and the rest of her life behind? i know i have my moments when i dont treat my mom well and say stuff i dont mean. its times like this when i hear about this stuff happening that i really appreciate my mom cause now travis, bria, and karrisa dont have there mother and she can never come back. i dont know what i would do without my mom nothing would ever be the same. sure they were prepared and knew this eventually was going to happen but im sure it was still a huge shock to them.

My Boring Night

2009-02-06T19:22:00.000-08:00

So tonight Sydney and Korin are haveing sleepovers. yay...but korins isnt here but id rather have hers here and not sudneys cause they get wild and crazy. so i thought id do some blogging. starting with the cut on my chin..i got teased for this ALOT and dad didnt believe me.
I was over at Allisons house to watch the Super Bowl with her. she invited her friend Brenton (moms boss' kid) and her sister megan was there. we were downstaires and sitting on like the L shaped couches and brenton and allison were sitting on one side and me and megan were sitting on the other side. i was in the middle of allison and megan and allison was trying to get brentons phone. she was pulling it towards me and brenton was pulling it the other way and he let go and it hit me right in the chin and cut it. it sounds really wierd but its true.
So now onto a different story. last night it was late and i was really tired and i turned off the heater turned on my CD that puts me to sleep and i went to go pull back my covers and i screamed. on my bed were 3 little real looking spiders. i took them and went to my moms room and threw them at korin and she started laughin so i was fake hitting her then she was real hitting me and i was real hitting her but i thougt this calls for revenge. so i took the three spiders and put one in her viola case, binder, and taped in the corner of her room. she saw the one in her viola case and laughed not screamed but i think she was lieing to me.

Hair Cut

2009-02-03T17:03:00.000-08:00

all the way up
half up half down

all the way down

So for awhile now ive been wanting to get my hair cut and i thought that i would get bangs sence thats coming back in style i guess. i didnt know if i really wanted bangs cause if it looks bad then what am i gunna do? so i asked all my friends what they said and saome said no and some said yes...real helpful... but my friend allison told me and i should cause it will just grow back again and my cousin alonna said it would look really cute and so did my friend emily so i thought okay how bad can it really look. we went to out usual place and had an hour wait so mom went shopping and me and korin went to the book store and earthbound and tried on masks haha... well we had about 5 minutes so we went and waited in the cutting place and i felt sick and like i was gunna faint i was so nervous it was bad! well when i was sitting down in the chair it was worse and i was sweating alot!!

When she first cut them i was like oh my gosh what was i thinking?! and mom and korin said they could tell i didnt like it so i guess im not that good of an actor. ha like i ever thought i was hahahahaha but anyways after she took the plastic thing off and i messed with it a bit it looked better but i still dont know for sure how i feel about it lol but it will prolly grow on me. we were gunna get korins hair done too but we didnt have enough time before we had to get sydney and drop korin off for babysitting but shes gunna a different day!

By the way if you think my chin looks wierd like theres a cut on it your not imagining it its acctually there...ask at your own risk...

Sunday the Day of Rest?

2009-01-27T16:35:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday when me, mom and my sisters got home from church i looked at my phone. i saw that i had a text message from my friend allison. it said are you home from church yet and it was kinda funny cause she sent it at 10:30 which is when our church starts. so i said i am now and she called but i had my phone on silent so she called my house phone. she asked if i wanted to go to manhattan with her and her 17 year old senior sister. there mommy would not be attending and still my mommy said i could go even megan(allisons sister) thought that was pretty amazing but mom likes their family. megan picked me up at around 12:30 an hour after we got home from church but allison was not there cause she wasnt ready.

After we picked up allison we were on the road. megan is going to k-state next year which is in mahattan so we drove around the campus a bit and it looks really cool. we didnt really know our way around town so we got a little lost a couple times. we went to the mall for a while and drove around the town for another while then we stopped at Chipotle and ate the stopped at Cold Stone for amazing ice cream! we had to go back so we could be back in town by seven cause mom wouldnt let me skip cyo to spend quality time with my best friend.

So we got back at seven and they dropped me off at my church. i got there and we talked about upcoming stuff thats happening which i got tricked into working at this carnival thing and sence i AM FOR SURE going to NCYC in kansas city in november with 5 other people in my group outa alot. so i had to give him $90 that was burning a hole in my pocket at american eagle, hollister, and aero all day long. after we talked we did trust exercises...we fell backwards off a chair that was on the table and the other people in our group had to catch us. it was pretty scary i do have to say knowing some people in my group but i acctually did it and it was pretty fun! so i got home sometime after 8:30 and went right to bed!

