Kenya...

Nate told me I should have shared tonight at church. This is the conversation (about):

NATE: You should have shared tonight.
ME: And what would I have shared about?
NATE: Hmm... I don't know... Kenya...! (sarcastically of course)
ME: OK...

And then I shared about Kenya. This is what I said:

Kenya is a country in Africa that I learned about in Social Studies last year. It starts with a K and ends with an enya. That is all I know about Kenya.

I just decided that I know one more thing though... OHP, just thought of another... two more things.

They don't speak English there so I can't talk to most of them. And Sango goes there on mission trips sometimes.

Ta-da. There is my sharing about Kenya. If you REALLY wanted to hear me talk about Kenya tonight, you didn't miss out. Here is my speech. You're so welcome.

(And Nate, if you wanted me to share about something non-sarcastically, you should try to tell me that. Even though I already know what it is that you want me to say. But anyway, I might just share about that later, just not with a microphone in front of lots of people. Next year I will. I will only talk about mission trips that I know more about when I come back from the trip and am forced to. Lol. Just kidding.)

So there is probably my last post for this year. Happy New Year everybody! See you in 2008!

Haiti
And
Pretty
Pepperoni
Year

2008!

Wow, that was random, but anyways, there is my poem about 2008. Happy New Year again!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas is tomorrow!! Yay! I am excited for many reasons...

1)Jesus' birthday/ celebration & reminder that He came for all of us!! Woo-hoo!
2)I get to see my family (aunts and uncles and cousins- some of which came in from Minnesota yesterday... safely I hope...)
3)The majority of the money usually spent on Christmas presents for me is instead going towards my mission trips to Haiti... it is in an envelope on the tree I think.
4)Getting to see my family open their presents that I got for them and seeing the reactions. That is always a lot of fun.
5)And the smallest bit of excitement is from the selfish American left in me after going to Haiti - presents. I have presents in my stocking, and I get presents from my aunts and uncles, and I have money that was already given to me for Christmas that I am saving.

I think it is kind of sad that the shortest (written) part of my excitement is about Jesus, and the longest (written) part is about the presents. It makes me stop and think what the majority of the world is thinking about, presents instead of Jesus' birth. Which makes me sad. Truly, truly sad. I don't want to make anyone feel guilty or ruin your Christmas (yeah right...) by thinking about this all, but just try. If you have never been on a mission trip, foreign or in-country, I'm sorry, but I'm not sure if you can imagine what I am going to say next as well. People don't have Christmas presents some places. Haiti is the place I am thinking of obviously, because that is the only place I know to talk about. But the point is, LOTS of people around the world don't have the money to buy fancy presents or buy an expensive Christmas dinner. Some might even go without dinner, and maybe even lunch and breakfast too. But they are still HAPPY. These people don't need money or fancy dinners to be happy, they already are.

There were quite a few times during the Bible School when we were in Haiti, that our translator, Peter, would ask the kids if they were happy. I never heard anyone say no. They always were happy.

Now that I think about the Bible School we did there, I wonder how many of those kids will REALLY be celebrating Christmas this year. Not just for however they celebrated it before (with presents maybe... I don't know.) But because now, some of them are celebrating their first Christmas with Jesus in their hearts. I hope they remember the stories we told them (the first day was the Christmas story, the second day was the death/resurection story) and understand what they mean. I wish I could be in Haiti right now to see what they are doing. To see how they are celebrating Jesus' birth instead of just presents. How cool would that be to have Christmas in another country? I wish SOOOOO bad to be there right now!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYBODY!!!!!

Woo-hoo!

I added some pretty sweet pictures to the side! Check 'em out! I will try to change them every now and then if I remember. If you notice that I haven't changed them in a while, you can remind me if you want to. Or not. Whatever.

CHRISTMAS BREAK IS TOMORROW!! I am really excited, in case you didn't notice. We aren't even really doing anything tomorrow because none of the teachers want to grade anything over Christmas break, so I don't think I will have any homework either! Oh yeahhh!

