Today Was The Craziest Day...

I sing in the choir at my church. I think I've told you that before. 

Today was the beginning of a Catholic homeschooling conference here in my state, and there was going to be a graduation mass for the class of 2013. 

It was my mom's idea and so she had to set it up, which meant finding a pair of priests, altar servers, a Eucharistic minister, and a choir, as well as transporting an altar, crucifix, vestments, and various other things necessary for a Mass. 

So, I had to sing for this mass with my choir, and since our choir director is sick, we had to draft someone from another parish to accompany us. 

Which meant that I had to copy, print, staple, and deliver a dozen copies of the songs we were going to sing, AND help my mom set up the altar, crucifix, hymn books and pamphlets. 

It was a total hassle, but the mass was celebrated by the bishop that confirmed my brothers and I, and it was an absolutely beautiful mass. 

Afterword, we had cake and lemonade at a reception for the graduates. 

My brother is severely allergic to nuts. And you'll never guess what. 

There was almond extract in the cake icing. 

So on the way home, he started swelling up, and he was having trouble breathing, and he had hives all over his body. 

Needless to say, my dad took him to the emergency room. 

So I had to babysit my little siblings until my parents got home. 

(That would have been my Friday post, but I fell asleep while putting my youngest sibling to bed, so I didn't post. This would have been the post from Saturday.) 

My dad woke me up at 12:30am and told me to head up to my own bed, where I promptly collapsed. 

And, because my body likes to torture me, I woke up a little before 6am. For some stupid reason, whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, my body decides I need less than eight hours of sleep to function. Genius, right?

My brother was fine. He'd had an IV in and they'd pumped Benadryl into his bloodstream, so he was out of there relatively quickly. I found him sleeping on the couch in the Living Room that morning. 

So I got my chores out of the way and got dressed, and then waited around for a couple hours until we left for the second day of the conference. 

It was actually pretty good. They had a speaker talk about what to expect in and about college, and then after a half-hour break, they had several religious of varying stages come in and talk about vocations. 

Then we had pizza for lunch and after that, I had a gig watching the elementary school-age kids for three hours. 

So I basically calmed down a few rowdy kids, watched Veggie Tales, helped a few kids tracing and coloring their hands, watched more Veggie Tales, and got paid $15 for it! :D

And then...after the day was done I bought some jewelry and headed home to freshen up a bit for my very first high school dance! 

It was held at a dance hall a little ways out of my city, and I went with my older brothers and a few friends. 

We were taught a bunch of line dances, and then we basically just did whatever to a specific playlist until the last song. 

It was really fun, and I can't wait for next month when there will be another one! 

I went swimming at a friend's house today, and we spent an hour and a half in the pool before drying off and getting dressed for mass. 

And that was basically my day. 

Oh, and I had three chocolate-chip cookies. 

Now that you've caught up...yay! 

I'm sorry if it's ridiculously long. And I'm sorry I posted two days late. But, you know, my brother was kind of in the hospital, so...

I promise next Friday, you'll have a post. As long as nobody I know is mauled by a monkey or run over by a trigonometry book, I swear on my favorite hat, I'll post on Friday. 

Keep Calm and Endeaovr On, 

~Adalyn

The End of School, and the Beginning of...

So, I am currently rejoicing about a couple things. 

As of today, I am finished with most of my school subjects! *happy dance.*

I did my last tests in science, english, and reading, and I finished spelling and vocabulary and art last week. So basically, I have only two more subjects and then...

I'm done for the entire summer!

Until...you know, fall! I'm soooo happy!

Did you notice? I used italics and bold in that last sentence. Crazy right? But I'm feeling adventurous today. 

So, math is gonna be the last thing I finish because there's, you know, a lot of it. And then, get this. 

When I finish that. When I finish that last equation in my orange and blue algebra book...

I'll be officially going into... *dramatic and sinister music.* ...High School! *le gasp.*

But, being a real-life, actual, official Freshman-to-be has its privileges. 

For instance, the ability to attend these homeschool dances my brothers and friends go to every month, where you learn different dances and practice and then have, like, actual dances with decorations and themes and stuff. 

And high school youth group at my amazing church. 

And more outings with friends I don't see a whole lot. 

And better clothes! So that I actually look like a female of this species! Yayyy!

Last year, I was scared of turning thirteen. You know, the whole, "Oh my gosh! I'm gonna be an official teenager! And I'll start being influenced by society's idea of fashion and having bad friends and spending all my time on the Internet because I can legally have a Facebook and stuff like that, whereas before I just lied about my age!" (Oh, come on. You guys did it too. Get off your high pony.)

But then, I realized that thirteen ain't that bad. 

I mean, you're still just an unfortunate middle schooler who takes selfies and is obsessed with 1D. And if you're not like that, I congratulate you on being one of the few who has succeeded in life. You win. Congrats for being one of the only sane middle schoolers left on our lonely planet Earth. 

But anyway. 

Fourteen, to me, it seems, is the Rite of Passage into the real world. 

The real world is also known as High School. 

The first step into High School is simply a birthday. 

But not only a birthday. 

The birthday. 

The Rite of Passage birthday. 

High School is a big step in life. You meet more people who are even bigger jerks than they were in middle school, and your social status plummets until you can build a little castle around yourself to both make you look good and sheild you from the blows of the aforementioned jerks. 

What a great metaphor. I'm very proud of that metaphor. Or is it an analogy? 

Like I said, I'm finished with Vocabulary. 

But, to stay on topic, fourteen, somehow, seems much larger than thirteen did. 

Maybe it's just that thirteen is only one step above twelve, which is, like the most immature time for boys, and also not the best time for girls. Thirteen is just a year after that. You can't have matured that much, right?

But fourteen...Well, fourteen is just one year before fifteen, which is only a number away from sixteen!

And then, well, you have seventeen coming up fast, and before you know it...

You're a flippin' adult! *scariness.*

So, although I'm actually looking foreword to this birthday of mine, it doesn't seem nearly as intimidating as thirteen did. 

And that's probably a good thing. 

So anyway, by the next time I post, I'll be done with school! And all you lovely people out there will be done with school! Or almost done! Or kind of almost done!

And then, when we all have the weight of those boring final tests off our heavily-laden shoulders, we can do summery things!

Like talk about beaches and pools and sodas and sleepovers and sleeping in and hamburgers and parties in the middle of the week and all that summer stuff we've missed so much since that stupid month called September decided to start torturing us again last year. 

And so, as the heat begins to roll in, lets roll out our towels and do some tanning!

Let's get this summer started and live it up with friends and ice cream and sleep deprivation and music and camps and everything amazing about this time of year. 

Hang up your backpacks, kids, and let's forget about those silly summer reading assignments. You can do that in August. 

For now, finish as quick as possible,and let's make Summer 2013 absolutely unforgettable. 

Happy summer, and I'll see you guys next week! :D

Keep Calm and Endeavor On,

~Adalyn