Sydney's 1st meet

2009-01-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

I had a lot of fun at my first meet! I did floor first and was really nervous but when I got up there it wasn't nerve racking at all. The judge was not hard on you, you just had to memorize your routine and stay insinc with the song. I did vault next. Now I knew that it's not that nerve racking so I was pretty calm. Since I was with group B, I was able to practice on a different vault until it was my turn. I was first to practice in my line, but what I didn't know was the mat was a hard rock! So when I did my hand stand flat back, it made my back sting really bad! Then I did bars. Again I was able to practice before I went on. When I did my dismount, I had too much power so I didn't stick my landing right. But it turned out ok on my performance. Lastly I did beam. When I practiced, I fell off twice which equals a one point deduction. But when I it was my turn I didn't fall off at all!!

It was time to do my awards and I was put into a group with 11 other girls so there were 11 places. I didn't think I would do so well on some of the events but I got 3rd on vault, 2nd on bars, 1st on floor, and 1st on beam. I was really really happy with this. It was a lot of fun! And at last they added up all your points and call it all-around and the first place person gets a globe with a gymnast in it and the rest gets trophies and I got first so I got the globe. We get a goodie bag for coming to the meet and I got a pair of slippers that were way to small so I told Bev and she went to see if they had a bigger pair. But they were out of my size so Bev brought me a pair that will probably fit me when I'm 60! I had a lot of fun and I can't wait until my next meet.

Santa Pictures

2008-12-28T10:51:00.000-08:00

I really didn't want to sit on Santa's lap, but everyone made me.

Mom and Emily started punching each other?

All of the Great Grandchildren.

Ice Skating on the Lake....

2008-12-24T15:42:00.000-08:00

Sydney, Kaydree, Courtney and Korin
Sydney took off her hat and her older sisters raced to put it back on...this is how it turned out!

Korin and Courtney

Sydney was very elegant on ice.

Courtney struck a pose!

Korin was the most adventerous one, although she ended up on the ice the most.

Grandma and Courtney

We rode in the back of Grandpa's truck.

Swedish Christmas Coffee

2008-12-06T08:54:00.000-08:00

A few days ago my friend Allison asked me if i wanted to come to a Swedish Tea Party thing with her Saturday the sixth of December at 9:00 AM. It sounded fun plus i had nothing better to do so i said yeah sure ill go. You had to buy tickets which they already had one and wouldnt let me pay for it...i didnt really know what to expect or what to wear or anything but i ended up wearing black pants, high heels(i dont like them but i didnt trip) and a really cute redish looking shirt. Allison said theyd pick me up at 8:20 which i thought was early but acctually they came to get me and 8:10.. i didnt know where it was at but it just to happens it was at the church really close to my house. its really pretty inside. we had to sit in the church and talk for awhile till the tea thing acctually started and i was kinda pretty nervous about what i would have to eat there cause dad said that they eat raw fish at swedish tea partys.
We sat down and they had a whole program and everything. it was really packed with a ton of people there. you could either have tea, coffee, or water to drink. me and allison stuck with the water. i guess shes been going with her grandma every year sence she was 4 so thatd be 10 years. to eat (in english what the card said) they had swedish cheese, christmas bread, fruit soup, butter cookies, snowball cookies, and something else but i forgot what it was called. it was all good and i liked it alot except the fruit soup and the cheese. They had these people playing the accordian(?) and they were good. They told stories about christmas and a sain whose name i forgot. they had the little girls have white robes with red sashes on and a wreth with candles(fake) on their heads and they went around to everyone and gave us mints.(see picture above).
It was really cute and i liked it alot acctually it was pretty fun! you could have bought food or crafts after the tea party but we didnt. for the rest of the day we are putting up christmas stuff and then i am going to the play THE TAMEING OF THE SHREW (required for a drama grade 100%) (its dumb cause we have to pay but we have to go unless you daont care if you fail). So i might blog about that depending on if i have anything to say about it. :)

Wild Dear Hunt

2008-11-19T18:17:00.000-08:00

So me and mom had a very heart pumping experience tonight. We were drivin to go get sydney from religion and i was textin and mom was talkin to me and drivin and i look up and all of the suden out of no where theres this big buck crossing the street rite in front of us like really rite in front of us.

Mom slammed on the brakes and we went forward and watched the buck and i screamed cuz it scared us both really bad and then we were sad when it was crossin because it was limping so we were like aww its hurt :'( so shes like call dad call dad!! so i did and i told him and he like thats kool! so on the way home we drove on the road and tried to find him in the new added on part to our neighborhood by this big church.