I also thought of another fundraiser. Pinatas. Hand-made by yours truly. They are lots of fun to make... and lots of fun to hit. Candy costs extra. I am thinking $1,000 a piece + candy/material costs. Haha, just kidding! I don't think anyone will want one really, but just in case, thought I would say that.

Well, I have to go get ready for my last day of school. (!!!!!) But, it's not like I am excited for it or anything. Not at all. Where would you get a silly idea like that?

I suppose I have rambled about enough for one day. So I guess I will stop now.

<3<3T<3<3O<3<3R<3<3I<3<3

I don't even know.

I have no idea what to say, but I figured I'd better update since I haven't for two days. But I have no idea what to update about, so this isn't working out so good.

Hmmmmm.....

Um.....

Uh.....

Well, ok. This is about it. I get to babysit on Friday. Yay! I love babysitting! So much fun! And money for my Haiti fund! Woohoo!

Oh, I played that game that Britt posted about too on the Livesay blog. It is lots of fun. I got frustrated though, because I always kill the family. Oops. If you have never played it, you should sometime. It is here (hopefully, I don't know if I am linking this stuff right...).

Well, that is all I can think of. So I guess that's all. Sorry. Bye.

Post From a 14 year-old Chick

So, it is my birthday today as a lot of you already know. I am 14 years old! Yay! I got a knitted beanie (type of hat), and a Haiti sweatshirt for my birthday. The Haiti sweatshirt isn't here yet, but it is supposed to come sometime this week, so I am going to wear it when it comes in. I got a balloon and chocolate covered peanuts in my locker today from my madre. A girl at school said she had a present for me. Yikes, I am scared. And I got tons of hugs and "happy birthdays".

I also laughed so hard today at . She drew a picture of a girl riding a horse in her notebook. Except she never finished the girls legs, so it was kind of like a half-horse-half-human thing, whatever those are called. I forgot. Anyway... she is also reading the book HOUSE. It has cool lettering on the front, so she wanted to try it out. For who-knows-why, she decided to try out the letters IN MY NAME. So silly. But, to make it so funny, she wrote it at the top of the aforementioned picture. The girl in the picture also looks nothing like me. She is quite ugly and has about 3 chins. HA! Thanks Anna. So I found that in Spanish class and started laughing while she was trying to explain this picture to me. Somehow it got passed around the whole class, and lots of people were laughing. I laughed so hard, I started to cry. It was so funny! I still love Anna though...

So there is the "Birthday Blog" you were all waiting for. You are so welcome.

<3chall!

Famous Last Words

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"So, you're a cannibal."

http://www.blogthings.com/whatwillyourfamouslastwordsbequiz/">What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

Lol! I took this quiz I found on my friend's mySpace.

Commenting

Ok, I know more people read my blog than that, so I will try this again. I only got 3 comments the last time. I know of at least 3 more people that read my blog and there are probably some secret people out there. I don't like secrets... no offense. I just want to know who is reading, so PLEASE COMMENT ME ON THIS POST IF YOU READ MY BLOG!! Thank you very much!

lotsa<3

Maestra Fiesta!!

For those of you who don't speak Spanish, that means "Teacher Party!!"

I am taking Spanish 1 right now. Since the beginning of the year, we have had practically THE most amazing student teacher ever. Today was her last day. We threw her a "suprise" party. That is in quotation marks because it wasn't really a suprise. She sort of knew about it, but not everything. We made her a ginormous "Thank you" card and all of us signed it. Lots of the class brought in food, Spanish food or American. There were Churros (if you have never had these, I recommend trying them sometime... yummy!!), cake, 3 different kinds of brownies, chips and salsa, chocolate chip muffins, and pop. If there was anything else I can't remember it right now.

