These Past Days

I know, I know.  It's been 3 days since I posted.  I've been slack, but I have good reason.  More or less.

But I have been busy, really!  It's not my fault that I lead such an interesting life that I can't take 20 minutes out of my totally packed schedule to write a blog post.  I just haven't got the time.  It's snowing in South Carolina!  (awkward change of subject)  Yes, it's true!  For the second time this year (remember back in February?)!  This is an amazing weather phenomenon!  What's supposed to happen once every ten years has now occurred TWICE in this marvelous year, 2010.  I think we should have a party.  Anyone interested?

 Some light flurries.  :]]

 A little recap of what's been going on these past days I've been offline:

December 24th-- After I slept with my curls, my hair looked even more amazing than it had the previous day.  I got some sunglasses and shoes from Cato and a cute new pink sweater from Walmart. 

My new sunglasses-- I truly love them! 

My pur-dy curly/wavy hair.  Perfect for hitting the town!

On Christmas Eve we also got a new kitty named Fritzy.  Well, that's his nickname.  His full name, you may ask?  Bailey's Ragdolls Lord Fritzgerald.  Yes, a truly remarkable name for a truly remarkable cat.   (Barnie's full name?  Clarkston Rag's Sir Barnabas)  Though Fritzy is a very timid, shy kitty.  He's spent his days hiding under my parents bed (we're keeping him in their bedroom the first week or so).  He's very sweet and very soft, but he's also very shy.  He probably didn't like the fact that the first day we had to comb out his matts and wash his tail.  The breeder didn't keep up on grooming him-- he was dirty.  :[[

Here's a not-very-good picture of him before he darted under the bed.  He's going to be a lot darker than that.  Barnie is a blue bicolor, meaning that his fur will be a dark-ish gray in certain places.  Fritzy is a seal bicolor, meaning that he will turn dark brown in places.

December 25th-- Nothing.  We basically just sat around the house.  We didn't do gifts or anything for Christmas, just watched TV.  Fritzy was our present!  :]

Decmber 26th (today)-- Went over to hang out with Grandma Barb while she was staying at her friend, Laurie's who is out of town visiting her daughter.  We baked ginger snap cookies (not hard, very soft!  really delicious!) and pumpkin bread pudding, which was also good.  I ate so much dessert today though that ever since 3:00 I've felt like I was going to throw up.  No lie.  But we did go to Goodwill today.  That was when it started snowing!  I didn't get anything, but Grandma got a few books for my cousin, Xander.  

Am I not adorable?

~Alyssa

Curly hair? No problem!

If you are like me and want to change your hair up a little bit sometimes (over the holidays, for special occasions, etc...) without damaging your hair with a straight iron, look no further!  I used to use a hot curling iron to curl my hair (like most girls) but I was tired of getting split ends faster and having damaged hair.  I don't know about you, but I wish I still had the hair I had when I was four!  Anyways, the way that I get uber-curly hair minus the iron is with rollers.  

Yes, you read correctly.  And yes, they may look silly.  And yes, they can be a pain.  But yes, they do make your hair super, duper curly.  Plus-- there's no damaging effects.  It's what all the cool cats are doing nowadays.  Here's what I did to achieve beautiful hair this morning...


Last night-- I showered.  I waited until my hair was no longer sopping wet.  When my hair was slightly damp I had Grandma put them in (1" rollers from Wally World).  **When putting in rollers, make sure the roller on the very top of your head is not to one side.  You don't want the rollers to be parted at all!!!**  


This morning-- I took the rollers out.  I usually take them out starting at the bottom and ending at the top.  That way you won't be pushing all the curls around trying to undo the rollers at the bottom.

 I know, I look like Shirley Temple and the Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz!  Haha!

 Next Step-- Brush through your curls.  Not a whole lot!  Just the ends.  If you want to, you can leave it like this.  To me it looks kind of 20's.  I think it's pretty for a nice occasion.  **If you have any amount of bangs then you can do what I did here.  Just push the top curl to the side or behind your ear.

Last Step-- Pull it back in a ponytail.  It will be bumpy, but that's the look I personally like.  It's a great holiday look, or if you're just going out shopping!  **NO HAIRSPRAY IS NEEDED!  When you use the rollers, the curl stays in all day and into the next!!!




Also, a big thank you to Jiye from pearls and green tea blog!  I won her Twisted Natural Rope Bracelet contest!

~Alyssa

Go Out and Smell the Roses

I really love listening to the band, Nickleback.  Definitely not a Christian band and I don't listen to them very often, but recently I heard their song, "If Today Was Your Last Day."  It has a really great message about how you need to start living life to the fullest and you can't just sit around on your butt all day waiting for something awesome to happen.  Here's a little bit of the lyrics:

" My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each day's a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind
And try to take the path less traveled by
That first step you take is the longest stride

If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had, if today was your last day?
What if, what if, if today was your last day? "


If often think about this, myself.  What if today is the last day that I'm going to live on Earth?  How will people remember me?  People always say you need to live life to the fullest, but how many of us actually do?  How many of us actually "go outside and smell the roses?"  A lot of times I think to myself, "You are definitely living life to the fullest."  But really, I'm just lying to myself.  There are a lot of days where I just sit around the house screwing around on the computer.  I know that I could be cleaning the house, or petting my cat, watering the flowers, or just going for a nice walk.  But I choose not to.  I say, "Oh, you'll have plenty of time to do that tomorrow."  But what if I don't?  