We didnt see him at first but then we saw him running and idk if he was hurt or not cuz he didnt look like it. We were tryin to put the car lights on him and find him and we did lik a couple times when he was walking and he was really big! it was so kool looking for him it was so exciteing and odly amusing i meen we were really amused by out dear hunt it was really kool but sydney was yellin your scareing him half the time but it was still good :)

We were sayin how we wish hed come to our house cuz we would feed him and be his friend and how we shoulda picked him up when he was crossin the street and we could put him in the back and he could chill wit sydney :) it was great! We woulda taken a picture but it was to dark for pictures off the phone.

Church Hide-n-Go Seek?

2008-11-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton So this last Sunday here my CYO group had a fun night thing where we played hide and go seek through out the WHOLE entire church everysingle part of it except outside and the chapel where people pray all the time. At first i was really excited and wanted to go so bad cause it cause the other kids made it sounds acctually really fun but when the day came i was like do i really have to go and my mom is like yes courtney you have to go so i was like fine....so i was gettin ready and stuff and i got there and there were about...15 kids boys and girls.

Firstly we played boys against girls and the boys got to hide first which i wish girls coulda cuz all the lights were off so it was kinda scary looking for them. When it was the girls' turn they decided since im the littlest that they would stick me in this box thing so i was like oh great...it was very uncomfortable sqeezed in a little box and my elbow and side hurt so bad but i was afraid to move cuz i didnt wanna get caught. I ended up being the first one caught because this kid was gunna hide there the first time but was to big.

Then we played where 2 people hid and when you found them you hid with them till there are two people left and they ended up hiding in this little closet thing so i was like haha thats smart lol but it worked out good i guess. After that 2 people were seeking and these girls were like come hide with us so i went with them but they hid in the most obvious place so i hid by myself. I went up these stairs and it must have been newly constructed casue it was just wooden and i thought they would never find me if i hid behind the airvent things so i crawled behind them(not good idea i got saw dusty all over my jeans) and they didnt find me i was the 3rd to last one to get found i woulda been the last but these two kids found a way to hid in the cieling which one of them broke the cieling tile and were all dusty and stuff it was nasty. we hid one last time but they set the seekers out to fast so i didnt even get to hid but yeah.

I am really glad i went and i hope that they have more nights like that because it is really fun and i would go everytime if they had it! oh by the way the picture is my church and we hid in that whole thing but it got cut off a little bit. Acctually alot a bit.

THE BEAST!

2008-10-27T17:06:00.001-07:00

Because we were "good"(i was not korin and sydney)(korin is next to me) when grandpa and grandma came to watch us dad said that he would take us to the best/scariest haunted house is Kansas City....THE BEAST! dad said we could invite a friend so Korin invited Taylor Huff. She gets really scared easily but enjoys the rush and excitement. Mom and Sydney were to chicken to go to the haunted house with us so they went to the mall...those girls...

We were tryin to find the haunted house and we were driving through the "ghetto" with all the "gansters" in the streets and Korin and Taylor commented that they would not like to live in this part of the town and dad pulled over and said we're here. The line was pretty long but it seemed to go faster than it actually did since Korin and Taylor were flirting with the hottest guy there. The werewolf. He was walkin around outside and out of all the people there Korin and Taylor had to be the ones to howl at him. As soon as they did he glared at them and came over and got all up in there faces and was freakin them out really bad and of course i just had to get caught up in them pushin against the gum covered wall...ew. Everytime that werewolf walked past us he looked at us and came up to us and came over the rope and growled at us and put his face rite in Korins. Taylor was sayin that she was sorry and that we are good people.

Then eventually we got inside the creepy house and and we went up the stairs and the first thing we saw was in days description a midget on crack or a little kid. Our arms were linked together(taylor was in the middle) so everywhere we went that dude was flowing us and makein wierd noises and had creepy lookin face and eyes. Since we would scream at all the people and pretty much every creepy thing all the people would follow us and scare us cuz apparently it was funny to them. Everytime a creepy person came taylor would run forward and me and korin would run back so that didnt work out for us so well...it was really scarey and at one point i was hiding behind dad but we were like the last people in our group so i was in the back so the person from one room came at me and a person from the room we were going into ran at me. I was freaking out and running to get away from them and Korin pulled me and i ran into a fountain. My knees and still really really bruised and they hurt really bad like they were going to fall off.