And here is my part. The pinata. I decided to make one. In one day. It was a lot of work and I was actually still working on the finishing touches in homeroom today. I thought it turned out awesome. My homeroom teacher donated some tissue paper to put on the outside. Then one of my friends helped me put in some suckers my mom bought at the Mexican store by the post office. (If you have never been there, I also recommend checking it out.) These suckers were brought into class by another classmate earlier in the week and are probably my favorite suckers ever. They sound weird but are delicious!! They are carmel type suckers, but they are made with goat milk. YUM!!

When I got into Spanish class, I kindly asked Ms. Barber (student teacher) to go get some coffee. That is what we always say when she needs to leave so we can talk (or set up a suprise party) secretly. So she left, and we all started setting up. Anna Hill (my friend also in my Spanish class) helped me try to put paperclips through my pinata. Stringed paperclips. Nobody had string for this pinata, so our teacher teacher gave us paperclips instead. We finally got them through after much work. Then we were seeing if it would hang and the paperclips chain fell out. It broke right in the middle. UGH!! So then, Ms. Barber was almost back in the room (actually waiting out in the hall). We completely gave up and decided just to give it to her to chuck against the wall. Not one of our best ideas, but if you spend any time with the two of us together, you will know that this was actually one of our better ideas.

She came back in and we gave her the card and some treats that another member of the class's mom had made for Ms. Barber. Then we gave her the pinata. She was preparing to throw it against the wall when she said, "This is the weirdest thing I have ever done." I agree. She also said she was going to be really embarassed when it didn't break. Ha! It didn't actually. It just sort of got a really big crack in the side. She just pulled out all the suckers for everone. Our geniusness never got to the part AFTER when she chucked the pinata. Obviously, they were all broken. But still very tasty.

During the party, everyone was eating, when me and Anna realized that there was Oreos. A while back in Youth Group, one of our ex-leaders, Morgan, taught us a really fun game. You get all the cream from the Oreo on one side. You can eat the naked side if you want to. Then you lick the cream so it is really wet, and stick it on your forehead. Without using your hands or anthing else, you have to try to get it into your mouth. Me and Anna raced during class. This was lots of fun and I am proud to announce that I won. Everyone was laughing at us though, even us.

Then, Ms. Barber told us to go to the bathroom so we could get all the cream off of our faces. It was really funny to see what we looked like. We ran into someone in the hallway, and he was like, "What were you guys doing?" We told him what we did and he was like, "What class was that in?!" Lol. We told him it was for our party in Spanish class and then went into the bathroom. What a funny sight. Cream all over our faces. Oreo crumbs in our eyebrows. Red marks from who knows what. Wow. It was amazing.

When we got back to the room, they were setting up to play the game "Never Have I Ever". It is a game where someone is in the middle and they say something they have done before. (I think. I didn't really get the game, but I am pretty sure it is something you have done.) Example: Never have I ever been to Florida. Then anyone who has done that has to stand up and find another chair. The chair has to be at least 2 away from where they started, and whoever ends up chairless has to be in the middle. It is a really fun game except it gets really crazy. Me and Anna were both trying to get to a chair. I won, but she sat on my lap, stepped on the girl's foot that was next to me, and shoved my chair into the table behind me. We all started laughing at this because it was really funny. Why else would we be laughing?

I am really sad to see this teacher go. I really enjoyed her and now we have our regular teacher. He is cool too, but I really liked Ms. Barber. She is going to have no problem finding a teaching job somewhere.

I also wanted to add this quote that I made up today about myself: "Well, it appears I am starting to ramble, so I'd better shut up before someone else does it for me." Thought that was pretty funny, and I am going to take my own advice and zip it. :-l. Zipped tight.

Lotsa <3!!

Wow...

