The Straight Up Facts

So...welcome back to my blog! Notice I've figured out how to fix the spelling mistake in my blog title that was forever wrong. Score one for me! Now awhile ago, my pretend sister, Mary Kate, tagged me in a getting to know you tag. So I decided that a long time later I'd finally do it. Head on over to her blog, Defined by the Dance to read hers! I have a little down time, so here it goes!

The rules go a little something like this:
1. List 11 facts about yourself
2. Answer 11 questions left from the blogger that nominated you
3. Ask 11 questions for those you nominate
4. Nominated 11 bloggers that have 200 followers or less
5. Go to each bloggers page and let them know that they have been nominated
6. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog

I have a similar problem that Mary Kate had when she did this tag, I'm not really a popular blogger and don't have many followers, or follow many people. So I'm going to change the rules up a little bit and tag 1 person. So Sara, I hope you enjoy this challenge!

Facts:
1. I have a generally large family, since the average family size is about 4 people. I live with my mom, dad, 2 younger sisters (Breanna and Ashley), and a younger brother (Brady). Breanna is 12, Ashley is 10, and Brady is almost 8.
2. Although we live in town, my family has a crazy kinda farm going on in our backyard that we aren't technically supposed to have (but we won't tell anyone that, right?). It started with just 4 chickens, then my dad got the brilliant idea to get a turkey (yes, a live turkey, whom I hate), and then we got 2 pygmy goats which are the cutest things in the world. They're out newest addition.
3. As you probably know by now if you read my blog posts, I'm a dancer. I've been dancing since I was 3 and I just turned 15. I currently take ballet, lyrical, jazz, and am on the dance team.
4. I'm very much single and am very happy being so. I've never been into the whole dating thing. While all the girls in middle school had a new boyfriend every other day, I've alway been perfectly content with my friends. Of course, I've had the little middle school crush, but never a really serious relationship. I don't plan on it any time soon.
5. I do not have a cell phone, which is extremely weird for a normal 15 year old. The problem is, my parents don't have a cell phone plan; they use track phones where you have to add the minutes. If I want a phone I have to pay for it by myself. I don't have a job yet and am not willing to fork out that much money from my bank account to pay for a cell phone. I'm perfectly happy with my iPod touch for  now.
6. I picked up my first Harry Potter book in 8th grade at a book swap (yes, a little late, I know) and I've fallen in love ever since. I'm a major PotterHead and probably annoy my friends and family to no end, but oh well. I'm currently reading Half Blood Prince.
7. Giraffes are my favorite animal. Not completely sure why. It could be because of the fact that I'm super short and giraffes are tall, or because my aunt told me that they giraffes have one of the biggest hearts of all land mammals. Who knows. Giraffes are just cool.
8. I love country music. That's what I grew up listening to, living in a hicktown. I remember being 3 years old and singing to Sara Evans and Shania Twain songs. I don't mind pop, but it doesn't have the same feel as country to me. I'm not fond of rap at all.
9. Math is my worst subject. And when I say my worst subject, I mean it even comes behind Spanish.
10. Although I love to dance, singing is my true passion. I've been singing since I could talk. I've taken voice lessons on and off since about age 8, but I've finally found a teacher I really like and have been taking lessons from her since March.
11. I have 3 best friends: Rachel, Violet, and Michelle. We've been inseparable sine 7th grade. I don't know where I'd be without them.

Mary Kate's Questions:
1. If you could change your name to anything, what would it be and why?
That's a good one. I think I'd change my name to Lavender because purple is one of my favorite colors, my best friend's name is Violet, and it's just a plain cool name.\

2. Name one thing that you're really no t good at that you want to improve on.
Ballet!!!! I just finished my first year of "real" ballet (I took it like every other 3 year old little girl like a billion years ago). And to put it simply, I'm really awful at it. But hey, you can't learn everything in one year.

3. What's your favorite childhood memory?
I really struggled with this one. I have sooo many childhood memories that are fantastic. The one that is sticking out in my mind right now is when I wrote up notes for all of my neighbors in colorful marker inviting them to a "concert" where I sang to my karaoke machine. All of them came and I felt like a superstar.

4. You get one superpower for a day. What and why?
I'm going to go really oldschool here and say flying. Just imagine it; you save tons on gas money, you can go wherever you want to go in half the time, and you just feel so free.

5. What inspires you?
Right now, Danielle Bradbery inspires me. She was just the youngest person to win The Voice at 16. Just think about it; she's only one year older than me. She's incredibly shy, a lot like myself at times. But most importantly, she's never had a singing lesson in her life and she performed twice in front of people. All she did was sing her heart out in her room, just like me. It's incredible. It inspires me to do something incredible.

6. Have you ever broken a bone or had an injury that requires stitches?
I'm going to be very boring here and say no, I have not. I've never been seriously injured. Just little cuts and bruises and hoping it stays that way.

7. Skydiving, Bungee Jumping, or Scuba Diving?
I think I'd start small with scuba diving. It'd be incredible to see all those fish right up close. But next I'd def try skydiving.

8. How are your baking skills?
I'd say they're pretty decent, as long as I'm paying attention to when to take stuff out of the oven. Nothing compared to my friend, Rachel though. She has a cupcake biz and all that jazz.