The rooms had really good effects and they looked very real. There was one room that was cool because it was like tilted so we had to grab onto the rail or furniture to get out of it. Korin though she was going crazy because we went in one room and down a dark hallway and went through the same room but it was although it had the same creepy guy. She kept sayin dad ive been here before, i know i have we've been here and dad would say yes Korin i know that i can see. After awhile he shorted it to shut up. I dont think that the people who were in front of us really liked us because we were screamin and may have ran into them a couple of times. Thats probubly why they went a different way.

One room had a chain saw guy without the chain on it and when we walked past him he put the saw at our legs and Korin "almost" peed her pants. Ususaly the creepy people go away sometimes when we go there but this guy didnt. Taylor didnt want to go past the guy. She was sittin on the ground screeming i dont wanna go i dont wanna go when we were pushing her so we had to walk around her because the people were yelling at us (very rudely) to keep going. When we got out and in the car dad was taunting us and told us not to make any eye contact with the people on the streets because we were still in the "ghetto". We had to stop at a stop sign and there were people on the street and Korin freaked out and was screeming(not really) that she made eye contact with the "gangsters" and that they were going to come and get her. It was the best haunted house like ever and i would go there any day! It was really scary though.

THE END

p.s. mom was happy we made it out alive. (even though i was badly injured. thanks to Korin)

Me? Scared?

2008-10-12T10:51:00.001-07:00

Since it is October and Halloween(strangely my favorite holiday) i have been in the mood like i kinda always am to watch scary movies and shows. One night my dad wanted to rent I Am Legend again since sydney was at a birthday sleepover because she doesnt like it. I Am Legend is just as good and intense as it is the first time. Me and Korin decided since we had I Am Legend to freak us out we might as well get other movies.
Korins choice was Disturbia. She first watched it at Mackenzies house and said it was great but ive never seen it before. It is like a really great movie i loved it. It freaked me and Korin (mostly me) out so we turned the lights on. Now that i think of it it wasnt as scary as i thought it was but it was more of an intense suspenseful movie. I screamed but only because the guy came behind this other guy and hit him with a baseball bat and i didnt see the guy so it freaked me out.
Now my choice! I love The Messengers its the best movie! I saw it when it was in the movie theater in Owatonna with some friends of mine. This movie is way scaryer than i thought it was me and Korin didnt even finish it we got to scared so we watched it the next day instead when it was light outside and it wasnt so bad then but i love this movie so much i could watch it over and over again prolly alot of times.
Friday night sydney had her Fun Night at her school and had a sleepover with Sydney Kossow. Korin went over to Taylors house with Madi and she wanted to rent I Am Legend, Disturbia, and The Messengers like we did because her friends hadnt seen them. Me and Mom went to go rent the movies and i was looking for them and i saw Prom Night. I wanted to see it when it was out in theaters but mom wouldnt let me go so i asked if i could rent it and she said yes. So when we came home i put it in and started it and it freaked me out so bad in like the first 5 minutes i almost wet my pants. I got about half way through and already 8 people got killed so i was watching most of it through my fingers but i couldnt watch all of it and I was like i am not gunna be able to sleep and i was scared cause i couldnt swore i shut all the doors before i watched it cause i always do that and Korins door was open so i was scared to go to bed and i had 2 night lights in my room. . .it was pretty good though i was gunna watch it in the light but mom left for sydneys soccer game before i was up(11:45 :]) so she returned it.
Last night Korin went to Alexandras house and sydney was. . .oh she had a sleepover with Lexie and again i was doing nothing so mom and dad rented Cloverfield. It was not what i had thought it was and i almost got sick because it was like the characters were video tapeing it and the were running and fallin and yeah it got me dizzy. Mom thought it was a bad movie, dad didnt say much about if it was good or bad but i thought it was good. Shockingly for a movie where like all the characers die it was pretty funny, well the guy who had the camera was pretty funny that is.

Breaking Dawn

2008-09-25T17:37:00.000-07:00

Well i finally did it. I read a whole book series probubly for the first time in the my life. That I can remember that is. like about 5 minutes ago i finish Breaking Dawn probubly one of the best books ive ever read besides the first book of the series Twilight. I am so glad i read these books because they are the best books ever and i never thought i would say that in my life but i just did so yeah. My favorite book from the series would either be Twilight or Breaking Dawn. In Breaking Dawn alot of the stuff that happened was a major surprise to me. I saw some things comeing but others it was like whoa! I wasnt very fond of how it whent from Bellas view to Jakes but it turned out okay after all. I so cant wait for the movies to come out though i kinda have a hard time pictureing Kristen Stewart playing Bella for some parts but im sure it will be good but not as good as the books thats a given. Im kinda sad that i finished the books cause i meen what am i gunna read now!? I kinda didnt want to finish but i couldnt put it down either. I know for a fact that im for sure going to read the series over again and again and again as many times as i can because they are the best books in the world and i dont know what it would be like if i hadnt read them. I can imagine it lol. I thought i read somewhere that the author was working on a book from before it all started from Edwards perspective but im not sure if thats true but if it is i want to read it. I know that like the perfect christmas/brithday gift for me would be the Twilight movies when they come out that would be like just the best thing ever! Breaking Dawn took the longest time to get done probubly because i really started when skool was starting so i didnt have a whole lot of time to read but it was a long book! I am acctually really shocked that i read four books with that many pages in them so fast i never thought i would be able to do that but i guess if i find a good book its hard to put it down and the Twilight books are the best books i have ever and probubly will ever read in my life!