I haven't updated in a long time! Sorry! Lol... I have been really busy lately. I had a lot of homework, homegroups, concert last night, and other stuff that I can't remember right now. But tonight, we are going to Meijer with youth group. We go every year before Christmas and buy toys and stuff for Love Inc. Each of our groups go around and pick out some stuff to buy and donate. It is always lots of fun but can get a little crazy... just ask Mrs. Hill if you want to know just how much. She is our small group leader and I think she enjoys it most of the time. Except when we get super crazy and don't listen. Which rarely ever happens!!... she said sarcastically. Lol. I can't think of much else to say right now, so I don't know.

I think I am going to make treats for my Haiti fundraiser instead. The baked goods at the craft sale went over really well. So if you want cookies or special K bars or something, you can tell me and I will work on that. I can still make the other stuff too if anyone wanted that. I have stuff left over from the craft sale too. I have Christmas cards (with messages and without), giftboxes, and lots of potholders.

Also, I am a very curious type of person. So, because of this I am wondering who is secretly reading my blog without commenting. If you read this will you please leave me a comment so I will know. That would be extrememly appreciated. Thanks!!

<3 Tori <3

Taggage

This is the first time I have been tagged while actually having a blog! My mom and Brenda (I think) tagged me to list 8 random things about me, so here goes nothing:

1) I am an only child... not really, I just wish that sometimes
2) Haiti is my favorite place in the whole world
3) A soccer field is my second favorite place in the whole world
4) I like to read and write stories/poems and stuff
5) I am blessed with too many friends to count
6) A Creole book is supposed to come for me from the library soon I hope... yay!!!
7) I am going on two trips to Haiti next year, yikes - expensive
8) Rice Krispies with sugar on top is my favorite cereal ever and I had it for dinner tonight with my favorite type of Pop-Tart: Brown Sugar Cinnamon or whatever it's called.

I am tagging whoever hasn't done it yet, so get crackin!!

lotsa <3 with a few smiles (just not as many as Mrs. Hill... lol. Just kidding!)

Happy late Thanksgiving!

We were away in Wisconson as some of you have probably read on my mom's blog. My dad took his laptop, but the charger cord was not in the bag, so neither of us had the chance to update. We had a lot of fun on this trip, and ate WAYYY to much food!! Lol...

There is one thing I wanted to blog about in particular. It is a funny story of how I thought when I was littler. On the way to my grandparents house, there are a lot of those "rumble strips" or whatever they're called. Well, I never understood why they needed to put those in the road, so I came up with my own explanation. This is it- there are some people that crashed their cars a long time ago, but their cars stayed there and the people were still in them (don't ask why I thought that, I have no idea) but the road was built on top of them. They didn't like it when people rode over top of where they were crashed under the cement, so they would honk at you when you drove over them. It sounded different though because the cement muffled the sound of the horn.

I know, I was a looney back then. Still am, actually. And I don't understand those things yet either. Except to get people to pay attention or wake up or something I suppose. I don't really know.

I am still making things for a fundraiser for Haiti. If anyone wants pot-holders, Christmas cards, birthday cards, or stationary I am making those right now. I am having a table at the craft sale with Melissa and maybe Anna and her mom I think, so I will be selling those there, but if anyone wants any before the sale or can't make it to the sale, let me know so I can get them to you! Same rules as my mom though- I can (have my mom) deliver it in Allendale, anything else will have to be picked up or shipped by you.

Thanks and have a happy Saturday/Sunday or whenever you read this!!

Unknown Video

So I don't really know what this video is about because I can't watch it until I post this. I know it has something to do with when we were in Haiti this August, but I don't actually know what. Holy cow, I just about had a heart attack! The video went away for a second and I thought it deleted, but then it came back, so " 'sall good!" Had to say that... lol. I think this is a video of the kids from Barbancourt singing, but I could be wrong. I am not liable for anything by guessing that except maybe a genius award if I turn out to be right. If, by the rare chance that I am wrong, I don't get anything and I'll go cry under this computer desk right now. My mom will tell you if that happens I suppose.

