A decent week...

So far a decent week Since I'm homeschooled, I'm doing a little bit of school. Just English. UGH! I hate paraphrasing poetry!

I watched the Polar Express today. It's sort of a tradition for me since I got it three years ago to watch it on the 29th. It's my parents anniversary and since they don't like the movie, they let me watch it while they go out and celebrate. I'm satisfied with the arrangement! :)

We've put together 4 small jigsaw puzzles since Christmas. What fun!

My friends left for GYC today. I decided not to go. Fortunately, Austin and Jimmy should be a church on Sabbath, so I won't be totally friendless!

More later.....

Post-Christmas

Well, Christmas is over. A new year is in sight. The snow on the ground is slowly melting. *SIGH* I'll miss the snow! :)

On Sunday Brandon and Austin came over. Brandon attempted to race NFS: Shift, but he wrecked my car.

It's been pretty cold this week. We have another chance of snow tomorrow. If we get some, it won't be much.

Winter Snow Storm 2009

Well, we have a white Christmas! WOOHOO! This is the first white Christmas I can remember ever having! I decided that I wanted to share some pictures with ya'll! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
The first two are during the storm on the 24th.

Now for the pics of today.

BTW, that is a neighbor's dog, not ours!

Altogether, we got about 6-7 inches of snow! :)

A Brief Essay on the Making of Christmas Cookies

I had to write a brief essay for English class, so I decided to share it with ya'll.

A Brief Essay on the Makings of Christmas Cookies J

In our house we have a rather nice little Christmas tradition. Every year Mom and I make Christmas cookies! J Probably not the healthiest, I know. But that’s what makes them delicious!

The first step in making Christmas cookies is a rather obvious one. Buy the dough! I guess you could make your own dough, but we don’t really want to take the time or buy the ingredients to do so. Among the different brands, we chose Pillsbury® brand this year. Personally, as long as the end product tastes good, I don’t care what brand we get!

The next step is shaping the dough into cookies. For this we use cookie cutters. I suppose it is possible to shape a cookie without cutters, but it’s much easier to do it with them. The cutters we have are shaped like stars, trees, snowmen, angels, reindeer, Santa, holly leaf, and some others.

After they’re cut out, stick ‘em in the oven! A rather funny thing happened this year. When they were baked, the cookies swelled so much they almost lost all their shapes! Wonder what caused that….

After baking and letting the cookies cool for a little while, the fun part comes ~ decorating! With store-bought frosting and sprinkles, we have lots of fun creating one-of-a-kind cookies. White and green frosting, red, white and green sprinkles, little mints and chocolate chips, all find there proper place on the cookies. Mom usually makes hers nice and pretty, while I just usually try to cover them with enough stuff to make them as sweet as possible!

Now comes the most fun part! Eating them! Tasty, tasty, tasty! I feel that I could eat the whole batch by myself, but then I would really be sick! Thank goodness we have them once a year! Well, I think I’ll go and have myself a cookie now!

Pretty good day.....

Today I went over to my friend Sam's house for some fun activities. Mostly outdoor stuff. It was quite fun.

On Sunday we went to Norman. I drove. On the way there I was having a little trouble concentrating on the road ahead. For some reason I didn't have that problem on the way back.

When we got back I raced. I made it to the NFS World Tour. WOOHOO! It's a lot of fun. I didn't take any pics this week....

Well......

.......I wrote my first check today! I know, not really much of an event. What a dull life! It was to Groundspeak, Inc. For those of you who don't know what it is, that is the company the runs Geocaching.com.

A couple of friends came over for a few minutes this morning. We rode around on our caster-boards for the whole time. Lots of fun, those boards.........

Hoping to go to Norman again today. I absolutely love driving! I'm getting more confident every time I drive. I just don't want to get overconfident!

Also, I'm one star (a.k.a. point) away from the NFS World Tour in Need for Speed: Shift! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!

YES!

Just got Dad's laptop set up with a wireless network! We're all excited. The only thing is that our main computer seem to have slowed down. Bummer! :(

I just hope this all it was was the website I was on. It's been known in the past for being slow. Everything else seems to be fine......

My Week So Far....

Well, this week I've had ample opportunity to practice driving. On Monday, we went to Ardmore for a couple of doctor's appts. Driving there, I got stuck with a semi trying to pass me. The only problem was that he would try to pass going uphill! So we traveled side-by-side for about 5 miles going about 70mph! Eventually, he gave up and dropped back behind me.

On Tuesday we went to Norman again. That was fun! I rather enjoy driving in the city, but I still have the tendency to turn a little too wide. No fender-benders or side-swipes, thankfully! It was dark by the time we started for home. I really enjoy driving at night. Not really sure why. I just do.

School is going good. Last week I finished another subject for the year, so now I just have four left ~ English, U.S. Economics, Computer Literacy and Spanish.