Birthday Bash...

2008-09-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

Friday the 12th was my bff Taylors birthday party. Me and 10 other girls were all so excited that week cause we knew Taylor had a bunch of stuff planned. We knew must of the stuff but she said her mom had one BIG surprize that she didn't even know. After school that day we all met at the commons and the first thing we saw outside was the awesomest limo ever!! It was white and could hold up to 10 people so it was perfect. We all piled in and drove around town for awhile-Taylor thought it was fun to stick her head out the window and wave at people and let them know it was her b-day. After that we pulled up to our mall for a scavenger hunt. We separated into two groups of five and her mom gave us a list of things to go find + $20 bucks. There was everything on the list from counting the tables in the food court to finding the friendship ring in Earthbound to buying a funky pair of socks. My team lost a point because instead of finding all the stores with a letter Y in it we just use the store directory which wasn't up to date, we won in the end though! It was all fun especially getting stopped by the mall cops twice for mall-walking/running! After that we went to everyones house and got our stuff for the night in the limo. After we ate supper at her house we got all dressed up to go to the homecoming game. It was awesome watching the game in the down pouring rain but better hanging out with all the hot guys from our class. After we got back to her house we got into our pajama and started dancing to Jump on it. The door bell rang and her dad said someone was playing ding dong ditch so we didn't think much more about it. When it rang the second time all ten girls ran outside to try to find our ding dong ditchers. It turns out that it was 3 of the popular hot guys from our grade waiting to surprize us with silly string. Must of us laughed but others were mad that it got tangled in their hair. After that we all went in and did various activites like guitar hero, flash lite tag in the ran at 12:23 am and truth. We ended up staying up until 5:25 am and had a really amazing time. When I got home I fell asleep at 11:30 am and finally woke up around 6:30 pm even though mom and dad tryed rolling me off the couch rudely about 5 times. All I asked for was a little bueaty sleeep but I guess that was to hard for them.

Homecoming 2008

2008-09-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

Fully me before i did my hair and make-up and stuff oh. Even with our heels on me and Chelsea were the same height even though hers were a little tiny bit taller than mine. After we ate we changed because our feet were killing us and we couldn't go all night with them on.
Me and Chelsea after we were done getting ready. I get ready with Chelsea at her dads house before we went out to eat and went to the dance.
Chelsea's mom and stepdad took us to eat at Applebees. Her brother works there but he wasn't last night. Her mom picked us up at her dads around 7ish and we went to Applebees but didnt get our food till like 8.
Me and Charlie at the dance. She went with a guy who asked her the day after i said no so it was kinda wierd lol. Since me and Chelsea didnt get our food till 8 and the dance was 8:30-11 we got there kinda late but we still had to wait in line but not for a long time but we had to do the breath thing lol and it was kinda wierd.
Taylor, me and Allison sitting outside because it was so hot inside and we couldn't stand it anymore. Everyboy was so hot and sweaty like so bad all the guys' hair was just soaked well alot of them and there shirts were all wet like you could see it and even some girls' hair and dresses were wet it was nasty but they were all uperclassmen so we weren't really by them.
Finally me, Allison, Chelsea, Tori, and Kelly after the dance ended waiting for our parents to get us. Me and mom brought Chelsea home after the dance. When I got home I was so tired but I watched a little bit of Pirates of the Caribbean and then went to bed but I didn't want to wake up in the morning. I had so much fun and i got to hang out with alot of my friends. Our football team ended up loseing the homecoming game by one point. Korin went for a birthday party and said it was a close game. The dance was really fun though and im so glad i went but i am glad i went to the movies instead of the game becasue it was pouring rain and besides i woulda and did have more fun at the movies than i would have at the game. By the way Krissy to answer your question to the comment before i did over 1400 texts in like 3 days so I already went over the 1000 I have so i don't currently have my phone for awhile :(

Babysitters. . .