Oh, and the video was taken on either mine or my mom's camera, so there is no sound. Nothing is wrong with your computer or speakers or headphones or whatever. Suprisingly, nothing is wrong with the video either. The camera just has no sound recorder, so it is a quiet movie. Just imagine it is one of those old movies from like 19something when they were all black and white and there was no sound, just words that come up after every picture. Except there are no words, so just pretend it is one of those, but everyone was too involved in the singing to want to type all the words out for the video.

Gotta go finish my book... T2daO2daR2daI

No Idea

I was going to post on some more Haiti kids, but I uploaded the pictures wrong and they aren't on here now. So, I don't know what I am going to post about. My mom got this advertisement thing in the mail today and she gave it to me to look at. There was different sports clothes in it, and one of the soccer ones was pretty funny. Dani has this shirt too. This is what it said:

IN REAL FOOTBALL

We actually do use our feet to play

We don't stop play every six seconds

We're not covered head to toe in pads

We don't suck oxygen on the sidelines

We play more then one game a week

And have a real World Championship

So if you can't handle it

Go play that sorry excuse for a sport

They call football

YOU WIMP!

Sorry if anyone is offended by that. In case you didn't notice, they were talking about football and soccer, making football sound like the easier sport. I am biast (spelling?) though, because soccer is MY sport and I have been playing it since I was about 6 or 7. I don't understand football anyway and I don't think I have even watched a whole game in my entire life. This is another one that was in there that is a little nicer...

Just forget

About it

PRINCESS

Not even

CINDERELLA

Is getting to

This ball

Anywho, thought those were sort of funny. Especially to soccer players. The second one could go for most sports though. So, I will try to post more about Haiti kids tomorrow. Until then, this is all I got. Lol. Au revoir!

FROWNS!!

Post with a Point-Some Haitian kids

Some boys that I took a picture of at church on Sunday. The one with his hand on his forehead was holding my hand during church. It was so cute!
These are some kids at church too. I think my mom took this one.
Some boys at Bible School. Don't know why he looks so mad, but the other one is smiling. Maybe the smiling one pinched the mad one. I don't know.
A few girls outside the church after church was done.
Girls at the orphanage we were at. The ones in the background by me are cousins. Their names are Katsana and Fosaee. My mom was holding that other girl, but I don't remember her name.

So I was thinking about it, and I realized that I haven't posted about a specific "thing" on this whole blog! Shocking, right? So I decided to post on one of my favorite things ever... Haitian kids! I put some of my favorite pics on, but then I found out you can only post five at a time, so I am going to add another one some other time. Don't worry! Lol.

I think for the fundraiser I am going to babysit for people who want me too (even the Yonkers, but I might have to recruit Anna to help me). Also, I can make brownies for people if you want any. I am going to go with donations, but the minimum would be $2.00 for a plate. Melissa mentioned maybe having a table with her at the craft sale and selling some of my potholders or something. So I might do that if it works out. Otherwise, if you have any other ideas for me or want to buy something, I open for comments!!

