but wait...there's one more!

Wow I just found ANOTHER Katie picture! They're just popping out of the woodwork now! Here's AHS graduation day!

The hardest person ever to photograph

So when we were younger, Katie HATED, and I mean with a passion HATED, to have her picture taken. We always tried to capture her on film, but she would conviently throw up a hand in front of her face at the last second. Well I was going through old pictures, and I found what few pictures we were able to snag of her.

Here is our life from 8th-12th grade, existing in 8 pictures. Hiking, dances, school, hanging out, ...

Superdog Baxter

Here's what Miguel said yesterday about Baxter:

"He's stronger than water.
Smarter than a potato.
He can kill a goat without moving a muscle.
Who is he?
He's Baxter, the superdog without underpants!"

Happy Memorial Day!

Yesterday, to celebrate Memorial Day and Kathryn's graduation, we had a party at my mom's farm. Lots of people came, including a ton of people we didn't know (like friends of my mom's and Mike's), but a bunch of friends that we did know came. Chaos the dog and Georgia Roo the dog came, and they played and played. Peter came and Miguel came. Jeff, Mary, Collin, and Marryn Adams came. My nephews, Nolan and Ezra, came. Our little baby niece and nephew, Payton and Leland, came. And all my brothers and sisters came too! It was awesome!

We played in the lake and Collin did magic tricks for my brother Jacob, who spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure them out! Miguel taught Collin how to play soccer better! We all played baseball and the kids shot off foam rockets into the air so they could chase them. We had two canoes and two kayaks and lots of floating pool toys, like tubes and rafts and stuff! The kids all went out in kayaks and canoes and had a blast rowing around the island and back. Chaos and Georgia Roo swam with the kids and chased sticks out into the water.

Kathryn made this insane cake - an eagle named Gus Gus. Her school mascot at Georgia Southern University was an eagle so she made the cake to be like her mascot! She made the head out of blueberry muffin because Peter won't eat desserts and it was the only way he would eat any cake at all (if it was muffin instead of cake). The rest of the cake was a mix between yellow and chocolage cake in lots of layers. The eagle even had two wings and a tail that held together! It was quite impressive!


Kathryn's big present for graduation was a trip to Discovery Cove at Sea World! She is going to do the Trainer for a Day program which allows her to spend an extended time swimming with dolphins and trainers and learning about how to train dolphins. She'll get to ride the dolphins and do tricks with them! This is a picture of her reading the certificate for the trip! A lot of people joined in together to get her this present - my grandparents, my stepmom Diane, my parents, and her friend Caitlin! She was SOOOOO excited and so surprised! She can't wait to go. I'm going with her and hopefully her friend Caitlin is going too!


Here are more pictures from the party - kayaking, playing in the water, baby Payton, me and baby Leland, and an exhausted Georgia Roo trying to sleep!

Building Wells in Africa

Here's what my class is being a part of:





We are joining the effort to give communities clean water to drink by helping a local group of people who have a goal of raising the $3,000 necessary to build a well in Africa. My class is so excited about helping give other kids clean water to drink! Each day we've been watching little video clips of the water situation in Kenya and other countries in Africa. We talk about it, look at pictures, see the difference we can make in someone's life on the other side of the world.

Other classes in the school have started to get involved too! And there's only 8 days of school left! We've already filled up 4 four water bottles with coins in just two days and we're busy filling up more! The kids talk about it all day long, saying things like, "We're so lucky that we have a water fountain right down the hall." Another kid, as he took a drink of water from his water bottle, pointed at his bottle and said, "Look, Miss Tice. Clean water." And then he took a drink.

You can tell it's in their thoughts all day long. Cool. Very cool. We're supporting the organization at charitywater.org. Get involved! Spread the word! Help someone else have clean water to drink!

why i love this job

This is what one kid said to another teacher at my school today. This right here is why I love showing up every day.


J: Mr R, is it possible to have babies if you're not married?

Mr. R: Uh. . . . yeah. Why?

J: Awesome, cause I want kittens and my cat is NOT married.

i am

got this idea from a friend's blog and thought it was totally cool.



i am: loved by God

i think: Legos are one of the greatest inventions of all time

i know: I need to read my bible more

i want: to see Elias within the next month

i have: a cat, 2 lizards, 4 newts, and a pet fox named Zorro

i wish: I was fluent in spanish

i hate: people that make no sense, cars driving too slow, and people who hurt animals

i fear: that I will never be married or have my own child

i feel: compelled to sing and dance when I hear a song I love

i hear: exploding sounds outside my house often and just pretend they're fireworks

i smell: really good after japanese cherry blossom lotion

i crave: another trip to Disney World

i search: for ways to really let people know that I care

i wonder: what my life would be like if I trusted God more

i regret: not spending more time with my dad when he was alive

i love: collecting things and being obsessed with learning something new

i ache: for every child growing up in fear, sadness, or pain

i care: about my friends more than they know

i always: carry a giant backpack filled with computers, cameras, and ipods

i am not: someone who gives up easily

i believe: that every person should go to Disney World at least once in their life

i dance: poorly

i sing: songs about Jesus, pirates, and a cebu when I'm in the car with kids

i don’t always: wait patiently for God's perfect plan for my life

i fight: for children's futures

i write: books for people as presents

i win: when I play against John and Jenn in Settlers of Catan

i lose: my temper when I bang my head on my car

i never: have trouble sleeping

i confuse: pretty much anyone I talk to

i listen: to about half of what people tell me, although I'm doing better with that

i can usually be found: with holes in my pants from falling while playing sports

i am scared: of living my life without God

i need: to live my life more for others than myself

i am happy about: learning to solve a rubik's cube



You?

Congratulations Kathryn!!!

Sorry I disappeared from blogworld for a while! It's been crazy busy around here! I went to my sister's graduation last weekend in Georgia. It was totally cool and a nice break from school! (Only 14 days left, by the way.)

My mom, Mike, and my grandma came down with me to watch her graduate. We had a lot of fun spending time together. We worked on her house to get it ready to sell...lots of painting, cleaning, installing floors, etc.

We went to Savannah one day to show my grandma the beautiful city. The weather was beautiful all weekend long!

We dressed up Kathryn's dog, Georgia, in her graduation suit and Georgia so patiently tolerated it until we were finished taking picture after picture. I even wore a dress to her graduation...shocking, I realize. Don't worry though...after the graduation I spiked my hair up and put on a soccer outfit so I could restore my image. :)

Pina Gato

So here's my little cat with a pineapple on his head because I thought it looked good there. I bought a whole pinaeapple for the first time and I decided that my cat would look good as a proper pineapple. He was not amused, but tolerated the pineapple head long enough for a picture!

not so great of a day... :(

So today was not so great of a day. It started out great because yesterday I went to sleep at 5:30 PM and only woke up for a little bit at 10:30 before going back to sleep. So I got a ton of sleep and really felt great all day. But I made a huge mistake at school and got in a lot of trouble. I feel really bad about it because I should have known better and it was stupid what I did. I just didn't think. Then I went to the first baseball game that I've been able to play so far this season and I got one hit, but I made two errors at second base and we lost miserably. Then I went to my Spanish exam and the exam was fine. Great, even, because I love tests and I love Spanish so put those two together and I'm very happy. But it meant the end of my Spanish class and I really liked the teacher of the class. I can take another class in the fall...but that's SOOOOO far away. So I'm really mad at myself about what happened at school today, really frustrated that I couldn't hit better at my baseball game, and really sad that my class is over. All in all, not a great day.