2008-09-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

Last night me and Korin went over to our neighbors down the street who are also from Minnesota and are from Rodgers up by Krissy and Benjy and we babysat their kids. They have a girl named Hannah who is in 2nd grade and boy named Zach who is in 4th grade. We went over there at 6:30 and came back around 9:25. Me and Korin went there for the first time together but we are going to switch off every other Tuesday. I have a feeling they are going to like Korin as a babysister more cause shes more. . .i dont know she plays with the kids more and knows what i say i guess haha i dont know hard to explain but yeah. It wasnt as hard and the time went by soo fast. Zach wanted to watch Wipeout and we werent sure what that was at first but once we started watching it we knew. Its kinda like a game show kinda thing but it was quite obvioous that they watch it ALOT they were like oh he always says that and i like that obsticle the most and stuff like that. After the first episode they took a shower cause there mom said they had to and that they could have ice cream so they had to take a shower to get the ice cream. They watched the last episode and it was almost 9 and Hannah, Korin and I played a game called Go Bananas or something like that but its kinda like slap jack. Then they went to bed and their parents ame home and we got $15 to split between us. We went home and dad had a bunch of work guys over so they were loud and Korin and Sydney slept in the computer room so they could sleep. Maybe with the money i get i can get unlimited textin cause i have to pay for it all myself and I really really need it. Yeah and I had like 30 min to take a shower, do homework(but I didnt have any) and like to have free time because after school we went to the mall and me and Korin went in search of a dress for Homecomeing for me and we had fun because we found alot of ugly ones that we tried on and took pictures and it was fun I had sparkles all over the dressing room floor, in my hair, on my clothes, on my fone just all over the place haha. Homecomeing in Saturday by the way! :)

Switch-a-roo...

2008-08-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

Sydney made a switch-a-roo! I traded my violin in for a claranet this year. In fourth grade band wasn't an option. The day I got it, when I opened the case, I was surprised. It had five parts to put together. When I got home I put it all together and I realized it had so many keys. I haven't brought it to band class yet but from my experiences with violin i know how to play hot cross buns and mary had a little lamb. I'm so excited to take it to band.

Sydney did go to school!

2008-08-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

It was awesome! My teacher is Mrs. Marcozzi

which is the one i wanted. She is really cool and i like her alot. I wish Olivia is in my class but i have Lexi, Jera, and Ashley. My favorite class is Math because it is shorter this year and everyday we do timed tests and we get 5 minutes to do them and i get done in 2 minutes. Its a good thing mom made me practice my times facts. I only have one recess but its 40 minutes long. On the first day we were given a crooked line and we were to turn it into something and i turned it into a girl lost in the woods. When we were done we have to write a story about it i was finished in 3 days. My least favorite thing is schloastic news because they have a whole extra 15 questions that we have to answer plus for 4 questions on the magazine and 4 vocabulary words and we have to get back in the passage and highlight our answer. We have 30 minutes of super silent reading and my teacher says we has SSR everyday unless the building is on fire and if the building is on fire then we take the book with us.

Starting Seventh...

2008-08-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

Since 7th graders didn't have to start school until noon, me and 14 other girls got to go to pizza hut for lunch before school started. It was great since the schools food is like gross. :( It was really fun to get to be with my friends before school actually started. I was mostly nervous about if I was going to be with any of my friends in my classes. It turns out I have friends in all my classes except reading, which only has 6 other students in it-wierd! My first hour is PE-eew-sticky and sweaty for the day. My PE teacher is REALLY scary! Then I have orchestra. Then I have math, me and my friend were really scared that we failed 6th grade math since the teacher was a 6th grade teacher last year. Thankfully she just moved to 7th grade this year. After that I have 4th hour english, my teacher is very pretty...JK she's really scary looking! Then I have Social and then Science. The science room is crawling with wolf spiders-barf!!!!!!!! Next is reading with Mrs.Kay-Higgins, thats the class with 6 kids. Last and least is prime time which the evil teacher askes us questions about the books we read when it should be more like a study hall I think. Although it took me a long time to find my locker and figure out the combo I had a really great first day of 7th grade.

First Day of High School. . .