Look-alikes and other matters

So apparently I haven't updated in a while. I don't actually know what to say, but here goes nothing. I did that look alike thing, but I couldn't get it to come on here. I put it on my xanga instead. If you want to see it, here is the link: www.xanga.com/seein_stars053. You can read the other posts on there if you want, but I wouldn't add it to your favorites or anything (not that you would anyway, just a figure of speech I guess) because I never go on there anymore. I just keep it for emergencies like this and so that I get an e-mail sent to me from a Haiti blog. Minnesota was tons of fun!! The Yonkers were with us almost the whole time, and we got to know each other a LOT better. I didn't know that I didn't know that much about them, but I learned a lot, so I guess there was a lot I didn't know even if I didn't know it!! Just wanted to make that sentence really confusing, so you know. Lol. I am going to try not to say "know" anymore in this whole post. Lol... not gonna happen I don't think. THANK YOU ALL FOR PRAYING FOR ME WHILE I WAS MAKING MY DECISION ABOUT FEBUARY!!! I know that was really big, but I wanted it to stand out so nobody would miss it! I really appreciate all the prayers, and I just wanted everyone to... um... be aware... of that. Lol. Trying not to say "that word that you can look up a couple of lines to see if you aren't sure what I am talking about." Lol. Me and Paige had a lot of fun and I can't wait to go and see her and the rest of the family in Febuary! I can't spell Febuary though, so that is kind of a bad thing I guess. I never... can tell... where the other "R" is supposed to go. It's so annoying. I was also trying to think of a way to get some extra money (fundraiser I guess, but I hate that word, so I was trying to avoid it) for Haiti. I can't knit or anything though, so that it out of the option. OH! But... if anyone wants a super-cool, hand-made-especially-by-Tori potholder thing... I can make those. AND... I have lots of colors to choose from. My Grandma taught me how to cross-stitch a long time ago, but I don't think I have finished one yet, so that probably isn't the best idea. I am willing to babysit for people for extra money for Haiti too. If you have any other ideas, let me... tell me what you are thinking... so I can get some more ideas!! Also, just in case anybody was wondering, the reason I am trying to raise money for my trips is because they are pretty expensive. I am going on two of them, so that is more expensive yet. Most of the extra money I have, I donate it to my "Haiti fund" which is actually real. I have a box in my room that I put all this extra money in for Haiti trips. There was a lot more in it before, but the... um, I forgot what this is called... it is the first amount of money you have to pay... a down-payment I guess it's called. But anyway, I had to pay that and that zeroed out my fund. I have a whole $0.39 left. If I make this any longer, no one will come visit anymore, so I will stop now. Don't forget to tell me any fundraiser ideas if you have any please!! Or if you just wanna say hi, that's ok too!!

Oops.

Alright. It seems that my rambling gift has caused a "family fued" according to Mrs. Hill. I would just like to let you all know, that none of this is my fault and I can't be held accountable for any of it! Also, our "family fued" (which neither me or my brother) is not NEARLY as bad as Lindsay Lohan's or Tori Spelling's. So, I don't feel too bad for starting this. Brenda, I know you could help me too, but in case you forgot, we're fighting right now, so I don't want to ask you for help on anything. So there. Deal with it. Lol. I'm just kidding! I love all you guys, just some more then others and in different ways. For example, Brenda is on the bottom of my list because she is a meanie, so I don't love her as much as everyone else. Just kidding again! And of course I also love my mom differently because she is my mom, and I'm sorry, but I don't think of many of you as my mom, so my love for you is different! Ok, I guess I better stop now before anyone's head explodes and I have to go clean it up. Yuck. Oh, and if your head does explode, I would rather not know about it, especially if it is my fault because then I would probably feel really bad. Depending on who it was. Like, Brenda, I wouldn't care about... I'm just kidding. I guess I really better stop now because Brenda might beat me up for making fun of her so much. So, au revoir for now! (I was practicing my Creole last night, so I am using some of it before I forget)

Additions

I added some stuff to the side, so check it out! And I gotta e-mail my mom and then go make dinner and let my cough, cough, annoying... scuse me... brother on. Lol.

hello again...

I had to start a new blog because I couldn't figure out the old one and I probably won't be able to figure out this one either, so I might actually have to ask my mom for the first time ever about computer stuff. Scary, I know. Another reason why I started this one was because I didn't really like the other one anyway. I hope I can figure this one out, and I also hope that you all aren't too mad at me for making one and then not coming on for a while and then destroying that one and then making a brand new one!! Wow, I also hope that people still attempt to read this even though I ramble a lot and my ADHD shows through sometimes. Lol... WHOA!! That gum wrapper is shiny............................... oh sorry. See, what'd I tell you!! ADHD again! I am going to make this blog look better now maybe, so adios!