9. What role does music play in your life? Can you sing? Do you dance? Is music necessary for normal function?
YES YES YES YES. Music plays one of the biggest roles in my life. I'm not athletic or artistic at all and music is basically the only thing I'm good at it. I can sing, and I love it. I also dance. Of course music is necessary for normal function. Take anything but my radio.

10. Do you have any siblings? If so, what role do they play in your life?
I have 3 younger siblings and they play a huge role in my life. I have to be a good role model, babysit, go to tons of sports games, all of that stuff, but it's worth it. It won't be like this forever.

11. Why did you start your blog?
I started my blog after I read one of my aunt's friends blogs. It was hilarious and just seemed so easy and fun. I love to write and I'm kinda shy and awkward so this was a perfect way to get my thoughts out. Plus barley anyone reads this, so I can say most of whatever I want.

My Questions:
1. What's your wildest fantasy?
2. What's the weirdest dream you've ever had?
3. How good of a cook are you?
4. What's your biggest turnoff?
5. What's one thing that a lot of people don't know about you?
6. Who was the last person you hugged and why? What do they mean to you?
7. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
8. Would you rather go back in time or to the future? Why and what moment would you go to?
9. What's your favorite movie and why?
10. Are you afraid of any animal? Why?
11. Why did you start this blog?

Thanks Mary Kate. I had fun doing this!

Dance Problems

Just going to give a fair warning that this blog will be a complaint about dance. Feel free to not read this. I just need to get some things off of my chest.

Don't get me wrong, I love to dance. I've been dancing since I was 3 years old, and have been going nonstop. Back then, my dance studio was the only one in our tiny town. It had lots of business and I was learning. Perfection.

But the last few years have been completely different. First, one of the main dance instructors at my studio left and formed her own studio, which also happens to be in our tiny town. This took away a lot of business. After that, our studios have had somewhat of a feud going on. Talk about dance drama.

Another bad difference is the fact that since I was about 10 or 11, I haven't learned a thing. We have one actual teacher in our studio; the rest are "advanced" students who teach classes. Some of them are only 2 years older than me. Another problem is our studio owner. Our studio owner is a complete nut job who doesn't know how to run a business or be kind to people at all. The woman goes to a psychic. I believe that makes the point clear.

This is my 4th year of being on the dance team. It is very unorganized. This year I just don't even want to go to dance or even compete. The only thing holding me back is my amazing friends that I've danced with forever, my dance teacher that I love, and the fact that since I've been going to this studio and haven't learned as much as I should, every place I go it is going to be very challenging for me to keep up. I don't really want to be labeled as the "slow dancer." But I know that it's important to get better, and at some point you will be on the bottom.

So this is it. Next year I am going to take my dancing to the next level and find a new studio with tougher criteria, organization, and just a place where I can learn. I want to be the best that I can be, and I'm not going to improve if I stay here. It's tough to leave the studio and people that you've danced with all your life. But I know I need to do it, and honestly, I can't wait until this dance season is over.

So bye bye current dance studio. See you in the rear view mirror.

Turkey Eggs?

So last weekend, my three best friends spent the night at house. We had a really great time. Ever since summer of 2012, we started a youtube channel. On our channel, we post really stupid videos of ourselves doing stupid things. But not all of them are stupid. We also make music videos to popular songs. If you want to get a huge laugh at our stupidity, check us out: ChocolateOwl1513. But anyways, we made another music video to the song "22" by Taylor Swift. It was really fun to film.

After that, my one friend had the idea to make some cookies. So we looked up this really easy recipe for Nutella cookies and made them. Well the funny thing is, the dough looks a lot like poop. Like an unbelievable resemblance. So we decided to play a little trick on my mom (yes, I know. Four fourteen year olds playing that old trick). We put the dough on the toilet seat and in the toilet and then just walked away. A little later, we heard my mom yell, "ASHLEY! WHAT IS THIS?!" She had spotted it. We all ran to the bathroom. Stifling giggles, my sister, Breanna went over and got some on her finger and ate it. My mom just started laughing. (So the real question here is, if one of us ever really does try to eat real poop, will my mother try to stop us? Or will she just laugh? Thanks, Mom). But my mom was really confused. So we eventually told her it was Nutella. She thought our dog, Jack, had done it. For all of you out there horrified about my sister eating off of the toilet, it's ok. It's just Breanna.

On to the real meaning of the title of this blog. My family has three chickens and a turkey. When we first got our turkey, my dad was sure that it was a male. It's huge and it struts. But last weekend, my dad came down from feeding our poultry and showed us an egg. It was a giant, speckled egg. He then announced to us that the turkey had layed it. This was a huge surprise to us. Our turkey is laying eggs. That's just weird to even say. So either my dad, the animal expert, is wrong, or we have a bisexual turkey.

After hearing this, my one friend brought up the fact that we had used a giant, speckled egg in the Nutella cookie batter. So yes, we were eating turkey eggs. Not really sure how I feel about that one yet.

But apparently infertile turkey eggs are kinda rare. Turkeys are only suppose to lay, if they even lay anything, maybe twice a week. Well our turkey lays at least once a day! My mom and I also found out that these eggs sell for up to $3 an egg! Sweet! So forget college. I can live in my tiny town for the rest of my life selling eggs and raising turkeys. Future = done.