2008-08-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day of High School. It went way better than i thought it was going to. I though for sure iw as gunna get lost and not have any classes wit my friends and not be able to find anybody. I was happy when it was only the freshmen who went in the morning and got a tour of the school and got to learn more about the school. I am so happy cause i have at least one of my friends in each of my classes i wish i had more...but at least i do have one except in my Spanish class. For first hour i have PE and i am not happy bout that at all and i have Taylor with me in that class, second i have Science and i have Jaclyn with me, third i have Algebra and i have Charlie Ann with me in that one, fourth i have Drama 1 and Chelsea is in that class, fifth i have Desktop Publishing and i have Taylor in that class too, sixth i have Advanced English(class i had to read "They Cage The Animals At Night" for) and Chelsea is in that one also. Last i have Spanish and i have no friends in that class with me. Includeing me there are only 5 freshmen in that class but i have a feeling i am going to stay in this class all year unlike last year cause the teacher is nice and doesnt only talk Spanish to us all the time. I really only couldnt find one of my classes and it was like right behind me almost because there are only two main hallways really where pretty much all the classes are but there are a few sort of like secret passeges to different classes and they are kinda confusing but i like have to go up the stairs then back down then up and down cause i have classes on all floors pretty much right after each other. I am so happy cause in almost all my classes you dont need anything or the teachers keep it in their room so we dont lose it so i dont have to go to my locker all the time cause the halls are so crowded with all the freshman, sophmores, juniors, and seniors that its like hard to move so i dont like that part but i only to go all my classes on monday. On Wednesday and Friday i go to all the odd hours and on Tuesdays and Thursday i go to all the even hours cause on Tuesdays and Thursdays we start at 8:00 rather than 7:35.

Me and Korin at Grandpa and Grandmas

2008-08-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Me and Korin went to Grandpa and Grandmas house from Sunday the 20th to Friday the 25th. Monday the 21st (Sydneys birthday) me Korin and Grandma went to Souix Falls to do some shopping for clothes. We found some really great deals :). This is Korin tryin on a shirt at JC Penny that she was almost going to get but didn't.
This is me trying on a shirt at American Eagle (one of my fav stores). I got this shirt for $15 and it was on sale! :0
This is us back at Grandpa and Grandmas in the shirts we bought both at JC Penny.
These are Korins $80 shoes thats she got at Macy's on sale for $27 for our cousin April Fennerns wedding that comein up weekend.
Grandma got me and Korin these bags at Old Navy. Korin got a shirt there that is the same as her bag. Even though Korin is taller shes not by that much shes just wearing her new shoes.
On Tuesday we all went golfing in the morning. This is Korin, me, and grandpa all squished in the golf cart its gettin to small to hold all of us at once. Grandpa let me drive the golf cart a couple of times....
When we golf me and Korin only do the putting part cause we cant really do the rest.
Korin got mad at this hole because i got closer to the hole than she did. :D
We were going to go to Slaytona to go swimming but a lil kid had an "accident" in the pool so they had to close it so we just went to the park right by the pool. Everyone loves this hampster wheel thing we go on it like every year.

Over the fourth of July Grandpa and Grandmas inner tube got broken *cough cough Benjy cough* so Grandpa and Grandma got a new one! Its so awesome!!
Here we are tryin to hook up the inner tube to the rope so it wont fall off.
Heres me and Korin tubeing! We were pretty much the only ones on the lake that day which was a good thing cause we had the lake all to our selves. Of course there wasn't any waves from other boats but it was pretty wavy without them.
Our church down here in Kansas is asking for donations for stain glass windows and my mom wanted to donate some money for them. Grandpa and Grandma had the idea that we would load there truck up with metal the had by there red shed and aluminum cans and bring them to a place in Marshall to trade them for money. We went there before me, Korin, and grandma went to go and see Mamma Mia(best movie ever!) and we got $61.
Grandpas truck was over flowing with all the stuff we put in the back of the truck. Mom was really happy and surprised when we gave her the money we got for the stain glass windows.