Sometimes I wish I had a happier life, and I complain because "Oh no, my life sucks.  Everything is going wrong, why am I such a loser?  If only this... if only that..."  I think that I actually will go out and smell the roses more often.  Maybe we all should.

~Alyssa

What I'm listening to

I am currently listening to my Zune which is something I haven't done in a while.  That got me to thinking, maybe everyone else reading my blog would like to know my favorite music.  Probably not, but it's worth a try.  So here is the music I'm listening to... Christian?  A lot, yes.  But there is also country and some dance-to music.  :]]

Let's list my favorite Christian bands and songs first:
-- Kris Allen- Live Like We're Dying
-- Skillet- Rebirthing, The Last Night, Yours to Hold, Monster
-- Brandon Heath- Fight Another Day
-- Chasen- Crazy Beautiful, Drown, History Tonight
-- Jason Gray- More Like Falling in Love
-- Francesca Battistelli- Beautiful, Beautiful
-- Casting Crowns- East to West
-- NeedtoBreathe- Washed By the Water, Something Beautiful, Lay 'Em Down


Country:
-- Josh Turner- Would You Go With Me, Why Don't We Just Dance
-- Lady Antebellum- American Honey, Our Kind of Love,
-- Jason Aldean- My Kind of Party
-- Racal Flatts- Why Wait, What Hurts the Most, My Wish
-- Tim McGraw- Indian Outlaw
-- Keith Urban- Put You in a Song, Sweet Thing, Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me
-- Luke Bryan- Someone Else Calling You Baby
-- The JaneDeer Girls- Wildflower 
-- Sugarland- Stuck Like Glue, Baby Girl,  It Happens


Misc.:
-- Mamma Mia!- Honey Honey, Money Money Money, Lay All Your Love on Me, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, The Winner Takes it All
-- Michael Buble- Fever, Moondance, Sway, Nice 'N Easy, Mack the Knife, For Once in My Life
-- Itumiray- all of their songs.  Andes music.


There is definitely more songs, but I can't think of any right now.  So if you want to comment and say, "Jeez Alyssa!  What about THIS song??  You have to love this song!  Get with it!"  Go ahead.  Haha, I won't get mad!


We got the car washed today at the Wonder Wash, and as always, they left some spots uncleaned.  I'm not mad, it's just kind of annoying.  I would show you a before and after picture, but my mom thought it was weird that I wanted to take a picture of our dirty car.  I understand how she feels, but I still wanted a picture!  Gosh, ma!  Haha, but she let me get a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich.  It was truly delicious.  What's your favorite ice cream desert?


~Alyssa




 

Shuffleboard Queen, I am

Grandma Barb and I went to Walmart yesterday morning in search of shoes (they're the only store I can find that carries size 11 shoes.) and came home shoeless.  I found some brown ones that I liked that went up to size 10 and some hot pink ones that only went up to size 6.  All of the cute shoes that I would want don't come in my size.  It seems that all of the ugly (to put it kindly) shoes come in size 11, though. 

Every Sunday evening my grandparents and Aunt Sherri come over to our house for dinner.  Last night my mom wasn't feeling so great, so we went to their house instead.  Let, me tell you... It was so much fun!!  (Don't worry, I took pictures!)  Elle and Sherri were playing shuffleboard on the Wii, and I decided to challenge my dad.  Neither of us had every played shuffleboard in real life or on the Wii before, so I thought that we would both stink.  But I was WRONG!  There were 16 rounds and I won 14 of those 16.  Most of the time it would just be freak chance... like, I would get 1 centimeter ahead of his or just knock his off of the board.  The first time he did well he did the "L" for loser thing in my face... until I knocked him off.  Don't worry, I "loser-ed" him back.  After we ate dinner (delicious, by the way, chicken, beans, potatoes, bread, yum!) Sherri challenged me to a game of chess.  Not realizing that I, being homeschooled, have a lot of time on my hands to play chess against the computer.  Let's just say that we played two games in 30 minutes and I won both.  Chinese Checkers is a different story... she had all of hers safe before I had two.  Sad, I know.

My outfit yesterday... Black sweater, jeans, blue tank top

 Sherri and Elle playing darts

 Sister against brother... The older sister reigned supreme.

 I'm the cute Power Ranger on the left... Dad is the dude with the afro.  Yo.

 Dad and me playing shuffleboard against each other... picture taken by Aunt Sherri.