Violin is going great. I've been able to play the Bach Double all the way through, at a slower-than-normal tempo. I'm gradually working up to speed, though.

Last Sunday I did some racing. When I first started, I did an online team race. I was up against a couple of Italians, which was pretty cool. My team won. :)

Here are a couple of pics I took:

In the top picture, I'm in the Aston Martin DB9 in the foreground. I eventually went on to win that race. In the bottom picture, that is the McLaren F1 that I was driving. It was on loan to me. I didn't win that race.

Well, I better get going.

TTYL

Update

I haven't been as faithful in posting as I would like to be, so I have a little catching up to do.

Well, today I had my first MAJOR driving experience.

Dad and I went to Norman, OK, today for some errands. Driving there, I had a little difficulty keeping in the middle of my lane. I wanted to drift to the right. I eventually managed to overcome that difficulty.

Driving in the city is certainly different than in a small town! Lots of traffic, a number of stoplights, etc. I managed to not get into any fender-benders, though! *WHEW*

The drive home was in the dark, of course. Prior to getting my permit, I had always liked to travel at night. Now that I'M driving, I REALLY ENJOY driving at night. I'm not quite sure why. I just do.

On another note, this past Saturday night our church held a Christmas play. Since I don't enjoy "dressing up" and acting, I was enlisted to run the lighting. That was lots of fun! The play went off without too many hitches. Sam B., a good friend of mine who is 14, played the old grandfather. He he! They had to put powder in his hair to make it look gray and smeared ash on his face. Another friend, Brandon C. played the Pastor. He had to have a beard drawn on his face with a brown marker!

After the play, there were cookies, chips & guacamole, and hot cider (non-alcoholic!). During the refreshment time, I pre-purchased my friend Zachary R.'s new CD that he recorded, Preludio. Can't wait till I get it!

Well, that's all for now. I'd better get ready for bed.

TTYL

My Driving experience so far.....

So far my driving experience has gone pretty well. I'm still getting used to the fact that the accelerator is rather sensetive! Another problem I'm having is remembering to look over my shoulder before I change lanes. As of right now I'm really enjoying driving.

On another note, currently it is 20* F outside! Brrrrrrrr! That's pretty cold for here in Davis, OK!

WOOHOO!

Today I went to take the test for my Learner's Permit an' I passed! Since I'm 18, I can apply for my actual licence in 30 days (if I want to). Needless to say, I'm really excited!

This week's Shift photos.

This week I raced Need For Speed: Shift.

To begin, I did a couple of online races, which I didn't win. I also discovered that the 5 new cars I downloaded went directly into my garage (meaning I didn't have to purchase them). So now I'm the not-so-happy owner of a Corvette. The rest of the cars I like. But, since it was free, I'm not selling it ~ for now!

This week I attempted to do some drifting. As you can see, I used the Dodge Viper.

For my first time, I don't think that I did bad. It takes a LOT of practice to get used to doing it.

I continued working my way through Tier 4. Here I am preparing for a race in my Zonda R.

I absolutely love that car!

I also raced in a Manufacturer Restricted Race. I picked the Lamborghini race at Laguna Seca and entered my modified Gallardo. I was up against other Gallardos, as well as Murcielagos and Reventons. I didn't have very high expectations. Much to my surprise I accelerated so fast at the start that I rammed a Murcielago and sent him flying off the track. Within the first lap, I had pushed my way to the front and dominated for the rest of the 5-lap race. Here's what happened when another Gallardo got in my way and I didn't brake fast enough.

Well, that's all for now.

NFS Shift

I'm really into racing, especially when it comes to computer racing. Ever since I got Shift, I've been taking pics each time I race. Last week I took the picture you see above. I'm in the Pagani Zonda R (in the foreground), racing the London River track. The two cars in front of me, the Pagani Zonda F (L) and the Koenigsegg CCX (R), were going too slow for my liking. After trading a little paint, I managed to pass them and eventually went on to win the race with minimal damage to my car. ;)

I'll keep posting photos as I get them.

Pretty good day...

...Overall at least. Yesterday Sam came over. We played a number of board games and raced on the computer. We also went geocaching. Got all three that we hunted for! YES!!!!!

Today I practiced more on the Bach Double. Being self-taught for right now, I don't think that it is the best it could be, but I'm almost 2/3 the way done. ;)

Going Geocaching!

Today my friend (and fellow Geocacher) Sam B. (aka Pole Position) is coming over to play board games and go geocaching, if the weather holds out. Right now it looks rather cloudy.......

We plan for 3 caches. If we find all three, I'll hit the 200 mark! ;)

More later...

My First Post!

Hello everyone!

Today is my 18th birthday and I decided that it's about time I start blogging. ;) I've never done this before so I wanted to give it a try. I'll probably post at least once a week, if not more often. Well, guess I'll end this post for now...