Twilight

2008-07-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who know me know that i dont read much, hardly ever. So last week when me and Korin had our week at grandpa and grandmas house we went shopping in Souix Falls and we had never been to a Barnes and Nobles store before so grandma took us there. My mom said that if we find a book we wanted we could get it. Korin picked out a book called "Id Tell You I Loved You But Then I'd Have To Kill You" and liked it. I on the other hand had a hard time chosin a book i wanted shocker i kno i had to many options. I found a book series that look interesting it was called "Vampire Kisses" well the series was and i showed grandma and she said that if i liked books like that (which i do) then i should read the twilight series which my aunt Krissy had said was an awesome series to read but it didnt sound good to me (i was wrong) so my grandma showed me them and i thought sure why not give them a try and Korin wanted to read them when i was done so i said she could. So i got twilight but i couldnt start readin it yet because i had to finish the book i was reading("That Summer" by Sarah Dessen) first then.....i had to start and finish my 291 page book i had to read for school called "They Cage The Animals At Night" by Jennings Michael Burch and i was mad that i had to read a book over summer for school but i could not put this book down no matter how hard i tryed it was just to good. It was sad and its a true story and just way to good i read it in 2 days at the least! So finally i was done with both those books and by then i didnt have a whole lot of time to read so i was home before i started reading "Twilight". We got home Sunday night and i had started readin it in the car on the way home but couldnt concentrate because everyone kept talking i meen really the only time i need it to be quiet everyone decideds to talk....but i was good right away. My mom was in shock the next day when all i did was lay on the couch all day and read my book i didnt watch T.V. or go on the computer till night time she says shes never seen me so interested in a book before and its true! i read most of the book on Monday. That night my mom went to bed at 10:45 and i decided i was going to my bedroom and read till i got tired so i read from then to 12:55 cause one i wasnt tired and the book was just gettin way to good and suspenful and i couldnt sleep without knowin what was going to happen but then i remember i had my school enrolment and i had to wake up early the next morning so i somehow found a stopping point and went to bed and i wanted to know what was goin to happen thats probubly why it took me so long to go to sleep ad right away in the mornin when i woke up i started readin again and by this time i didnt have much left so i was decideing if i wanted to keep readin or try and make the book last longer because i didnt have the second one and i decided to go that way but it was harder than my computer withdrowls when i get grounded but i couldnt wait any longer so with my money from my grades i decided to go and buy the sencond book and i finished "Twilight" and am started on "New Moon" but im not that far yet cause i couldnt start it right away but i think its going to be done soon then i can get the third and the fourth book that comes out Friday :D! So Krissy looks like you were right this book series is awesome! and thanks grandma for telling me i should get the book! BTW i sounded like korin talking bout books today it was scary!

We Finally Have Our Grass/Weeds

2008-07-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

This is our front yard landscaping. Since we are rookies at this it took us awhile to get all our bricks even and straight to dads likeing, mom is excited cause she has two little Charlie Brown trees to decorate for Christmas.
Me and Korin had so much "fun" carrying all the bricks from the truck to mom and dad, sydney was on water duty...lucky!
We are just praying that all our plants stay alive through the constant heat of Kansas.
Furtunatly this was the last of our landscaping and it is right outside of Korins bedroom so if she ever tries to escape..knowing her she would run into that little tree! :P We are just happy that our landscaping is done(for this year.UGH!) and looks really cool!

Sydney turns 10!

2008-07-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

Sydney had a lot of fun with some friends at an awesome waterpark but I forgot our camera and sunscreen-ask Steve about that! After we had pizza and a brownie ice cream cake topped with M&M's and fudge-yummy!! Her favorite is brownies.
We gave her this dress so she would have something fun to wear to an upcoming wedding. She is usually not a dress girl but saw this in a store and said she would actully wear it so I thought I better take her up on that. She recieved lots of CASH for her birthday and had a BLAST spending it! When I get cash it takes me a long time to decide what I want to spend it on but not Syd. She had it all spent in hours! She's a kid that knows what she wants. The antique blood that she got from Grandpa Koch came out, we spent over a hour in an antique store and this was our third visit. She picked up an old manual typewriter that she thinks is just the coolest thing! Who would have thought! But her favorite thing was the snowcone maker from target, I think she made 100 of them this week.
We have fish again, this time it's gold fish. She was pretty excited about this and if it pushes off the urge to get a puppy I'm all for it!

Pretty gross! Syd gave her friends some glow in the dark goo at the party and they had so much fun with this stuff. It ended up being goo mixed with dirt and hair and whatever else was on our floors but they still loved it!

Festivities at the Franks...

2008-07-05T18:40:00.001-07:00

Do you think that we ever have enough to eat out at Mom and Dad's House?
Here is a picture of me with my Mom and Dad.
Enjoying a bean bag game with cousins.
Janice and Brooklyn. What a cutie, and Brooklyn is too. ;-)
From Left to Right: Fatty, Bean, Dad, Me, Mom, Norie and Vickie. We had a beautiful day, great activities and awesome fireworks! We always look forward to spending the 4th at the Frank Farm!

Festivities on the 4th of July

2008-07-04T09:46:00.000-07:00

Sydney getting ready to celebrate the 4th.
Korin and I made a cake for Grandma Koch for her Birthday.
This is our finished masterpiece.

This is a picture of Korin in her 4th of July decorations. We are celebrating Grandma's Koch's Birthday and then we are going to the Franks for BBQ Chicken and Fireworks. It is a beautiful day!