 Yes, Elle is drinking out of a wine glass.  No, she is not drinking wine.  Cranberry juice.  I promise.

 Blurry selfie!

 I was the only one prepared for the picture.  I'm a real ham, I know.

 A good one of the entire family!  Well, minus Elle, Mom, and Grandpa.

Daddy's getting some Lyssa sugar!  Doesn't he look happy? 

~Alyssa

Elle's Public Schooled!

As you may already know, I am home schooled and have been for two years now.  My kid sister, Elle, has been home schooled, too... but on Tuesday (December 14th) we decided that we needed to enroll her back into public school.  She was more than reluctant to do her school-- she pretty much refused.  She would NOT learn!  So she is now going to school at the elementary school across the street.  She's loving it, but she's already told me about a few things that are bothering her.  She hates all the schoolwork they do.  :]]  

What I just can NOT believe is that she is in 4th grade now, and will be in fifth next year.  She is going to be the head of the school!  Ugh... I seemed so much older when I was in 5th grade (my family agrees).  I also can't believe that she'll be in MIDDLE school in 2012!  Ugh, it's just ridiculous.  I mean, common... does this girl look like she'll be going into fifth grade?

 

No, she doesn't!

~Alyssa

New Camera... Lots 'o' Pictures!

I've got a new camera!!  Well, I've never had an "old" camera... I've just been using my grandma's.  :]  My dad sent it to me as a Christmas present, but I'm impatient.  Didn't wait 'til December 25th.  It's the Canon PowerShot SC1300 IS. 

 

(Don't mind the girl in the bathrobe) 

Ain't she a 'beaut?  I've been taking pictures like crazy.  So this blog is going to have a heck of a lot more pictures.  Here are some that I've taken:

 

I very rarely take photos of myself because I have vampire teeth, but I decided to the day I got my camera.  I was experimenting with the "take 10 photos at once" feature.

 

Considering the fact that I had just gotten done exercising, I think they turned out pretty well.

In this one I was just acting goofy... you'll probably never see me strike that pose again (well, maybe in another post [: )  

I think that this is such a good picture of my cat, Barnie.  He looks like he's outside... "I'm a wild kitty!"  

 Or not... stuck inside.

 He does the weirdest thing at night, he kneads all over me in bed and does this weird "butt dance."  I made a video of it last night, but it's just too weird to post.  LOL!!

So you'll be seeing a lot more pictures of me and my friends and family... doing whatever strikes our fancy.  :]]  Thank you, Daddy!

~Alyssa

The Best Christmas Gift

On December 7th my "Do Hard Things" group drove up to Charlotte, NC to the Operation Christmas Child distribution center.  ( http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/index/ )  We left at 8:30a.m. and arrived around noon.  We inspected, filled, and shipped off hundreds of boxes that day and let me tell ya, it was amazing.  While standing on your feet working for six hours may not sound like a lot of fun, thinking of all those kids in third world countries who get to have new things especially for them is amazing.  I can't even fathom what it would be like to live in those places.  It really warms my heart to know that they will be truly happy receiving these shoe boxes full of toys and hygiene products.  

Here are some pictures that were taken of the packing party we had a few weeks earlier, and the day we actually went to OCC:

 Caleb and Harley

 Us girls: Me, Jenna, Emily, Megan

 Kendrick, Harley, Megan

 All of us at the entrance-- freezing cold!!!

 The packing party (left to right): Parker, Kendrick, Christian, Harley, 

Me, Jenna, Katie, Meredith, Nick

 At the packing party, Meredith and Katie

The whole group at OCC:  Mrs. Pam, Kendrick, Ryan, Caleb, me, 

Jenna, Emily, Megan, Harley, Mrs. Kris

Once again, really awesome.  Come with us next time, alright?  :]]

~Alyssa

Re-blog if...

Extremely Anxious

I don't know about you, but I'm one of those people that gets extremely anxious and nervous when she has to put herself out there.  Now I'm not saying that I'm not a social person, I am.  But in my drama club I get so nervous.  It's also a physical issue with me, because my chest starts to hurt and my arms and hands actually start to burn.  I have no clue why, but just thinking about it hurts!!  It's awful.  :[[  

So next week I'm in a performance-- I'm the 3 little pigs in "The True Story of the Big Bad Wolf."  Perhaps you've heard of the book.  My lines?  "Go away, Wolf.  You can't come in.  I'm shaving the hairs on my chinny chin chin."  "Get out of here, Wolf.  Don't bother me again."  "And your old Granny can sit on a pin!"  It's hard to sound angry and say "chinny chin chin" at the same time, let me tell ya. 

I'm almost positive I'll do just fine, but there's always that part of you that is thinking, "Oh my goodness-- I am going to pass out."  (But I have yet to actually pass out!)  I am a worrier to the extreme.  Well, it's only one performance and it'll probably last only 10-15 minutes.  I'm so happy.  :]]

~Alyssa